Virtual 5K Provides Unique Connection Experience for Haiti-based Outreach

Second Mile Haiti founders Jenn Schenk and Amy Syres know a thing or two about endurance running. A decade into operating an outreach that includes lifesaving interventions for critically undernourished children and their mothers, the duo has had to outrun challenges that have sent others packing for home. Hurricanes, earthquakes, and shortages of just about everything are a way of life in Haiti. Staying a step ahead of those challenges with creative problem-solving is part of what keeps Second Mile Haiti thriving. So, when political instability and threats of violence kept most North American visitors away from Haiti this past summer, Jenn and Amy knew they’d have to get creative to keep the organization’s work top-of-mind with its supporters.

“We’re not receiving visitors like before, and we miss showing people from around the world what it’s like to be on a Second Mile campus,” the organization said in a recent email to supporters. “We aren’t able to walk the illuminated streets at nightfall with you, or to enjoy the tastes, sounds, and smells that make this place so special,” the email said.

During the weekend of November 3rd, runners (or really anyone!) can participate in the 5K from their own neighborhoods or local parks. The goal is to put on the Second Mile Haiti shirt and start some conversations. Everyone who signs up for the virtual run will get special delivery instructions for a podcast called “In Her Shoes.” The story follows a woman they treated who discovered she was pregnant and turned to Second Mile Haiti’s Maternity Center. For anyone who wants to know more about the 3,000 women a year served by the Center, the podcast is a great way to follow along through one woman’s remarkable story.

Amy said she hopes that the 5K will put a smile on people’s faces as they listen to stories of life change happening at Second Mile Haiti, despite the turbulent circumstances outside their walls.

Second Mile Haiti isn’t about just a quick handout. They want to change lives.

“We believe in giving people the tools to support themselves, rather than depending on handouts or temporary assistance,” their website says. “Our program requires committed participation from the caregiver in exchange for comprehensive medical treatment of her child. This gives her the opportunity to change her own destiny and that of her family.”

Registration for the virtual 5K is available online here. You can learn more about the work of Second Mile Haiti on their website.

Send a Taste of Home to a Missionary Family!

Agape Flights Missionary Thanksgiving Dinner Project is Underway

Every year or as long as anyone can remember since the 1980s, a planeload of frozen turkeys has departed southwest Florida for the mission field shortly before Thanksgiving Day. Laden with dozens of the frozen fowl, this special flight has also been stuffed with stuffing, crammed with cranberry sauce, and filled with pie filling.

This trip is an annual flight of passage, a very important way the Agape Flights family of staff, volunteers, business partners, and donors bless the scores of missionary families who will spend this Thanksgiving Day in the mission field.

But we need your help to make it happen!

For your contribution of just $80, we’ll deliver a complete Thanksgiving meal, with turkey and all the trimmings, to a missionary family in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, or the Bahamas. You can donate $80 for one meal, give in $80 increments to send multiple meals, or simply send any amount you’d like to help us shop for turkeys, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pies, and whipped cream.

Special thanks to our Thanksgiving flight sponsor, Regulator Marine. Thanks, also, to the students at Venice Christian School for decorating the special boxes we use to pack this special cargo!

GIVE NOW

Last year, you generously contributed more than the total costs for our entire Thanksgiving project. If we receive more than the program costs this year, we’ll designate the excess to an upcoming facilities project that will help us serve missionaries well into the future.

Check out these photos from recent missionary Thanksgiving gatherings:

PIE IN THE SKY OPEN HANGAR
Saturday, March 4, 2023

It was a beautiful day to welcome a record crowd to the Agape Flights hangar for Pie in the Sky 2023. Thanks to our sponsors, volunteers, and business partners — and thanks to YOU for coming. Please enjoy the videos and photos, below.

This 4-minute video, “A Pilot’s View,” debuted at Pie in the Sky, March 4, 2023

Click or tap any image to open the photo gallery.

