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