Guest Post: "Impressed and Amazed"

Our trip with the Sardis mission team to the Bayonnais region of Haiti in April left us impressed and amazed!  “At what?” you may ask. 

Many Sardis church members  remember hearing Pastor Actionnel Fleurisma, the driving force behind the ministry taking place in that mountain region, preach and speak to our congregation about the school and medical clinic in Cathor, Bayonnais. You may have also heard from members the congregation who have been to Bayonnais, speak about opportunities to sponsor children to allow them to attend school.  We had heard about Bayonnais through many sources and have sponsored a child for three years, so when the timing of this year’s trip fit into our schedule, we eagerly placed our names on the list of those making the trip.

Once there, we saw a plaque as we entered the guest house where we would be staying. The plaque states the house is dedicated to Helen Hunter.  Mrs. Hunter is from Charlotte and sponsored and hosted Pastor Actionnel in Charlotte when he was a young man. This allowed him to get his business degree from Central Piedmont Community College.  You can read more about his story in the June 2015 Challenge Newsletter at http://www.worldofgod.org/. 

We wonder what would have happened to Pastor Actionnel if a kind and generous woman named Helen Hunter had not come into his life.  Would the school that educates and feeds over 2,000 children in Cathor, Haiti exist?  What about the newer school that has been started in the even more remote area of Nicholas and has over 400 students?  And just ask the five medical professionals who were on this year’s team about the medical clinic and the services it is providing to that community- would it be there if not for Helen Hunter? Would Pastor Actionnel be a pastor and would the church right on the grounds next to the school be a support to the people of that community?

 

We don’t know and we doubt very much that Mrs. Hunter would expect to be given credit for all the hard work that Pastor Actionnel, his team, the school and medical clinic employees, churches, and so many volunteers have done since 1993 (when the school was founded); but we are impressed and amazed at how this seemingly small act may have been the start of a ministry that is dedicated to serving Jesus Christ in big ways every single day! 

We were forever changed by this trip in ways we could not have anticipated. So now our challenge is to remember that our actions may make a difference in someone’s life, which may then make a difference in someone else’s life, and so on, and so on……  Thanks be to God!

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Ron and Janice Abluton: Ron, a former CPA, is retired and enjoying tennis, travel, cooking and gardening.  Janice is a CPA who also enjoys tennis and traveling.  Both have served as elders at Sardis Presbyterian Church  and they love spending time with family and friends and especially their four grandchildren.