The donations and support continue to pour into Haiti in overwhelming waves, and each day we are busy coordinating these supplies and communicating with people who are eager to help. 

 

The other day one man offered to send us a truckload of supplies to keep our Port Au Prince guesthouse stocked.  This is a very great offer since finding supplies is a “new form of scavenging,” as Dan Irvine says.  Another friend made a similar proposition.  Their grocery shopping will be a huge help since each day our mission vehicles are tied up transporting doctors to the medical clinic and to the airport, and because it is difficult to find a grocery store opened and stocked with the supplies we need. 

 

We’ve also been coordinating a very large and generous supply shipment funded by the New England Wesleyan District.  This shipment, which is scheduled to come in next week sometime will include enough food to share with the entire town of Anses-a-Galets as well as some vital supplies like fuel. 

 

Though receiving these supplies is awesome, the logistics of it all can be overwhelming at times.   Fortunately, a good friend of Dan Irvine, a Haitian man with a Master’s degree in economics, has been writing a distribution plan.  This plan will not only help us keep track of who received what supplies and when, but it will also provide accountability for the leaders in country who will be handling these massive donations.

 

Seeing the donations come in and hearing the plans come to fruition is extremely encouraging in a time of such uncertainty.  We will continue to need support in the coming weeks as we deal with the ripple effects.  Pastors are asking for things like tents and tarps for their congregations who are sleeping outside and dreading the rainy season.  The medical clinics are continuing to look for supplies as they treat a steady flow of patients.  And yes, we missionaries continue to ask for your prayers as we try to react redemptively to all that’s going on here. 

 

Thanks for your prayers and your help!

    Blessings,

         Justine for the Haiti team

   Yesterday started out very busy with Dan heading off to deliver supplies and Carl heading out to pick up the South Carolina team, which included his sister.  The SC team arrived in the country yesterday by car.  Carl had picked them up at the border, and was able to drive them to the guest house just in time for lunch. We had a couple hours to spend with the team and their leader Greg Edmunds.  Greg is also a Global Partners missionary currently raising support to come to Haiti where he will oversee the hospital rebuild on La Gonave.   After lunch Greg and his team left as fast as they had come, heading out to the Petit Guave clinic where they will be for the next 8 days. 

   They hadn’t been in the clinic for very long before they received a patient, a young boy with a pick axe wound.  The boy had gotten too close to somebody who was digging through debris.  As the digger was swinging his pick axe back, he struck the boy in the head.   The injury was very serious with grey matter exposed and paralysis in part of his body.  This injury was far beyond anything that the outdoor clinic is setup to handle.       

   Fortunately, the team had a back up plan.  Just that morning Dan Irvine had made contact with an aid worker from Samaritan’s Purse.  This worker told him that they had medical helicopters available and offered his services to the clinic.  Later that day, the team in Petit Guave took Samaritan’s Purse up on their offer. Though the organization was surprised to receive a phone call from Dan so quickly, they were more than happy to help.  They responded quickly to our call, airlifting the boy to an American hospital where he will be treated for brain trauma.

 

Matt -

Late yesterday evening I arrived at the Wesleyan Guest house in Port au Prince for the first time since the earthquake.   Even though I am just now getting out here this guest house has been a hub of activity for over two weeks now.  Unlike most of the other guest houses in town ours was far enough North to avoid any severe damage.  Out of all the guest houses that we frequented on our way in and out of town this is the only guest house that was left in a functional condition.   As result it has become a command center for coordination and housing several teams a week as they come into the city before they head out to various clinics all around the area.   

 

Even though the house wasn’t greatly damaged, the signs of the quake are visible in the form of numerous cracks on the walls.   Another constant reminder of the earthquake here is loss of power and water.  For now we run a generator for a few hours every night to charge up our computers, inverters, and the freezer and bale all of our water out of a cistern under the drive way.  The earthquake has also started another routine of taking the mattresses and things we need to sleep outside every night and carrying them back in every morning.  Since we are still in danger of another earthquake here at night everyone sleeps outside or right next to a door, and people are seldom on the second floor where it would take the longest to get out of the house.  

