When the Rev. Lynne Austin and her husband, Ray Aller, started looking for a way to spend time together, despite their different fields of work --- ministry and public health ---- they never dreamed that they would end up in Haiti.

"We started on a quest to see where we could make a difference," said Austin, a minister at the United Methodist Church of Vista. "We were both active in our community, but we were looking for some type of a global focus."

Austin began researching the AIDS epidemic in Haiti, and International Child Care came up. She soon realized that the senior pastor at the first church she had served had been involved at Grace Hospital, ICC's flagship hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The fact that he had passed away earlier this year made the choice to plug into ICC all the more poignant for Austin and Aller.

"Before we knew it, we were in Haiti," said Austin of their March trip.

ICC began as a small clinic a missionary couple started almost 40 years ago, and the organization now runs several health outreaches doing everything from treating tuberculosis to training health workers.

Aller and Austin traveled with a group of students from Albion College in Michigan on an education and encounter team. They participated in a variety of ICC's health-related programs, from visiting sick wards at Grace Hospital to slums in the Dominican Republic. Although Austin said she was prepared to see a lot of poverty, she was still stunned by the lack of basic medical care and access to clean water.

"At first it seemed quaint and pastoral, to see these women carrying jugs of water on their heads from the rivers," she said. "But then you see animals in the water upstream, polluting it  ---- it causes a tremendous amount of disease."

In the barrios of the Dominican Republic, Austin and Aller visited homes where ICC physical therapists were working with children with cerebral palsy. They were told that the children's condition was a result of poor medical attendance during birth, although ICC has a midwife-training program and funds healthy-birth kits.

"It's a dichotomy of dire need and addressing those needs," said Austin.

It was that sense of purpose that kept Austin and Aller thinking about what they could do for ICC when they returned from their trip, about what their "give-back footprint" could be.

"We went over there just to learn," said Austin, "and we fell in love with these people. I saw people who want for their children what I wanted for my children ---- that they would grow and become."

Aller's background in public health helped him see the big-picture issues in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, such as improving water safety and preventing infectious diseases.

"They are treatable and preventable issues," he said. "It doesn't take that many resources to actually improve lives."

In memory of their friend who passed away, Austin and Aller decided to take on the mantle of being a California connection for ICC, which is based in the Midwest. They began speaking at churches and rotaries throughout San Diego, along with Keith Mumma, the U.S. director of ICC. They arranged two team trips next year and will return to Haiti in November as part of the International Board of Child Care. Austin said she originally didn't want to sit on a board or raise funds, but now she'll do anything to go back.

"I'll stand on my hands if that's what it takes," she laughed.

A three-year cancer survivor, Austin said she constantly thinks about what she can do before her next diagnosis.

"Haiti has changed me as a reverend, as a woman, as a person who breathes," she said. "It's such a blast to love in this way. It brings you alive."

More information can be found on the ICC Web site, www.intlchildcare.org.