People in the Dominican Republic helping Haiti

Even though relations between Dominicans and Haitians has been historically bad, Dominicans have been heartbroken over the devastation in Haiti and have been working hard to help Haitians.

When we went there to get supplies, we experienced that ourselves. Here are some of the people who helped us:
The Monteros










The Vallettes:











victor:

The work in the Petionville Club Camp

To start the ministry in the Petionville Club Camp (the large one), Ronald and Jean-Paul went to the camp to interview people to be trained to work as coaches and as spiritual leaders. There have been a few people who came to the interviews who were a real encouragement because of their strong faith and knowledge of the scriptures. However, there were only a few like this, and we need a lot of people to take on such a big camp. One of the people who came to interview to be a coach is a young woman who is on Haiti's national women's team. One person that Ronald talked to came to understand the need to accept Christ personally and did that during the interview!

Mini Tent city

Our Mini Tent City at our house.



Venita's New House--She loves it. I told her she's has a great attitude because she always focuses on what she has not what she doesn't have. She said it's no good to focus on what you don't have.

Gaetan Jean-Louis (AKA Louch) lost and found!

This is Louch (real name: Gaetan Jean-Louis) Venita's son who was lost but now is found!

For this my son was dead, and is alive again!

Venita's son is not dead! She was reunited with him, someone brought him to her father's house! "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate." Luke 15:24

She is so excited. Last night we were having dinner together and when Luge (nicname of Venita's almost-3-year-old son) looked up at her with a big smile, his two huge, dimpled cheeks shining, she waved her hand in the air up to heaven and said "Thank you, God! Thank you, God! Thank you, God!" I'm not sure how many times. But a lot.

How did this happen? Well, we don't actually know yet how he survived the earthquake, but a couple brought Luge to Venita's father's house (probably 8 days ago because that's when the road opened up to that house). Her father couldn't tell her who they were, but she has a guess. The couple recognized Luge from times when Venita would go to her father's house to visit, so they brought him there. They said he cried a lot but when he saw his grandfather's house his smiled and ran to it. Venita had been trying to call the people at her father's house but had never gotten an answer until Monday (3 days ago). When she heard that they had her son, she went right away, even though some people warned her that it might not really be him. And that sometimes people even do that for a joke (???!!!!).

We were away in the DR when this happened but came home Tuesday afternoon. I love having him around, even though he's pretty active and will likely get into trouble sometimes. He accepts all of us here out our house, we're already ALL his friends. He'll sit with any of us--Richard, me, Ecdes, Ronald, Paules, Jean, Sophia, Francoise.
P.S. Not all of those people live at our house, but Ecdes does, Ronald does for now and Paules & Jean are Ecdes's cousin & brother who are around a lot, although Jean goes to work everyday.

Other news on Venita...Her job has been reduced to 3 times/week for now, but with the possiblity of working full time as she improves/learns how to do more of the work.

People all over turning to the Lord

Many people are making confessions of faith these days. I guess we'll find out in time if some of them are just "jumping on the band wagon" as they say. But we are rejoicing because we believe that for some there has been a real regeneration of their hearts. Please pray for the people in our neighborhood have made professions of coming to Jesus: Sophia and Francoise; and especially Katy Bellebranche and Dodline since their mother is against it.

In Leogane, where Pastor Guillaume, who works with AIS-Haiti, preached this week, there were 100 people who said they accepted Christ. Also, 70 people in Verrettes did too.

Richard's Grandmom makes it to 100!

Richard's Grandmother, Betty Mears, turned 100 today! She is a wonderful Christian lady and we're glad for her part in our lives. They were having a party for her at Dock Woods Retirement Community. My (Carol's) Mom lives there too and she was going to attend the party. Hopefully they all had a great time. Wish we could have been there.

Putting Haiti in the hands of the Lord

Right now we're watching the 3-day prayer-fasting service on TV. The pastor is saying:
"Haiti met le pays dans les mains du Seigneur." Haiti is putting the country in the hands of the Lord.

