Missionary - Haiti Observer Blog

Beside the many well-intentioned young children who usually take non profit mission trips to poor countries such as Haiti and others, some college-bound students are engaged in them just to increase their chances in getting into a good university. Frank Bruni who wrote the article: "To Get to Harvard, Go to Haiti?" calls it "drive-by charity work" in a the interest to impress admission staff.

He gave examples where some friends post on Snapchat and Instagram "typically showing one of them "with some poor brown child aged 2 to 6 on their knee" and explained "while many are well-intentioned, some seem not to notice poverty until an exotic trip comes with it."

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It is with sadness that we learned the death of Roberta Edwards while in Haiti. Another case of eliminating those who are trying to help. She became victim in a shooting on Saturday night in Port-au-Prince while going to get gasoline.

Roberta Edwards, a US missionary and the director of SonLight Children's Home in the Haitian capital who dedicated her life to bringing hope to the hopeless, was gunned down while driving through Port-au-Prince. As an administrator of SonLight Ministries Children's Home in Port-au-Prince, she used to provide care for 20 orphaned children and feed around 160 children at least twice a day, five days in a week and educational supports for them. Furthermore, Edwards was involved in multiple development projects in Haiti including programs under the U.S sponsored "Healing Hands". Her husband, a Haitian left her in 2000, five years after shifting to Haiti from North Carolina, and she built the ministry from the rubble of her collapsed marriage. The sad incident occurred in the street of Croix-des-Bouquets district, near her home on Saturday night (October 10th, 2015) when her car was stopped by another vehicle which intentionally blocked her path. Two gunmen opened fire on Edwards and dragged one of the three boys traveling with her and fled. The two other boys were able to escape and ran for help. The motives behind the murder and kidnap are still unknown.

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With their belief that the Gospel cannot exist in tandem with misery CPFSI, and its founder Brother Franklin Armand, began a program that has turned life around for the inhabitants of one village in the Haitian city of Hinche.

With the entire country facing economic difficulties, exacerbated by the vicious cycle of agricultural deforestation, residents of Pandiassou, a small settlement in Haiti's Central Plateau, have benefited from the efforts of the missionary and their campaign to turn around the ability of the peasantry to sustain themselves in today's socio-economic climate.

Started over 25 years before, the Congregation of Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnate (CPFSI) first began by aiding the peasantry to feed itself. Once the immediate needs were met they set about making this abundance self-sustainable and stamping out the crippling dependency on food aid. What they established was a Konbit-like system of community farming that maximized the efficiency of the community's production. Unlike a traditional Konbit, the peasants are instrumental in the planning stages, which manifests in a more successfully cooperative undertaking.

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It has been reported that on Thursday, November 17, 2011 four Indiana missionaries who have been working in Haiti have been the victims of a arm robbery.

The missionaries are with Oakbrook Church from Kokomo. It also has been reported that none of the injuries were life threatening.

Two of the missionaries were shot in the legs. Another one was shot in the elbow. The fourth victim was grazed by a bullet

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