Lori Berwick left for Haiti on October 12. Going with a group from the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home from Louisiana, she’s hoping to make a difference in the Port Au Prince region. She is part of a group traveling with Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home.
“Last year I was on the Vacation Bible School Team,” explains Lori. “We saw 200 kids a day. We’d color with them and play, tell them Bible stories. It was really something to see. It was a lot of fun.”
Lori works at the Home Furniture office in Lake Charles, where she manages the accounting department. She has been with the company for 24 years and says her coworkers have been incredibly supportive of her mission work.
“It’s a great place to work,” she says. “Next week is actually Boss’s Day, but I’ll be in Haiti so they gave me a gift early. They gave me a bunch of snacks to take on my trip.”
Lori says her work family and her family at home have been supportive of her since she first made a trip to Haiti last year. As a mother and grandmother, it is the Haitian children that made the most impression on her as she recalls her trip from 2017.
“We went to an orphanage, and every child just wants to have someone to hold. I was the last one to get off the van and I remember one little girl standing there waiting. She was so happy to see me. She was so excited that there was one person left on the van - that she would have someone - she grabbed my hand right away.”
Lori says she’s really looking forward to one event in particular this year.
“There’s one group, Louisiana Reach Haiti, and last year they bought the land for an orphanage. They’ve been fundraising for a while. Last year there was only a wall around the property and a well. This year we’ll get to see part of the complex set up, they are ready to start housing children.”
Lori explained that donations can be made at the Louisiana Reach Haiti website and when the page opens, her little friend from last year is featured.
“The boy smiling in the pink and white shirt, with the thumbs up, I met him last year, that Dusty! It would be wonderful to see him again.”
She’s not sure which team she’ll be on this year, but she is looking forward to the trip with the same anticipation and excitement from a year ago. It’s a week-long trip that will undoubtably make a difference in so many lives.