 

The atmosphere here is one of high energy and constant planning and organizing.  In the evening it’s common to see tables full of people on their laptops going through emails arranging flights and inventorying materials.  Meanwhile others are huddled around a large scheduling calendar on the wall while doctors walk back and forth in their scrubs eager to get some rest before heading out the next day.  Most of the people coming through are in a tired and ragged state, but if asked any of them would tell you that there is nowhere else that they would rather be.

Is help coming?  That seems to be the question everyone is asking both in Haiti and in the United States.  After hearing so much about the disaster, many people are wondering if relief efforts really are taking place, and people here are wondering if help is on the way.

 

Well just in the last week on LaGonave, we have been able to confidently answer that question with a YES.  In the past week, we have seen 3 MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) planes land on the island carrying half a ton of food a piece.  Workers from our mission then picked up the food and distributed it to local pastors who are in turn giving it to families in need.  We have also had numerous medical teams coming into Port Au Prince, carrying in supplies and other necessities.

 

And, most exciting of all, we saw a ship from the US military land at our public wharf just this morning.  The ship, which carried both members of the US navy and the US marines, was transporting food and a medical team to Haiti in response to last week’s disaster.  We watched as the officers handed out boxes of food to hundreds of people standing at the wharf.  It was so strange to see the uniformed American men mingling with the Haitians that we know so well. 

 

Later we transported several of the men from the ship to the local hospital where they volunteered and treated earthquake victims who are now suffering from infections.  The service men were all friendly and excited to help.  They asked us several questions about what we will need in the future and were very interested in the well-being of the rest of the island.    

 

It was such a neat experience to be on the receiving end of the foreign aid we hear so much about in America.  Though the amount of food and supplies that has come in is not enough to meet the massive needs on the island, it is enough to encourage the people here and to let them know that help is on the way. 

 

Thank you all for continuing to pray and being a part of those who are sending help. 

 

In Him,

      Justine

 

With a large part of our team in Port au Prince now working to manage numerous medical teams that are coming and going there are only a small hand full of us left on La Gonave.  We have stopped English and Computer classes for now and most of the work projects around the compound have come to a stop as we have run out of gourds to pay the workers.  Besides us running out of Haitian Gourds, signs of the country’s shattered economy have also started to show up in the town in the form of stores being out of rice, the price of fuel doubling, and the bank being closing for nearly a week.  However there is word that the bank will be reopening on Monday and there is supposed to be a large boat of rice coming soon as well. 

   Even though there aren’t many of us left on the mission station here on La Gonave things can still get crazy sometimes.  Just this morning Butch was woken up from a nap by a call letting us know that that there was a need for crutches and a plane would be at the airfield within an hour to pick them up.  Since everyone with keys to the depot was off work today we had to break in and then load the truck up as fast as we could and take off toward the air field.  

   Friday morning the Scotland Lemonade team came in by boat at 10:30 unloaded and arrived at the Wesleyan mission at 10:50 then promptly split up, sending one group with supplies up to the orphanage and one group with medications over to the hospital pharmacy.   The group that was at the hospital restocked the pharmacy, took video footage, surveyed the new construction, and inspected structural damage to the old part.  This is the group that is heading up the project to rebuild the hospital next August. Meanwhile Dan Irvine who came in with them was having a meeting with the hospital director and tracking down another cook to take with them back to Port.  Then they all left just as fast as they had come to meet their MAF flight at 12:00.  After all of the commotion was over and the dust had settled there were still two of the Scotland team members here on the station that had been left.  It wasn’t an accident though.  They gave their seats so that a sick girl could make an emergency medical evacuation.  So then right after lunch they were headed back down to the boat with Butch to start their long trip back so that they could make their flight out of the country the next morning.  This is just another small example of daily life here. 

