The Sacred Heart Haiti Mission team brought 80 French Bibles to Saint Nicholas Parish and donated the soccer balls to the St. John Paul II School Pictured left to right are Shane Powers, Bobby Zogbi, Father Raynold, Maddy Cox, Diane Wack, and Father Isaac. (Photos provided by Bob List)

By BOB LIST
Bob List Photography

WARSAW — Sacred Heart Church of Warsaw sent 10 teens and adults to work on the St. John Paul II School in Kenscoff, Haiti. Their mission was to paint a couple of the classrooms at the school associated with their mission twin parish, St. Nicholas in Kenscoff.

The Team consisted of Pat and Leigh Cox and their daughter Maddy, Diane Wack, Mike Powers and son Shane, Bobby Zogbi, Ida and Bob List, all from Sacred Heart, and Linda Thieman, our wonderful guide from St. Henry, Ohio, who has led around 70 missions to Haiti.

Painting team is cleaning up after painting eight school classrooms in a day and a half.
Pictured are left to right Shane Powers, Leigh Cox, Bobbi Zogbi and Maddy Cox.

The team arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on the afternoon of June 16, and after a very bumpy ride to Kenscoff, we settled into our accommodations (Father Isaac’s rectory) and he treated us to a wonderful meal. We were told that it was insulting to the cooks if we did not finish the food that was set out for us, but with the amount of food prepared for us, we never did finish everything.

The next morning we began with mass at 6:15 a.m. before we gathered the materials we needed to start painting the classrooms. Since the school was still in session and they were doing testing, we were limited on what rooms we could do and at what times.

We started at one area and the ten of us plus our interpreter, Bill, all grabbed brushes, rollers, trays and cans to begin the painting process. Father Isaac came to check in on us after a couple hours and commented on how fast we were going.

By lunchtime we had three rooms completed. Father Isaac and Father Raynold had a wonderful lunch prepared for us and we were back to painting by 1 p.m. The students moved their desks out to the patio and other areas so we could have access to their classrooms. We were able to complete three more rooms in the afternoon before calling it a day.

We played with some of the parish children while their moms were either in a Bible class or choir practice. Despite the language barrier, “Cat’s in the Cradle”, hand tricks and bubbles were enjoyed by all.

That evening our interpreter gave a talk on his life in Haiti. He was orphaned at the age of 6 and became a restavek (a child slave) to the family that adopted him. He was rescued from that situation and brought to St. Joseph’s Home for boys in Port-au-Prince. At St. Josephs, he was able to grow up in a safe environment and get an education and he now is the director of the home.

The next morning after breakfast, we watched the students gather in the courtyard for school. They began with songs, their national anthem and flag raising. The principal had a student give the morning announcements and then all the students turned to us and said “bonjour”. After they dismissed to their classrooms, we went around to each class and passed out candy to each person. We were quite popular with everyone.

We began painting again and finished another two rooms by 11 a.m. Father Isaac was expecting us to complete a few classrooms for the school but he was pleasantly surprised when we finished eight total rooms.