By KEITH R. STEVENSON may 02, 2011
Greg Pershyn, of East Stroudsburg, has been an installation technician for 18 years, setting up phone and computer networks for area businesses. he now runs his own business, ensuring that data and calls get to where they’re supposed to.
Earlier this month, he answered a call from a higher power to go and do good works in another part of the world.
Pershyn, a member of the Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church, had been looking for a way to directly contribute to the lives of others when he was approached by the missionary group CrossWorld, which presented him with an opportunity to use his skills in Haiti.
“I think that God placed it on my heart that I wanted to do something for Haiti, but I didn’t know what. All of sudden there was this project that this pastor wanted to install a PA system and it was exactly what I do. I thought, ‘Now we’re talking my stuff!’”
With his way paid by Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church and the Light of the World Church in Stroudsburg, Pershyn toted 1,000 feet of cable donated by Friedman Electric and components acquired below cost to the town of La Pointe on the northern coast of Haiti, home to the Beraca Medical Center.
Once there, he set to work installing a public address system across the six-building campus.
The 15-speaker system is being used to funnel music into waiting areas and more importantly, is used by the doctors to help educate people about diseases, their signs and symptoms and the treatments that help prevent or cure them.
“In the week that we were down there, three people died from rabies. So, they actually had the doctors talking on this for a while and educating them on what to do with a dog bite,” he said. “That alone may have saved a life.”
He spent seven days in the country, enjoying home-cooked local cuisine, and he returned with a different outlook on his life in the states.
“It gives you a renewed appreciation, not so much of what we have, but of what we don’t have here anymore. My cell phone didn’t work down there. It was nice to be able to just concentrate on what you were doing, or to have a sit-down lunch break. It was nice to not have the mad pace that we have here.”
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