Haiti Humanitarian Flight

Press Release

(See the "Haiti Mission" page on Facebook for details on this trip.)

HOBE SOUND, FLORIDA… JANUARY 21, 2010… A 14 person humanitarian medical team is leaving Friday, January 22, 2010 on a Missionary Flights International flight from Fort Pierce to Haiti. The team is being led by Martin County Sheriff's Chaplain Bryan Irvine and Co-Founder of Family Private Care Gary Uber. In addition to Irvine who is a trained ER Technician and Uber who was a US Navy Medic, team members include five physicians, four nurses (including Family Private Care's Lois Sherry and Nancy Franklin), and support staff.

Chaplain Irvine is the husband of Deborah Irvine, President & CEO of Family Private Care. Bryan and his family have served around the world with a variety of missionary work including helping in refugee camps in Uganda, building homes in Mexico, post-hurricane recovery in El Salvador, and children's outreach in Venezuela. Gary Uber also has extensive missionary experience in the USA and Africa. Family Private Care has served as the organizational point for supplies, donations and medicine that has been collected for the trip.

The team will join a makeshift hospital located in Carrefour. The hospital has been set up by Dan and Joy Irvine, missionaries who have served in Haiti for many years through the Wesleyan Medical Fellowship through Global Partners (www.wesleyan.org/gp). Carrefour is located in between Port-au-Prince and Mariani where the second earthquake hit this week.

Bryan Irvine explained, "My brother Dan contacted me and said, 'Bryan we have a huge problem here in Haiti. I simply replied, 'What can we do to help fix the problem?' I then got on the phone to Gary Uber and the trip was put together within a few days. I am so grateful to Sherriff Crowder for his support of this humanitarian effort and to Family Private Care for their financial support and for their nurses participating in this humanitarian effort. In addition Harold Martin of Missionary Flights International has been wonderful. I am so looking forward to tomorrow morning when we fly over with the team and ton of supplies we are bringing so we can start to help the helpless!"

Donations to support this trip can be made through New Beginnings Community Church, 6558 SE Federal Hwy, Stuart, FL 34997. Donations are tax deductable. Please indicate on the check "Haiti" and the funds will be 100% directed to the medical humanitarian effort. For those who wish donations to stay local, New Beginnings also accepts donations to support local crisis emergencies. Simply write "local" in the notation line of the check.