Haiti Trip Day Five

*Sunday morning (2/7/10) it was rise and shine. The Laguerre family prepared a delicious breakfast for us of eggs with vegetables cooked in them, bread, etc. Around 7:30 a.m. we left for the Sunday morning service at the main church in Port-Au-Prince. The building is not safe for worship so they have draped a “Greenhouse cloth” over poles and are worshipping outside. There was a choir there from the church at Di-Riviere (I’m not sure about that name or spelling.) They did an excellent job of singing. The service was good, the people rejoiced, and Mike Weaver brought a very encouraging message from Psalm 46:1-5. It was a very appropriate and touching message for this people following the tragedy. I brought greetings from Bro. Perry and the ICHA family and tried to give some encouragement and admonitions for prayer. I had brought along a copy of Bro. Darrell Miller’s email about the church in South Africa taking up $280.00 for Haiti. This was a real blessing to the people.

One of the greatest needs of this church, at the moment, is to have a large tent to be set up on the new Mais Gate’ property. There is not enough room to set up a tent where the old church is. There are 100 - 200 people living on the new church property at the moment. Many of them would have to relocate in order for us to erect this tent for church.

We left this church, which is the Mais Gate’ church, and traveled to where Pastor Jacque is planting a new church in the city. This was under tarps and tents. I think there were about 40 - 50 people in attendance. We were only able to stay a little while because of the schedule that day. Back at Pastor Simon’s house we enjoyed a delicious lunch of rice and peas, goat, plantain cakes, and sauce. We had a food distribution to a number of our people brought in on an old bus. Then we began our journey back toward Santo Domingo. Pastor Simon and Bro. Weaver were relaxing nicely on our journey until I hit a Haitian speed bump. They’re like our speed bumps on steroids. Wow! What a jolt!

Our Dominican driver, who spoke only Spanish, met us at the border again. He was a young, 24 year old fellow who loved speed! However these were not interstate highways. I looked over at least twice when the speedometer was up to 130 kilometers per hour! I think that is about 83 -85 mph. Bro. Weaver kept me laughing with his jokes, which was a good tonic for the nerves when traveling at those speeds on those roads. I was also praying and hoping to make it home alive! Thankfully we pulled into Santo Domingo safely, though we went by someone so close you could feel a little bump!

We slept at Pastor Francis’ apartment that night and rose early the next morning leaving for the airport before 5:00 a.m. What an eventful trip! It was a real eye-opening experience and I thank God that the ICHA family was able to provide some substantial help to several. Thank you for giving and praying! Continue to pray for direction that we’ll know what to do in helping with the rebuilding of the two damaged/destroyed churches. Keith Ledford

Haiti, Day Four

*Saturday – (Feb. 6, 2010) This morning after a breakfast of Haitian coffee, Haitian peanut butter, and local bread, along with grapefruit rind jelly, we left for the return trip to Port-Au-Prince. Pastor Pierre led us to the House of Hope orphanage first where we visited with Sister Merilane and the children. I was able to record the orphans singing under the direction of Sister Merilane. We then left to meet Pastor Simon at a city called Cabaret. Upon arrival, Bro. Weaver and I ate lunch at a Haitian restaurant along with some of the other Haitians. We had goat with sauce, rice with bean soup, plantain and a bottled fruit drink. Pastor Simon wanted to show us some of the earthquake damage in the area of Port-Au-Prince so we spent some time driving around, surveying the damage, and taking pictures. The scope of the destruction was incredible. We went by the Palace and other national buildings. It was as if a giant hand had squashed and broken building after building. He took us to one six floor building near a large church that had many people inside of it. It had collapsed till it was no more than 20 feet tall approximately. The emotional toll on the people of Haiti is enormous! Many have lost family, friends, or acquaintances. Most in Port-Au-Prince are not sleeping in their houses because they are afraid that their dwelling will collapse because of damage or that another quake will bring it down. We viewed and photographed the ruins of the main Catholic church in the country of Haiti. There are many tent cities around the capital. Many of those tents are just blankets, or pieces of cloth on poles designed to shade them from the sun and give some privacy, etc. If the rain sets in many of these people will be flooded out of their tents. That is an imminent danger for thousands! One American doctor that I talked with said that Port-au-Prince looked like carpet bombing in Europe during World War II. No wonder the people are traumatized! We stopped back by the new Mais Gate’ property and took pictures of the 600 gallon water tank that the ICHA had purchased to provide water for the families living on the church property. It was set up with a piece of ¾ inch (approx.) PVC and a valve for opening up and shutting off the water flow. Pastor Simon is going to try to get the government to fill the tank on a daily basis. Later Saturday afternoon we arrived at Pastor Simon’s dwelling and visited with the orphans and Pastor Simon’s family. Bro. Mike Weaver entertained the children for quite a while doing funny things. There was one little orphan that was a Mike Weaver in the making. He and Bro. Weaver hit it off right away. We slept in the tent again on Saturday night. There was an ambitious rooster that roosted about 15 feet from where we were sleeping and he started sounding off about 2:30 a.m. He managed to keep it up the rest of the night on an intermittent basis. Mike Weaver threatened him with death, which would have been a blessing for us! Pastor Simon had been working during the night bagging up rice, beans, and oil to be distributed to some of our Haitian people. We had given a large offering from the ICHA to help him purchase food.

