Hello,
This is an automated e-mail from heraldsun.com. Pix has asked us to send you
the following article, which can also be found online at: .

Pix also added these comments:
A good article and sounds like a good book. I am going to order one. Wish I
could get down to the signing.

Pix

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Mission to Haiti a life-changer
January 3, 2006

BY GEMMA MANGIONE, The Herald-Sun
April Perry never intended to write a book about her medical mission work in
Haiti. But the last 15 months changed that.

"For over two years, we haven't been able to go there," said Perry, a pediatric
cardiology nurse at Duke Medical Center. "We've canceled nine trips, literally
within one or two days of leaving."

Travel into Haiti, a small country southeast of Cuba, has been nearly impossible
in recent years because of security threats posed by political violence.

"Over this period, I've prayed to God, asking him what we could do to keep Haiti
in the forefront of people's minds, how we could benefit the people there even
if we couldn't physically be there," Perry said. "I thought, maybe I could put
some of my experiences together in a way that would benefit people."

And so she did.

Perry will sign her book, "They Suffer in Faith," Saturday at Blacknall
Presbyterian Church, the same church that hosted her first short-term mission to
Haiti in 2001. The book poignantly chronicles Perry's work in Haiti and traces
her founding of Luke's Mission, Inc., a Durham-based nonprofit group devoted to
advancing public health initiatives in the country.

And, Perry hopes, the experiences and anecdotes in the book will show people
just how much the Haitians care about the work being done there.

"I hope people take from this book the impact that the Haitian people have had
on me and how they've changed my life," Perry said. "But most of all, I hope
they realize there are people just off the border of the United States living in
desperate situations, but they have the most giving hearts of anyone I've ever
met in my life."

After a pause, she added, "There are many, many people in the world that are
rich that have little to no material belongings, and that definitely describes
the Haitian people."

As Perry writes in the opening lines of her book: "It is hard to find beauty
here." In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80 percent of
its more than 8 million inhabitants live in abject poverty. Most rural areas
have no sanitation system.

To aid the millions of Haitians with no access to health care, Luke's Mission
developed the Health Care Provider Scholarship Fund. The fund provides
scholarships for people in Haiti who want to pursue healthcare provider
education. But as Perry pointed out, such initiatives are only a beginning.
Increasing the awareness of those who are not already involved is crucial.

"Six years ago, I knew nothing about Haiti," Perry said. "It was just the place
our church decided to go. I had no idea the change in my life that would happen
as a result."

Several churches in Durham, including Ridgecrest Baptist Church, sponsor similar
mission trips. Executive Pastor Shay Reyner has overseen the Haiti program at
Ridgecrest since it began in 1999.

"People realize after they've returned how materially blessed we are here in the
states," Reyner said. "They recognize how much we have and how much they don't.
It leaves an impression on them."

Shelia Rittgers, who serves on the board of directors of Luke's Mission with
Perry, agreed. As chair of Blacknall's Haiti Ministry Committee, she said she's
seen how the mission experience "knocks people out of their comfort zone."

"If you have a kid with a cold, you can walk into the local pharmacy and
purchase medicine to make that kid better," Rittgers said. "That's something we
can take for granted here."

Rittgers said she believes the message of Perry's book should have a dual impact
on its readers.

"The goal is not only to increase charitable attention to Haiti, but also to
change things here at home," Rittgers said. "We need to focus on our own
communities, to broaden our faith in action, not just in Haiti, but in Durham,
as well."

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Who: April Perry, Duke nurse

What: Book-signing of her new book, "They Suffer in Faith"

Where: Blacknall Presbyterian Church

1902 Perry St.

When: Saturday, 10:30 a.m. -- Noon


COPYRIGHT 2006 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved.