EMBRACE

Embrace the Opportunity

About Us:
We are are a ministry of Northside Church in Wilmington, NC.  In fact, we are just a group of people who saw a need and decided to take action.  We have a number of people outside of our Northside family
who partner with us and travel with us.

Kechnor gives the best hugs and smiles

Our Team at Breakfast in the Mission House in Haiti

We first traveled to Haiti in the summer of 2012 as a part of North Carolina Baptist Men Disaster Relief.  We were partnered with a Haitian doctor, Vladimir Rosseau, who operated two mobile clinics to serve various communities who were without medical assistance.  On the last day of our trip, we visited an orphanage.  Dr. Vlad stated that he had never been to this particular orphanage. We loaded up the two mobile clinics and packed some rice, beans and dried milk just in case they needed to supplement their food.  When we arrived we began to unpack and noticed that one of the women was crying.  We asked our translator to ask her what was wrong.  Her reply was: "We haven't eaten in three days.  I was up all night praying that help would come."  Little did we know that a 25 pound bag of rice, bag of beans and cartons of dried milk would be an answer to prayer that day.  Needless to say, nobody had a dry eye.  After providing medical exams and playing with the kids and giving tons of hugs, we had to leave.  On the flight home, we decided that we wanted to make an investment in the lives of the 26 children that we had just met.

Where Our Funds Go:
Because we are a ministry of the church, we are able to use church facilities for fundraisers and link with church groups.  We are also under the church's tax exemption.  We do want to make it clear that 100% of our funds raised go to Haiti.  We do not use any of our funds for our travels to Haiti or for local use.  The funds that we raise primarily support the orphanage, but we also pay the salary of the drivers who deliver our funds and food to the orphanage, as well as the salaries of the teachers at the school and the women who cook and clean for the orphanage.  We also provide support for Dr. Vlad's medical mission, Alpha and Omega Medical Ministry.  He is the one who connected us to the orphanage,  and he has a wonderful mission that does incredible work in the country of Haiti.

Currently we travel to Haiti two times a year and are hoping to travel more often.  There is a core group who consistently goes and keeps in constant contact with the orphanage, but we welcome volunteers to travel with us and help us complete projects.

Some of the team at the orphanage with Dr. Vlad, Mr. and Mrs. Dovick, Eli and a local pastor

The team relaxes and discusses the day's events on the roof of the Grace House