For the second time in less than three months, a Petal church’s mission team has had a mission trip interrupted because of political unrest in a foreign country.
Fourteen members of Petal First Baptist Church arrived home Tuesday evening after four days of waiting in a Haiti hotel room because of violent protests regarding the government’s attempt to raise fuel prices. The group was able to catch a plane Tuesday morning to Miami, where they departed for New Orleans on the way back to Mississippi.
“They didn’t know about (the gas tax) until they got there on Friday,” pastor Brad Eubank said. “Rioting and roadblocks started that Saturday morning, and so (the team) tried to get out to the mission site, which is in the rural areas.
“They just weren’t able to make it because the roadblocks were set up, and they had to stop and gather vehicles. If you were riding on the roads, you were for the gas tax, and if you were walking, you weren’t for the gas tax, so they had to get out.”
On Saturday, media outlets received reports of looting, pillaging, vandalizing and arson in Haiti’s capital of Port-Au-Prince. Several flights were cancelled, and telecommunications services were greatly affected.
“(The group) is devastated,” Eubank said. “You’ve got some folks that have saved up a whole year, worked hard, sacrificed and had garage sales, trying to raise $1,600 for a trip and then you don’t even get to go do it. That’s very disappointing.
“And they love the Haitian people – they want to minister to them, and love on them and share the Lord with them. But at the end of the day, we can go back to Haiti. Safety and security come first.”
The Petal First Baptist team has traveled to Haiti the last few years to work with But God Ministries, helping to staff medical clinics, hold vacation bible school with children and build homes for families.
Back in April, a mission team from Carterville Baptist Church planned a trip to Nicaragua before receiving a phone call advising them to return home because of protests over President Daniel Ortega’s plan to overhaul the government’s pension system. After several reports of violence and looting during the protests, the State Department pulled some of its staffers out the country and advised Americans not to visit the country.
“We obviously were disappointed that we didn’t get to go down and serve the people of Nicaragua,” said Ben Skipper, pastor at Carterville Baptist Church. “We’ve made lots of friends there over the decades – local pastors, translators, missionaries – and have met a lot of wonderful people.
“So we’re clearly a little bit discouraged that we didn’t get to go, but we also are determined that we will continue to be a positive support for our friends in Nicaragua.”