Pie in the Sky 2023 was presented by:

Thank you to our Pizza and Pie Sponsors:

Thank you to our Fun Zone Sponsors:

Special thanks to our in-kind sponsors for their invaluable contributions to Pie in the Sky again this year:

PIE IN THE SKY OPEN HANGAR
Saturday, March 4, 2023 | 11:30 – 2:00

**Pilots Greg and Ken invite you to the Agape Flights 2023 Open Hangar**.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Enjoy hot pizza pie, incredible freshly-made dessert pies, tour the Agape Flights hangar, see the planes, meet the pilots and Agape Flights staff and volunteers.

LIVE AUCTION: Bid on delicious pies, a coastal flight for the whole family, a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico, Chick-fil-A for a year, a flight in an awesome Air Cam airplane, a foursome of golf, golf gear and lots more!

See some amazing airplanes in the Fun Zone, Fly the Agape Flights Simulator!

This year’s theme is “A Pilot’s View.” See the debut of Agape’s new video “A Pilot’s View” at this year’s Pie in the Sky and get the inside story of how God called these talented individuals to serve His kingdom through mission aviation. And if you want a pilot’s view for yourself, climb up in our of our planes and get your picture in the captain’s seat!

AGAPE FLIGHTS HANGAR LOCATION:

FREE PARKING – CARPOOLING ENCOURAGED

Check out these photos from last year’s event:

MAYBE YOU’LL BE FEATURED IN THIS YEAR’S PHOTOS!

Special thanks to our in-kind sponsors for their invaluable contributions to Pie in the Sky again this year:

Join us for a Special Night of Worship
Friday, February 17 | Agape Flights Hangar

Save the date for a very special evening of worship coming up Friday, February 17^th in the Agape Flights hangar at Venice Airport. We’ll be hosting is hosting 90-minute worship event which will be live-streamed to encourage Agape Flights missionary affiliates in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and elsewhere. The worship team from Grace Community Bible Church will lead us in music.

If you’re in the Venice area, please join us in-person for this “worship in the round” event beginning at 6:00 p.m. Free parking will be provided, but we ask that you carpool if possible to be sure there is plenty of space for everyone. The event is wheelchair accessible, it’s free and open to the public. Seating will be provided.

Agape missionaries, please gather your staff and family for this special event being held to bless you, encourage you, and pray for you. Watch your email and the Agape Flights Facebook page for additional information on how you can join in via YouTube.

For more information, please email info@AgapeFlights.com.

Thank you for making the 2022 Missionary Thanksgiving Dinner Project a savory success. With your help, complete kits for a traditional Thanksgiving meal were distributed to all missionaries who were in their serving country during the Thanksgiving holiday. We love doing this project with all of you and our missionaries say they look forward to it every year.

Turkeys, green bean casserole, stuffing, and home made pumpkin pie were all on this year’s menu. Even chilled whipped cream made it on the plane this year!

Students from Venice Christian School decorated the shipping boxes, staff and volunteers shopped and packed the boxes, and Agape staff and volunteer pilots delivered the meal kits in plenty of time for Thanksgiving.

Special thanks to Agape’s ongoing Thanksgiving Flight Sponsor, Regulator Marine!

Please check out some photos of this year’s project, below:

Everything you need to know about being a Pie in the Sky 2023 Sponsor

CLICK BROCHURE IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD FULL-SIZE PDF

To become a sponsor, please start here. For questions, please contact:
Tim Kenny | 941-488-0990 | DevelopmentDirector@AgapeFlights.com.

Thank you for helping deliver JOY in a box to 174
missionary families this Thanksgiving!

With special “thanks” to:
• A multitude of donors who fully funded this year’s $30,000 Missionary Thanksgiving Program.
• Our 2021 Thanksgiving flight sponsor, Regulator Marine, Inc.
• Agape’s volunteers who assist with the Thanksgiving Project
• Students from Venice Christian School for decorating the boxes.

