PUMC Mission Team

Posted

on Apr 03, 2014

Hank Battjes is a member of Parker United Methodist Church (PUMC). He is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in civil engineering.

The PUMC mission team has 17 members. The team’s goal was to partner with Respire Haiti in providing service, gifts, prayers and witness to the Haitian victims of the January 2010 earthquake. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Seventy percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day. In Port-au-Prince, half of the people have no access to latrines and fresh water. The earthquake affected 3.5 million people, 220,000 died, and 300,00 were injured.

The earthquake was center at Gressier, about 30 miles from the capital of Port-au-Prince. Respire ministries work with Restavek Awareness and Education, which has established a Christian school in Gressier. The program includes a discipleship program, feeding the needy, teach English, a medical clinic, and women’s shelter house and achild rearing program. The Respire school opened in 2011 with 97 students and grew to 500 in 2013. There are five buildings for kindergarten, primary and middle school. Classes are taught in the native Creole language. A Texas group has donated a playground for the primary school students. A Louisiana group has donated a new well and storage tank. The school is on ten acres, is fenced, and has security at night. They have a soccer field for both boys and girls, with the intent of providing basketball and tennis courts in the future.

In 2013, the PUMC donated power tools for construction, CPR training dummies, and over 100 pairs of shoes. Project CURE supplied $6,000 of medical supplies.

The construction of the buildings is cement floors, block walls, and metal roofs. Lumber is purchased locally.