BT report from Hati...

1/20/10



Haiti

As I’ve said before, so much is happening day to day. Another large aftershock earthquake took place this morning. Elsie said that buildings that survived the first quake unfortunately came down with this one. Aside from the news reports, no one that we know was affected.



This Thursday, Pastora Cristina and I will be taking a small team into Haiti with 6 others to do an assessment of the overall situation and mission house and conduct a limited medical clinic on the mission house grounds as well as do whatever we can to help. Debbie Mathis, the missionary who had been working and living with Elsie for some time will be returning with us to stay with Elsie indefinitely. Pastora Cristina has made arrangements for us to get there through the DR border. Please pray for us.



There is a growing concern with armed youth and escaped prisoners roaming the streets now. I’m getting conflicting reports from others who are saying that they aren’t seeing problems even in the downtown area so it appears the troubles are isolated, but could spread. The US military has landed a lot of troops into the country and my friends report seeing more of them there. God willing, the security situation will dramatically improve.



Lucien, Elsie’s driver, and some of the kids were able to get to the collapsed apartment to see if he could retrieve some of Elsie’s personal things and to check the state of the vehicles. They were able to recover a few items such as the car keys, but one of the vehicles had its glass broken in. Also, the road is blocked with debris so there’s no way to get those out for now.



The children at the ministry are still being fed every day with the leftover supplies as well as supplies that have reached them. They were running out of propane gas for the oven, but Lucien was able to get one. They are feeding about 250-300 children per day. Many of the families are now trying to go back to their home provinces in the country-side so there are fewer families there than in the beginning.



Nicole’s sister was very concerned for Elsie’s health so she had Elsie come and stay at her house up in the mountains. Elsie and Stephanie are staying there at present.



- Please continue to pray for Haiti and the well-being of all the survivors.

- Please pray that our team will be able to safely get to Elsie’s place this week.





DR

Pastora Cristina has been working hard in coordinating groups that are going to the DR border. Hospitals have been setup there as patients are evacuated there. Pastor Jordan ’s ministry at Operation Blessing is sending medical/relief teams there right now and I believe Pastor Jordan and a team made it there this week. There are Dominican church people that have made it to PAP and it’s been a blessing to see the cooperation and help that the Dominican church has given to the Haitian church.



Also, there were many Haitians in P. Cristina’s church that were directly affected by the disaster. A number of them made it into Haiti and were able to reach family members. Brother Hantson, who is over the Marriage Ministry and is a leader of the church, was able to find his family members alive, thank God. Other church members were able to communicate and find families although I believe a few lost family. In some cases, houses were destroyed. Those that have returned have been very shaken by what they saw.