Students in Haiti for J-Term Safe

Five Trinity students traveling with Professor Brad Binau to Haiti as part of a January Term course are safe following an earthquake in Port-au-Prince on January 12.

The students are enrolled in the course “Immersed in Mission: Walking Together in Colorado and Haiti,” led by Dr. Binau, professor of pastoral theology. They left for Haiti from Littleton, Colorado, on January 11 with a group of fellow students from Luther Seminary in Minnesota and members of Abiding Hope Lutheran Church in Littleton. Abiding Hope supports a variety of ministries in Haiti, including a home for boys, programs for children with special needs, college education programs, and a hospital. Abiding Hope pastor and Trinity graduate Doug Hill (1994) is traveling with the group. Chad Johnson (2000) also serves as a pastor at Abiding Hope.

After their arrival in Port-au-Prince, the group traveled to a town called Jacmel, about 40 miles from the capital. The seminary received word following the earthquake that the group is safe and has food and shelter.

Many of Abiding Hope’s Haitian ministries began under the leadership of the congregation’s former pastor and 1989 Trinity graduate, Rick Barger, who is now the pastor at Epiphany Lutheran Church in Suwanee, Georgia, and executive director of the Haitian Timoun Foundation. Trinity’s partnership with Abiding Hope and its ministries have provided opportunities for students to learn more about congregational and global mission work. The students are scheduled to return to Colorado on January 19 and to Trinity on January 22. For more information about ELCA Disaster Response in Haiti click here.