fun abounds recently played a small, but significant, role in the development of a playground in Pignon, Haiti for Hosean International Ministries (HIM), an organization created to transform lives by pointing people to Jesus Christ through education, life skills training and economic growth. The seeds for the sprouting of the playground were planted by Renae Carr, HIM board member and member of Atascocita Community Church.
In 2015, Carr attended a mission trip to Pignon along with several others. One of the individuals also making the mission trip worked as a representative for a playground equipment manufacturer. HIM Founder and Director Caleb Lucien expressed at that time how integral a playground would be for the community and for the ministry. Carr let the idea of the playground simmer and would eventually reach out to playground manufacturer Burke and their Texas representative fun abounds to help.
In July of 2018, a years-long dream for Lucien and HIM came to fruition when Carr and ten others from Atascocita Community Church, including her husband and college freshman son, ventured back to Pignon to build a Burke playground. The playground equipment from Burke and fun abounds would be shipped from Florida to Cap Haitian, Haiti and then finally transported to Pignon. The trip to Pignon is only about 30-40 miles in distance, but the poor road conditions made the travel closer to five hours.
During their week-long trip, the team, consisting of two college students, two high schoolers, an elementary student, eight Haitian teens, and five adults, including Carr and her husband, fully assembled the Burke playground. Carr said building the playground was grueling work with temperatures climbing to 100 degrees some days, but the team persevered and got the job done.
The addition of the playground has combined with the other offerings of the ministry to bolster economic and community development for the region. The location of the ministry in Pignon is on a main thoroughfare that travels North and South through Haiti. Originally, the ministry started with a school for 1,100 children and has now grown to include a restaurant, gas station salon and now, a playground.
Said Carr: “A playground is such an unusual find in Haiti. So, when people travel through the country, they are excited to see it. We observed people stopping by to go eat in the restaurant and then letting their kids play. There is little doubt that the restaurant has received business from having the playground, and the income from the restaurant is used to pay for the ministry’s teacher salaries.”
For more information about Hosean International Ministries or to support their efforts, visit their website at hosean.org.
PHOTO CAPTION: Hosean International Ministries (HIM) volunteers prior to departing for Haiti from Fort Pierce, Florida. The group flew with Missionary Flights International. Featured left to right: Shari Ruelas, Mireya Scholes, Ayden Scholes, Renae Carr, Abriana Phipps, Celeste Guillory, Seth Ruelas, Chuck Carr and John Carr.