  Last night we had another furry of action as we got the call that a family needed important adoption papers for one of the orphans on the island.  If these papers could be drawn up, this little boy had a chance at leaving the country the next day to go to his new family.  Before this could happen, we needed a written statement from the mayor and the town judge who were no where to be found.  Luckily some of the guys who work for WISH would not give up.  They ran back and forth all over town for hours until they finally had somehow hunted down the judge and mayor who they pulled out of a meeting and then with the mayor’s help convinced the judge to come down to the station at 8:00pm on a Saturday night to draw up the last of the papers.  The little boy was on the boat heading over to meeting at the American Embassy this afternoon to determine his fate, and right now he is on a plane flying into the United States to start his new life!!

Matt

            “Ayti kraze,” (Haiti is broken) our wash lady exclaimed as we talked Wednesday morning.  She had started our conversation by asking me if I had felt the second earthquake.  I had.  It had made me jump out of bed at 6a.m. that morning.  She went on to tell me that because of that large tremor people again are sleeping in the streets afraid to enter their homes.

 

            Fear seems to be the growing sentiment these days as families continue to assess the damage.  I first heard this fear in a conversation I had with Mme. Sammy and Sè Judith, two Haitian women who work in our guesthouse.  The two were explaining to me that the price of 8 oz. water bags in Port Au Prince has jumped from1 gourde per bag to 5 gourdes[1] in one week.  “Tout bagay ap vin pi che,”  (Everything is becoming more expensive.) Mme. Sammy said. She then told me she wanted to send money to her mother to help with increased food prices, but she could find no way to get it to her.    

 

            This same bleakness has colored most of the conversations that I’ve had this week.  People are telling stories about family members who found bodies of their loved ones but had no car to take them anywhere.  They are talking about survivors who were injured but died because they had no transportation to hospitals.  And they are talking about the problems that they could face in the future. 

 

            One of the most pressing concerns is an impending food shortage.  With refugees from the capital arriving here penniless and nearly naked, people are starting to wonder how long food supplies will last.  Port Au Prince was a major supplier for all the food that is sold here, and now with this source cut off and with this post-earthquake population influx, food shortage seems imminent.

 

            Looking even further into the future, assuming they make it through a food crisis, people are wondering what will be left of Haiti.  “Port Au Prince kraze.  Ayti kraze,” I heard the phrase again from the mouth of a friend.  She went on to tell me that the universities are gone, and many teachers died.  People want to start schools again, but no one will agree.  Another woman, a grieving mother, looked at her 12 year old daughter and said she couldn’t send her to Port Au Prince to study.  Not after losing 3 children there. 

 

            To be honest, it’s hard to disagree with the people when they say that Haiti is broken and hard to speak hope in light of so much devastation.  But even in the face of these obstacles, I can’t help but wonder how our God of restoration will come through for this country.   

 

 

            Below is a list of things I asked my prayer partners to pray for today.  Thanks so much for what you’re doing!

            Justine for the Haiti team

   

1) Pray for families who lost loved ones in the earthquake.  So many here are grieving.

 

2) Pray for the survivors who are moving out of Port Au Prince and into different places all over the country.  Many of these people left the capital with nothing. (no food, no clothes, nothing)

 

3) Pray for the communities (like mine) who are absorbing the Port Au Prince refugees.  Population increases will cause serious food problems in the coming weeks (especially since PAP was such a center for commerce).

 

4) Pray for hope and a future for Haiti.  Many are feeling very discouraged b/c the country’s Universities, government, and economic hub have been destroyed. 

 

5) Pray that the Aid that is coming in won’t just be short-term but will lead to long-term development projects that were overdue here even before the earthquake. 

 

6) Pray for remaining missionaries here.  That God would guide us as we take on new roles, that He’d give us words to encourage the hopeless around us, and that’d He’d give us wisdom to channel any resources we have to those with the most urgent needs. 

 

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[1] Gourdes are the Haitian currency.  It takes about 40 gourdes to make 1 dollar US.

As the dust and initial panic begin to settle, we are getting a better look at the wreckage. Instead of crumbled buildings, we are seeing faces. Instead of nameless casualties, we are seeing families. One such family, the Osne family, has proved an amazing example of hope in such a crisis.

I was able to visit the Osne’s for the third time this morning. Joy Irvine and I came up to their modest home and found friends, relatives, and family members all sitting together on blankets in the yard. A large tarp hung overhead providing shade for the grieving family.

