A Mormon temple rises in Hartford area: A Q&A with Lyn Greenwood

By Nick Solari

In 2013, The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints broke ground on what will be the second Mormon temple in New England. Located on Route 4 in Farmington, the Hartford Mormon Temple will have be completed in 2016.

Lyn Greenwood, a public affairs representative for the church, has been involved in the project since 2011. In this Q&A, she offers an update on the construction of the church.

A rendering of what the completed temple will look like upon completion in 2016.

Q: They broke ground in August of 2013. Where, in terms of the construction of the physical temple itself, is The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints? Can you give a brief update on the project, and how they’re progressing?

LG: “They are mostly finished with the exterior. They’re finishing up this amazing granite; basically it’s one giant puzzle piece. About 9,500 intricately carved pieces go together, and that’s what they’ve been working on for some time now.

“They’re also working on the interior. They’ve been placing the floor. They are painting in some areas, I understand.

“The temples – all temples – are made with the highest materials. They’re also meant to be sustainable. They’re as environmentally up to date as they can be made. But mainly, they’re made to last for a really long time – so we get the best materials you can have. They’re planned very, very carefully.”

Q: How much fundraising needed to be done to begin the project of constructing the Mormon temple in Hartford?

LG: “Mormons give more of their income to charities than any other faith group. One of the things they donate to is charity for our religious group. We give 10 percent of our income, which is certainly a hurdle as the church continues to grow with more and more converts. But this money goes to people everywhere, all over the world. And so part of the money goes toward building chapels and meeting houses, and building temples.

“[The money] is always there. There is no specific fundraising for this temple, or for any temple construction. It’s already there, waiting to be appropriated.”

Q: Has LDS run into any obstacles, really, in terms of the construction of the temple? Have their been any unforeseen challenges?

LG: “No. I can honestly say no. I can’t think of any obstacles.

“Two winters before this one, when the temple was under construction, we had one of the worst winters. I’ve lived here for 20 or 25 years here in Connecticut, and I can’t remember a worse winter. But the snow came on days that the construction workers weren’t going to pour the foundations. They were able to pour these big, deep, thick foundations without getting hit by the bad weather. There were storms every three days, and the temperatures plummeted, but it was really amazing that it never snowed when they were pouring foundation.

“They were able to use heaters to pour the foundation in sections. It was pretty wonderful.”

Q: Throughout the process, has the town of Farmington been helpful in making this happen?

LG: “The town of Farmington has been absolutely fabulous right from the planning and zoning meetings. The Boston temple, which was dedicated in 2000, ran into a lot of obstacles. So because of that, I think it helped us in planning for this one.

“We had the Boston temple as an example, so people who have been to that location were able to tell the people of Farmington how it would be. People had concerns. ‘Would there be too much traffic? Is it going to be lit up at night? What would this do to property value?’ But the church was able to show that property value actually went up, and was able to appease people. The town has just been wonderful from beginning to end.”

Q: The estimation is that this temple will serve roughly 15,000 people. The only other Mormon temple is in Boston, so people from all over New England could be traveling here. For you, as someone who’s been involved in this project, how nice will it be when this place is finally open?

LG: “Everybody has thought about that moment. We are all so happy. When I moved here, there was no temple in Boston. The Washington, D.C., temple was the only one on the East Coast, and it’s really big. But we used to take bus trips down to that temple to worship, and it was a night and day trip. We’d do different kinds of ordinances and work there. When Boston opened in 2000 that was terrific, even though it was still about three hours from where I live, depending on the traffic. So that’s still a six-hour commute to get there.

“Now, some of the people who are most excited are the people that are older. The people in there 70s and 80s, they have to stay overnight because traveling is hard. Even mothers who have school-aged children, they would have to arrange for babysitters if they wanted to make a trip. Now, if they live close to the Wallingford location, they can just make a trip and be back in one morning.

“We wish we could have gotten this done faster, but we’re really excited about the prospect of having it all done. It is a very exciting event, to have this temple so near to us.”

Nick Solari is a senior journalism major at Quinnipiac University. He is writing about religion this spring. He can be reached at nicholas.solari@quinnipiac.edu.

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Wallingford pastor organizes mission trips to Haiti

By Nick Solari

Pastor Lubin Beaucejour used to sit at his desk overlooking Interstate 91 and watch the cars fly by.

Beaucejour – an employee of Blue Cross Blue Shield in North Haven at the time – noticed that everybody seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere. Born and raised in Haiti, he marveled at the way Americans were always “on the go.”

“Watching the people drive by, I used to sit in my office looking out the window and just think, ‘what a country,’” Beaucejour said. “When I came to this country, and I saw the wealth of America, I remembered what I left behind. I saw the America that was spoiled. I used to just think ‘no, this can’t be possible.’”

He remembered what living in Haiti was like. He knew that things had gotten worse since the earthquake that devastated the country in 2010. People had no food, no water, no housing, no clothes.