Although we have been fasting and praying and going to services at our church, we didn't realize that the tens of thousands of people at the National Palace were staying there night and day. Our friend went there and took this video (link above). It's very short, you should see it. I don't think the US news is covering this very much, so I wanted to let you experience it.
Here's what it looked like yesterday:
(trying to add the link here, but so far it's not working)



This is normally the biggest time of year for voodoo activity. It usually starts after Christmas, with Mardi Gras week being the biggest week. But it still goes on until Easter with Good Friday being a time of celebrating Jesus dying. I'm just wondering about God allowing the timing of this earthquake in January. Now, instead, we're hearing about Fasting, praying, confessing sins, asking for God's help and praising Him for all He has done.

The case of the missing water systems

Sat. , Feb. 13, 2010

Today, my job was to rest and try to get over this rotten cold that I have, complete with post-nasal drip that is really annoying.

But just when I was about to lie down for a morning nap, I got the word that the baby formula and supplies I had left for David Schmid and the Bolosse campus relief effort were not where I had left them at QCS. Carol arrived at QCS just as I was talking to David and confirmed that not only were the food supplies not there, but the 6 water systems that I had responsibility to distribute were also not there. Naturally, I was very upset and fought against the growing sense of panic that was building up in my sick body.

As you may recall, these water systems were left in my responsibility after a man named Lee King had to leave Haiti suddenly because his son got malaria. There were six systems worth about $5,000 US each – or $30,000 US total.

I cried out to God and read Psalm 69, and then dashed off a quick e-mail to Lee King explaining the situation. Then I e-mailed and called everyone who was supposed to have received a water system and asked them if they had picked up their system without telling me. None of them had, so now I was back to zero.

At this point I still don't know where the systems are, but on Monday I will go and talk to Ted at QCS who apparently called some orphanages to come and pick up the formula and stuff that had been donated. I'm hoping that I will call one of the orphanages and they will tell me that they picked up the water systems by mistake.

I do have a hard time believing that someone would pick up 33 boxes of water systems supplies that were clearly marked with my name and phone number on them by mistake, but I know God is in control, even when I am not. So I am trying to stay calm and wait or Monday morning when Ted gets back from a weekend away.

Please pray with us for God's will in this and that the missing water systems show up in his timing!!

The most I've ever heard these kids talk...

Yesterday we started up youth group again. Of course, not many of the 150 kids who used to come are still around. Some are in other countries, some are out in the provinces. And yesterday, some were at other prayer and fasting services as part of the 3-day fast called for by the country of Haiti.

We started out with 3 leaders and 6 young men. A little later, 3 girls and 2 more guys came. But I was so excited by our little group. One of my greatest frustrations with most of the kids in our group is that they don't share anything. Many of these kids are not used to people listening to their thoughts or ideas. Many of them don't speak English very well.

But....yesterday was great. Marc Williams first asked each person to share one word that comes to mind when they hear "earthquake." They shared words like : scared, destruction, afraid, etc. Then he asked each one to tell their story of where they were when it happened and what it was like for them.

One of the boy who is about 13 was there for the first time because his mother and grandmother who were raising him both died in the earthquake and he was taken in to a family with two teenagers who come to youthgroup regularly. He doesn't speak English but he told us in Creole how he was playing, didn't know what it was, but just went on playing. We found out from his new "brother" that the house collapsed on him and he had to be pulled out. We asked a few more questions and he answered. He hasn't shared much, but I think he sees that everyone cared and could understand a little of what he went through.

Venita, Baby Sara and our friend, Jimmy

I didn't get a chance to upload this picture yesterday. It's Venita and Baby Sara with our friend, Jimmy, who was the one who had the contact in the Dominican Republic. It was taken before we went into the Memorial Service

An estimated 90% of Port-au-Prince Prayed today

I heard an estimate that about 90% of the people of metropolitan Port-au-Prince were praying today.

