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Seven members of First Christian Church went to Sonlight Ministries in
Port-de-Paix, Haiti on a short-term mission trip from April 23 - May 1, 2010.
The members of the team were Roye and Pat Wilson, Larry and Elanor Brawner,
Chris Kiger, and Tom and Leigh Anne Schory. This was a wonderful experience to
see God at work with the Alexander family (missionaries at work there) and the
Haitian people.
While there, Roye and Larry worked on some construction on the new SonCenter
building that Sonlight Ministries is building across the street from their
academy, which educates students from pre-school through 12th grade. Once
completed, the SonCenter will provide sanctuary space for 800 people for the
growing congregation of Sonlight Church with an additional 300 seats in the
balcony. In addition, it will provide extra classrooms and office space, a
medical and dental clinic for visiting professionals, and the first-ever indoor
baptistry in Port-de-Paix and possibly in all of Haiti.
At the Sonlight Academy, Pat, Elanor, Tom, and Chris all helped with one-on-one
practice with conversational English for the students, and Leigh Anne did
reading evaluations with the Kindergarteners. In addition, Pat and Elanor
helped teach language classes, Chris taught some Bible classes, and Tom taught
some Health classes. Elanor also helped organize the 4th grade classroom
library. Leigh Anne helped out in the office getting things ready for
graduation, including stamping seals on diplomas and putting them in their
covers, designing the graduation programs, stuffing invitations, typing out
scripts, etc. The team also participated in a career panel for the high school
students where they talked about their different professions and the
educational requirements of each. Overall, the trip was a huge success.
Sonlight Ministries in Port-de-Paix consists of a full-size Christian school,
educating more than 300 students in pre-school through 12th grade. All subjects
are taught in English since the native language, Creole, is very limited. Bible
education is a major part of each day's lesson plans.
Roger and Norma Alexander are the founders of Sonlight Ministries. They ended a
successful ministry in Morton's Gap, Kentucky to go to Haiti in 1983. One of
their daughters had gone on a church high school mission trip to Haiti and came
back encouraging her parents to go there. After she finished college she also
joined them. Their original mission was to make strong church leaders, but they
soon realized Voodoo was still the people's main focus.
The Alexanders changed their focus to the children and started a school and
also included a church where students and their families could worship.
Services, which are held in English and Creole, are growing at a very fast
pace, as God's Spirit conquers hearts that were once loyal to Voodoo. Two of
the Alexanders' daughters and their husbands are on the staff.
Sonlight is currently building a multi-purpose building to house the growing
congregation of Sonlight Church. When completed, the building will have a
worship center/gymnasium, offices, and classrooms. To learn more information on
their ministry, you can visit their website at
www.sonlightministries.org.
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