Church's money multiplies for Haiti

Members told to make funds grow

CARY -- Melissa Taylor is used to wielding her bow for the Lord. But lately, the violinist at Hope Community Church has taken that a few steps further -- recording a compact disc and then playing in a windy parking lot Sunday as members of her prayer group sold copies.

The CD is one of hundreds of ways members of the Cary church are raising money for a hospital in Haiti and other charities. And they're doing it with $50,000 in cash the church doled out at weekend services two months ago.

The church passed out 2,800 envelopes with anywhere from $10 to $500 to every adult at services the last weekend in August -- along with a call to grow it into more money.

On Sunday, several groups of church members gathered to ply their wares as part of the so-called Mina project, which ends this week.

Taylor and her prayer group of about 25 church members had pooled together $800 and made 1,000 CDs of instrumental religious music. Nearby, another member trolled the parking lot wearing a gigantic plywood CD. They hope eventually to reel in as much as $10,000.

"We got this money from the church and were asked to be good stewards of it, so we hope we are using it wisely," Taylor said.

Others sold salsa and barbecue, mums and pumpkins, jewelry and clothes. Pastor Dave Patchin said church members came up with so many items to sell, the church set up a catalog. One member used his money to advertise rides over Raleigh in his private plane.

Church leaders have set a lofty goal of raising eight times what they doled out in August: the $200,000 needed to renovate two buildings in Bainet, Haiti, into a hospital and living quarters for doctors, nurses and missionaries, plus $200,000 to be split among 10 other charities. Last year, the church turned $35,000 into an estimated $200,000.

Needs great in Haiti

The hospital project is one of several the church has embarked on in Haiti in the past decade, part of a growing relationship between local charity groups and the impoverished Caribbean country.

The nonprofit Hope for Haiti Foundation, based in Cary, has worked with the church on previous projects and will handle the logistics of buying and renovating the buildings for the hospital and residence hall.

Targeting Haiti makes sense, said John Brown, an organizer with Hope for Haiti. The needs are great, especially after the storms that ravaged the country this year. And Haiti's proximity to the Triangle makes it cheaper to send volunteers and supplies than it would to Africa or other parts of the world.

The hospital will serve half a million impoverished Haitians in the country's southern region.

"We're going to transform a region, honestly," Brown said.

Mindful with money

Shivering in a folding chair and sipping hot cider as a cold wind whipped across the parking lot Sunday, 75-year-old Miriam Gibson was reluctantly doing her part by selling cider, pumpkins and mums.

"Next time they ask everyone to stand up, I'm not sure if I'm going to," she said of the service when the envelopes went out.

It's not the cold weather that bothers her, she said, but the feeling of obligation that came with the money -- and the lingering sense that her own dollars should be put to better use.

That's the whole idea of the exercise, said Patchin, the pastor.

"When we give them money, they feel this huge moral burden to do something with it," Patchin said. "We want them to learn that any time they have money in their pocket, they should use it to do something worthwhile."