In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, a group of volunteers from Grunthal will be headed to Haiti this week to help deliver water filters.

Adam Dyck is Youth Pastor at Abundant Life Fellowship. He says about five years ago their youth group decided to do some mission work in Haiti. Another group from the Church then went down

(Photo credit: Adam Dyck)this March. Shortly after Hurricane Matthew struck, Dyck contacted Global Effect, the organization they have worked with in the past, letting them know he would be available to help with relief work in Haiti.

Dyck says word spread quickly, and there is now a group of 11 that will head out this Friday. According to Dyck, many members of their group are making quite a sacrifice to head south. He notes for some, it means using vacation days, others are taking a leave without pay, some have been forced to take out a loan to make it happen and others have forfeit a family holiday to rather do this relief work.

Over the years, Abundant Life Fellowship has created a connection with a couple of local Churches in Haiti. Dyck says they are quite close with the pastors there and to the best of their knowledge, all of their friends are alive and well following the Hurricane.

The goal is to distribute 2,000 water filters. Dyck says each filter costs about $40 U.S, which means they need about $80,000 U.S. to pull this off. This fundraising is being done across North America. Anyone wishing to make a donation should contact www.globaleffect.org and then click on DONATE or drop a cheque off at Abundant Life Fellowship.

Dyck says on Sunday alone, enough money came in from their congregation to purchase about 100 filters.

"We're really excited and really hoping that people will get on board," he says. "It seems like a really big number but I'm confident in the heart of people in and around our area, in and around the States where David West (Global Effect) is working."

The group will be gone 10 days. Dyck says in the past when they have delivered filters, they have visited each individual family. But he says because of the magnitude of the devastation, they will be working with community leaders and getting them as many filters as are needed. Each home needs its own filter and approximately 10 people live per home in Haiti. Dyck says by attaching a filter to a five-gallon pail, it can filter 150 gallons of water per day. The filters are good for about 10 years.

Global Effect is all about getting clean water to people that need it and then using that tool to present the gospel. Dyck says in addition to distributing water filters, they will also deliver much needed medical supplies and hope.