It was here that we sat for over an hour talking again about the three kids they have lost. We talked about what they saw in Port Au Prince, the collapsed apartment where Jacky, Ketheline, and Merland had lived, the events leading up to the earthquake, and the sovereignty of our God. Surprisingly both Frer Felicien and Mme. Felicien said, “God could have taken them out, but he didn’t. He has a reason, and he has a plan. We cannot lage li. (let go of him)”

Though sorrow was obviously present, this faith was the overriding sentiment in the home of the Osnes. Even Merline (24), the oldest surviving daughter repeated her parents’ sentiments, “Nou pa ka lage Bondye (We can’t let go of God).” She said this to me just after lamenting that she is all alone and has lost three of her siblings and best friends.

Though Merline and her mother are still having trouble sleeping, and though no one in the family has an appetite, the Osnes continue to exemplify faith in the midst of their struggle. In situations like this, “every man has a choice. They can choose bitterness or they can choose trust,” Joy commented to me as we walked away. “It’s so clear right now that they (the Osnes) are choosing trust.”

This morning we were shaken awake by another big earthquake.  The apartment started shaking at 6:03am and we quickly learned the source was a 6.1 magnitude tremor almost directly under Petit Goave.  This time it was a little bit further from Port au Prince than last weeks 7.0 but it was still very close and definitely strong enough to destroy buildings that had already been weakened.  We haven’t heard anything from our team in Port since this morning but chances are that they weren’t effected at their based which is located to the North of the city.  The area they are at saw a much smaller impact from last weeks quake than most of the city. 

 

  Joy left first thing this morning to head to Port to help deal with the logistics of all the arriving medical teams.  A group of Wesleyan Methodist missionaries from a town near ours shared the boat with her on their way out of the country.  This group also dropped off all of their food with us on their way out which helped replenish supplies here.  Today one of our tasks will be to go through all of our supplies, determine how long things will last and which needs are most vital.  We are currently in contact with three different aid ships that should be coming through the channel on their way to port.  Our hope is that we can get one to divert and bring the town some of its valuable food and fuel resources.   It’s still hard to say how bad it will be but we can be certain that food and fuel scarcity will be a big issue here in the coming weeks.  Please continue to pray for aid for the island and for our medical teams in Port.

- Matt

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This moring both the Hyde Wesleyan Team, the team we rescued from down south and Methodist group that was also in Anse Galets loaded up on the Breezy Sea and headed toward our warf on the main land.  Once they get there the group will split with half going to catch a ride back on a relief flight in PAP and the other half starting a long drive to Cape Haitian where they will take a MFI flight out on Monday.  Things are very quite here on the station now and even though we are still try to arrange some traveling legistics for the teams that just left, today we will have a chance to start thinking about what the future for all of us that are still here will look like.

Below is an update from our medical team in Port.

Hi, all! 

Things are okay here. It’s hard to say “good” in light of a 7.0 earthquake and the devastation that follows, but it’s a much better situation for us than I had imagined.

Things are getting better on the streets… Things are slowly getting cleaned up. There are no more piles of bodies in the street, nor bodies lined up outside of houses for identification. There are still dead trapped in houses, which you can identify by the stench. Everyone walks around with a mask on.

But we have felt very safe. We’re staying at Carl and Maya’s, as the Embassy did not work out. We did gather good info, though, that if we show up at the Embassy and ask to be evacuated, they will. That’s a nice thing to know just in case.

We drove through several places in the city today on our way to clinic. Many buildings have pancaked down, but they have cleared the rubble out of the road. There are white people, relief workers and UN, in soooo many places! This is the safest I’ve ever felt in Port before. Part of it is probably because I’m with a big group of since I speak more Creole now, but the people are also very subdued.

Today, we saw people out walking around doing normal looking things. Some of the markets are open. Several gas stations are open with long lines.

We set up a clinic in Carfoufe today. Our largest Wesleyan church is there, some of it is still standing. That area was very hard hit. We had the clinic in a classroom in the Wesleyan school. We had a bunch of help from people in the church, and they were wonderful!!

