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Mission trips enliven Scotts Hill members
Norman Jameson, BR Editor
September 07, 2010
5 MIN READ TIME

Mission trips enliven Scotts Hill members

Mission trips enliven Scotts Hill members
Norman Jameson, BR Editor
September 07, 2010

Some of the 22 persons who

joined the Scotts Hill Baptist Church team volunteering in Haiti Aug. 22-28

needed to get home, wash their clothes and repack in time for a two-week trip

to their ongoing mission in Accra, Ghana.

BR photo by Norman Jameson

Pediatrician Pam Taylor checks a reluctant toddler in a Haitian medical clinic. See photo gallery.

Scotts Hill, a fast-growing

church just north of Wilmington, is directly involved in missions at many

levels. Its mission pastor and administrator Jimmie Suggs organizes the mission

efforts and leads many of the teams.

When he put the word out

that medical personnel were needed for the Haiti team some members that

anticipated going could not make it. Medical members widened the net and

enlisted several colleagues for the team.

They ended up forming the

largest team since Feb. 1, with enough people to accompany Haitian staff to two

medical clinics each day, and to make up three shelter construction teams.

Bud Goolsby, a relentless

servant at 62 who is always looking for something to do even when other team

members are resting, said his mission trips to Ghana, Haiti, Ecuador and

Honduras have provided a “practical view.”

“You’re not just giving and

praying for something you’ve never seen,” he said. “You’ve been there.”

Now, he said during a lunch

in the Miami airport on his way home from Haiti, “I can’t see children anywhere

without seeing the heart of God broken over the need.”

He appreciates meeting

committed people, utilizing their God-given talents in God-ordained work. He

mentioned specifically Scott and Janet Daughtry, the on-site coordinators for

the Haiti relief effort. “You probably have to be out of your mind to go down

there and work as hard as we did,” he said. “But I’d do it again.”

Dana Ferrell who was sharing

the lunch in Miami, encouraged people to go at least once. Recalling a

frustrating two and a half hour experience trying to get out of the

Port-au-Prince airport that morning, with jostling crowds shoving for position

in stifling heat, he said Satan will throw up roadblocks at every turn.

“Even today,” Ferrell said,

“Satan would have liked to see us get frustrated and not want to go back.”

BR photo by Norman Jameson

When Scotts Hill Baptist Church volunteer Dave Lucas learned one of the interpreters was also a barber, he submitted to a haircut the Haitian way. He drew a crowd and future customers Daniel Lee from New York, back, and Bill Barker, right. See photo gallery.

Brandon Lisk, a young father

newly emboldened for missions and encouraged by his wife, Amanda, plans to be

involved in an international trip each year, “just make it a part of my life.”

In addition to the ministry

he provides, it is a good opportunity to “turn off the phone and not have the

responsibilities of work and family,” for an extended period to concentrate on

ministry and spiritual things “away from selfish desires.”

The best part of a trip is

“bonding and fellowship with team members” he said, pointing out that not all

the team members to Haiti knew each other before being united by common task.

A week earlier Chad Hodges,

who was embarking on his first international mission trip, discussed the

expected heat and hardships facing him and the team in Haiti. He was unfazed.

“I want to go somewhere

where I have to suffer to serve Jesus,” he said.

The Daughtrys ameliorated

the “suffering” as much as they could, providing good food and cold drinks on a

conveyor belt that dropped its contents into the dehydrated and hungry stomachs

of team members.

“One thing about teams is

God only sends the good ones,” Scott Daughtry said. “Not many bad folks will

spend $1,000 to travel halfway around the world to help somebody.”

Such work is not without

risk. Scotts Hills’ pastor Phil Ortego is on temporary leave, suffering from an

undefined illness he evidently picked up in April during a mission trip to

Ecuador.

Team members were moved when

they delivered 20 cots and 20 blankets to children at the Victorious Kids

Orphanage in Titanyen. Hodges’ wife Amy thought far enough ahead to send a

suitcase packed with flip-flops and toys with him.

Director Oscar Jeanmendes

and his wife Christine first started the orphanage a year ago in their home to

get pregnant teens off the dangerous streets. In July, they moved into a cement

block, tin roofed building constructed in large part with North Carolina

Baptist Haiti relief gifts.

Children were sleeping on

the cement floor, getting damp and sick. There is no electricity, plumbing, or

kitchen. Cooking is over charcoal in an alcove outside and on the morning of a

visit, some wandering goats were helping themselves at the pot of rice.

But today the children sleep

on cots, under roof, wearing flip-flops, in the care of a loving Christian couple

and sing with joy. (See video of children singing as well as other video

footage from Haiti at the Biblical Recorder’s YouTube channel:

www.youtube.com/biblicalrecorder.)

Volunteers who see, hear,

feel, taste, smell and touch that moment understand the difference between

supporting missions and being on mission.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Jameson wrote about his experience while in Haiti. Follow his daily blog by reading the first entry.)

Related stories

Haiti trip will change, challenge bless volunteers

Daughtrys: ‘We’re just like anyone else’

Mission trips enliven Scotts Hill members

6 months & counting: Volunteers toil, shed tears

Editorial: What difference does it make?

Photo gallery

YouTube videos