Dad's Travels to Haiti and Soloman Islands

Recently my dad and his study group traveled from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) to Haiti, Solomon Islands, and Australia. They were studying reconstruction and nation building. How to take a country smashed by poverty, war, or natural disasters-typhoons... and help them rebuild. Below are some photos of his adventures.

The trip to Haiti was eye opening. The study group needed a armed escort to travel into Haiti. Before they left the states they needed a whole lot of immunizations. Once they got there the smell was awful all over the island because of trash littered everywhere. The people wore second hand clothes, while some children wore no clothes. The people were using oil barrels to make animals figurines to sell. The average wage in Haiti is two dollars a week.

You really want to do something to help after seeing the poverty. One of the reconstruction non governmental organizations was a Baptist mission group called Double Harvest."Double Harvest is a Christian ministry that desires to magnify Christ by ministering to the spiritual and physical needs of people in developing countries. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:17)

Double Harvest understands that people’s deepest need is a spiritual one, a changed life through faith in Jesus Christ. As a Christian ministry, Double Harvest also seeks to model Christ’s compassion by offering economic, educational and medical programs in difficult and impoverished situations. Double Harvest is about “Sowing Seeds of Life” for this life and the next. “Man does not live on bread alone.” (Luke 4:4)

In Haiti, these purposes are achieved through Operation Double Harvest, a project that includes a large agricultural project, an academic/vocational school, a medical/surgical clinic, and an associated but independent church." http://www.doubleharvest.org/

Here is a photo from double Harvest web site to show what they are accomplishing with agriculture. Prayer is needed for this mission.

The second trip was to the Solomons Islands. Here is the international airport which reminds me of the rural airports I saw in Truck and Yap.

The trip was pretty rushed with briefings with military and government officials. But while my dad and his team were traveling they saw some neat things. Here is a photo of a group of children playing in the river after school.

A woman in her garden. Her house in the background does not look like it could stand in a typhoon like Pongsongwa.

Here is one of two of the Solomon Island's police boats. The sunset is beautiful.

People of the Solomon Islands still tell the stories of the liberation from the Japanese in WWII like it was yesterday. The Marines landed at Red beach on Guadalcanal and pushed the Japanese back, clearing the mountains and the air field. The first WWII photo is a memorial. The tower in the second photo is a reconstruction of the WWII tower on the air strip that the Marines took from the Japanese. The third photo is a Chapel at Red Beach. The beach reminds me of Asan Beach on Guam.

Part two will come soon.