By Rob Ginter - Staff Writer
A team of pastors from the Morehead area is preparing to go to the earthquake stricken country of Haiti this month. Since The Morehead News article written in mid January, the pastors said Morehead and surrounding communities have opened their heart to help Haiti.
“We didn’t expect anything from the first article but there has been an outpouring of support,” said Sharkey Freewill Baptist Pastor Harley Sexton. “From elementary schools that are working to help us go in and help us feed these children when we go, clinics are doing shoe drives, local hospitals have donated a lot of food and medical supplies, we’re working to get tires for our vehicle on the compound, banks and local churches are working with us. It has just been amazing.
“We are sending a team of doctors in the fourth of this month,” Sexton said. “And we’re going in the 22nd of February and we are totally excited.”
Sexton has two other pastors accompanying him along with four others from Morehead to complete their seven-man team.
“Brother Rob Kidd from Charity Freewill Baptist Church goes with us every year and is very essential in the works there. Brother Raymond Stegall from Oakland Christian Church in Carter County is very instrumental in our trip,” he said.
The team of pastors is doing mission and evangelistic work on a mission compound in association with Mountain Faith Missions.
“Mountain Faith Missions is a non-profit organization with a Haitian board and American board that is over the organization,” Sexton said. “That way we keep everything in agreement with them as well as what we think needs to be done in the area as well. Reverend Lee Carroll and his wife Molly founded MFM. They first entered Haiti in the 1940s with their young children Paul and Naomi. He bought property where the Saut De Au compound is currently located from a woman who was beaten to death because she sold her property to a protestant Christian. MFM consists of more than 20 Haiti churches and have built two and soon to be three churches in Haiti.
“On the compound we have a medical clinic, a bakery, an orphanage and vocational school. They teach welding in the vocational school because Haiti is a deforrestized nation - all the major buildings are made of metal because there is no wood. We do a Vacation Bible school program that brings in about 800 kids each year.”
But despite the outpouring of support for their mission to the third world country, sobering news has surfaced from their destination.
“The 6.1 earthquake aftershock that hit Haiti actually took our boys orphanage down and we lost it,” Sexton said. “Right now we are housing them in the church. When we go over we’re going to be putting a roof on it. The metal that was in question is going to be there for the new big church we’re building which is 20,000 square feet and we hope we can put the boys in the old church permanently until we can build another dorm.
“The supplies that compound has came from the Dominican Republic,” Sexton said. “They have had to go across the border to go get and it’s been scarce but they’ve been holding on.
“We’ve lost the lives of a few family members on the compound,” Sexton said. “We know we have lost 10 in one family, we are not sure outside the compound how many people we have lost.”
According to Sexton, supplies that have been gathered from the area have been shipped to Haiti from Miami, Fla. this past week and they now have clearance to fly into Haiti on Feb. 22.
Those interested in giving to Mountain Faith Missions can mail donations to Leslie Cecil, 2115 Sharkey Road, Morehead. For more information on the current trip to Haiti contact Sexton at sharkeyfwbc@hotmail.com or by visiting mountainfaithmission.org.
