October 2, 2013

Please join us for Meals N More tonight! Join us at 5:00 for a meal, cost is $2 per family. Following the meal, at 6:00, Mark Gustafson will give a presentation on Haiti.

Our menu will be: Taco salad, fried plantains, and Haitian red beans and rice. Desserts and drinks too!

A story about Haiti

While on assignment in Korea for the U.S. Army, I became a volunteer manager of an orphanage sponsored by the troops of our unit. I raised money for it and made certain that all expenses were met. I wrote to my parents at the First Congregational Church in Portland, Oregon and asked them to collect clothes for the children, who wore clothes that were practically rags. This assignment gave me a love for children and a desire to help children in orphanages. Now, in later years I have had a dream of building an orphanage as a lasting legacy. That dream went dormant for several years until I met Pam Plaiser, the Director of Mission Haiti, who has been ministering to the poor people of Haiti for eighteen years.  She commented on the need for an orphanage in the mountains while we were at her orphanage in Haiti this past December. It will be a small one housing fourteen children and will have a minister and his wife living with them. The children will attend Christian school and learn about Jesus Christ and the basics of reading, writing and math. A foundation was laid in July, prior to the rainy season, because Connie and I donated over $2,000 to make that happen. First Christian Church in Adel has donated over $700 and Grace Lutheran in Fort Dodge has given $1,100. Pam has found a donor who will meet the expenses, salaries etc. for the minister, his wife, and the orphanage through December 2017. The hope is that the members of First Congregational U.C.C. will want to make a donation toward the $30,000 needed to complete the building of that orphanage in the mountains. On October 2nd Connie and I will have a power point presentation and she will bring jewelry for sale made by the poor women of Haiti. We will enjoy meeting again with everyone at the church.

Mark Gustafson