Haiti, Day Three

*Friday – (Feb. 5, 2010) Pastor Simon took us to see different camps where some of our people are staying. At the camp on the new church property in Mais Gate’ we bought a 600 gallon water tank because the people are having a difficult time getting water. We stopped and ate a sandwich for breakfast at a gas station. While we were there Bro. Weaver said something about us having many tents, which a Haitian overheard who spoke English. This Haitian gentleman, who looked well to do, asked Pastor Simon if he could have a tent. He said he didn’t have one to sleep in. Pastor Simon agreed to bring him one. We had brought a total of 14 between the two of us. When Pastor Simon brought him the tent the man told him that he had worked for USAD for 20 years and would help us to get food for our needy people! After we left the gas station we traveled to the House of Hope Orphanage in Trou Baguette and met Pastor Pierre and one of his local church board members. We visited with Sis. Merilane and the orphans for a while. She has some cracks in the dorm building and is having the children to sleep outside now. She would like for an engineer to evaluate the dorm building to see if it is safe. We gave her money to help with food especially because she has extra children now because of the earthquake. She went from approximately 20 children to 45! Sister Merilane desperately needs a mature, single, godly lady who could be financially self-sustaining to come and help her in this tremendous ministry. There is opportunity for wonderful results in a long-term labor of love. After leaving House of Hope we traveled on to St. Marc, stopping along the way to visit with a church that has affiliated with us recently. We had a late lunch at Pastor Pierre’s house of plantain cakes, goat and sauce. Then we left to visit a church that is feeding displaced people from the earthquake. We gave some funds to help with their food needs. Then our group traveled to the hospital in St. Marc which had 70 earthquake victims there at that time. A Canadian nurse practitioner who was coordinating the volunteer work there at the hospital said they had treated over 300. Pastor Pierre and their church board discussed bringing in meals to help the victims. Hospitals there are far different than ours. There was a lady (not in the earthquake wards) there that looked to be pregnant who was crying out in pain. A Haitian nurse said that she had a tumor and they had done everything they could to help her. This poor lady pulled up her top to show us her distended abdomen in a desperate plea for help. She had no family or friends to be with her. Her memory haunts my mind. Later we went to an abandoned hotel that had been turned into a place for displaced people from the earthquake. The man who was running it was a Haitian who had lived in the U.S. for several years. They were keeping 120 people there in the hotel. I asked if there was something we could do for them. He said they needed many things but one thing that weighed on him was the need for mattresses for babies. There were little babies sleeping on blankets on concrete floors. I gave him some Haitian money right then for fuel and we told him we would see what we could do. We left Pastor Pierre with a good offering from the ICHA to minister to the needs of earthquake victims around St. Marc.

Haiti, Day Two

*Arrival - Pastor Simon and his nephew Francis met me at the airport and we traveled back to Francis’ apartment in his old Plymouth Voyager which was absent the sliding side door. Pastor Simon prepared a meal for us of tuna and beans and rice. Then we traveled to the hospital and visited with a young lady, named Genese, from the Mais Gate’ church who had been injured severely in the earthquake and then flown to Santo Domingo where she was in a public hospital. She was getting virtually no care and her sister and friend felt that she needed to be brought to a hospital near Port-au-Prince that was run by Americans. We were finally able to talk with the hospital administrator who gave the order to the doctor to treat her and release her. That would not happen until the next morning so we went and rented a mini-van at the airport for our travels and to be able to transport Genese. Since I had slept only 3 hours the night before I laid down at Francis’ apartment for about an hour and a half before leaving to pick up Bro. Mike Weaver who arrived about midnight.

*Thursday - (Feb. 4, 2010)Francis, Pastor Simon, Bro. Weaver, and I arrived at the hospital the next morning around 10:00 to pick up Genese. It’s almost needless to say that it didn’t go like we had hoped! While trying to get into the hospital Francis had to haggle aggressively to get past guards. We made it past the first guard (Francis is a police chaplain which carried some weight) but the next guard was determined and so Francis and Geneses’ friend had to go alone and Pastor Simon and I returned to our rental van where we had left Bro. Weaver. We sat there for two to three hours waiting for the doctor to release our patient. Finally she came rolling out on a crude gurney. We drove back by Francis’ shop and dropped him off and picked up our driver, Viadi, who was to take us to the Haitian border.

It is about a five hour drive from Santo Domingo to the Haitian border. Darkness had settled in by the time we made it there. Our driver parted with us there and I took over the driving responsibilities with Pastor Simon as our navigator. We finally arrived at the hospital where Genese was carried into a large tent and soon four American doctors converged on this young patient giving her much needed attention. She was in renal failure which was of grave concern. They transferred her to the Comfort ship the next day. I hope we hear something soon. If her life is spared, I feel like it was worth the whole trip and all of your giving and praying. After we left the hospital we drove on to Pastor Simon’s house where we set up a tent, inflated our air mattresses, and prepared for rest.

Trip to Haiti

*Wednesday morning (1/3/10) I pulled out of our driveway at 3:10 a.m. to drive to Charlotte, NC to catch American Airlines flight 3968 to Miami, FL. When I turned my phone back on after landing there was a voice mail from Bro. Mike Weaver, who had been throwing up and terribly sick through the night. He was unsure what to do about the Haiti trip. Within the hour he called back to tell me he was feeling some better and was soon leaving for Indy to catch his flight. As I write these thoughts I am flying over the Atlantic Ocean toward Santo Domingo, DR. There are many Haiti aid workers traveling on this flight. It would be good to pray that the Lord will take this tragedy and use it for the good of the nation of Haiti.

The Lord willing Pastor Simon and I will meet Mike Weaver tonight around midnight. Tomorrow we are to travel by car to Haiti. Please pray that we will be a blessing and an encouragement to many people. Pray that we will be able to minister to the most needs possible and find special people that the Lord wants us to help.

If I can get WI-FI access in the DR and in Haiti I hope to post information and pictures on a blog for our ICHA family and others to follow.