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.