With a $10,000 hole-in-one prize, $1000 to the 1st place team, $400 to 2nd place, shoot out contests and a raffle with incredible prizes followed by lunch at The Palm-Aire Club.

This is such a great way to raise support and have fun. We had a total of 29 teams compete!

CFM would like to thank our gracious sponsors for making this whole day possible, the players and also Shirley Stutzman for all her hard work organizing this event.

Please visit “Support Haiti Earthquake Victims through CFM” on Facebook to view more pictures from today’s event.

Au Cadet is a remote mountain village approx 7 miles from Fort Jacque. The roads are so poor that the 7 mile portion of the trip takes over 2 hours to traverse. Although hard to imagine, the people there are poorer than most with little hope for improvement of their circumstances. Years ago, CFM honored Pastor Occius request to build a temporary stick church to help meet the spiritual needs of these people.  We supported a minister their and over time we provided elementary school classes for the children. Many of you have seen the picture of the chalkboard leaning against a tree with children in front of it, eager to learn. Our own Genel (raised in the boys orphanage) was our teacher their.  In late 2004 the board decided to start a memorial fund in memory of Travis Kennell to build a larger safer permanent church/school at this location.  In the mean time the residents have been utilizing the overcrowded make-shift stick church.  This building project has been plagued with hurdles ranging from extreme difficulty with accessibility by vehicle to political unrest.  Several other projects moved into priority status because they were more easily accomplished being in Port Au Prince.  Mama Sommers Girls Orphanage project began to take form, the Papa Sommers Boys Orphanage makeover was tackled approx a year ago, and our Pastor Occius home improvements were nearly completed this year.

Since the Au Cadet land was purchased in 2005, we began the construction with leveling two places for the Construction Depot and Cistern, and the New Church/School.  Claude oversaw the construction of the cistern project, and that is where we left off awaiting additional funding and transportation capacity.  This past year we were able to purchase an excellent used 4WD truck that was shipped to Haiti to be used for our construction projects starting with Au Cadet. With the other projects primarily completed, the ability to access Au Cadet with the new truck, and word that a hurricane had toppled the former stick church earlier in 2009… we stepped up the effort to get the new church project moving again. Over Thanksgiving a work team dubbed “Kennell Krew” arrived in Haiti to establish the first building on the Au Cadet site. The team of six traveled the grueling roads to this remote location, stopping three times along the way to repack their load of materials. On arrival we hired several women to procure water, a local man to procure sand and some children to collect small stones in buckets… all needed to mix cement to make and secure the support columns. The first half of the Depot was constructed in approx 10 hrs. including an overnight stay and sharing a meal of rice and beans cooked by the Haitians. A simple plan designed originally to build economic houses in Pine Forest had its début.  The next stage is to build the other half of the depot, roof the adjacent cistern, and gutter both roofs to divert water into the cistern. Water is initially needed for construction purposes, but will be a significant blessing to this village post-construction, as their closest water supply is miles away and has to be retrieved on foot with 5 gal buckets daily.

Claude is formulating current estimates to build the church/school structure in stages, using variable designs for efficiency and longevity.  Once completed; we envision a playground full of children with smiles on their faces, mothers drawing water from the cistern, neatly dressed families attending Sunday services, and a teacher and Pastor living on site in the “depot” to provide their services and care for the facility.

CFM is Responding

Sarasota, FL – As the devastation from the earthquake continues to unfold, Christian Fellowship Mission (CFM) is in the process of preparing organized humanitarian aid responses to Haiti’s recent disaster.   Now and in the months to come, CFM will provide both immediate relief as well as long-term assistance to help the Haitian people rebuild their lives. In Sarasota, CFM is receiving donations and relief supplies to fill two, twenty-foot containers that will be shipped to the ravaged country.

How can you help?

Pray for those who are suffering and those who are providing help and comfort.

Donate to CFM Haiti Earthquake appeal.

• Online at www.christianfellowshipmission.org.
• By check to: CFM, P.O. Box  50035, Sarasota, FL 34232
• Give relief kits, 25 or 50 pound bags of rice and beans, or bottled drinking water.  These items are needed for shipment of two containers now through January 29. See relief kit contents list and drop-off location below.

