HAITI MISSION PROJECT:
In 1993, members of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas began a close relationship with fellow Christians in the country of Haiti. Members raised $25,000 which constructed a church, a school, and a medical clinic in the very remote village of Bois de Gauche. The church, village and clinic are named “Bon Samaritan” because we have been a “Good Samaritan” to this village. Since that time, various offerings and groups from this church have provided scholarships that allow children of this village to attend school and receive a nutritious meal.
The Haiti Education Foundation
The Haiti Education Foundation (www.haitifoundation.org) began in 1981 when Frances Landers, a Presbyterian from El Dorado, AR, saw the need for education in Haiti. She and her husband, Dr. Gardner Landers, an ophthalmologist, had been going to Haiti twice a year since 1977 so he could bring sight to thousands on this impoverished island, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. 
Frances overheard Pere Albert, an Episcopal priest, tell a heartbroken child that there was no room for her in the mission school. So Frances took pictures of the children back to El Dorado; and through her church, her family and friends, she raised enough money for four schools. Since then Frances has taken this need to churches, organizations, and individuals from Florida and the Carolinas to Oregon and California. There are now over 12,000 children being educated in 36 schools and several technical schools in the mountains of southern Haiti. In addition these children receive one hot meal a day, a uniform, and a Bible. Graduates of these schools are now attending universities in Port au Prince.
1991: Chris McRae brought the news about the Haiti Education Foundation to First Church, Fort Smith. Then in the early 1990’s First Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, through the Mission Committee headed by Dr. Mike Thames, raised funds to build a church, a school, and a clinic in the Haiti mountain town of Bois de Gauche through the Haiti Education Foundation.
Spring, 2002 & 2003: First Presbyterian Church through the Mission Committee headed by Ann Edmondson, sponsored medical teams to Cherident, Haiti, the small mountain village, which was the parish of Pere Albert and the site of the 
Frances Landers Technical School, a grade school and a high school. The medical mission teams, headed by Drs. Steve Edmondson and J.P. Bell, saw more than 600 patients on each trip. On the second trip First Presbyterian Church also conducted a Vacation Bible School. There have been three other trips during the years which were planned by First Presbyterian but were cancelled due to violent periods in Haiti.
2003: Learning of the need for SUV to transport people to and from Port au Prince as well as other places, First Presbyterian FS raised the funds for a four-wheel drive vehicle for the Pere Albert and the people of Grand Colline.
Spring, 2002 & 2003: First Presbyterian Church through the Mission Committee headed by Ann Edmondson sponsored medical teams to Cherident, Haiti, the small mountain village, which was the head of the parish of Pere Albert and the site of the Frances Landers Technical School, a grade school and a high school. The medical mission teams headed by Drs. Steve Edmondson and J.P. Bell saw more than 600 patients on each trip. On the second trip First Presbyterian Church also conducted a Vacation Bible School. There have been three other trips during the years which were planned by First Presbyterian but were cancelled due to violent periods in Haiti.
The members of the 2002 trip were J.P. Bell, Steve Edmondson, Fred Hander, Louis and Gretchen Jacks, Chris McRae, Gayle Sherrill, Ann Smith, Mike and Julie Thames. Members of the 2003 trip were J.P. and Candy Bell, Jacquie Core, Steve Edmondson, Dudley and Charlotte Flanders, Carol Hall, Gretchen Jacks, Chris McRae, Georgann Peck, Gayle Sherrill, Ann Smith, and Mollie Williams (of Morrillton, AR).
April, 2005: Gretchen Jacks and Ann Smith traveled to Scottsdale, AZ, with Frances Landers to a Medical Benevolence Foundation meeting where Bishop Duracin of the Episcopal Church of Haiti talked and Dr. Jack LaFontant presented a seminar. They met with members of the Westminster Church of Westlake Village, CA, and John McDaniel of the Germantown (TN) Presbyterian Church, all interested in the Haiti Education Foundation and in the establishment of an on-going medical clinic.
April, 2005: Chris McRae and Candy Bell attended Clean Water U, a 5-day workshop sponsored by Living Waters for the World, to learn about a water purification system and how to work with third-world village leaders in setting up and servicing this system to provide clean water.
April, 2005: Chris McRae and J.P. Bell joined a group from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Westlake Village, CA. They cleaned the existing clinic in Cherident and installed solar-powered lights in the clinic and other places.
July, 2005: Pere Albert died from pancreatic cancer. Before he died, he set up a Haitian Board (OCDES) to continue coordination of the community work in Grand Colline with various US organizations. Members of this Board are: Pere Irnel of Ascension Parish, Ancy, Harry, and 2 others. Pere Alphonse Philippe replaced Pere Albert in St. Matthias Parish.
July, 2005: Seeing the need for a full-time permanent medical clinic in Haiti and working through contacts of the Haiti Education Foundation, representatives of the following three churches met in Germantown, TN.
