BY LAMAR THAMES

Les and his wife, Susan Dick, live in a comfortable home near Orange Park, Fla., a far cry from the modest accommodations they experienced during a lengthy service as missionaries to Haiti.

“We had no telephone and unscheduled mail service most of the time we were there,” said Susan Dick, “and never any air conditioning.”

The Dicks and their seven children lived off and on in Haiti as missionaries from 1954 to 1984, returning to the United States for a year every four or five years. Three of the their children were born in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Jonathan Dick, center, looks at some of his parents' photos taken in Haiti. At left is son-in-law Mason Miekley, son Forrest, daughter Shauna Miekley and wife Susan. (Photo by Lamar Thames)

“For mom and dad, coming back to the United States was coming home,” their son Jonathan Dick, 56, said during a four-day visit to see his folks and help celebrate Les’ 90^th birthday. “For me, coming back to the U.S. was leaving my home. I had never known anything else.”

Jonathan, who lives with his wife Susan, in Lake Forest, Ill., was a year old when the Dicks moved to Haiti, along with three older siblings.

“We were called by the Lord to come do his work in Haiti,” said his mother, Susan Dick, who like her husband holds deep religious convictions. The Dicks’ other children are Joann Lintini of Brunswick, Ga,; Phyllis Vancas of Orange Park; Peggy Harder of Laramie, Wy.; Kathy Epp of York, Neb.; Peter Dick of Orange Park and Curtis Dick of Jacksonville. The latter three were all born in Haiti.

Now the Dicks shake their heads in dismay over destruction wrought by the recent earthquake to a country they grew to love.

“We found out Saturday [Jan. 17, 2010] that our radioman was OK,” Susan Dick said.

This is the house Les and Susan Dick lived in when they arrived in Haiti in 1954.

“We had a good time there. The people were so loving and caring.”

A radio station was part of the mission post where Les and Susan worked. Les was “in maintenance,” he said, which his son said was kind of misleading.

“He was like the general contractor,” Jonathan said. “He did everything that needed to be done, from building stuff to electrical to plumbing and mechanical, everything.”

Vancas, a former Orange Park Town Council member, spent 13 years in Haiti and termed the experience “excellent.”

“We had no TV so we spent our days reading or playing,” she said. “And we would all have to decide what to do at night, play games or visit our friends.Food was a big thing in Haiti and to this day we all love to eat rice and beans, which they called diri cole.”

The mission post was in  Les Cayes, about 120 miles southwest of the capital city, Port au Prince, an area that didn’t receive much direct impact from the earthquake. The post was supported by West Indies Missions. The name was later changed to World Team Missions as it spread out to other countries.

Les Dick was also a preacher for a time while he was in Haiti.

“They told us our job was to turn the job over to them,” Les said. “The people were very eager to learn. One fella wanted me to teach him to be a welder. I did and he became better than I was. He got a job n New York City.”

Les worries about what will happen in Haiti after the damage from the earthquake has been repaired.

“In some ways, Haiti was better then than it is now,” Les said, referring to the period of their arrival in the 1950s. “There just isn’t much to the government.”

“They need to get the people back on their feet,” Jonathan said.

Education is the key to improvements in Haiti, Les and Susan said, which is illustrated by  the fact their children had to return to the United States around the time they were freshmen in high school. There were not any public high schools in their area and the family did not have the money to send the children to private schools.

Vancas said she is thankful for all of the aid going to Hait, but she knows there will be no quick fixes to the country’s woes.

“You can’t just throw money at it,” Vancas said, “and there is too much corruption. You have to teach them how to do things, like replant trees where they have cut them all down to use for firewood.”

While Les did “maintenance,” Susan kept the books, ran the mission store, worked in the health clinic and taught in the Bible school at the mission. Les was also a preacher who filled in when needed.

Les and Susan Dick are proud of their service to the Haitian people, depicted in the painting on the wall of their living room. (Photo by Lamar Thames)

Les and Susan have been blessed with a large family, including 17 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, as well as an exceptional sense of humor.

He met Susan on the day of his return from World War II and accepted Jesus Christ as his savior shortly after that. “I knew if I didn’t, she wouldn’t marry me,” he said.

His wife’s sister, who had married Les’ brother, sent him a picture of Susan and her four sisters while he was still overseas during the war.

“I took one look at her and said, ‘This is the one I want to marry,’ “ he said.

Sixty-three years later they are still married.

As a living legacy, Les and Susan may have inspired granddaughter Shauna Miekley to carry on with their missionary work. She and her husband Mason spent a month in Kampala, Uganda, in the summer of 2009, calling it a life-changing event.

“They showed us what faith is,” Shauna said, “because some of them don’t even know where their next meal is coming from.”

That is especially true for Haiti right now. Les and Susan Dick can only hope and pray things will get better for a people they have loved so much.