Relief kits:

1. Rice – 10 lb bag or 2, 5 lb bags
2. Cooking oil – 48 oz bottle
3. Tomato paste – 4, 8oz cans
4. Dry spaghetti – 32 oz
5. Soap – 2 bars
6. Beans – 10 lb.bag or 2, 5lb bags

7. Place above items in cardboard box with lid (12W x 16L x 10H) for ease in stacking in shipping container, and distribution in Haiti.

Drop off location: D & D Garage Door, 1177 Cattlemen Road, Sarasota.

Drop off times through January 27: Daily (except Sunday) from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM & 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

About CFM:  Christian Fellowship Mission (CFM), a non-profit organization founded in Sarasota, Florida, has been serving the people of Haiti since 1966. CFM exists to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, equip servant leaders, assist the poor, care for orphans, and help educate the children of Haiti. CFM provides support to a dozen churches, three schools, several orphanages, as well as other humanitarian efforts.  For more information, please call 941-374-7828 or 941-232-1595. Visit online Facebook Group: Support Haiti Earthquake Victims Through CFM.

Email:
christianfellowshipmission@gmail.com

Call:

9412321595

Write:
P.O. Box 50035
Sarasota, FL 34232

Reasons for the vast aid corps range from the simple proximity — Haiti is close to the USA, easily reached and desperately poor — to the spiritual.

Churches and faith-based groups routinely send waves of volunteers, in batches of five to 20 at a time for a week or two, to share the Gospels and build and tend churches, schools and clinics, particularly in the populous Port-au-Prince area. Many return year after year.

Forty professional aid agencies had more than 2,000 staffers working in health, education, welfare and development stationed in Haiti, says Nasserie Carew of InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based international non-governmental organizations that share expertise and coordinate humanitarian aid.

No network or coordinating group knows how many individual churches and ministries with tiny staffs and revolving volunteer crews were there when the earthquake hit, however.

“Hundreds of U.S. Catholic parishes are ‘twinned’ with parishes in Haiti, with long-standing relationships and exchange visits. There are dozens of groups constantly traveling there,” says Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, one of the largest relief groups, which had 320 professionals in Haiti, a strongly Catholic country.

Catholic Relief is also part of AIDSRelief, a consortium of five institutions that administers a $500 million, five-year grant in 10 countries, including Haiti. One-third to one-half of health care delivery in the developing world is done by faith-based organizations, Hackett estimates.

Catholics are not alone in these ties. Communities from Boston to Miami with large Haitian immigrant populations have personal ties, and the Episcopal Church of the USA includes the Diocese of Haiti.

“We’re working so hard to be the hands of Jesus in that place,” says Sue Steege of First Trinity Lutheran Church, Tonawanda, N.Y.

She arrived at an orphanage in Les Cayes, 120 miles from Port-au-Prince, with 13 church members the day before the quake. The church has supported the Children of Israel orphanage and a sister church on a Haitian island nearby since 2005. First Trinity had raised the money to give the island church its first building. Members of the congregation and the pastor have adopted six of the orphans. Seven of the volunteers on this trip, including Steege, were repeat visitors to Haiti. They all returned home safely Monday, but the State Department says up to 5,500 Americans remain unaccounted for. InterAction reported 51 aid workers missing.

The habit of helping is another reason so many volunteers were already in Haiti.

“The Bible says faith without works is dead. If you get to a place with your religion where, even if you enjoy reading the Bible, you get kind of stuck, the way to get beyond that is to get out and help people,” says Chelsea Olson, 24, of Blasdell, N.Y., who was part of Steege’s team.

It was Olson’s first trip to Haiti but not her first mission. She grew up longing to join her childhood church’s mission trips and at 17 she traveled to Rio de Janeiro to volunteer. Mission trips, Olson says, give privileged Americans a “bigger perspective on the world, how other people live and what they need.”

“When people, particularly young people, join a church today, they want to know if your doctrine is pure, but they also want to know, are you doing good,” says Steege, who expects to head for Haiti again.

Similar stories are all over news reports across the country. Addison Den Hartog was on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Wednesday with the video he took during his trip to Haiti. Originally he intended to capture footage of a children’s program, but it became, instead, a saga of destruction.

He was there for Mission to Haiti, an agency based in Sheldon, Iowa, that relies on volunteers to fund and support 11 churches and their affiliated schools in Haiti serving 4,000 children, according to their website.