Westminster Presbyterian Church in Westlake Village, CA,
First Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith, AR,
Germantown Presbyterian Church in Germantown, TN
Chris & Ruthie McRae, Louis & Gretchen Jacks, Dr. Steve Edmondson, and Ann Smith represented First Presbyterian Church, FS. There were other interested persons attending the conference from Houston, North Carolina, and Mississippi.
A very productive meeting resulted in the formation of a” 501 (c) (3)” named Haiti Healthcare Partners. A three-year plan has been adopted with a corresponding 3-year budget. (See following pages for overview of plan) The Westminster Presbyterian Church has taken the lead with support from the other two churches and more churches and organizations will be contacted to enlarge this most needed medical clinic operation. It is agreed that none of this fundraising should take the place of any funds for The Haiti Education Foundation or for any group already working in this area of Haiti.
Both The Haiti Education Foundation and the Haiti Healthcare Partners are working through the Haitian OCDES Board set up by Pere Albert. Working within this same area of Haiti are Floresta, (www.floresta.org ),a organization formed to reforest deforested areas and to foster agriculture in such regions, and Living Waters for the World (www.livingwatersfortheworld.org), a Christian organization whose goal is to purify water for those who have no pure water.
Summer, 2006: J.P. Bell is Fort Smith’s representative on the HHP Board. He reported that the HHP Health Clinic in Cherident is in operation. The name of the clinic is the Jean Albert Medical clinic in memory of Pere Albert who died last year. It has one Haitian doctor coming 2 days a week and two nurses, one of whom comes ½ the week and the other the rest of the week. There is a publicist, record keeper and maintenance man everyday as well as Jackson who is in charge of the clinic.
September 21-25, 2005: Gretchen Jacks and Ann Smith attended Clean Water U in Oxford, MS, a project of Living Waters for the World. They both took Course 101: Covenant & Water Survey .
October 23, 2005: “Gathering Together for Haiti”, Northridge Presbyterian Church, Dallas, TX. Frances Landers spoke at this conference put on by our church in conjunction with Northridge to introduce or reacquaint the churches of the North Texas area to the Haiti Education Foundation. In addition to Frances’s talks there were three “Chat Rooms”, Haiti Education Foundation, Water Purification Systems (Living Waters for the World), and Medical Trips / Haiti Healthcare Partners. A reception by the Mission Committee of Northridge followed. Members of First Presbyterian conducted the meeting: The Rev. Bill Galbraith, Chris & Ruthie McRae, Dr. J.P. Bell, Gretchen Jacks, Samuel and Nathan Jacks, Ann Smith. Susan Turbeville from El Dorado also attended and helped.
March 2002 to Present: Various members of the Haiti Teams have made presentations about the Haiti Education Foundation to other Presbyterian churches in Arkansas including Hope, Walnut Ridge, Springdale, Central Presbyterian Church and Dallas Oaks Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith, and Morrillton. There has also been presentations made in Texas (Dallas—Northridge Presbyterian & Preston Hollow Presbyterian, Tulia, New Braunfels, and Graham), New Mexico (Albuquerque) and Oklahoma (Ponca City and Sand Springs).
March 12, 2006: Frances Landers and her son, Mike Landers, who is also on the Haiti Education Foundation Board, visited Fort Smith. Frances spoke briefly before the congregation for a “Minute for Mission” . She then presented a program for the congregation at a luncheon in her honor after the 11 O’Clock worship service. We presented her with a cake to celebrate her 89th birthday (one week ago) and the children of the congregation presented her with money they had collected for the HEF Milk Fund.
September 23-26, 2006: Ancy Fils-Aime is the treasurer of the OCDES Board. While on a trip to the U.S., he visited us in Fort Smith. He spoke to one of the SS classes and to our congregation with Sheila Goodfellow, a member of our congregation and a Southside High School French teacher, as his interpreter. In addition Susan Turbeville and her mother, Mary Jo Oliver, from El Dorado, AR, and from the HEF, visited us and talked to us as well. Before he left Fort Smith on Monday, Ancy taught a French AP Class at Northside High School, where another of our members, Becky Smith teaches French.
September 25-Oct 1, 2006: Chris McRae, our senior minister, the Rev. Bill Galbraith, and the Rev. Wil Howie, the founder of Living Waters for the World, went to Cherident, Haiti, on the first of four water trips to set up a
water purification system in Cherident. While there they worked with Pere Alphonse, the Episcopal priest who has been appointed to St. Matthias Parrish since the death of Pere Albert earlier in 2005, to work out a covenant agreement for this system. Three other water purification systems were also requested, Baniet (Pere Irnel’s parrish of St. Ascenion), Leogone, where Harry Theodore teaches school, and in Jacmel.
They also visited the Jean Albert Medical Clinic in Cherident and a village called Hess (pronounced “Es”), where the Haitians would like a school to be built. Earlier in the year an anonymous donation of $10,000 was made specifically for Haiti Education, so it was decided to send this money to Frances Landers and HEF to be added to other donations to build a school there. This school is to be named for Frances’s husband, Dr. Gardner Landers, who died earlier this year.