“We highly appreciate being part of this selfless group of people totally motivated to serve! The Master of the vineyard takes great pride in all your efforts and sacrifices to be His ambassadors to the needy, especially in times like this.” – Paul Touloute, Haiti

“It’s always a highlight for us to invite some Dominican young people over and share this experience with them.” – Kayla Wahl, Dominican Republic

“We are so thankful for you all and the generous donors back home that will make this Thanksgiving special. We thank God for you all and all you do for us all year. Thanks again!” –Ed Zogg, Dominican Republic

“Thanks so much to everyone! This really makes the holiday season special for all of us!” – Britt Timothé, Haiti

“What a fun time it is each year for our family to open our Thanksgiving box of food! Such a gift! Thank you guys!” –April Starkey, Haiti

HAPPY THANKSGIVING We had the privilege of hosting some of the Project Mañana International family today!A special thanks to Agape Flights for providing amazing Thanksgiving food!!!

Brian Berman, Project Mañana International

Thanks to Agape Flights, we were able to enjoy a with all the fixings for our Thanksgiving here at HSMS. As we all miss this holiday with our families in the States, these little things are a real blessing.

Dear Agape,
We are so thankful for your support and ministry to our family! A heartfelt
thanks to you and the donors who made it possible for us to have a wonderful
Thanksgiving meal here in the Dominican Republic! Thanks to the donors who
provided a generous cash offering, we were able to share a beautiful dinner and
time of giving thanks with two fellow missionary couples from Haiti and Puerto
Rico! We are so blessed and have much to thank God for!
God bless you for ALL you do to minister to missionaries! Much love and
appreciation,
Steve & Kari Shirley – Dominican Republic

Dear Friends and Service Partners at Agape Flights,

Once again we want to express our gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful provision with your Thanksgiving meal. We just got back in time from Germany to enjoy the fellowship with all the missionaries and friends here in Cité Lumière. It was a great time of fellowship and encouragement as we shared the delicious food and reflections of God’s protection and presence in these difficult times. A special thanks to Palma Sola and Westminster Presb. Church who packed the boxe with such care and loving hands. Our personal turkey will feature the main dish at our traditional ‘German get-together’ on Christmas Eve.

Thank you also for praying as we endeavor to help with the long-term effects of the earthquake.

May your Christmas Season lift your hearts in thanksgiving and praise to our wonderful Savior and bless your endeavors in service to Him throughout the coming year!

Gratefully yours, Johannes and Luise

Pastor Lamartine and I want to thank you for the delicious Thanksgiving dinner foods you supplied for us and our guests.

This year Thanksgiving had a different feeling for me, Patricia, personally as I found out at least one of my mother’s relatives came on The Mayflower. I am not sure if the relative survived to celebrate the first Thanksgiving feast.

With much appreciation,

Patricia and Pastor Lamartine Liberus

Thank you all for everything that you sent for Thanksgiving this year. Our staff look forward to this celebration all year long. We always take time to share what we are thankful for and play lots of fun games. Good times had by all.

Enjoy some pictures and HAPPY THANKSGIVING from our Haiti family to yours.

In God’s grace and unending love,

The Germeil Family

This has been one of the best things ever. We are celebrating together today and remembering our families back in the states. Thank you, agape flights, for making this so much fun and food filled! – Seth Johnson in Haiti.

Wishing you all a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for the kindness and hard work organizing and preparing the turkeys and boxes of fixings. Because of this annual tradition started by the Agape Flights founders Keith & Clara Starkey and continued to this day, we have the blessing of being able to celebrate this special feast. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Bishop Allan Randall & Rev Anita Chabot-Stahls, Port-au-Prince

Hey glory! Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to the Agape Staff for their part in sending us our Thanksgiving meal! Also wanted to thank the students at Venice Christian School for making the boxes so festive…good job! To all you Agape donors who have never met us…a special thanks to you for your kindness, consideration and spirit of love to invest in blessing people you have never met.

