TORRINGTON – Members of Torrington’s SONrise Church take Jesus’ encouragement to “Love your neighbor as yourself” to heart by putting His words into action. Seven members of the church recently returned from a third trip to Le Limbé, Haiti, where they spent 10 days ministering to and working with residents receiving services through Grace Mission, whose headquarters are in Henderson, Neb., but provides many mission outreaches in Haiti and Mexico.
“Our main purpose for going to Le Limbé was to work with the local ministry in their orphanage and elder care home,” said the Rev. Tom Walker, pastor of the church and one of the team members, who has been on all three Haiti trips. “The orphanage houses 32 children and the nursing home is the first one in the nation. Our team members spent time reading to people, playing basketball and just spending time with the kids and elders at the compound.
“We also had four guys who went up into the mountains to a church in Bas de Sault to help pour a concrete floor. It took six hours for them to travel the 48 miles to the church that also serves as a school for over 300 students, five days a week. There’s no running water in the village, so some of the women in the town carried (big jugs) of water three-quarters of a mile to mix the concrete.”
Walker’s wife, Janet, also taught some of the women and girls some sewing techniques; just a few weeks before the team arrived, some new sewing machines arrived from another supporting church in Nebraska, with the goal being that some or the women in the village could start a seamstress cottage industry. And team members spent a lot of time in the desperate baby care part of the compound.
“There are 22 moms and babies that are helped on a weekly basis and are also given formula once a week,” said Linda Meyer, another team member. “The desperate baby care program goes through $1,000 of formula every five weeks, so there is a criteria the baby’s need to meet to get help from the program.
“My desire to provide grew even more when I came back [home].”
And her desire to do more materialized in the form of 1,500 pounds of beans that she and her husband, Bret, shipped from their farm to Le Limbé prior to the team making their trip.“It was amazing the beans were delivered a week before the team got there and I got to help distribute them,” Walker said. “We wouldn’t have gotten the beans there without help though. The church paid for the shipping to Le Limbé and Northern Feed (and Bean) cleaned and bagged them for us. They deserve a big thank you for making the
shipment possible.”

The effect of any mission trip can be eye opening, but in a country like Haiti, the experience can be powerful and metamorphic. Meyer had been on a mission trip to Haiti before with Bret, but he couldn’t make the trip this time so their 13 year old daughter, Tiah, filled in.
“I am so grateful she got to go,” said mom. “And I’m so thankful she likes bugs, lizards and doesn’t mind rats. She did great.”
“Before we left, she told me ‘Mom, I’m coming back, and when I come back I’m not coming home.”
It was also Brent Mullock’s first trip to Haiti and he said the sheer volume of people was overwhelming.
“We tend to look at pictures of how many people there are, but at the end of the day you’re working with one person at a time.”
Meyer agreed, “A lot of people don’t go into (mission work) because it is so
overwhelming.”
“That’s why is helps to think about helping the one,” added Bullock.
One of the biggest reasons for the trip to Haiti, thought, explained Walker, is to encourage the people that work there.
“I’ve been friends with the director of Grace Mission since the mid-80s,” he said. “It is hard work that never ends and there are so many needs in a place like Haiti.
“The greatest need for Haiti from our perspective is character. Haiti has gotten more aide than any other country but there is so much corruption little of it goes out to the populace.
“The school uses a curriculum that tries to help kids develop character, because its one thing to share your faith in Jesus, but we need to incorporate that with character. Character determines success.”
The church is planning another trip to Le Limbé next year, much of which will be a repeat of what the team members did this year. However, Walker also has greater ambitions for the future.
“There are always new projects that need to be done, but the villages have no electricity or running water. One of my dreams is to drill a well there. And it would be very difficult to get the equipment in there. But one day.”