Haiti Quake update, 1/24/2010 3:00PM
Steve Lovell and I just had two conference calls with our pastor friends in Haiti. This is the first time that we have had good communications. It was so good to hear their voices. We spoke first with Pastor Ernst Joseph, senior pastor of the L’Eglise de la Derniere Heure (Church of the Final Hour.) The church has the same physical building as the school that we support and our school meal program. Then we spoke with Pastor Eddy Francois, founder of L’Eglise de la Derniere Heure (which Ernst now pastors) and founder of the new L’Eglise de la Derniere Heure (which he started 1 year ago and now has 2,000 people meeting in the basketball stadium. The old L’Eglise de la Derniere Heure building is totally down. The basketball stadium is still standing, but no one will go into it. This is the first day without tremors, no one wants to go inside any building.
They received with gratitude the food that Pastor Pascual brought last Wednesday from the Dominican Republic. They have been feeding several hundred people a day, but there are thousands that want to eat. Their plan now is to take the cash that we sent recently, and drive to the Dominican Republic and buy food and return and start up a second kitchen. This will mean that they are serving meals in two locations. As far as food from international aid, they report that only injured people are being fed by international aid programs. There is no food available for people who are healthy.
They say that what they need the most is prayer that it does not rain, and tents and tarps. People and children are living in the open. If it rains many are sick, and will get worse, plus many buildings are unstable and they fear that rain will cause walls and houses to fall.
Pastor Eddy said that this morning they had one of the best church services ever. He encouraged Steve and me by saying, “We have nothing, but we have hope. We are not discouraged. We know that God is taking care of us and that we are in good hands. We each have a few dead people in our churches, but we are praising the Lord.”
Tonight Pastor Eddy is organizing security for the city of Carrefour. Pastor Eddy says that they have about a thousand young men and women, and that with the permission of the Mayor of Carrefour they are organizing to take over security for the city. He says that there are some gangs that do not want order, but that they must organize the city and secure order for the benefit of all the people.
We have also sent cash to Pastor Pascual and he will drive again to Carrefour with a load of supplies. Eddy and Pascual will discuss what needs to be purchased and who can get what. There is a big need for plywood and tarps to build tent shelters. Also, Pastor Eddy needs a generator and a PA system to address the crowds.
He says that all our equipment is under the wreckage of his house, but that it is too dangerous to go inside and pull it out. If another earthquake strikes when someone is inside the house, it could kill them.
Pastor Eddy’s daughter Eunice Francois was injured in the quake. Her little toe was crushed, and the skin on her foot was opened to the bone. It was stitched up at the local hospital the night of the quake. Monday, 7 days later, she reached Miami and a surgeon opened the wound and cleaned out cement, dirt, and rotten flesh. He declared that it was so bad that amputation might be the only solution. Thank God for answered prayer. Eunice is now in another hospital, and the doctors are not talking about amputation, but about rebuilding her foot. The director of the hospital even came to Eunice to say, “I could not sleep last night, thinking of your situation.” So we know that they will take good care of her.
We need to pray for all the injured in Haiti. Only one week and a serious cut can become a life threatening case of gangrene requiring amputation, or else blood poisoning and death results. From the little we see on television there must be many people with treatable wounds that may die in the days ahead if they do not get proper attention.
So please pray for the wounded to get medical help. Pray for good weather until tents and shelters can be constructed. And continue to pray that God will feed the people who have nothing. We are happy that we are serving meals again. I told Pastor Eddy, “Spend all the money on food and serve as many people as you can, and buy tents and tarps. When the money is spent we will send more.”
Thank you to everyone who is sending donations. This is what is happening and this is how your donations are being spent. We have been working with Pastor Eddy and Pastor Ernst for over five years and we have a team of about 100 Haitians who get the job done when we serve the poor meals, or preach a mass crusade. Our 24 person crusade security team will no doubt be the nucleus of the new city-wide security team. This is not foreign aid; this is brothers and sisters working together. We do what we can do here in North America and our Haitian brothers and sisters do what they can in Haiti. God bless you for your part in this ministry. Before the quake we had 2 kitchens each serving 150 meals a day, now we will be serving many more meals, and for a long time.
Many thanks to Garry Marino and Rod Wood, of Virtual Grace, who built our web site in the 3 days following the quake. I think they did a fantastic job, what do you think?
Please keep up to date with the latest news, photos and videos at www.haiticharity.org donations are accepted there as well. Please mail donations to Precious Pearl, address below, a registered charity in the US. We will be sending tax deductible receipts to everyone in early February, 2010.
All my love in Christ,
Mac