We can believe it. We drove over to Bolosse today, which means we went across town. What we didn't see: there virtually no merchants selling things on the streets. We could hardly recognized Bolosse's market area since it was empty. What we did see: people gathered, praying. What we heard: singing, mostly joyful singing. And people talking about fasting. For the past few days people have been talking about how long the fast would be and it was suggested that we only eat bread and sugar water after 6pm; nothing from 6am to 6pm.

At our memorial service at Quisqueya Chapel, we sang, heard about those who died, cried, listened to God's word, prayed and talked. It was good. I was actually glad to see Venita cry, because she needs to. God led me to ask my friend Coby to hold baby Sara and I went up with Venita while she told the congregation about her family members who died. It was very hard. But good. She really misses her 3-year old son. Some people put pictures of their loved ones up on a board in front. Venita doesn't have any pictures because she lost everything in her house. Hopefully at some point we'll be able to help her get pictures from relatives or friends.

I also found out about the deaths of a little boy and a young man that I used to see every week in church. It was sad. But they are with Jesus now. I also got to hear the story of a young man who is part of our youth group. He was trapped in the university building where he worked for two days with the bodies of students who had died. His brother in law died and some other members of his family too.

2 Truckloads of Supplies from Dominicans

Today 2 truckloads of supplies came in from the Dominican Republic.

I think it was Wednesday, our friend, Jimmy, who works with Richard in YABT (Young Americas Business Trust) called and said his classmate that he had in an online school in 2006 contacted him to say that he had collected some supplies for people in Haiti--especially for orphanages. His name is Carlos Levy.

So many things that people have wanted came on those trucks! We had gone the other day to try to buy baby formula for people in this area, but the warehouse-type store wasn't open yet. Today the Dominicans brought 100 boxes of formula! Several different orphanages and camps are benfitting. There were a lot of medical supplies, blankets, sheets, towels, personal products (people have really been asking for these) clothes and shoes.

We had mentioned some people for prayer yesterday, like Cado Marcel, whose family still thinks she's dead. She was pulled out of the rubble with nothing and our friend Mme. Levy has been helping her with a few things. But there was nothing for her to sleep on, so Mme Levy just gave her some clothes to sleep on. Now we have blankets and sheets to give her! She also needed shoes and we got some for her. Our friend Venita who is living with us needed shoes too and she got some along with more diapers. God is providing!

We had great meetings today with Pat & Walt Stuart of CrossWorld about debriefing/counseling, etc. Very helpful. Maybe I'll get to share more later.

But, we are fasting, as I had shared yesterday and we're off the the memorial service.

Fasting for Haiti

Tomorrow, unbelievably, February 12th, is already one month since the earthquake.
President Preval suggested that we have memorials for people who died as a result of this catastrophe. And many people are calling for a 3-day fast starting tomorrow. Some people are suggesting that people fast completely from 6am - 6pm and then have only bread and sugar water during the night. Of course, we hope those who are sick or seriously injured don't follow this. But we are going to fast. And our church is having a special service tomorrow. The church will be open all day for prayer and then at 4pm we will have a memorial service where people will come up in front and say the names and ages of their family members or friends who have died. Venita (see posts from Saturday-Monday about Venita) is going to say the names and ages of the people in her family in our church even though she doesn't speak much English.

Quisqueya Christian School (where I have taught since August 2006, has basically become a relief center.
Here is a link to the blog that gives more information about daily happenings on the campus of QCS with lots of pictures. It's very encouraging to read about all the different people from so many places in the world coming together to help....and this is just one center for relief! Check it out.

http://relief.quisqueya.org/

Soccer for 5,000???

Today we went to possibly the biggest IDP camp in Port-au-Prince at Delmas 48. Some estimate 50,000 people. We were asked to help them organize soccer for the kids, which means possibly about 5,000! There are a lot of question marks at this point, but we are thinking about it.
The picture above doesn't really give you a clue. I was hesitant to take many pictures of the bed sheet tents and the people who probably didn't get dressed up to get their picture taken! I'll try to add links for you to see other pictures of it.
http://wikimapia.org/15170952/2010-Haiti-Earthquake-Recovery-Tent-City-Near-Petionville-Club
Click on this link to see a page that really shows what it's like, most of the pictures on it were taken at this camp.
http://cryptome.org/info/haiti-camps2/haiti-camps2.htm

This is Richard, Jean Paul and Ronald meeting with a contact we had there who has had a community club for children for years who is now in charge of the approximately 5000 children in this IDP Camp.

