Our history with the mission

I have to preface this with the statement that none of this has been done because of my doing.  I give all the credit to our great God who has put people in my life that have been able to support me and lead me to other people that are able to give advice, donations and contacts to make everything happen.  It has been amazing already and I feel so lucky that I am getting to be even a small part in the great story!

I became involved with Mission Emanuel-missionemanuel.org-(which is still the organization that I go through) when I was a sophomore at Wake Forest.  It was an amazing, eye-opening experience and I was hopeful that I would be able to return sometime.  The following year I was able to go through a Wake Forest scholarship and had another amazing week-long experience.  From that time until I graduated from PT school I thought about the families I had met and constantly desired to return.

In January of 2005, Andrew and I began talking about how neat it would be to go on a trip

 together during one of the 5 trips that is there through the month of June and July.  We called First Pres (our Wintson-Salem church that sends multiple groups each year) and said we were interested in going on the family trip. 

 Through prayer and discussion, we ended up committing to be on summer staff for the entire 5 weeks.  Many of you were involved in offering support for that trip-thank you so much! 

During this time, I worked in the clinic daily.  I provided therapy to the many kids with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, prematurity and other unknown syndromes.  One child I worked with specifically is named Joel.  I will tell his story in another post.  Andrew helped with the many construction projects that were in progress during that time.  It was so neat to be able to share this experience in 2 completely different roles.  

We were able to go again and 

visit friends in July of 2007 and I was able to take another short trip in January of this year.  Between July 2007 and January 2009, another building had been completed.  It is a large pediatric health care center that sits on a hillside and looks over beautiful, lush land.  In the future, it will house a pharmacy, audiology suites, a conference room for coordination of care meetings and parent education, and dental suites (I know I am leaving out more).   It also houses the completed room for the therapy gym. It is currently the only mission building that is air conditioned!! You can read about what the current status is of this in another post. 

Mission Emanuel's main activity involving Americans is sending groups on week-long short-term mission trips in which the team participates in building houses, working on community projects like building basketball courts, baseball fields, playgrounds, etc. and assisting with the multiple ongoing projects including a women's coop, a water purification plant, 2 schools, 2 churches-both Haitian and Dominican, a dental clinic and a medical clinic.  There are many families who have been visiting the DR through Mission Emanuel for more than 10 years!  Each year, the mission continues to reach out to the community to provide improved education, discipleship, medical care and overall quality of life.  You can visit the website to get more information on what Mission Emanuel does. 

Mission Emanuel is always looking for people to both serve on one of these trips and support those that do serve on one of these trips.  If you have any desire to support Mission Emanuel, please let me know and I will let you know about the many opportunities available.