It all began with a burden. Use your skill and experience. Start a ship based ministry. Find a suitable vessel. Watch as God miraculously provided the funds to purchase it. Watch as He provided the people, funds, and material to move it thousands of miles and modify it for use. Then go as He provides opportunities, sending the Hope of the Cross to the hurting and needy.

Haiti September 2020

As we neared completion of modifications of Sea Hope in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic started. Countries across the globe were impacted. Haiti is one of the poorest, if not the poorest, countries in the Western Hemisphere. Its food crop was devastated by a drought in 2019. The nation suffered from political instability. COVID restrictions kept people in their homes. Starvation was actually occurring. For Sea Hope’s first mission, we carried 40,000 pounds of rice to two national pastors so they could help feed their flocks and communities.

St Vincent May 2021

On Friday, April 9th the La Soufriere volcano on St. Vincent erupted. The northern half of the island was evacuated. Overnight 15,000 people were displaced from their homes. They went to shelters in the south, including to the Baptist Bible College of the Caribbean. Several church congregations have moved into shelters and with other church families in the south. Sea Hope needed to have annual maintenance performed to allow her to operate in the Caribbean for an extended period of time. On May 12th, she sailed from Bayou la Batre, Alabama with about 55,000 pounds of food, medical/health supplies, clothes, bedding material, and Bibles/scriptural material. The pastors on the board of the Baptist Bible College of the Caribbean used this food to supply 11 churches on the island with food for their congregations and communities.

Haiti August 2021

On Saturday August 14, Sea Hope was being prepared to carry hospital beds and medical supplies to St. Vincent when a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southwest Haiti. Over 2,000 people were killed and entire villages and towns were reduced to rubble. The trip to St. Vincent was postponed and efforts to carry food and relief supplies to Haiti were started. We delivered about 34,000 pounds of food and material to Pastor Dieupie Cherubin of Hosanna Baptist Church in Jacmel, Haiti. He and his church prepared over 900 food kits for distribution to the affected areas.

St. Vincent September 2021

Although we loaded 55,000 pounds of material to carry to St. Vincent in May, there was a tremendous amount of bulk medical supplies that did not fit on Sea Hope. Additionally, thirty-one hospital beds were donated after we had sailed. We were also able to order about $105,000 of medicine and medical supplies to complete the load. This material arrived in Puerto Rico and was about to be loaded onto Sea Hope when the earthquake struck Haiti. Fortunately, Calvary Baptist Tabernacle in Carolina had sufficient storage space for us to put the material into while we carried food supplies to Haiti. In September, a team consisting of members of Anchor Baptist Church in Pisgah Forest and Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Pickens, SC came to help load this material on Sea Hope. Students and staff from Puerto Rican Baptist Bible College also helped. This turned out to be less than a 40,000-pound load, but by volume, it was the largest load Sea Hope had ever carried. The arrival of the material in Haiti was very timely as they were having a COVID outbreak that increased the number of patients the hospital was seeing. The beds and medical supplies were desperately needed.

Haiti September 2021

When we carried the food to Haiti in August, Pastor Cherubin of Hosanna Baptist Church told us he needed building material and school supplies. He wanted to go to the affected areas to erect shelters to be used for churches, schools, and community meetings. We returned to Puerto Rico to gather the materials. Much of the school supplies had to be ordered and it took some time for it arrive in Puerto Rico. While we waited we did some needed engine maintenance, and then did the St. Vincent trip. Once we returned from St. Vincent we loaded the supplies for Haiti and took them to Jacmel. They were no longer under the state of emergency, so we had to go through all the normal bureaucracy to enter port. We started the off load about 5 pm and it took until 8:30 pm to complete. We departed then and returned to Puerto Rico. Within 36 hours, Pastor Cherubin had the material loaded onto trucks and headed to the affected areas. By Sunday, there were 2 shelters ready for churches to hold services and by the following Sunday there were 5 shelters complete. Schools were able to open, and students had supplies….

Haiti Medical Mission March 2022

Bradley Edmonson is the founder and president of Medical Missions Outreach, the largest independent Baptist medical missions organization I know of. He and I started planning this trip to Haiti in October 2021. He brought a team of 12 medical clinic personnel, one photographer, and one translator. We carried a crew of 9, so 23 of 24 bunks were filled when all were on board. Sea Hope left Puerto Rico and stopped in the Dominican Republic to pick up the medical team. A day later we arrived in Jacmel, Haiti to work with Hosanna Baptist Church (Pastor Dieupie Cherubin) to conduct a four-day clinic. Over the course of the clinic, over 850 patients were seen, the Gospel was clearly presented, and over 50 professions of faith were made. In addition, we carried about 5800 pounds of rice, school supplies, and clothing to donate to Hosanna Baptist Church.