The camp is pretty well organized and they have one area reserved for some tents where an Israeli organization is getting a school started and there is a small field for kids to play soccer.


We saw people sweeping the ground and moving trash to a designated location in wheelbarrows obviously provided by an aid group. There were tent showers and tent latrines.
Here are the school tents being set up by American military and the school children we saw with their teacher to the right.

Psa 34:17-19 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Prayer Requests:
Généis Guillaume – 16 members of his family died when their 3-storey house fell over. He survived along with his wife and 2 of their children. They were on their way home from a prayer group and 2 of their children were coming back from somewhere else.

PleasePray for these people from the neighborhood where we used to live. They have lost ALL their belongings:
Mme. Ernst’s famly –with 4 children
Mme. Toussaint – with 5 children
Laura and her husband with 5 children

Meline – she was pulled out of the debris 5 days after the earthquake and people in the neighborhood figured out that her family thought she had died and had already left for the country. She has been all alone with no personal belongings. Our friend Madame Levy and other neighbors have been helping her. Pray that she will get reunited with her family soon, and that God will provide for them.

Going to church with lemon under your nose

We just heard that the congregation of one church that collapsed is meeting in another property that they own (I think a school) that has a courtyard, but there are dead bodies under the rubble nearby. It smells so bad that people come to church with a piece of lemon under their noses.

Work for Food program

The other day I posted a picture (Feb. 8th) of some people cleaning the streets with the same color T-shirts. I just heard today that this program existed before (I used to see people cleaning the streets with the same color T-shirts, but now it's not just trash, but rubble, too) but before it was mostly older people. Now it's all kinds of people joining in. These days, it's the job lots of people want. They're paying $40Haitian/day (About $6US) and you're allowed to do it as fast as you want. So some are getting their area clean in only 2 hours. Elysee said that a taxi driver told him he wished he could get that job so he could buy gas for his taxi. Apparently they are hiring one group for a month, then another group for the next month.

Need for nurses, Physical Therapists and Occupational Therapists

One of the biggest needs in Haiti right now is for people who can work with victims who need rehabilitation.

Nurses, Physical therapists, occupational therapists are needed. We have many amputees so if you know of any PT/OT please let us know. thanks.

If you are able to take a week or more to help with this, you can either get in touch with CrossWorld at www.crossworld.org or email Miquette Denie at miquette27@yahoo.com.

Psa 33:13 -19 The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.

More Pictures

I took this when we were in the neighborhood near Bolosse:





This is the outside of l'Eglise Sacre Coeur

Inside l'Eglise Sacre Coeur






This is a Work For Food clean up crew. We've been seeing these around the city.

More on Venita's Story

On the day of the earthquake, Venita was going out and her two other children were staying home with their father. He told Venita that she could leave the baby with him, too. He loved holding his children and playing with them. But Venita said it was no problem to take Sara because she’s such an easy baby. That is why Veniat and her baby, Sara, lived. God had more plans in mind for their lives. God knew we’d need Sara to cheer us all up. He knew that her Mom would need her for comfort after the loss of her husband and her two other children.

