Carol Stream man joins mission to Haiti

Rick Miller had never traveled outside of the United States.

But that was before a neighbor inspired the 45-year-old Carol Stream man to join a 15-person mission trip to Haiti last month to help build a church and an orphanage's kitchen.

“My neighbor has been involved in mission trips for quite some while. He wasn't going to go on the Haiti trip,” Miller said. “He had been praying and asked for a sign if he should be going on the trip. The sign was that someone going on the trip dropped out. (My neighbor) went. I knew I should join him.”

Miller joined an effort coordinated by Men's International Missions, a DuPage County volunteer group that sends out three or four teams every year to do construction work at places such as churches and orphanages throughout Central America and the Caribbean.

The group organized initially as a Bible study organization 20 years ago, but quickly expanded as friends and neighbors joined. Group organizer Dan O'Reilly estimates they've worked on some 50 projects in that time at missions throughout the world.

O'Reilly calls group members “regular guys,” many of whom are in the trades, but others who are just interested in volunteering. For example, Miller works in sales for a marketing services company.

The 15 trip participants, many of whom are from Wheaton, Winfield, West Chicago, Glen Ellyn, Carol Stream and Downers Grove, left Jan. 28 and returned Feb. 6. They flew to Miami, then to the Dominican Republic, and finally traveled by bus to Haiti.

They eventually made it to Berard, a village in the southeastern part of Cap Haitien, located on the island nation's northern coast. It's also the home of Vision of Hope Ministries, which runs churches, a school and orphanage where the DuPage mission group worked.

They worked side by side with locals to complete the meal preparation area of the orphanage, which another mission group from the Western suburbs helped construct last year.

The volunteers also helped pour concrete for supports and put up walls for a new church in the city of Grande Riviere du Nord. Miller said the church's foundation size is comparable to a modest home here. When complete, the building could be as tall as three stories to include second-level church balcony seating and a third level for Sunday school.

The building will be near a solar powered well that volunteers previously helped build. It's where people from all over the village come for fresh water.

“Right now, the church is providing most of the social support,” O'Reilly said.

While 14 of the group members worked on the buildings, the trip's lone female worked with students at College Susan Schuenke, a preschool through 13th grade run by Vision of Hope.

Miller said he was apprehensive going into the trip, not knowing what to expect.

“It's something that challenges all of your senses. You see things that you would never attempt to see in terms of human conditions,” Miller said. “It can be very overwhelming to see the conditions they exist in.”

The trip costs about $1,000 per person, with many paying their own way or by getting sponsorships through family, friends and employers, O'Reilly said.

The group also exceeded its goal of raising $25,000 to fund construction material costs.

Miller said such a trip might not be for everyone, but he would do it again.

“Someone who feels they're drawn to something like this through service to others, I would definitely recommend it,” Miller said. “It changes your life.”

For details, visit mimonline.org and vohmhaiti.com.