The sickest patients showed up for the first few hours. Probably the worst was a girl with a broken femur and broken wrist. Mainly, we cleaned wounds and splinted broken bones. We saw about 100 patients all together. Dr. Kris Thede joined our group with morning, and it was so good to see her! Mis Viro has been here at Carl’s, so she came with us too. It was good.

We did a lot of wound debridement, and gangrene is already starting to set in just a little. I spent 30 minutes carefully cleaning a wound and removing the nonviable tissue on one young guy. A piece of his house fell on this ankle where the wound was. His parents and all 3 of his siblings died as the house came down. He alone escaped and is now homeless. He was so brace while I cleaned him up with no anestehtic. We talked for a little while about how God has a plan for him, as he alone was spared, and also how he came for medical treatment at a critical time. Hopefully, with debridement and antibiotics, he will live to tell his story.

Much love, and I just wanted to report on what we’re up to. We finished our clinic an hour earlier than planned since we ran out of patients, so we’re hoping to link up with Bobby Boyer tomorrow and see if we can help out in their clinic. Dr. Kris also suggested that we get in touch with other Wesleyan churches and see if they need clinics there like we did today. We’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Thanks for your prayers,

~diane

This afternoon we sent out our second Wesleyan relief team to Port Au Prince. This team, made up of P.A. Diane Busch, Dr. Jim , and Patricia Alexander, has a medical focus and hopes to spend the afternoon scouting out a good location for a medical clinic. They have tentatively decided to find a secure area near Carefourre Feilles where one of our sister Wesleyan Churches was located.

The three will be joined by Pastor Carl Gilles when they arrive on the mainland. Then on Monday, they will team up with a large medical relief team from the U.S. lead by Dr. Steve Edmonson. The incoming team will be bringing in an entire M.A.S.H. unit, including several medical supplies, and they will be accompanied by two armed guards. This team is hoping to offer any healthcare they can to earthquake survivors.

The other Wesleyan relief team left LaGonave on Thursday afternoon to aid families still searching for loved ones. This relief effort was initiated and carried out by about fifteen Haitians, including a doctor a nurse and several friends of missing persons.

Most of that team returned early Friday morning after finding the bodies of Jacky (21) and Marland Osne (24) in the rubble of what was once their apartment. The Osne’s also lost another child, Ketheline (20) whose body was removed from the scene by officials before friends arrived.
These three are survived by their mother and father, older sister Merline, and two younger sisters Lori and Samantha. (Merline and her mother are both employed by the Wesleyan mission.)

Miss Vero, one of the head nurses from the Wesleyan Hospital who was also on this team located her son in Capital. Now that her son is safe, she may be able to join our medical relief team.

Please pray for the Osne family and others like them who are mourning. We mourn with them for the loss of these three beautiful young people. All three were strong believers, finishing their college education in Port Au Prince. Pray this family finds hope and strength in the coming weeks.

Also, please continue to pray for our medical team and other relief teams entering into Port Au Prince. Pray for their wisdom, protection, and that God would guide them as they face unprecedented levels of devastation.

Today as more and more reports come in it is becoming evident the level of destruction in Port au prince is beyond anything that we could have imagined. Entire sections of the city have been leveled and in some areas there are more dead than alive. The Port au Prince that we knew before, all the guest houses that we used to stay at, all of the stores we depended on for supplies, the palace and the cathedral are all gone and in there place is something like a war zone. Another stark example of this tragedy hitting home here in Anse-Galets could be heard this morning at 5:00am as they had the funeral for three of the family members of a local family that is very close to all of us here. Even with all of these terrible realities setting in there have been several positive developments. Our boat captain was able to pick up another weeks worth of fuel and bring it back to the island this evening. Also Dan and Butch made a successful trip to pick up a team that was stranded in the south. This was the longest trip that we have ever made on the new boat and part of it was after dark. Also today a boat load of six hundred people came in from port.