When Venita came to our house, I wondered what she needed. Did she need to cry? talk? be alone? be with people? She said she cried for 9 days after the earthquake. Then she heard a Christian message on the radio about not dwelling on what has happened. She said she decided to try to take courage and go on. She was living in one of the largest IDP camps in the city, right downtown. There she reached out to a little girl named Lusma. Lusma is only 10 years and apparently alone in the world. She was being raised by her Mom and her aunt because he Dad had died when she was younger. During the earthquake, she said everyone started running, so she ran too and hadn’t been able to find her mother or aunt and didn’t know if they were alive or dead. Venita and Lusma helped each other. Lusma said to Venita “you look like my mother.” Venita replied “OK then I’ll be your mother!” with a big smile on her face. Lusma helped her with baby Sara and whenever there was food distribution, Lusma would run over and try to get some. When our friend Elysee met Venita at the Credit Union where he works, he invited Venita, Lusma and Sara to come to the smaller camp where he is living so that he could try to help them, especially because in the larger camps, there’s more chance of disease and crime. Since Elysee’s family was already having a hard time caring for those in their own family, he asked if we could help Venita. When I met Venita, she told me about Lusma and said that Lusma had just run away 5 minutes before I came to her. Venita tried to talk her into staying, but she thinks that Lusma didn’t like being far away from the food distribution downtown. Please pray for Lusma. It would be nearly impossible for us to find her among the approximately 13,000 people at the camp downtown.

Pathway to water and A Mom who survived with only her baby

We spent the day, yesterday, helping clear out a pathway to the water source of a neighbor of friends of ours, Elysee, with people from CRI (Crisis Response Int'l). (The neighborhood near Bolosse where we used to live)

It's too dangerous to live in these houses now, but people are going there to get things and to do daily chores, including getting water. But the path was treacherous, so we cleared a plath and made some steps out of blocks that were still solid because the people have to walk downhill to get to the water source they've been useing. We had a "bucket brigade" going to take pieces of block up the hill to the fort above that area. Hopefully, later on, the people will be able to crush it more and mix it with cement to rebuild.
Many in the neighborhood were cooperative and helped us, some saw it as helping only some and were jealous.


Then we met a lady named Venita who lost pretty much her whole family in the earthquake(her husband, 3 year old, an older child, her mother, mother-in-law, and more) along with all her belongings. She has her 2-month old to take care of and had spent over a week in what I think is the biggest camp in Port-au-Prince (Champs Mars - 13,000 I've heard) where her baby, Sara, got a rash. We brought her home to our house for a while, where it's peaceful. She says "thank you" about every ten minutes. She's so sweet. She keeps insisting on sweeping, doing dishes, etc. Already she has an opportunity to learn to make jewelry with a friend who has a ministry helping mothers. This is a picture of her with a woman, Mme Jules, she met in a credit union (where our friend, Elysee, works). Mme Jules has been married 5 years and has not yet been able to have a baby. But when she heard Venita's story, she wanted to give her this basssinet/basket for the baby and a few other baby items.

Digging out the Rubble

Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010

Got up early to pack up and get ready to take a team of workers to Leogane to dig out the houses of two of our leaders.

I had to take all the tools I could find because we were going to take at least 8 people to help with the work. My original idea was to take some Haitian young men from the Bolosse church who had been former members of the Lemuel Soccer team that Elysee and I had spent 3 years training. But when I got to QCS, I found out that 4 guys from Crisis Response International wanted to come and they had lots of tools. So we ended up taking only Elysee, two of his brothers, and two other men from the Bolosse church.

We went in convoy with a team from TEAR Fund, UK. And the director rode in my car. Her name was Cressida and she told us that the organization's name means : The Evangelical Association for Relief Fund. It is made up of a bunch of evangelical churches in the UK that seek to help the poor and suffering. They have worked for years in partnership with the UEBH (The Haitian church we work with), but now want to set up an office in Haiti and expand their presence.

The Tear Fund UK team that we went with consisted of Matt, a water engineer, Annie, a child psychologist and Cressida the team leader. When we arrived, I introduced them to Pastor Guillaume (Giy-yom) and after we left to go and work on some of the Leaders houses, they ended up talking to him for quite a while.

After a quick breakfast of Croissants, we went to Pastor Guillaume's son's house, Guidony. On the day of the earthquake he had just finished a day of teaching at his Father's school and was outside chatting with other teachers in the courtyard. When he saw what happened, he ran home to see if his house was still standing. When he arrived, he found the house leveled, but saw no one and heard no cries. His heart stopped for a moment until his neighbors told him that his wife had been inside, but had snatched their sleeping baby from her crib and ran out the door with their six-year-old son just before the house fell.

