By Sheri Monk

This Saturday, residents of the Southwest will have the opportunity to help Haiti – just by eating supper.
The Leader Trinity Lutheran Church is hosting a Haitian relief roast beef supper this Saturday, Jan. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Leader Community Hall. There is no set price for admission, the church will be accepting a freewill donation in hopes of raising as much as possible for the devastated country.
Pastor Garfield Vikse says his congregation feels a personal connection to the tragedy the terrible earthquake wrought on Haiti.
“We were planning a short-term mission trip to La Grange which is in the northwest part of Haiti. What we were going to do was build foundations for homes. We at the church just called it Foundations for Homes in Haiti.”
The group of eight local residents (six adults and two children) have flights booked for Feb. 20, but currently have no idea if the trip will now be possible.
“We’re waiting to hear of course from the people in Haiti who are our contact people as to the viability of the trip in a month’s time,” Vikse said.
This would have been the trip’s first-ever short-term foreign mission, though some congregation members have gone to Mexico on mission trips with Burstall’s Hope Church.
He says Haitians earn little more than $2 daily and even modest housing is a dream never attained by most of the population. Compounding the problem of extreme poverty in the country are damaged and destroyed homes continually pounded by hurricanes in recent years.
“Last year was a terrific year for hurricanes through there. When the water rushes through the village, it washes away the mud – basically, their houses are made of sticks and mud – and it washes the mud from the sticks and then their house falls down. And so we were going to build foundations out of stone and concrete and raise them up about 30 inches and then they’d build their home on top of that. And so then they would still have a home after the rains were done.”
Vikse says concrete is so expensive in Haiti, it is an impossible commodity for most people. The congregation gratefully received the news that their contacts and partners in the country were not among the 70,000 dead discovered so far.
Though the trip may not happen, Vikse says the congregation wants to help right now. All are invited to attend for the cause, regardless the size of the donation. The roast beef is being provided and prepared by church members.
“If you want to give something toward it, it just goes towards the Haitian relief.”
Those unable to attend can make a donation at the Sandhills Credit Union at Leader. Donations should be marked as being for Trinity Lutheran Church – Haiti relief. Charitable receipts will be issued upon request.