 Our hospital was on full stand by and has made all the preparations for the incoming wave of patients. It seems that everyone that can is starting to leave port au prince and spread out to their homes in other parts of the country. Another praise is that the cell phone networks have started to operate about half the time which has allowed us to coordinate with Carl Gilles in Port au Prince. Currently we have a plan to send a small medical team to the capital tomorrow to do some scouting and meet up with a much larger group coming from the United States on Monday. Please pray for this group as they spend time in Port au prince and that the Lord will be able to work through them in miraculous ways to help some of the suffering people.

- Matt

Today, the emotional shock from Tuesday’s earthquake continues. Families, with the help of some limited phone communication have been able to re-establish contact with missing siblings, spouses, and children.  Several workers within our mission have received tragic news that friends or family members are gone. 

 

However, there have been a few positive reports amidst the devastation.  We were able to re-establish contact with missionaries Carl and Maya Gilles.  Though they have not been sleeping in their home, we do know that they are safe.  We also know that our driver in Port Au Prince and his family are fine. 

 

Additionally, we have been hosting a team from Hyde Wesleyan Church in Pennsylvania.  The team members have been extremely helpful, positive, and flexible.  Today several of them organized medical supplies that will be sent to Port Au Prince later this week. With the airport closed in the capital, we are exploring alternative options to get this team home. 

 

For now our food, water, and fuel situation is good.  But we are uncertain when we will be able to replenish these supplies. 

 

On a positive note, e-mails offering aid are flooding our inboxes and we are hearing reports of relief workers hitting the ground in Port.  We are grateful for this immediate and massive response from the North American Church and from our friends around the world.

 

Please continue praying for us as we live amongst so many who are grieving.  Pray for the families still searching for loved ones and for those who have found them.  Pray also for continued aid and organization as the Church faces this crisis. 

 

               Sincerely,

                 Justine and Matt for the Haiti team

Even this morning, we continue to feel the aftershocks from the earthquakes last evening. 

We rejoice that we have heard from the Canada that Carl & Maya Gilles and their household are fine.  As yet we have no contact with them directly.

Anse-a-Galets is unusually quiet today; many have received word of the devastation and loss of family in Port-au-Prince.  At this point the wharf is closed allowing no water traffic to leave the island.

There are some unconfirmed reports of death on LaGonave in some of the mountain regions, but nothing like the devastation that Port-au-Prince is experiencing.

All Wesleyan hospital patients slept in the tin roof clinic building or in the yard because they were afraid to be in the cement roofed hospital.

We are concerned about food and potable water for those in Port-au-Prince.  We here on LAG will begin conserving fuel by turning off generators.

We are also concerned about a breakdown in social order, which will depend largely on the extent of the international humanitarian response to this disaster.  Communication is virtually impossible in the country except satellite internet.

If you or people you know would like to give to Haiti Relief please go to the following website and follow the directions.   There will be much to do in the coming weeks and months.  http://www.wesleyan.org/doc/news_article?id=658&src=news

Blessings,

Dan & Joy Irvine                       

Most of you have heard news of the earthquake which Haiti experienced this evening.  For those of us living on LaGonave it was a very unsettling event which continues with aftershocks, several each hour.  The major cell phone provider for the country is not functioning and the only news we are receiving out of Port-au-Prince is internet and radio news.  Throughout the evening we have been hearing the wails that tell us another family in our community has received devastating news regarding loved ones residing in Port-au-Prince. 

Upon initial examination the hospital appears not to have sustained any major damage but the patients are sleeping in the tin roof clinic instead of the concrete roof hospital building.  At this point we don’t expect to have a lot more information until morning.

 

                At the time of this writing, we have not yet been able to establish contact with Carl and Maya Gilles, Wesleyan missionaries, who live in the Tabarre suburb of Port-au-Prince. 

 There are 5 Wesleyan churches in the greater Port-au-Prince area.  One of them, the largest Wesleyan church in Haiti, is located in the area that seems to have been hardest hit.  We have not yet been able to establish communication with the pastor of that church or anyone associated with it.

 

We presently have a mission team from Western Pennsylvania District, whose families are understandably nervous. 

 

We have already heard from many of you and are grateful for your concern and prayers.

Blessings,

Dan & Joy Irvine