We did not have heavy equipment, so all we could do was clean up the debris from their courtyard so they could put up a tent inside their property walls and at least have a little privacy.

The next house we went to was the one that the Baby miraculously escaped from. Her Father had been laying down with her on his chest, but when the earthquake came, he instinctively turned his back as the house fell down and shielded her. He had some broken ribs, but the baby was unhurt.

We decided that the house was much to big to remove the rubble from, and since they had already gotten their valuable papers like birth and marriage certificates out, there was no reason to sift through the rubble.

Instead, we made it our project to make her sister's house which was unfinished, but had a good raised foundation and cement floors, safe for them to put a tent over and live in. This required some demolition work to remove some half-finished walls and arches that could easily fall if not removed.

We spent the rest of the day there and even got the kids of the community to help out, with the promise of a soccer game after the work!

Later in the afternoon, Pastor Guillaume came over to help and told us that is wife had prepared a nice meal for us, and we should stop by the church to eat before we went home. Although this was not asked for, or expected, I was not surprised by the offer because it is a Haitian tradition to feed workers when they come together for a “Konbit” or work party to do a big job, like clearing a field. We enjoyed great fellowship as we ate together, with our dusty clothes and sweaty bodies.
When I dropped our Haitian friends from Bolosse who helped us, the CRI workers went and looked at the house of one of the men who had helped us. They found out that the rubble of 3 houses had piled up and was blocking the road to one of the main supplies of water in the area, forcing everyone in the area to rely on the Bolosse UEBH campus exclusively for water.

On Thursday we hope to go and work to remove this rubble and clear a path to the water source.



Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010

Since I had been doing so much physical work, I decided to work on Expense reports today. There are so many details to keep track of and so many expenses. Sometimes I feel like a MAC machine! However, I did manage to get our reports done and sent to Crossworld. Of course I had to clean up the house a little for Carol's long awaited return on Friday!

Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010

Got up early this morning to get ready for our big day of work near the Bolosse campus. This is the campus we used to live on from 2000-2003 during our first term. Today our goal was to clear a path to a well near an old Fort called Ft. Mercredi. Three houses had fallen on top of each other and were blocking the way. This means that the only source of water for these people was a 10 minute walk up and down a hill to the Bolosse campus which currently is home to about 2,500 refugee families.

After collecting my supplies, I drove over to QCS to pick up the Crisis Response International team of about 10 people and their supplies. CRI has volunteers coming in every week for 2-week stints. For some, this was their first overseas experience! Before we went over we had to stop and get supplies from my favorite hardware store. I found out that one employee and his family had died, but everyone else was OK. I guess it will be like that each time I visit a store I used to shop at.

We got what we needed, and Mike, the leader of the CRI team remarked that what we paid $100 US for would have cost $50 at Home Depot. But, hey, this is Haiti after an earthquake and everything is more expensive than it was. I also noticed that they had large tarps for sale, and later I purchased one for Margaret, our cook and her family.

On the way over my phone rang (as it often does these days!). It was Lee King from a NY church, the man we had taken around last Thursday to look at possible locations for his water purification systems.
He said his son had malaria and he was being air-lifted out on a military flight that day. He asked me to pick up the water systems that were being delivered to the airport that day and store him for him until he could give me instructions on who to distribute them to and how to install them. I told him I would do all I could to help him and in gratitude he said he would give our ministry one of the water systems. (These systems can purify up to 6,000 gallons a day – that's 15 tank trucks of water!).

When we got to Bolosse we found Elysee there waiting for us with a number of Haitian men who wanted to help us. After praying, we made our way over to the old Fort and climbed up the big hill. It was a beautiful, clear, hot morning, and the bay was full of ships – A hospital ship, an aircraft carrier, troop ships, cargo ships, all kinds of ships. We also saw plenty of helicopters flying around distributing food, and carrying patients around.

