Hein Vingerling, a native of Holland and now a Fayetteville resident, had his first taste of foreign missions in 1989 on a trip to Africa. For a month he resided there, disappointed with the lack of impact that could be made in a month, not very satisfied with the funds spent that were used so inefficiently. So he began asking God for a mission "closer to home."

The next year he asked missionaries at "Medical Benevolence," a medical ministry in a joint venture with the Episcopal church in the Central Plateau of Haiti, if there were a small chance that he might be used there.

The odds seemed slim. After all, Vingerling was not a doctor. In fact, he is a contractor who specializes in restoring historical architecture.

But not discouraged, he went by a missionary's home two days before the scheduled trip to Haiti to drop off his resume, when he found a yellow sticky note on the front door.

It seems there was an old missionary woman asking for someone who had building skills, and Vingerling was on the next plane.

"The Lord really put that together," said Vingerling energetically. "He put me there just long enough to whet my appetite."

Vingerling said there were so many opportunities to serve in Haiti. He began gathering support to build a church upon his return to the United States.

Vingerling gave a presentation to his church, Fayette Presbyterian, requesting both financial support and volunteers. That's where God would team him up with Mark Hopkins, cofounder of Matthew Twenty-Eight, he said.

After Vingerling gave his presentation, Hopkins said he "felt like I needed to talk to him about going." Hopkins, a scientist for the Georgia Department of Agriculture in Griffin, said the Lord spoke to him very deeply.

"The Scripture in Isaiah that said, 'Who will go for me?' kept running through my head," Hopkins said. "The Lord said Hein needs a helper. It changed my life completely."

Not by bread alone

On the next trip to Haiti, the two were asked by a local elder of the church if they could support the children with food, to which they immediately replied "yes."

But there was a condition, they said: "The children can not live by bread alone, we must feed their souls as well." So the men got the local pastors involved in reading the Bible to children up to 6 years old.

By 1991, the two men had established the first feeding center to handle about 80 children. The following year, two more centers were added

For many of these children, Vingerling said, the centers were providing all of the food in the children's diet. Many were starving, eating once every day or two. Occasionally, the children were weighed to see if there was any positive gain.

"When we saw there was gain, it impressed on us that this was where we needed to be," said Hopkins.

In 1993, three more feeding centers were added, totaling six centers.

The methods used by the ministry to feed the children are not by donations alone. According to Hopkins, he has found a unique niche in the ministry using his knowledge of agricultural plant science.

Most people, in a land of 98 percent unemployment, are subsistence farmers, meaning they farm strictly to provide for their family, with little left to sell on the market.

"There was a problem," said Hopkins. "With their sweet potatoes, they were losing 75 to 85 percent of their crop to insects."

So Hopkins taught the men about crop rotation, giving the insects a season to die down, and provided the families with weevil-resistant sweet potatoes and other seed. He showed them many third-world agricultural techniques, such as raised beds to reduce erosion.

When Hopkins took the sweet potato cuttings to Haiti, he wasn't sure whether they would survive. He said when he unwrapped the cuttings to inspect them 48 hours later, it was "a miracle" to see that the cuttings had already begun growing roots. The farmers have since yielded a tremendous crop.

The organization

Matthew Twenty-Eight, Inc., named after the chapter that contains the Great Commission, formed in 1996 officially. The men were discovering that more and more financial backing was required as the ministry expanded, necessitating a nonprofit designation.

A couple years ago, a similar ministry in Haiti that also ran feeding centers was forced to close. Matthew Twenty-Eight took over those centers, bringing the total for the ministry to 10 centers with over 800 children a day depending on them to fend off starvation and malnutrition.

Fayette Presbyterian and other local churches, as well as individuals, continue to support their work, while the men and board members pay all of their operating expenses entirely out of pocket to allow all money donated to go to the ministry.

"We are definitely in need, though not ever have we not had funds," said Vingerling. "But we are running mighty close. Prices in Haiti have gone up since the American military intervention in 1993 so that we can hardly keep up with the prices."

While this may seem to be a limitation for the ministry to some, Vingerling said that anything they do they "test on the Great Commission because that is what Jesus wants us to do. We would rather be an example."

"Our goal is to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Central Plateau of Haiti and half of our work is to share with people firsthand what the Lord has done," said Vingerling.

While Vingerling and Hopkins are in the United States, the ministry is run by the field director Paulius Lucien, a highly respected man in the community in the Central Plateau.

"He has a tremendous heart for the Lord and his people," said Vingerling.

Jesus loves the little children

In 1995, Vingerling met with the local magistrate who asked him if there was anything the organization could do, maybe think about opening an orphanage.

"I kept thinking about it," Vingerling said.

During this time, Vingerling returned to Holland for a funeral and stayed with his sister, with whom he shared the idea.

The next day on his way home, Vingerling said he found a yellow sticky note (again) in his pocket along with a check for $3,500 from his sister that said, "I like your plan about the orphanage. I think you should do it." Vingerling said "everything just snowballed from there."

A local missionary in Haiti, who was moving on to minister in Africa, had just bought some land, which he said he would sell to Vingerling for the remaining amount due, which just happened to be $3,500.

Vingerling and Hopkins, elated with the way God had worked, immediately shared their plan with other missionaries in the area. But to their dismay, other missionaries were completely unsupportive and discouraging.

"We felt totally demoralized. We just wanted to give up," said Vingerling.

Walking to church along a dusty road lined by the clay huts of the Haitians, Vingerling noticed a little girl dressed in filthy rags, walking out of a side yard.

She proceeded to walk up to Hopkins and another of their companions and hold their hands. Then she waited on Vingerling to catch up, whereupon she put her arms around his legs and held on.

"I just broke down to see her misery and suffering," Vingerling said with tears in his eyes. "I asked her if she wanted to go to church with me. She said she did and then she crawled into my lap."

As Vingerling held the little girl, one of the missionaries who had originally been against the idea of an orphanage, turned to him and said, "That's one of your children."

"The Lord had sent the little girl to turn me around," said Vingerling. "This was God's plan that had to be done."

The orphanage did come to pass, equipped with a kitchen, dorm, living area, chapel, showers and toilets, and a water system that is the only running water in area, all due to the hard labor of those who wanted to make this a reality.

Currently, 11 orphans live there and it is about to grow to 30 children. It costs $85 per child per month. The feeding centers cost about $3,000 a year.

"We just want people to know this is not our work, this is the Lord's work," said Vingerling. "We're really privileged to be a part of His plan. It's awesome."