Jun 2, 2010
Off to D.R. and Haiti
| 0 Comments | Login to commentSean and Faye Whitacre and Matt Payne are heading off to the Domincan Republic and Haiti this week with a group from Children of the Nations. They will be visiting villages along the D.R./Haiti border as well as the medical facility where people were treated from the Haiti earthquake. You can follow their journey on Twitter or Facebook.
Article from the Beaverton Valley Times:
“We’re a new church, just 3 years old,” Pastor Matt Payne says of his church, called Church! at Bethany. “Last year, we really started being more aware of worldwide service. We started off focusing a lot on the Beaverton School District and local needs, but we wanted to expand. With my experience, it seems that more established churches seem to focus on world missions and not do a lot locally. A lot of new churches do a lot locally, but not globally. We wanted to do both local and global.”
When a member of the congregation started working for Children of the Nations, a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, Payne and other members of the church learned more about the group and got involved. To obtain their vision of raising children who transform nations, COTN partners with churches and business leaders to provide care for orphaned and destitute children. Their website is www.cotni.org.
The church had been helping COTN to collect food and put together hygiene packs when Payne was invited to join in on a trip to Africa. He and his 14-year-old son went in January; during their trip, the earthquake hit Haiti.
“Children of the Nations has an orphanage, a medical center and some village partnerships in the Dominican Republic, right on the border,” says Payne. “Lately, that’s been their focus. They’ve had a lot of doctors and nurses fly in to help.”
Payne and his church wanted to help, too. Before leading a trip with COTN, volunteers are first required to take a trip with a team. Payne and church members Sean and Faye Whitacre will depart on June 4 for the Dominican Republic and Haiti for a vision trip, working with villages there and gathering information to plan a larger trip with a bigger group to help the rebuilding efforts.
When Payne approached the Whitacres about joining him on the trip, Faye was reluctant at first – not because she didn’t want to help, but because she was nervous about leaving her kids, 3, 5 and 9, for a week. When she found a friend to help, she got on board and has since devoted much of her time to raising funds for the trip.
“What I admire about Children of the Nations is that they don’t give handouts; they give hand-ups. They educate kids to become leaders and follow through.”
She and her husband own a property management and construction company, so many of Whitacre’s creative fundraising efforts have focused on that: She’s been power washing driveways and offering lawn and grass services in exchange for trip donations. She’s also given parents a night out, letting them drop off their kids with her to watch while they take some time for themselves.
For Payne, he’s been turning to social media for his fundraising efforts. An avid blogger and Twitter and e-mail user, he set up a link on his website, www.mattpayneonline.com, for people to make donations for the trip. He will also be making updates on the Church! at Bethany Facebook page. Anyone wishing to follow the trip can visit www.facebook.com/churchatbethany.
In addition to raising funds and collecting good wishes, Payne and Whitacre are seeking donations of pamphlets, books and book markers written in Spanish, which will be used for a recycle-reuse program during the trip. Anyone with Spanish literature to donate can e-mail Faye at
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Payne, who says the church motto is “Connecting the Unconnected,” has found that often people want to help but don’t know how to get involved. He’s tried to simplify the process of community service by partnering with established organizations whose missions are similar to his.
“Why start our own clothing drive when the Beaverton School District already has a great one?” he asks.
This philosophy is what helped link him to Children of the Nations, an organization that has been rapidly growing since its 1995 inception. Payne says he knows how easy it can be for people to get wrapped up in their lives and schedules, but he is looking forward to taking a week to share his resources, learn from others and help those in need.
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