Haiti children face ongoing disease and trauma

Children in Haiti face are incredibly vulnerable to injury, illness and trauma

Some of the most harrowing stories coming out of the devastation in Haiti are those of children, alone, scared and severely injured.

Under-18s make up almost half of Haiti’s 10-million population and aid agencies are warning they are at great risk from ongoing physical and psychological trauma.

Already the country faces the highest rates of infant and child mortality in the Western hemisphere with diarrhoea, respiratory infections, tuberculosis among the leading causes of death.

Many will have been orphaned or are badly injured themselves and in urgent need of medical help Gareth Owen, Save the Children

It is also estimated there are 19,000 children with HIV/Aids with few drugs available to treat them.

Unicef, which suffered heavy damage to its own offices in Port-au-Prince, says children are “tremendously vulnerable”.

Gareth Owen, Save the Children’s director of emergencies, said petrified children were sleeping amongst dead bodies and were in grave danger.

He estimates up to two million children could be affected by the disaster.

“Many will have been orphaned or are badly injured themselves and in urgent need of medical help.”

“Thousands more will have lost all contact with their families and friends and are now struggling to survive alone in the rubble.

“They are sleeping on their own, trying to cope with the trauma of seeing dead bodies, and will have no idea where to go for help.

Childhood diseases

Bev Collin, a paediatric nurse with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), provided care in Indonesia after the tsunami.

She says childhood diseases already prevalent in the country will be greatly exacerbated by the devastation left by the earthquake.

“There will be a lot of dust around so the air quality will be poor which can aggravate things which are already high risk in children, such as pneumonia.

“The other things that are high risk are hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever and diarrhoeal diseases, which are made worse by lack of water.

These are kids who are already sick and you want to be able to continue their care Bev Collin, Médecins Sans Frontières

“And food or water borne diseases will be a major problem because there is probably no drainage and sewage system.”

The initial days after the earthquake will all be about survival, digging people out of the rubble and dealing with crush injuries but there are also ongoing dangers of injury from collapsing and broken buildings, she says.

“But in three or four weeks the wet season will be starting and that is really going to cause problems because then you are looking at malaria.

“Also Japanese encephalitis is endemic and is a particular problem for children.”

She says aid agencies will be trying to co-ordinate who is responsible for what and getting children to a place of safety is paramount.

Those who have lost parents will usually be cared for by older siblings, other family members and the wider community, she says.

But it is absolutely vital that they can access medical facilities in the coming months.

“The thing is these are kids who are already sick and you want to be able to continue their care.”

Psychological damage

Physical wounds are of course not the only issue, there will also be psychological scars.

Professor Richard Williams, lead officer for disaster management at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said most people, children and adults, will experience fear, anxiety, guilt, disorientation, hopelessness and other related feelings within the first few days of a disaster.

But that is usually temporary and 80% will not have lasting mental health problems.

For a small group there is a longer term risk of depression and anxiety as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Children are particularly vulnerable because they depend on adults to care for them.

“If they have lost contact with familiar adults there will be the additional burden of grief and bereavement.

“It is right to focus on children but the good news is they are just as resilient as adults.”

He says the psychological “first aid” that is needed is practical help and that includes food, water and shelter.

“After that it is about re-establishing normality and relationships and routine – reconnecting children with their families and getting them back to school.

“All these things are incredibly protective of mental health.”

Mama Sommers Orphanage:

We have purchased this property for the Mama Sommers girls orphanage. This property has been named after one of the founders of the mission, Mama Sommers. We currently lack adequate funding to build this orphanage but plans are to include a nursery for infants, school, caretaker facilities, and housing for the girls. We will announce our building plans as they progress.

Papa Sommers Orphanage

Papa Sommers orphanage is named after one of the founders of CFM, Sanford Sommers. This orphanage houses boys from 2 years to 19 years old. Some of the residents still have a parent(s) living, but the parents cannot afford to feed, clothe, and educate the boys.

The registered agent for CFM in Haiti, Occius Charles, lives on the property along with his family. In addition to his house and the boys quarters, there is also a church on the grounds which serves as a school during the weekdays.

The catastrophic earthquake in Haiti has caused immeasurable damage to the people of Haiti and to the ongoing work of CFM. The survivors of the devastating earthquake in Haiti need our immediate help. 100% of your donation goes directly to Haiti.

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