Thursday, February 25, 2010
Twenty-year-old Larissa Landis returned to her classes at Montgomery County Community College in January after arriving home safely from a church mission trip to Haiti, but her heart and thoughts continue to be with her Haitian friends.
Landis, with 26 other volunteers from Souderton Mennonite Church (SMC), went to Haiti on Jan. 9 for their annual weeklong mission trip. During prior visits, they helped with two water projects: Water for Life, which involves drilling wells for clean water, and Tree of Life, which involves bottling clean spring water from the mountains.
During this visit, however, the volunteers literally felt the ground move under their feet on Jan. 12 when a 7-magnitude earthquake hit 70 miles away in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
Usually, the volunteers share their time between two villages: Labaleine and Passe Bois d’Ormes. While the group was en route from one village to another, the quake struck and their jeep was jolted off the road.
“We didn’t know what was happening,” Landis said. “The jeep was pulled so hard some of the lug nuts actually came off the wheels. Women and children came running out of their homes into the streets. We got everyone away from the buildings.”
Throughout the next few days, they continued to feel the aftershocks.
“Since they didn’t know if their homes were secure enough, we decided to move everyone outside to sleep. We pulled the mattresses and blankets outside and slept together in a big group. We prayed together and sang songs to comfort them,” she said.
Landis tried to keep the children calm by playing and singing to them. At the College, she is working on her associate’s degree in Early Childhood Education and will graduate in the fall of 2010.
Fortunately, there was not much damage to the homes and buildings in the villages Landis visited, and there were only a few minor injuries. When the mission group heard about the destruction in Port-au-Prince, they tried to help.
“A doctor and a nurse in our group took medical kits and baby supplies,” she said. “We helped the Haitians gather fresh fruit growing in the area, such as pineapples, and sent a truckload of fruit with five-gallon bottles of water.”
Members of SMC have been helping Haitians for several years and have developed lasting friendships. This recent trip was the fourth mission trip for Landis, whose parents and siblings have also volunteered on trips, too.
SMC is now collecting new or slightly used tents, 8-foot by 10-foot or larger tarps, five-gallon buckets, blankets, sheets and hygiene items, including wrapped soap, shampoo in plastic bottles, tubes of toothpaste, packaged adult-size toothbrushes, new bath towels in dark colors, wide-tooth combs, fingernail clippers, boxes of adhesive bandages and sanitary pads.
Items can be dropped off at the West Street Community Center at Souderton Mennonite Church, 105 W. Chestnut St., Souderton, PA 18964 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m. The items will be shipped to SMC’s contacts in Haiti for distribution. Monetary donations can be mailed to SMC at the above address; checks should be made payable to SMC with “Haiti Relief” written on the memo line.
Students at both Central and West campuses of the College collected donations during the weeks of Jan. 25 and Feb. 1 for the American Red Cross’ Haiti relief efforts.
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by Diane H. VanDyke
photo caption: Early Childhood Education major Larissa Landis enjoys spending time with children, like little Lubia, during her mission trips to Haiti with Souderton Mennonite Church.
