Haiti ministry efforts continue
Published 8:27 pm Friday, July 9, 2010
Now that nearly six months have passed since a devastating earthquake in Haiti, little attention has been paid to the situation in the country.
However, Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Suffolk, along with numerous other churches and relief organizations, still are continuing their work down there.
Saint Mary’s is twinned with Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Belladere, Haiti. As part of the twinning project, Saint Mary’s regularly supports needs within its Haiti twin parish, including church and school construction, prayer, monetary support and volunteers. Parishioners from the church maintain contact throughout the year and visit regularly to check on construction projects and find out what the parish needs.
Paul Fletcher, one of the leaders of the Saint Mary’s Haiti team, plans his next visit to the impoverished country in December. The twin parish survived the Jan. 12 earthquake relatively well, because it is about 40 miles away from Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital and epicenter of the quake.
“They’re doing fine, the last time I heard from them,” Fletcher said Friday. “We’re still trying to get a school built down there.”
Next week, the church will be sorting and packing school supplies into backpacks to be shipped to Haiti. A number of schools did school supply drives and collected boxes full of pens, pencils, paper and other needed supplies.
“We will be in the church hall sorting and packing everything up to go,” Fletcher said. He added.