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.