Thanks again and God bless you all,

Pastor Dave & Ceres

Jeremie, Haiti

Thank you for helping deliver JOY in a box to 192
missionary families this Thanksgiving!

With special “thanks” to:
• A multitude of donors who fully funded this year’s$30,000+ Missionary Thanksgiving Program.
• Our 2020 Thanksgiving flight sponsor, Regulator Marine, Inc.
• Agape’s volunteers who assist with the Thanksgiving Project
• Students from Sarasota Christian School and Venice Christian School for decorating the boxes.

Greetings! We are so humbled by your generous Thanksgiving gift to us. Thank you SO much…we can’t wait until Thursday.

So many thanks to Agape Flights for their box of Thankgiving blessings! Everything we need for our thanksgiving dinner right here in Haiti. We feel so much love from the decorated box to the 40th anniversary mugs! Congratulations!!

Many blessings for serving us so well!!! – LaNae Meyer, Haiti

Dear Agape Friends,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the amazing Thanksgiving blessing! Here’s a picture of the Berman and Dove families with our Dominican family of Project Mañana.

We all loved it!!! Gracias

Brian Berman, Project Mañana International

To our bros & sisters in Christ Jesus through Agape Flights,

We are kind of new back in Haiti, at the Lord’s leading, after many years. (We were linked up with Agape Flights back then as well. )

We were blown away by your kindness to bless us with “tastes of home” this Thanksgiving! We loved the turkey and all the fixin’s! You thought of every detail, down to the cool whip and children decorating our boxes…Thank you with all our hearts for your thoughtfulness and your generosity. Not being with our family as in years past was softened by your kindness to fly-in such wonderful gifts!

We enjoyed being with our Dear friend, Pasteur Pierre, whose family is up in the States at this time. We will send you a couple of pictures.

Again, our warmest thanks! May God bless all of you one hundred-fold for this beautifully executed joint effort, from the shoppers to the pilots! Merci beaucoup!

We also want to thank you for letting us celebrate Agape Flight’s 40 years of serving missionaries, by blessing us with the wonderful mugs and cake! The mugs are my newest favorites! Such a wonderful occasion to celebrate your strategic service to all of us in the Caribbean! Hats off, and may the Lord reward you, as only He can!

With our love in Christ,

Bruce & Mary Melissa Vernon

This shot does not do the food justice but here we are enjoying our feast in Santiago. The GO Ministries staff is thankful for Agape!

– John Martinez, Dominican Republic

Friends at Agape Flights,

What a marvelous celebration we had! After we ate, the kids read stories that they wrote from the perspective that they were their favorite Thanksgiving food. The kids loved making the pie as well.

Thank you so much for remembering us in this way and all the hard work that was involved. We really appreciate your thoughtfulness and hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving as well.

Thank you!

Casey Zachary and family

Lori Moise

We would like to say a heartfelt thank you to you and all those who had a part in our Thanksgiving box! We really enjoyed receiving it! It’s so very encouraging to think about all the support behind that box. People we don’t know, may never meet, and yet we have a kindred spirit. Special thanks to Ellcie😊 for our beautifully decorated box! Thankful for all of you and may God bless you!

Eric and Melanie Stoller, Torbek, Haiti

Hello Everyone,

We from AEDCH would like to thank you sincerely for the wonderful turkey feast we enjoyed on Thanksgiving! We’d also like to give a special thanks to the students from Venice Christian School for the awesome decorations. So appreciated!

We wish you are a very blessed Advent season and a new year full of good tidings,

Judith D’Amico, MD, MPH
AEDCH

To our bros & sisters in Christ Jesus through Agape Flights,

We are kind of new back in Haiti, at the Lord’s leading, after many years. (We were linked up with Agape Flights back then as well. )

We enjoyed being with our Dear friend, Pasteur Pierre, whose family is up in the States at this time. We will send you a couple of pictures.