Then we set up a long bucket brigade and started to pass buckets of debris from the bottom house to the Fort on the top of the hill. I was sad because we had to dump the rock on the small soccer field they had made in the courtyard of the old fort. (The fort was called Fort Mercredi, or Fort Wednesday because the French had originally built seven forts around PAP, each named after a day of the week).
In all there were about 40 people working together, Americans and Haitians working side by side for the benefit of the community. We told the Haitian workers that they would not be paid, but that we would all eat a meal together when the work was done.

After getting the group started I drove over to the airport with Ecdes and my security guard named Mitou. It was a good thing they went with me, because when we got there we found 16 boxes of water system material for Lee King. While loading the truck, Lee called and said there was more stuff coming on a later plane, so we waited around for them to unload the plane. In the meantime I talked to the MAF man in charge of cargo and he said he could give me some food for the refugee camps I was working with. He ended up giving me 5 boxes of food that could feed 120 people each, and 8 cases of baby food for babies 8 months old. By this time, my small pick-up was pretty well loaded. Then we got 16 more boxes, and the car was loaded to the hilt! I was actually proud of the packing job, and nothing fell on the trip back to QCS where we ended up storing them.

Then we had to go back to Bolosse to pick up the work team up. However, on the way we dropped off the boxes of food at Ronald William's refugee camp. He was really glad to get the supplies. When we arrived at Bolosse, lots of Haitian kids were crowding around our CRI friends who really enjoyed sharing a meal with all who helped. This is a Haitian tradition. Whenever people work together, they share a meal. The CRI team had given Elysee money to pay for the food, and he had arranged for it to be prepared. Since they were drawing a crowd, I gave them evangelistic tracts to hand out, which they really liked.



That night Ecdes and I actually had enough energy to play basketball with a bunch of Army guys at QCS, then we went home, took a cold shower and went to bed.Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

Today I picked up Carol at the airport! I was so excited to see her.

However, before that I took a man to the UN clinic at the airport who had stepped on a nail. In talking to the doctors I discovered that there is a serious shortage of Tetanus Anti-toxin in Haiti. Many people are getting Tetanus because they were never vaccinated as infants. I was also supposed to take another man who was very sick with Tetanus. When I asked where he was, his friend said he was afraid of getting a shot. I knew the man was in danger of dying, so I was pretty upset. His friend said he had tried to explain the seriousness of his condition, but that his friend had a “tet di” - was hard-headed. Part of the problem is that when you have a lock-jaw seizure, you don't remember what happened. Since he couldn't see the consequences of his condition, he was not afraid. In addition, Tetanus is a progressive disease. It takes time for the toxins to build up enough to kill you. I reflected that this is like is like sin in our lives. One little sin doesn't seem so serious, but then one sin leads to another until it becomes a root of bitterness and then strangles our spiritual life. Please pray that this man named Johnny listens and agrees to get the care he needs.

I also dropped off two single mothers at the house of another missionary who has a jewelry-making ministry. He and his wife show single moms how to make jewelry and then sell it in the US. Please pray that this would work out for them so they can support their children. One is Sophie, the Mom of Sophonie who we helped after the Quake. The other is named Francoise and she was the one that had the 2 year old boy who was burned and who we helped get medical care for. She has 3 children.

While at the airport I found two more boxes for Lee King, and then I got the call that I was waiting for!

Carol was in Haiti!! But she was at a different airport terminal. So I had to go and pick her up there. It was a great reunion and we still have so much to catch up on.

Article in The Advance about us

Go to this link: http://www.buckslocalnews.com/articles/2010/02/03/the_advance/news/doc4b69b19e09a7d573679323.txt

and/or buy The Advance (if you live in the Newtown area) to see an article about us and our experience in this earthquake.

I really appreciate Jeff Werner of the Advance who listened with patience and concern to our story and wrote a very nice article.

Sunday , Monday and Tuesday

Sunday, Jan 31, 2010

This morning I got up “late” and took my time getting to church. However, I forgot that I had lent my car to a medical team for 2 days, and so could not just hop in and drive away. So I hopped on a tap-tap and walked down the hill to church (and got my new shoes all dusty!).

