Tom McKinley is not new to mission trips. His travels have taken him to the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Cuba, New Orleans for Katrina Relief, Colombia and Mexico. His latest excursion in early March was to Haiti with a group from Haiti Friendship Ministries.

“HFM supports schools and feeding programs in Haiti,” the Greenville resident said of the New Jersey-based organization.

The group arrived in Port au Prince, Haiti. “Our accommodations in Port au Prince are called the Providence Guest House,” said the member of Miracle Valley Church in Hermitage. The facility provides sleeping and eating accomodations with electricity, running water, showers and Internet access specifically tailored to mission groups.

Then the real mission work began. The next morning the group loaded the bus and drove seven hours to the mountain village of Marchasse, said McKinley.

“Haiti Friendship also works with a Haitian pastor, Pastor Abner Rabouin,” said McKinley. “Pastor Abner is the one who oversees 13 or so Christian schools and churches spread across southern Haiti. Marchasse is one of those schools and church.”

“Monday (March 2) through Wednesday (March 4), we had vacation Bible school with nearly 400 students in grades one through six,” said McKinley. The class ran from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and included songs, Bible lessons and crafts.

“Our team learned a song in Creole (the language of Haiti) and a song with gestures in English,” said McKinley. “Both songs were instant hits as we taught them to the schools and the church members. In the evenings, we participated in the church services.”

Pastor Abner took McKinley on Tuesday (March 3) to visit Banier and asked him to speak to the one-room school there with first through sixth grades.

“So I shared from my heart,” said McKinley, who called the visit “a busy Bible day for me because I was also preaching in the evening service.”

“I taught the Bible seminar to 10 teachers for an hour both days,” said McKinley. “On Wednesday (March 4), Haiti Friendship presented a financial gift to each teacher, then we prayed for them.”

Earlier, Pastor Abner had given a bonus check to the native teachers at the Marchasse school. “Eighty percent of the schools in Haiti are privately funded,” McKinley noted.

Haiti Friendship subsidizes three schools, providing education and teacher salaries, and feeds the children a hot meal twice a week. Toys, soccer balls, medicine, vitamins, clothing, school supplies and food also were distributed.

The bus was loaded Thursday (March 5) morning and the group drove back to Port au Prince, switched buses, drove another three hours to Petit Goave and spent the rest of their time there.

“In Petit Goave we stayed at the Happy House,” McKinley said of a mission run by Missionary Ventures International (MVI). “The Happy House is a sanctuary for abused, orphaned or hungry children.”

MVI also oversees a school of 400 children in Petit Goave, he said. The team on Friday (March 6) visited the school and another one operated by Pastor Abner.