Tropical Palms Blog: RV Resort, Cottages, Vacation Home Rentals in Orlando, Florida near Disney

If you know Luke Fraser, you know he is a man of few words, but considerable action. So when you need something done, Luke’s the guy you ask. That’s why his dad, John Fraser, a minister in Ontario, Canada, asked Luke to come down and help out on a mission in Haiti where he was working to help the victims of the earthquake.

“Everywhere you go you see the devastation. There are thousands of blue tarps from UNICEF over the tents. It’s very different than when I was there two years ago before the earthquake,” Luke tells us.

“I worked as a laborer, helping to dig the foundation, mix cement and put up the walls for a new home for a family that had lost theirs,” Luke says in describing his work. It’s work he enjoys. “It’s just a feeling for me. I enjoy the labor. I enjoy the people. They don’t have anything, they’ve been through this incredible disaster, but they’re always smiling as though they don’t have a care in the world. It puts things in perspective. And of course, it’s good to spend time with my parents.”

Luke’s dad has been going to Haiti for the past eight years with groups of about fifty people, ages 19 to 80, from various churches in the Ontario area. They work at the Mission for Hope, a Christian mission founded in 1998 and operated by Brad and Vanessa Johnson. Since January 12, 2010, the day of the earthquake, the Mission has delivered over 6 million meals, treated over 4,000 patients, provided rescue and medical teams, and handed out more than 2,000 tents.

“Things there are a little different than they are here at Tropical. I was in a dorm with a dozen people and I don’t know how many mosquitoes, mice and rats. And things got a little smelly because we were doing labor around the clock with no laundry.” But even with all that, Luke found something that brought a smile to his face.

“Every morning I would take a tractor with water for cement from the Mission up to this mountainside village where we were building the house. And every morning there’d be a dozen or so kids waiting for me that wanted to ride the tractor up the hill. Managing to stay on became a game they loved to play and they carried on like it was one of the coolest things ever.”

We think one of the coolest things ever was the way Luke got out there and lent a helping hand.