La Croix Haiti mission was started in 1984 by Pastor Pierre Vaugelas. Pastor Pierre started the mission to help Haiti by first helping the children. Close to 50% of Haitian children cannot afford to go to school. Pastor Pierre took 70 children his first year and gave them an education, uniforms, shoes, and a hot meal. For a lot of these children it is the only meal they will eat all day. Now the La Croix mission helps about 4,000 children.Over the years the La Croix mission has helped Haiti in other ways too.

·         Due to rapid deforestation, only 3% of Haiti’s original forest remains. Pastor Pierre has a program with the students to help with reforestation.

·         In 1996 the mission added a health clinic and maternity clinic with the help of Dr. Daniel Lattanzi.

·         They also helped improve the health of the community by building wells for clean drinking water.

·         Pastor Pierre is trying to tackle the 85% unemployment rate by teaching specific trades that can be used by the people in Haiti.

·         They also built a grain mill and carpentry shop.

The La Croix Haiti Mission has done so many amazing things for Haiti that it would be hard to list them all here. Our group is raising money to go to Haiti to support the mission by helping with specific projects around the complex. There are 21 of us going from 3 different churches in the Cincinnati area: Maineville United Methodist, Tried Stone New Beginnings, and New Beginnings Belfast Church.

Some people from our group are going to Haiti for the first time, but others have been going for over 20 years. This time we will be building 100 benches for the school and putting a new roof on a local church. We will also distribute rice to the community and give dresses, shoes, and hats to the children. Our trip is 1/23/16-1/30/16.

We need to raise about $10,000 for supplies to build the benches, replace the roof, and buy enough rice. It will also cost each person about $1,000 for air fare and food in Haiti. We are hoping to raise a lot of the money for supplies at local events being hosted by the three churches. The primary goal of this fundraiser is to assist people in the group with the cost of going on the mission trip.

The Lord urged Pastor Pierre to go to La Croix and He has been laying it on the hearts of many to help with this mission ever since. Please consider making a donation to help us get where we all know we are needed.

For more information on the La Croix mission see http://www.lacroixhaitimission.org/ . You can also watch this video  which features Pastor Mike from New Beginnings Belfast Church. Also see more pictures below from previous years trips.

Students at the La Croix Haiti Mission.

Debbie Leever from Maineville United Methodist teaching the children.

Bags of rice

The rice after it is split into bags for individual families

Pastor Mike Smith from New Beginnings Belfast


Rosemary from New Beginnings Belfast


The group from January 2015