In January of most years, CHP sends a medical team of 15-20 medical professionals and layperson helpers to set up a temporary clinic at St. Paul’s Mission in Petit Trou de Nippes, Haiti. The January 17 – 29, 2008 Medical Mission Trip is accepting applications until November 1, 2007. Total cost of the mission will be approximately $2,000 per person.

The Trip Leader is Marti O'Dell, one of the pioneers of the Colorado Haiti Project and co-founder of the Konbit student sponsorship program to support the St. Paul's School. Below is her Letter of Invitation to the January 2008 Medical Mission. For more information on the Mission, contact Marti at LuvSon@aol.com.

WINTER ON THE CARIBBEAN

The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering to God." Acts 10:5a (NIV)

Imagine, just for a moment, sitting under a star encrusted sky as a flaming sun sets into water aquamarine blue. You have just been fed dinner of home cooked – and mostly, home grown – food, exotic in its makeup and all the more palatable because of this. Friends, both old and new, are joining you for an evening of conversation, beer (perhaps a bit of rum?) and relaxation before retiring to bed where you can listen to the waves washing across coral reefs before slipping into a refreshing sleep.

Sound wonderful? Too good to be true? Well…

The Colorado Haiti Project, Inc. invites you to join us in this experience as we travel to St. Paul's Church, Petit-trou-de-Nippes, Haiti in January 2008. True, the trip is much more than the picture painted above – although this picture can figure into your trip. Approximately twenty hearty souls will travel to join with our brothers and sisters at St. Paul’s and to serve them as ministers of love, friendship, education, and health.

A medical clinic will be held – with the help of all the mission participants – for five hectic and wonderful days. The work is hard, exhausting, hot, and the most life changing experience you have ever imagined. Children will give to you million dollar smiles, adults will look upon you as Christ's emissary on earth. You will laugh, you will cry, you will pray, and you will play with some of Christ's and therefore your, poorest brothers and sisters. Even without medical experience or training you have a prayer and a gift to offer – you can and will be trained to participate as an active and contributing member of the team.

Coloradoans (and others) have been traveling to this remote village since 1989. They have come home different people – spiritually, emotionally and mentally. A new appreciation for our individual abilities to give to Christ's Kingdom on earth bubbles throughout each missionary as they step back on American soil. With very mixed emotions they re-enter their lives in this, the wealthiest country in the world, having left one of the poorest. Each person has grown and has learned something new and beautiful about themselves and about God's world. If you are interested in January 17 – 29, 2008 mission, please contact me at LuvSon@aol.com for details, cost, time lines, medical requirements – all the details you need to know. If you are not feeling called to this opportunity and yet would like to support those traveling or contribute to the cost of medicines, please contact me. And please, always remember, prayer is one of the most powerful gifts each of us has to offer.

Marti O'Dell
Trip Coordinator