Advent Donates Sneakers to Village of Hope
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: December 10, 2007
CONTACT: Cynthia Terpstra
(561) 395-3632 x15
clterpstra@adventlifenet.org
Advent Ministries Donates Tennis Shoes
to Children at Haiti’s Village of Hope
Boca Raton, Florida — Advent Ministries recently donated more than
250 pairs of tennis shoes to Village of Hope, a school located near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. An annual tradition, Advent Ministries has donated approximately 200 pairs of shoes per year for at least 10 years.
Advent has a long history of mission work in Haiti. As one of the founding churches of the Lazarus Project in Haiti, Advent has supported three orphanages over the past decade and has helped expand the "Village of Hope" school to serve more than 600 students today. Financially, Advent continues to be one of the major sponsors of students at Village of Hope and each year donates tennis shoes to these students so that they do not have to walk barefoot over treacherous terrain.
Founded by the late missionary Carol Herget in 1991, Village of Hope was the first school in the Ganthier community, one of the poorest areas of Haiti. Located in the countryside east of Port-au-Prince, Village of Hope’s eight buildings provide 17 classrooms, a kitchen, a dining hall, an assembly hall, a chapel, a library, showers and toilets, vocational school facilities, a clinic/health care office, administrative offices and storage facilities. Village of Hope offers ample space for educational and religious activities for the 607 children now enrolled, all of whom have access to two meals per day.
“Forty children enrolled in the school initially and eight of these forty completed their formal education at the school last year,” said Larry Bollinger, co-director of Village of Hope along with his wife Margaret. “These eight children completed three years of kindergarten, six years of primary school, 6 years of secondary school and 1 year of Philo (similar to a college preparatory school). Even when school is free - or almost free as the case at VOH – many parents cannot afford to buy shoes for their children. Children who attend VOH are required to wear uniforms. Many of these children would be denied the opportunity to attend school if it were not for the shoes provided by Advent.”
The Lazarus Project is the grassroots effort of a growing number of individuals and congregations to be in ministry in Haiti. In the context of Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), it is a response to a modern Lazarus in the suffering poor of Haiti, lying on our doorstep begging to be fed with our crumbs. For more information about the Lazarus Project please visit www.lazarusprojecthaiti.org.
Advent Ministries is comprised of Advent Lutheran Church, Advent Elementary and Middle School, Advent Early Childhood School, and Advent Square Independent Retirement Community. To learn more about Advent Ministries, please visit www.adventlifenet.org.
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