When Father Nicholas Kramer introduced himself to the students of St. Marc, they reacted the same way students here do, gathering around him with smiles, high-fives and fist bumps. Some thought he was Jesus at first with his long white cassock and beard.TREMESSEE, Haiti — Haiti’s Level 4 “do not travel” advisory did not deter clergy and parishioners from St. Matthew Church in Charlotte from visiting their beloved St. Marc Catholic School in the village of Tremessee.
St. Marc was founded in 2010 after Steve Favory and another St. Matthew parishioner, the late Mark Creasser, embarked on a mission trip and returned with a school thanks to an emotional encounter with 35 children on a hilltop.
Favory, executive director of the Ballantyne-based nonprofit Hands for Haiti, visited the school Oct. 13 to Oct. 17.
Members from Hands for Haiti, which fully funds, directs and supports the school, visit St. Marc Administrator Father Leon Sejour about five times a year to assess needs.
This time, the group that included Chairman Ernest Dwight and board member Deacon Joe Becker delivered eight new laptops to the school and a $40,000 check raised by the St. Matthew
McSweeney World Hunger Drive to Missionaries of the Poor brothers to provide ongoing support for their work in one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The group spent mornings and nights praying, in Adoration and celebrating Mass with the brothers, and their days at St. Marc, Favory said.
This was newly installed parochial vicar Father Nicholas Kramer’s first trip to Haiti, and he saw its poverty, disease and malnutrition as well as its beauty.
“It’s a beautiful country, a lot of wonderful people. There is a lot of need, though, a lot of suffering,” said Father Kramer. He said you can see God in the smiles of the everyday people and also feel His presence “in the people that have given up their lives to the service of others and those who go out of their way to minister to those in need.”
A fruitful visit
Despite the language barrier and their two- to three-mile walk to class, the schoolchildren, with their pressed plaid uniforms and bleach-white socks, swarmed Father Kramer with high fives, hugs and laughter.
Some of the children asked if Jesus was visiting the school when they were first introduced to the priest with his stark white vestments and long brown hair and beard.
The school started with 35 children in a tent in 2010 and now has more than 390 students from pre-K to grade 13. The campus, led by 72 faculty, includes 10 buildings, a multipurpose center, a tilapia pond, a chicken farm and a trade school focused on agriculture and sewing.
“We grew the school one grade at a time each year, until we ran out of grades and added the trade school,” Favory said.
The group hopes its recent trip will build on that success.
They met with the vicar general and chancellor of the Archdiocese of Cap-Haïtien to request another priest to help Father Sejour with administrative duties, according to their report.
“Father Sejour is only but one man with many duties. He needs help,” Favory said.
If approved by the archdiocese, a priest residence and administrative building to accommodate the assistant principal will be the next focus. Other items the team discussed were a cafeteria expansion, a teacher pay raise, chapel improvements, and the construction of a Marian grotto, Favory reported.
They met with the University Notre Dame of Haiti’s director, Father Peterson Dabel, whom they partner with, to discuss St. Marc’s agricultural program and prepared for the next harvest of corn, eggplant, spinach, pepper, plantains and okra.
Students giggled when they received posters the Vacation Bible School camps from St. Matthew designed for them and practiced their English on the visitors.
How it all began
The laughter reminded Favory of how the ministry originated in 2009.
As Favory recalled, he and Creasser were walking to visit a fellow missionary when a clinic doctor asked for a small favor – to quickly visit a group of children on a hill who had been praying about their school.
They found 35 children sheltering from the sun under a large tarp. When the kids saw the men, they started singing, but their smiles gave way to desperate tears. They needed a school, and the land where their makeshift tent campus was located was being taken, they explained.
“We saw Christ in their faces, and all we wanted to do was try to give them an opportunity,” Favory said.
An unlikely bond quickly formed, as the men, on a whim inspired by faith, gathered $4,000 and purchased the 5-acre lot that now houses St. Marc Catholic School, named after St. Mark the Evangelist, in honor of Mark Creasser.
Growing students and souls
The dividends of that investment continue to pay off in Haitian souls coming to Christ and donor hearts in Charlotte growing as quickly as the school itself.
Thanks to the community of St. Marc School and the catechism classes provided by local priests, baptisms, communions and confirmations are on the rise.
“Forty-four students were first Holy Communicants last year,” Favory said. “One thing we are most proud of is our evangelization. When Father Leon first came, maybe 5 percent of families attended Mass on a regular basis; now over 35 percent attend.”
Hands for Haiti has about 45 individual and group donors, including St. Matthew, St. Mark Parish in Huntersville and St. Therese Parish in Mooresville. Funds also are used to help the community by repairing roads, digging wells and providing needed food and medical services.
Thus far, the gang violence in the southern half of the country, marked with drug trafficking, kidnapping and roadblocks, has not engulfed Tremessee.
In some ways, Favory believes the rural area is safer than during previous visits.
“The Holy Spirit keeps stepping in,” Favory said. “The fact that we are able to make an impact on these children directly is exciting. … We owe them this opportunity. This is definitely our calling.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
Get involved
At www.handsforhaiti.org: Find opportunities for your “hands” to help St. Marc Catholic School and the community of Tremessee, Haiti.