When I arrived, everyone was singing, and I thought I was late, but then Pastor Bobby stood up and told us that this was just practice & that the service would start later – at least I was not late!

When the service did start, Pastor Bobby had us stand up by country. We had people from Canada, Holland, the US, Australia, the Philippines, the UK and of course, Haiti.

The theme for the day was to be “Filled with the Spirit”, and everyone sang as if they were. The church was jam packed and we made a joyful noise.

The last song we sang was “The City of God.” Ariana and Ruth started out by telling us that when the earthquake hit, they were both singing this song in different parts of Port-au-Prince. Ariana was singing it with her friends on the second floor of QCS and Ruth was singing it at her home. Both were praying for Haiti through the song.

Here are the words to the song:

[Verse 1]
You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

[Verse 2]
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

We all joined in with them and just kept singing it over and over.

After Church, I stayed around and talked to people. Pastor Bobby introduced me to a Doctor and his friend who just trusted in Christ. He was a member of the Larco family, owners of a large beverage company in Haiti. He said a missionary had come to his hospital with lots of medicine for his pharmacy, and he told Dr. Larco he came with all the medicines he needed, but one. Then he introduced him to the Great Physician, the healer of our souls – Jesus. He and his associate trusted Christ then and there and couldn't stop talking about it after church that Sunday. Dr. Larco brought his whole staff to church. I am going to meet with them this week and give them some books called “Your New Life in Christ” in Creole.

Even though Dr. Larco could live in his fancy house, he is choosing to live in a refugee camp to show his concern and solidarity with his countrymen. He introduced me to one of the leaders of the camp who was trying to organize some activities for the children. We are going to work with him to help him this and supply him with equipment as well. In addition, we hope to use the “Young Peacemakers” curriculum we have translated with the children who play in our tournaments.

The next group that I met at church was Tear Fund, UK. When Carol and I worked at the UEBH, this was one of the largest contributors we worked with on projects. They helped pay for wells at several churches and latrines as well.

I met Matt and Annie. Matt is a water engineer, and Annie is a child psychologist. We talked about how we could work together and they said they have a curriculum that they would like to use in the refugee camps to help children recover from the trauma of the earthquake. I told them we have translators available who can do this and we also knew some camps that need water.

After them meeting I told Matt that there was stream near my house that seemed to always have water.
My friend Dan Carl said he would take us to look at it, since I did not have a car. We found a Haitian who actually knew the source of the water and Matt was able to test it to see how good a source it was. I was very excited because I don't think there are very many un-tapped water sources in Haiti.

Then we went back to my house where I gave Dan Carl a bunch of tracs and books for an evangelism project his friend was going to have among the refugee camps in Gonaives.

After they left, I took a 2-hour nap. When I woke up, I saw it was still daylight and Ecdes wanted to play soccer, so we ended up playing until it was dark – I'm sore today, but it sure was fun!

Monday, Feb., 1 2010 (Grace's 22nd Birthday)

Today it seemed like the phone was ringing was ringing of the hook. Calls from AIS leaders, friends and people in need. One story I think I forgot to tell was that soon after the earthquake, a young man who I had lead to Christ in Verrettes this summer called to see how I was doing. I talked to his Dad after I talked to him, and it seems that Christ has really changed his life!

I found out that one of our leaders in Limbe, Pastor Peggy, was in a motorcycle accident and was in the hospital with some injuries to his head and face. We are going to try and send him some money to help with his medical expenses.

The other thing I was doing today was organizing a trip to Leogane tomorrow to help sift through the debri of the three houses of our leaders that were destroyed by the quake. We are going with a team from Tear Fund, UK who is going to evaluate some of the refugee camps and also with about 8 young men from the UEBH churches in PAP who want to help others in Leogane.

Ronald William also came over and we were able to give Nesly from Gonaives, who is still with us, some soccer equipment to take back so he can organize an evangelistic tournament there.

I am still waiting for my truck to come back after I lent it to a team of Doctors for the day.

Tomorrow we head to Leogane, and I am also one day closer to seeing Carol again!