Greetings!

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Thank you for following our blogsite. My name is Kevin Mays and I am one of the Team Members on this mission to Haiti.

Let me be upfront and say that I am not a fan of short term missions. In my opinion, the majority of them have become "vacations with a purpose". Readers of When Helping Hurts will know that most short term mission trips do more harm than they do help, because they create a sense of dependency on the part of the locals, and leave them fending for themselves once the mission team leaves for home. When churches independently go into a country on a "mission" trip, we can create long-term sustainability problems.

But I purposefully chose this trip because it is not really a short-term trip. Our group is but a part of a long series of continued support being provided to Haiti through United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM), whose purpose is not to offer short-term hand outs but instead, long-term community development solutions. UMVIM doesn't just come into a tragedy-stricken foreign country to provide relief support and then leave; it comes in and stays for as long as it takes to offer the educational and vocational training it takes for the country to rebuild itself.

Our role is to assist in that redevelopment and be but a part of a long series of groups that will come and help rebuild this country, but with the specific intent of helping this country get back on its own feet and take off running themselves.

Thank you for supporting us in this endeavor! Your prayers, financial support and love have made this possible, and so I hope we can take you along with us through this blog.