The Mission Team of the First United Methodist Church will be making a PowerPoint presentation describing their recent mission trip to Haiti during the 9:30 a.m. service Sunday.

“It was a very exciting and productive mission,” Pastor Patricia Toschak said.

Other team members agreed. Besides Toschak, the team included a mother-daughter duo Sherry and Christine Klein of Austin, along with Pat and Gene Francis of rural Blooming Prairie. The task of the team included assisting with a six-day medical clinic and pharmacy at the Duplan Methodist Church and School in rural Haiti.

In previous years, the Austin church has sent teams to help build the clinic. This year the church provided funds to purchase a pharmaceutical drug supply and to employ a doctor along with several nurses for the six-day clinic. Team members were the Haitian version of “pharmacists.”

Each day at mid-afternoon, the team would close the clinic and walk across the road to the schoolhouse to teach English to the Haitian community. The Francises, along with Christine Klein, led a Beginners Class of about 30 students that had swollen to 60 by the end of the week.

Their ages ranged from 5 to 25 with most between 8 and 14. Toschak and elementary teacher Sherry Klein taught an advanced class of about 25.

Team members shared in lively worship services with the congregation.

The team members were lodged in a Methodist Guest House on the outskirts of Port-au- Prince, the capital of Haiti. Each day they were transported out to the Duplan Methodist Church and School by pickup or van.

“As we rode to work, we were able to see Haitians living along the busy streets and byways. Haitian life is livedvery publicly,” Pat Francis said. “All items necessary for life are sold on the street by vendors. There are few stores. Along the alley behind the guest house were “businesses” such as an auto repair shop, an art shop, clothing store, etc., but with no buildings and very little space.”

Building construction is quite different from what we are used to. Haitian workmen use the term “Jackknife Carpentry” to define their trade. The braces used to hold up newly poured concrete roofs are often two inch limbs from trees. And well-worn lumber is rented to make forms. Concrete blocks are the standard building material. At Duplan, where the new Medical Clinic was still under construction, two workmen would come each day with a wheel borrow, one shovel and a form to mold a single block. They would carefully mix cement, sand and a small amount of water and place it in the form, tamp it down and then carry it inside the shelter. They would empty the newly formed block from the form and stack it to dry, then bring back the empty form and begin again.

Such labor-intensive construction reflects the determination of the Haitian people who against overwhelming odds maintain their existence with faith and optimism.