12 Homes For Haiti

A youth group in Medford, Oregon, constructs and lives in a Haiti recovery shelter to raise funds for victims of the earthquake

The youth at Westminster Presbyterian Church couldn’t go to Haiti for their summer international mission trip, so they brought Haiti to them.

The group of 25 kids and their youth director, Mike Van Winkle, used Samaritan’s Purse materials to construct a “Haiti Recovery Village” outside their church in Medford, Oregon. They lived in it for a week while raising funds to build 12 shelters for those who have been homeless since the January earthquake.

“We knew we could not physically go to Haiti, but what if we could bring a little piece of Haiti to us?” Van Winkle said. “If we lived like they are living, we could grow a deeper understanding of what it really means to reflect Christ’s compassionate love for others.”

Read about Haitian families benefiting from shelters provided by Samaritan's Purse.

The youth spent much of their summer building the village, including an exact replica of the shelters Samaritan’s Purse is building in Haiti.

“The idea to build a full-scale Haiti recovery village was a needed and practical step in order to dramatically pull us out of our own backyard and transport our heads and hearts to a different reality,” Van Winkle said.

They chose to raise funds for 12 homes because the shelters’ dimensions are 12x12, and 12 represents the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples.

“The number must be important to our God, therefore it works for us!” Van Winkle said.

Half of the kids slept in string, stick, and blanket tents for the first part of the week while the others slept in bunk beds inside the shelter. Then they switched places so that they could gain a full perspective of how Haitian lives will change for the better after they receive a home from Samaritan’s Purse.

While they lived in the camp, which had no running water or electricity, the group sang worship songs, prayed together, and did service projects in the neighborhood.

“I’m still alive after five days without a cell phone or a computer,” Adrienne Engle, 17, said while living in the village. “I’ve definitely learned how blessed I am. I never realized how much stuff I had until it was taken away from me.”

The youth completed three work projects during an Aug. 1–7 mission camp, which helped them raise the final $4,000 they needed to reach their $14,400 goal. As they painted homes or built decks, the families receiving the help donated the labor costs to the Haiti recovery fund.

On the last day, the group opened up the Haiti Recovery Village for members of the church and the community to tour. One hundred and twenty cardboard stick figures stood at the entrance to represent the individuals who would be helped through the 12 Homes for Haiti project. Every exhibit was designed to help others experience the devastation of the earthquake.

“How many times a week do you get to walk in someone else’s shoes?” Hilary Sinner, 17, said. “It helps us humble ourselves and appreciate more what the Haitians have been living through.”

The group went far to demonstrate what life is like in the wake of a major disaster, but on the last day they took their efforts even further by having a local business owner deliver food to them by helicopter. It was a very exciting and memorable moment for the group as they experienced the importance of aviation in disaster relief ministry.

By the end of the project, the church raised $18,000—$4,000 more than their original goal—enabling them to provide 15 homes for Haiti.

“God gave us the vision for 12 homes for Haiti and He blessed all of us as we witnessed His power to exceed our human expectations by delivering three more homes—30 more people safe and dry in Haiti,” Van Winkle said. “When God goes big, it is fun to just hang on and enjoy the ride.”

As the youth group reflected on the project, they said they learned God’s plan is always greater than our own. Originally, they had planned to serve at an orphanage in Mexico, but due to safety concerns, the mission trip was cancelled. Then Van Winkle received the Samaritan’s Purse newsletter about the need for more shelters in Haiti, and was inspired to take action.

“As a former contractor, I became very excited about how these well thought-out shelters could make a huge impact on the recovery process in Haiti,” he said. “This excitement was God’s call for me to listen and respond. We knew we could not afford a full-blown international missions trip at that time, but God gave us a unique alternative.”

Many of the youth did not even want to leave the village after the project was over and asked if they could sleep overnight in the shelter sometime in the future. The Haiti Recovery Village is still up, and the church is now considering building a second 12x12 shelter in order to have an outdoor ministry location that can sleep up to 24 people.

“God is taking this thing bigger than we could have ever imagined and it’s still going,” Trevor Van Winkle, 16, said.

The group’s hope is that other churches or ministries will consider doing their own 12 Homes for Haiti project. One of the students is in the process of making a documentary film about 12 Homes for Haiti so that they can share it with other churches and possibly show it in community theatres.

“We would encourage others to do this because it is imperative to give students a real life experience and a story to tell about our amazingly creative and compassionate God,” Van Winkle said. “I believe that to learn what compassion is all about we need to feel it, live it, and taste it.”