Again, our warmest thanks! May God bless all of you one hundred-fold for this beautifully executed joint effort, from the shoppers to the pilots! Merci beaucoup!

With our love in Christ,

Bruce & Mary Melissa Vernon

Greetings!

Our family would like to thank you for blessing us with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

We were able to be joined by our dominican family, who lives a couple of hours drive away. It was such a special time, especially since we had not been able to visit before this due to the virus.

Thank you again and may God richly bless you all!

Mark & Stephanie Pyles

We thank Agape so much for a beautiful dinner in The NW, at Bombardopolis! The turkey was amazing, along with all the boxful of treats for us! A great time to share with our friends God’s blessings in the midst of the chaos! Thanks so much to the schools that decorated our box too! You all helped make our evening special!

Linda Blankenship, Haiti

Dear Friends,

I want to thank all of you who gave us the delicious Thanksgiving Dinner foods and the special bag to roast the turkey in!

Especially, I want to thank the artist who decorated the box! I greatly appreciated the Bible verse, Joshua 1:9, which was written on the box..

This year becaause of the extreme traffic jams, our guests were late so I kept the turkey roasting for almost 6 hours, inside the bag so the meat would not get cold. It was the best turkey I have ever made!!! 9 people, and 3 dogs enjoyed the meal! Thank you so much!!!

Because of this year’s Covid 19 virus, getting together, and eating a special Thanksgiving meal was greatly appreciated!

With much love & appreciation,

Pastor Lamartine & Patricia Liberus

Thank you so much for all the donations of turkeys and food boxes that enabled us to gather for a Thanksgiving meal together in Les Cayes, Haiti today. There were about 70 of us that gathered from across the southern part of Haiti. Great food, great fellowship, and greatly blessed. Thank you for being a blessing to all of us.

Tina Nunemaker, RMI, Haiti

Dear Agape,
A heartfelt thanks to you and the donors who made it possible for us to have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal here in the Dominican Republic! Thanks to the generous donors who sent the box full of fixings and money to purchase a turkey, we were able to have a beautiful dinner and time of celebration and giving thanks with another missionary family and a short-term missionary worker! God bless you for ALL you do to minister to missionaries!

Much love and appreciation,
Steve & Kari Shirley – Dominican Republic

Thank you so much for the Thanksgiving Dinner box! This was our families first Thanksgiving deployed and it was such a blessing to be able to provide this for our children. We had a fun dinner together and then shared with all our neighbors. Thank you for blessing us more than you know.

-Matt, Anna, Aleah, and Blake Bryan

There are so many things we want to Thank you for.

Not only for the nice gift “Hug in the Mug”, which I did separately together with congratulation for the 40th Anniversary of Agape.

We received the Thanksgiving Meal last Thursday.
Year after year we receive it. You are so faithfully. We can not pay that back. It is only our Heavenly Father who can do that. May he bless you all so rich.

We have a lot of reason to celebrate Thanksgiving. Just on Thursday we arrived safely back in Haiti from Europe after a 3 month furlough. We did not catch Covid in Europe, we could spend plenty of time with family and friends, all of them are doing well.
No bad Storm hit Haiti, but we feel so sad especially for Nicaragua and Honduras and all the other countries included the US, who have been hidden so hard………. We will truly celebrate Thanksgiving, giving Glory and Honor to our Heavenly Father who kept us healthy through all the years in Haiti, has given us strength to facing all the difficulties who are coming across. Has given us the privilege of AGAPE, with all its STAFF and BOARD!………

Thank you also very much for the package with the items from the Donation List for our PT clinic in Port a Piment. It is always a big and wonderful help.

Have a blessed Sunday and a very special Thanksgiving next week.
Love
Reinhard and Ulrike Schaller

Greetings,

Just wanted to say Thank You for your extra generosity this year.

As always, our box arrived with everything to celebrate a Traditional Thanksgiving Meal festively decorated. It always brings a smile to our hearts & faces.

A special thanks this year for covering the custom fees as well.

