Thank you to all who are supporting our Mission Trip to
Haiti on April 20-29th 2012, to be part of American Baptist
Mission work at Cap Haitien, Haiti! Your support of the
Sounds of Evergreen Music Fundraiser-participants, attendees
and offerings, the donation of laptop computers loaded with
system & programs in the French language, and your
unceasing prayers are greatly appreciated. As a result, a
group of 10 will be departing from Seattle to help Nzunga
Mabudiga and his wife Kihomi minister to the poorest country
in our hemisphere.
Kihomi and Nzunga serve as a vital link between
International Ministries and the Haitian Baptist Convention.
Nzunga teaches theology at the Christian University of
Northern Haiti, trains assistant professors in teaching and
writing books, administers a scholarship program, and visits
and preaches in churches. He also administers the "Kids for
Kids" goat project that provides needed school and personal
supplies for children and university students. Kihomi works
with families in the areas of counseling, family planning,
and women's health issues. She also coordinates and advises
the women's association of the Haitian Baptist Convention,
representing women of all the Baptist denominations of Haiti
at international conferences.
"We always appreciate the visits...Once you are in our place, we don't feel lonely and left alone on the island of Haiti." -Nzunga Mabudiga
Susan Blythe-Goodman graduated from the
University of Washington last June with a Masters in Science
Education. She is currently a Companis worker with a
non-profit called SEA. SEA helps homeless and low-income
young adults pursue higher education. She works as a math
tutor to help students get their GED or pass the COMPASS
test. She is currently a member at Seattle First Baptist
Church, where she learned about this trip. She became
interested in the trip because of the focus on women’s work
in Haiti.
Rev. Michael R. Booker is an Associate
Minister at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Baptist church.
He was called to preach at an early age and answered God’s
call roughly 20 years ago. Along with the call he was given
the gift of encouragement and has ministered to countless
people by helping them to see their value and to never lose
hope. He often talks about a basket that was given to him by
the Lord. It is filled with faith, hope, comfort,
encouragement, and love. His prayer is that he will be able
to share this basket with the people of Haiti. Rev. Booker is
a graduate of Portland State University (Portland OR) and is
currently employed at CenturyLink Communications.
Rev. Toni R. Booker is an Associate Minister
at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Baptist church. She has a
passion for youth and has worked in various capacities
serving them, whether it be counting the number of street
kids in conjunction with University of Washington’s School of
Social Work, or feeding them at the Renton Salvation Army’s
Community Supper, or counseling them at the Seattle Juvenile
Detention Center. Even when she promises to take a break from
this work, she inevitably gets drawn back into it. How
appropriate that one of the goals of the mission team is to
help build a classroom. As she travels to Haiti her personal
mission is to touch as many children as she can and to simply
listen. Rev. Toni Booker is a graduate of Portland State
University (Portland OR) and is currently employed at the
University of Washington.
Mary Cline was raised in Issaquah and was in
the US Air Force from July 1974 to September 1977. She has
two adult daughters by a previous marriage, and remarried in
1997. Mary has an 18-year old grandson, along with three
step-grandchildren. She attended Bellevue Community College
and graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a BSN in
nursing. She has worked for the VA Puget Sound Health Care
System since 1986.
Rev. Dr. Judith Gay has often said that the
children’s book “Leo, the Late Bloomer” is an apt description
of her life. She is a double graduate from Seattle Pacific
University, and holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood
Education and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. From
that, one might suspect that she was a teacher and perhaps a
school administrator, and one would be right on both counts.
But after all of that, and after raising four children, she
felt called to seminary (a dream she had expressed in her
high school yearbook in 1962). And so she enrolled in the
Northwest extension program at Fuller Seminary, and received
her Masters of Divinity degree in 2001. Since that time she
has been Interim Pastor at Good Shepherd Baptist Church, a
resident chaplain at Harborview Hospital. Currently she
serves as Pastor of Fremont Baptist Church, a position she
has held for 8 years. As a late bloomer she began training
for and racing in triathlons four summers ago, and now she
has signed up to go to Haiti. When the information about the
trip came out, she signed on without hesitation. She says,
“Thankfully I have a very loving and understanding husband
who supports me and my whims. I am looking forward to this
trip in April and will continue to look for new ways to
continue to grow and learn”.
Pharez Keyes, 19 years old, attends Seattle
Pacific University and is pursuing a major in music
education. She loves playing music 24/7, and in her spare
time she finds time to shop! She attends MLK Baptist Church
in Renton, WA. Pharez chose to do this trip because she
genuinely finds joy in helping others, and what’s better than
helping AND spreading God’s love? So she couldn’t pass up
this wonderful opportunity. This will be her first mission
trip and hopefully, the first of many to come!
Rev. Ronald D. Kirstein, Ph.D. has been
friends with Nzunga Mabudiga since 1977 when they first
entered seminary together at Eastern Baptist Theological
Seminary. His primary motivation for this trip is to visit
Nzunga and Kihomi in their place of ministry. Since seminary
Ron has served professionally as the Associate Pastor at
Tacoma First Baptist Church and has worked for the last 18
years as an endorsed ABC Pastoral Counselor with Presbyterian
Counseling Service/ Samaritan Center of Puget Sound. He has
been on a number of mission/work/educational experiences with
various ABC missionaries in his lifetime. Each of these has
been life-transforming for him. He currently attends
Wedgewood Community Church in Seattle.
Rev. Keith Madsen became Pastor of The
Community Church of Issaquah in January of 2011. He has
previously served at the First Baptist Church of Bellingham,
Washington (1989-1998); the First Baptist Church of Portland,
Oregon (1998-2006), and the Oakesdale Baptist Church
(1983-1985), as well as at churches in Kansas and New Jersey.
He received a B.A. In Psychology from Kansas University, a
M.Div. from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas
City, Kansas, and a D.Min. with an emphasis on ministry with
younger adults, from St. Paul School of Theology (United
Methodist) in Kansas City, MO. Keith lives in Sammamish with
his wife Cathy (who was going to be part of the trip but had
to cancel because of injuries from a fall), and they have an
adult son and four adult daughters, as well as nine
grandchildren. Keith has previously been on mission trips to
Kodiak Island, Alaska, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and to
Katrina-ravaged Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Angeline C. Schrib was raised in what is now
Sammamish, but which at the time was part of Redmond and
Issaquah. She graduated from Tiger Mountain Alternative High
School. She has a 4-year old son and lives in Shelton.
E. Clem Winbush currently serves as the
Minister of Mission Support and Administration for the
Evergreen Association of American Baptist Churches, and is an
associate of the Natural Evangelism Team (NET) for the
region. She has found her niche in working with God's people
in American Baptist congregations. Clem says she saw God’s
grace with certainty while teaching full-time, attending
school evenings, weekends, and summers, with a husband and
two school-aged children at home; and sees her role at
Evergreen as providential – again, God’s grace. She earned a
BS degree in English Education from Savannah State
University, Savannah GA; a Master of Administration and a
Washington State Principal Certificate through Western
Washington University, Bellingham. Before being called to
Evergreen, Clem served for 21 years as an educator in the
public schools of Anne Arundel County Maryland, and Renton
and Bellevue WA. She found joy in her career in public school
education working mainly in middle schools with 6th - 8th
graders. Clem and her husband James are the parents of two
adult daughters - Dehlia and Rosalyn, and have three
grandchildren - Marionna, Demetri and Nadira. This mission
trip to Haiti will be Clem’s first experience in a third
world country.