Photo courtesy of EWI Kathy Roe of Grand Marais (center) is fulfilling a lifelilng dream of helping the children of Haiti with the charity On Eagles Wings
Les and Kathy Roe of Grand Marais are known to some county residents as the Pike Lake residents who have traveled to Canada 13 times, delivering life-saving supplies and providing gospel outreach to remote areas. They have now expanded their mission work to Haiti—fulfilling a lifelong dream of Kathy’s.
The Roes are preparing for a second trip to Haiti with their friends and colleagues, Wesner and Marie Edmond of Hagerstown, Maryland. The Edmonds, Haitian Americans born and raised in Port Au Prince, Haiti, have joined with the Roes to develop a 501c3 public charity called On Eagle’s Wings International Ministries, Inc. (EWI).
This trip to Haiti has been over ten years in the making. The Roes became “snow birds,” taking breaks from their summer mission trips to Canada by wintering at Port St. Lucie, Florida. They met the Edmonds at church, where Kathy remembers sitting in a pew next to a fidgety child. She asked if it was okay to share a piece of gum—and a friendship, then a vision was born.
From the Edmonds, the Roes learned about the desperate situation of many children in Haiti. Kathy Roe said they had to do something to help. “I wanted to do this even before we started going to Canada. God found a way to do this through these folks.”
They made their first trip to Haiti last winter, riding through the rugged countryside with a United Nations escort. They were horrified to see the remains of the Pétionville School that collapsed and killed over 100 people on November 7, 2008 because of shoddy construction. They saw children living in poverty, suffering from malnutrition. And they met with Reverend Jean Fanel, who was ready to work with them to change those conditions.
The Roes and the Edmonds established EWI to “serve the needy in as many countries as possible.” They explain that their immediate project is to establish a center for distribution of clothing, school and medical supplies, as well as food. To fulfill that goal, the Roes are seeking support from their Cook County friends and neighbors.
“We would like to believe that the churches and the community of Cook County would be willing to pull together for this common humanitarian cause—to help feed Haiti,” said Les Roe.
The Roes are collecting food to send to Pastor Fanel in Fort Jacques, Haiti—by the barrel. The cost to ship a 55-gallon drum
packed full of food to Haiti costs $350. “By
Pizza • Sandwiches
shipping directly we avoid government interference
Specialties
at the port,” said Les Roe.
(218) 387-1713
The Roes would also like help with fundraising for this and future trips. “We would love to have someone help us with our website and
with brochure development. If there is anyone Steven Ojard
out there who can do that kind of thing, we (218) 834-5733
P.O. Box 34
would love to hear from them,” said Kathy Roe. Knife River, MN 55609
• Water Wells • Water Conditioners
If you would like to help out in some way, • Design & Installation of Water Pumping
• Well Sealing & Abandonment contact the Roes at (218) 387-9214 or by e-mail • Hydrofracking
at oewimi@yahoo.com. Serving the North Shore from Duluth to Canada since 1943
Leave a Reply