With Thanksgiving

Ron & Terry Brian

Thanks for Giving, and giving, and giving🌴

So excited to receive God’s blessings through the many hands that brought us the Thanksgiving boxes/Turkeys again this year. I’m always excited to see what is ON the boxes,

as well as the inside. We Love, Love, Love all Agape and those who give of themselves to bless us…

Gracias mucho! ~ karen y bud simon: Serving in the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴

Thank you Agape Flights for all you do! What a blessing to receive the donated Thanksgiving box of goodies and the mugs celebrating your 40 years in ministry! Without your ministry, it would be so hard to figure out so how to get many things that we need and have the things I need here for my health! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the work and love you’ve given to those of us on the mission field!

April Starkey, Haiti

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Agape Flights!! Today we received this wonderful gift of a turkey and all the trimmings. And also 2 mugs to help us celebrate 40 years of Agape Flights. Thank you again and again! This year has been more difficult and challenging compared to many years before due to many circumstances, but God, but God !!

Els Vervloet, Haiti

THANK YOU Agape Flights!!! This is my FIRST Thanksgiving turkey in Haiti in the 23 years of working in Haiti! How fun to receive this special gift from some incredible donors! The 40th Anniversary mugs with mug cake mixes was a fun idea too!

Nora Leon, Haiti

We have great appreciation for our mail delivery service, Agape Flights, based in Venice, FL. We would be in dire straits without these wonderful volunteers bringing us necessary packages, parts, medicines, seed, machines, the list is absolutely unending. I cannot over-state the importance of this delivery service for our farm to survive. If you are looking for somewhere to donate in this upcoming Christmas Season, we recommend Agape Flights, serving missions all through the Caribbean with mail/package delivery service. They also volunteer for disaster relief, and were kept busy delivering emergency food to Nicaragua after it was directly hit by two consecutive hurricanes which demolished their food crops.

This month, Agape Flights celebrated 40 years of service, and we were treated to a piece of birthday cake to help them celebrate! And also, bless their hearts, each Thanksgiving, they deliver every missionary family all of the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal! We were so happy to receive our turkey, stuffing mix, pumpkin, cranberry sauce, corn bread mix, pie crust mix, spices, sweet potatoes, whipped cream, etc., along with handmade greetings from a child. It is absolutely love-in-a-box!! The young boy that decorated our box wrote: “Jesus is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” The exaggerated scrawl of a young child expressing the biggest word he could think of to describe Jesus just made me smile and smile and smile some more! Although we could not be with our family this Thanksgiving, we were thankful to enjoy a feast and fellowship with a big group (around 70 of us!) of wonderful friends down here.

Deborah Knobloch, Haiti

We sure appreciate the kindness of the donors for these meals. Putting them together and shipped here is an amazing blessing.

God Bless you guys. We’re thankful for you.

Rod, Deb and Katie Wray, Haiti

“Hello! Happy Thanksgiving!! We have so much to be grateful for, even this year in the midst of crazy & so much unknown & change—but our God never changes & is the same yesterday, today & for always. What a truth that is an anchor for our soul–what Hope He gives! Thank y’all so very much for the Thanksgiving box!! What a special treat–my kiddos were especially excited to see the marshmallows & I was Thrilled to get pumpkin spice & a can of pumpkin. Now I can make the pumpkin scones I’ve been craving. We are grateful. Thank you for your services to all us missionaries! It means so very much!!”

With a grateful heart,

The Gorrill Family, Freedom International Ministries, Dominican Republic

Thank you so much for the wonderful spread that you gave us for Thanksgiving. It was so great to have such a nice, touch of home here in Haiti for Thanksgiving. We had a quiet Thanksgiving with just Tom, our friend, Gilli, who is working with us until December, and me. However, we had a nice, delicious meal. and enjoyed each other’s company. Thank you for making that possible.

Blessings to all who made it possible!

Tom and Bev Brumbley, Haiti