A Musical Mission....

“Why are you bringing Instruments to Haiti? Aren’t there, like, diseases and stuff that they need help with?” Well…this is a music mission trip.

Music is a major part of the worship service and finding good instruments is difficult. Here are photos of the church service from the 2011 trip.

There are different approaches to missions work. This article What No One Tells You about Short Term Mission Trips provides insight to our point of view. We are not going down there with the assumption that we can fix their problems. We are not “super heroes” to save the day. We ask Pastor Widelson what he needs and he tells us. Then we share his requests with St. Paul’s congregation and God puts us into action.


In the past few years this approach has served us well. Over the years St. Paul's has provided mattresses, food, medical supplies, building supplies and educational support. In 2010 Pastor Widelson expressed a need for technology and tech education, for the children in his home and church, so that they could get better jobs. Once the laptops were delivered and initial classes taught, the learning continues as those students teach other children those skills and real change is happening. On that trip, Pastor Widelson asked for a school bus and said that they could use musical instruments and dress clothes for the kids. God provided a school bus and it was filled to the brim with as many supplies as it could carry. PHOTOS from previous trips.

Upon hearing about their love of music and request for musical instruments, one young woman was inspired to help. St. Paul’s member and BHS student, Sarah K. decided to collect instruments for Haiti and make this her Girl Scout Gold Award project. Over the last year, Sarah has collected donations of band instruments, recorders, music stands, lesson books, and luggage. She also fund-raised to purchase several more of these same items. Through this project, Sarah expects to deliver at least 40 instruments, 30 recorders, 40 music stands, 100 lesson books, and variety of accessories. While in Haiti, she will spend the week teaching music skills to the children and church band.

Although Sarah is very excited about her upcoming trip, she is worried about potential language barriers in Haiti and if she will be able to effectively communicate her information to the Haitians. Sarah's personal goals for the trip are to learn about Haiti's culture through music, and to see that her mission will make a positive difference for those living in Haiti.

Supporting Sarah’s music project is a team of volunteers including other music lovers. The secondary focus of our trip will be art and technology. I’ll introduce the other team members in the next post.

“Haiti, that’s in Africa, right?” Wrong...time to study.

“Haiti, that’s in Africa, right?” Wrong...

PBS.org

When I shared my summer trip to Haiti with my students, one brave soul raised their hand and said, “That’s in Africa, right?” That comment was met with snickers from classmates, but most of them admit to not knowing much more about Haiti than its location in the Caribbean Sea. A few students knew that it shared an island with the Dominican Republic, since they vacation there with their families.Two students have actually visited Haiti while they were on a Caribbean cruise last year. Everyone knew that Haiti was really poor.  

How is it that we know so little about a country in our own neighborhood?

To be honest, even as a history teacher my knowledge of Haiti is limited to geography, Toussaint Louverture, the Revolution, and recent natural disasters. Out of curiosity I looked through several history textbooks at school and there are less than 4 pages where Haiti is even mentioned. My adult friends are not much more informed than my students- although they have heard about the corruption, the mud cookies and Papa Doc. Haiti is less than 700 miles from Miami, Florida and yet all we know about it has been news pulled from disastrous headlines.

Common Street Scene by Rob Irwin

Haiti is located on tropical island with gorgeous natural scenery and beaches. Why isn't it a vacation d

The Beach by Rob Irwin

estination like its neighbor the Dominican Republic? Check out these two photos from our 2011 visit.


How does a country with seemingly so many natural resources end up so poor and corrupt? This is a common question we explore in school. Government is usually a big part of the answer.

-Study Time-

My favorite fun spot for learning about history is Crash Course World History with John Green on YouTube. The episode on the Haitian Revolution is informative and entertaining. This quirky video explains how Haitian society and culture was formed through the French sugar plantations and slave trade. This video hints at the social structure that was established and remains today. Anytime there is a small minority that holds the wealth and power, there will be conflict.

How did that proud history of independence with Toussaint Louverture lead to the corrupt, poor country we know today?

The BBC Online has great country profile sections. This is their summary:

Haiti became the world's first black-led republic and the first independent Caribbean state when it threw off French colonial control and slavery in a series of wars in the early 19th century.However, decades of poverty, environmental degradation, violence, instability and dictatorship have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas.A mostly mountainous country with a tropical climate, Haiti's location, history and culture - epitomized by voodoo - once made it a potential tourist hot spot, but instability and violence, especially since the 1980s, have severely dented that prospect.

BBC’s timeline feature begins with Columbus landing on the island and walks us through the revolution, several wars, dictators, and two recent, controversial leaders. Add a few hurricanes and earthquakes to the human history and you have recipe for disaster.

The Biggest Question in my head is, "how do the people of Haiti stay so positive and hopeful with all that surrounds them?" I expect that I will learn more from them than they can from me.

Nice to meet you! I'm Lacy.

Hi, I’m Lacy and I will be blogging about the upcoming trip to Haiti this July. This will be my first trip to Haiti, but I’m not new to Pastor Widelson and the family in Carrefour.

Who am I?

I teach social studies at Buffalo High School and I grew up in St. Michael. Several friends went to St. Paul’s Church and I have great memories of vacation bible school and attending services there. My husband Jake is a cousin of Heather Irwin and we are very close to the Irwin Family. Like I said, I am married but we have not been blessed with children (yet.) Besides my regular day job, I am the director of the non-profit organization, Save-a-Bull Rescue. I love to travel and learn about new places and cultures. My goal in life is to make the world a better place through education and service.

Experiences with Haiti

My husband, Jake, traveled to Haiti with Rob back in November of 2011 to deliver laptops and teach technology skills. He is a programmer analyst with Coughlan Companies, a children’s book publishing company. Jake enjoyed his trip, especially hanging out with the kids. My favorite story from his trip was when he gave the kids his camera- and they took amazing shots. The best part of his visit, is that the technology education continues on as the students are teaching other students those skills.

Having heard and seen so much about Haiti over the past few years from the Irwins and Jake, I am both excited and scared for this trip. Pastor Widelson visited my classroom at BHS last year and it will be a pleasure to see him again. My name in Haiti may end up being “Sister Jake,” but that’s okay.

In the weeks leading up to our visit, I will post my research and thoughts about our visit.

Please read previous posts by Heather and Rob Irwin to learn the history of Hanover to Haiti. It is pretty amazing what can happen when you put things into God's Hands.

The Magic School Bus to Haiti

Here are some articles I will be reading this week:

Things No One Tells You About Going on Short-Term Mission Trips

The Wrong Approach to the Poor