February 21-27, 2007: Chris and Ruthie McRae and Dan Simpson made the second water trip to Cherident to teach the Haitians how to install the LWW water purification system and to teach the teachers how to teach Health Education as it relates to water and God’s gift of life. They also visited several villages to inspect for future water systems. At the same time, Ben Small and Anne Wuerker from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Westlake Village, CA, went to inspect the Jean Albert Medical Clinic. Ben and Anne represent the HHP (see above).
March 19-27, 2007: Our church sponsored Ancy Fils-Aime and Harry Theodore, two members of the OCDES Board, to come to Clean Water U (CWU) in Oxford, MS. They went to the CWU camp from Wednesday to Sunday. Then on Monday they traveled to Little Rock to meet with Frances Landers and Susan Turbeville. Chris and Ruthie McRae and Ann Smith also attended the meeting. Ancy and Harry reported that the water system is continuing to operate successfully, providing many people with pure water.
August 28—September4, 2007: Chris and Ruthie McRae, Carol Sue Wooten, and Ann Smith, members of 1st Presbyterian, along with the Reverend Beth Sentell, Dan and Karen Logan, from Presbytery of the Pines in Louisiana, traveled to Bainet, Haiti, to oversee the successful installation of a LLW purification system under the leadership of Pere Irnel. Other sites in Haiti were visited to evaluate the possibility of future systems and the installed water system in Cherident was checked.
Fall, 2007: Chris McRae attended a Living Waters for the World conference and has now been appointed by the Rev. Wil Howie, along with Bob McCoy from the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Huntsville, AL, to be the
Network Coordinators for all the LWW installations in Haiti. LWW has given them $7000 for replacement parts for a Haiti warehouse.
November 15—19, 2007: Bob Sears, from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Westlake Village, CA, representing Haiti Healthcare Partners (www.haitihealthcare.org) came to Fort Smith. Dr. J.P. Bell, representing our church on the HHP Board, hosted Bob Sears. Bob and J.P. made a brief presentation of HHP to the Arkansas Presbytery in Forrest City on Saturday as did Chris McRae for LLW. Bob also spoke at Mark Moll’s Sunday School class and gave a video presentation at the Congregational Luncheon at noon on Sunday as well as the Presbyterian Cluster Meeting in Mountainburg that night before returning to California on Monday.
Spring 2007---Fall 2008: Chris and Ruthie McRae have made several trips to present the needs of the Haitian people. They have traveled to Lake Charles, Louisiana, Springfield, MO, and in cities and towns around Arkansas.
February 25—March 3, 2008: Chris and Ruthie McRae, the Rev. Beth Sentell, Dan and Karen Logan returned to Haiti, overseeing the installation of the 3rd water system in Leogone. This project was a joint endeavor by 1st Presbyterian Church (FS) ($3500) and the Presbytery of the Pines ($6000). They revisited the other two systems in Cherident and Bainet for one-year and six-months follow-up inspections respectively. They then traveled to various points in Haiti, conducting water surveys in Jacmel at Monchill, Darbonne, Gonaives, and Cros-Morne.
The team also identified a potential full time Haitian circuit rider to supervise the new water plants. He will work with Ancy Fils-Amie and Dan Logan from the Presbytery of the Pines will work on getting money for his salary.
Spring, 2008: Rodney Jeanty is the third Haitian that our church has sponsored to go to the Living Waters of the World’s Clean Water U. He and Chris McRae attended the 3-day work shop in Oxford, MS, with Chris teaching some of the classes. He stopped over in Fort Smith on his way back to Haiti.
FOOTNOTE: Spring, 2008: Frances Landers, Co-founder of Haiti Education Foundation (www.haitifoundation.org) , traveled to Haiti with Susan Turbeville, Will Van Natta (Videographer from St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Houston, TX), a reporter and photographer from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Frances’s son Mike Landers, Frances daughter-in-law, Lynn Landers (Mrs. Bill Landers), and several other people from El Dorado, AR.
Spring, 2008: Pere Irnel has been reappointed by the Episcopal Bishop of Haiti, Bishop Duracin, from Baniet to Cayes in the western part of Haiti. Pere Alphonse has also been reappointed to another parish from St. Matthias.
LOOKING AHEAD:
Fall, 2008: Another water trip to Haiti??
Haiti Committee, Mission Committee or the Church office (783-8919)
Related links....
The Haiti Education Foundation (www.haitifoundation.org)
Living Waters for the World (www.livingwatersfortheworld.org)
Floresta (www.floresta.org)
The Church of St. John the Divine, Houston, Texas (click on ministries, then missions)
Haiti Healthcare Partners (http://www.haitihealthcare.org/)
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Westlake Village, CA http://www.wpcwestlake.org/missions
