Home : The Voice : October 2002 

Hospital Sainte Croix,
Leogane, Haiti, Receives
Container of Practical Love
Gifts from Rivermont
Church, Chattanooga

The name of the effort is Partnership in Mission Outreach for Hospital Sainte Croix. The enablers are the members of Rivermont Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga. The Mission Committee is led by Martha Sternbergh and Dick Swisher.

Those are just the facts locally. What happens between Rivermont and Leogane, Haiti is little short of miraculous and heartwarming. Miraculous to the Haitians and heartwarming for the leaders and members of Rivermont Church.

Jim Ford, Rivermont Church, helps in packing
a shipping container as tightly as possible.

Rivermont’s history with the hospital in Haiti began in 1993, when mission teams traveled to work with the people and the hospital. This year, the church packed a large container to be sent to Leogane with items to support the Haitian people, the hospital staff, the school children, and the missionaries who live and work at the Hospital Sainte Croix compound. This container, obtained for an estimated cost of $4,500, will be packed with goods and materials for planned projects. After the delivery of the container, teams will be sent in November, and two different teams in February to help the hospital assimilate the materials. Last spring, realizing that the guest house was deteriorating rapidly, the church has repaired the plumbing and painted, while the project to replace beds, linens, air conditioners, appliances, and household needs is about completed. Funds are in place for a new refrigerator and a new dryer. A new washer is still needed.

Also accompanying the plans for a comfortable guesthouse for mission trippers, is the dream for an improved gift shop area for Haitian crafts, to be sold to guests to help increase income for the hospital.

Other projects now in the planning stage are:

1. Renovations to the penthouse facility on the roof, and additional housing for guest missionaries and students

2. Repair of the hospital telephone system

3. Equipment for the new pediatrician who is soon to come on board

100 sturdy desks designed by the Rivermont members will
be shipped flat and then assembled on site. Demonstrating
one of the desks are: Charlie Belcher, Bill Turner, and Charles Jennings.
The delighted children are Sarah and Clark Marshall

4. New desks and athletic equipment for the children

5. A new roof for a rural clinic

With the partnership of First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga and Woodbury Presbyterian Church, Woodbury, NJ, a $12,000 generator, designed to provide emergency backup power, will soon be installed at the hospital.