“You have to go there to even comprehend the level of poverty,” Beaucejour said. “People say we have poverty in New Haven, and that we have poverty in Hartford and Waterbury… But what they don’t realize is that it’s much different.”

One of the biggest differences, Beaucejour said, was that Haiti had no “safety nets.”

“Haiti has no welfare, no soup kitchens, no Salvation Army. You might think it’s bad here, but it’s much worse there.”

He was “inspired to actually find a way to be the bridge that brings America to Haiti, and to be a blessing to the Haitian people.”

Beaucejour, currently a pastor at Christ Community Church in Wallingford, began organizing his first voyage back to his homeland in 2000. He created the Bethesda Evangelical Mission (BEM), a nonprofit organization that planned mission trips to Haiti’s southern peninsula.

BEM then became a branch of GO-ICS (Global Outreach International Center for Services), which Beaucejour created to “meet the medical challenges of the people of the southern peninsula,” according to the organization’s website, www.timetogonow.org.

The goal was simple: to provide access to health care throughout the region.

So Beaucejour began recruiting people to make trips to Haiti with him. At first, the organization would collect medication and health care supplies. They would go for a week, and hold open clinics in different villages where people could wait in line to receive care.

Sixteen years later, BEM still follows the same routine. Kathy Clements, a retired nurse, has been making two trips a year with Beaucejour and BEM since 2010.

Clements’ mother passed away on Jan. 12, 2010 – that day the earthquake in Haiti occurred. Clements was having a hard time dealing with her mother’s death, which is when her friend, Abby Bruce, suggested she take the trip to Haiti.

“I’m going to Haiti with my daughter,” Bruce, also a registered nurse, said. “You should come with us.”

“I found a way to give back in my mother’s memory,” Clements said. “I’ve gone back twice a year since, and I don’t regret a single moment of it.”

Bruce, who sponsors four children in Haiti, and Clements have been a part of BEM’s trip in February and August each year.

“There’s a group of us that have been doing this since 2010,” Bruce explained. “You develop relationships with the people you go with, so they become like family.”

Beaucejour says he is forever indebted to the people who have helped him with his project.

“It shows the heart that they have,” Beaucejour said. “For them, to give up their luxury to go help, it’s just a selfless action. They are the engine that makes this program run.”

BEM’s people stay in Beaucejour’s brother’s mission house when they travel to Haiti. Each day is the same: They wake up at 6 a.m., pray at 7, eat breakfast at 8 and then they’re out to door and on their way to a different village.

By the time they arrive there are hundreds of people waiting in line to be seen. The team sets up tables and chairs in a tent at the front to check people in. Younger children, who go on the trip but aren’t medically trained to take care of people, sit in the front of the portable tent to stamp people’s hands and provide them with anti-worm medication – since most of them need it.

The people then see the registered nurses and doctors. The team stops seeing patients for 15 minutes to eat lunch, and usually works until the sun goes down – since they have no electricity to keep working at night.

“I have an opportunity, given my medical background, to really make a difference,” Bruce said. “I feel like it’s my obligation, when I’m there, to give everyone waiting the proper treatment that they need.”

Patients there have all sorts of problems, ranging from ear infections and heartburn to malaria and malnutrition.

Clements recalls one 3-year-old child she saw years ago with an ear infection. He had puss dripping down his shoulder and the skin on his neck had been burnt.

“We cleaned his ear out, and the whole time he was screaming in pain,” she said. “We gave him antibiotics and Tylenol for the pain. The next time we went, I saw him, and he was doing much better. I think he would have lost his hearing if we hadn’t seen him that day, so that’s one instance where we truly changed someone’s life.”

Currently, GO-ICS is the No. 1 provider of medication for the southern peninsula of Haiti. The organization has funded and help build 12 schools in the region, and is poised to create a hospital in the region by 2019.

The hospital’s land was recently paid for, and GO-ICS has begun raising money for its construction.

The organization’s two main sources of funding are individual online contributions through PayPal and an annual gala in Hartford.

“Sometimes I just sit back and put my hand on my head and say, ‘you know what, there’s a kid eating because of us,’” Beaucejour said. “Isn’t that amazing?”

Beaucejour said religion is at the center of his operation, but across various faiths. Over time, his team has consisted of people who are Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Hindi.

“They all come together for the common good,” he said. “Every morning I have a devotion and I read from the Bible, but not to make people feel bad. We all pray together. They listen to what I have to say, and I listen to them”

That’s the most important part of Beaucejour’s operation: That people of all different faith can work together to help others.

“It shows that people can be mankind again,” he added. “Life is about finding Jesus in other people, and I truly believe seeing something is better than hearing it.”

“If I say I love you by being there when you’re hungry and naked, that’s the genuine love … It shows,” Beaucejour added. “That’s what this organization is about. We show people through our actions.”

Nick Solari is a senior journalism major at Quinnipiac University. He is writing about religion this spring. He can be reached at nicholas.solari@quinnipiac.edu.

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