Love Rescue Me

Mission 2011 – Milot, Haiti
On April 29, a group of seventeen Senior High School Students and seven adult leaders from the St. Thomas Reformed Church in the Virgin Islands left for their annual mission trip. Each year since 2000 they spend the year raising funds and with the support of their church family and the wider St. Thomas community, they travel to an off-island location to serve, volunteer, experience another culture and grow in their faith. Ever since the earthquake devastated Haiti last January, it was the desire of this group to go there to help in some way.

This year, with a personal connection of someone in our church who had been to Milot before and shared the incredible ministry of the hospital there, we were able to raise interest and financial support and make the trip. The week we spent at CRUDEM was intense, tiring, eye-opening, inspiring and life-changing. If the selfless giving of volunteer doctors and support people at the hospital who fight daily to save and improve human lives wasn’t enough to inspire you, then the Haitian people themselves, who meet life’s challenges every day with determination, resiliency and genuine faith would most certainly move you to consider what’s really important in life.

For a group of twenty-four privileged St. Thomians and state-siders, the visit to Milot brought into hyper focus all that really matters: Love.

God’s love in Jesus Christ, who suffered for the world, was manifest in the people we met in Haiti. As those words from the lyric of a U2 song became our theme for the trip, they serve to remind us still today that God’s love rescued each of us. And yea though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear anything evil. For love rescued me…
-Pastor Jeff Neevel, St. Thomas Reformed Church

From Nick Heileman (student):
Every morning, I wake up, get out of bed, I take a shower with clean running water and working plumbing. Then I would normally get ready to go to school. I go to a school with a solid foundation, electricity, a restroom, and we even have schoolbooks. These things alone set me apart from every child I saw in Haiti. What I saw redefined my definition of poverty. This trip truly showed me how broad of a line there is between the haves and the have-nots in this world. In a country where more than half of the population lives on less than one dollar a day, and more than 80% lives on less than two, I found something truly amazing. Love.

On the last full day of our journey, among our agenda was singing to many of the patients at the CRUDEM Hospital. What I saw in these patients’ faces was bittersweet. I saw pain, anguish, even despair in some of the faces of family members and patients alike. But I also saw something inspiring in each of their faces. Faith, Hope, and Love were palpable in the room as we sang “Love Rescue Me” to them. And there, at that moment, I found something I wanted to do for more than just one week a year with my friends here. I wanted to bring joy to this amazing nation of Haiti for generations to come.

 
I wanted to get up and take action, to bring love to the beautiful people of Haiti. Because, if not me, then who? If not serving, then what? If not now, then when? If not Haiti, then where? If not Jesus, then how? And if not Love, then why?

The XYG team this year went to Haiti with only ourselves to give. It was up to us to decide what we brought back. This year I bring back something from Haiti that I could have never found had we gone anywhere else. I found Love. This year, between April 29th and May 7th, 2011, Love rescued me.

XYG Mission 2011 (24 total participants)
 
XYG Youth participants
(TOTAL: 17: 8 guys, 9 girls)
Raj Bhambhani
Kali Bunn
Christopher Cilliers
Felyse Dobson
Richard Driscoll
Chase Egger
Kendall Hebert
Nick Heileman
Alex Kellogg
Carlos Lindquist
Emma Merritt
AJ Miller
Shannon Newland
Brianna Olive
Ariel Stolz
Jayda Swim
Alexis Willis
 
Adult Leaders
(TOTAL 6: 4 men, 2 women)
Brandon King
Kelly Krause
Christina Luton
Pastor Jeff Neevel
Michael Weinzettle
Dave Whitter
Kelvin Xavier