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Updates from Haiti - Jan. 2010 Earthquake Reposted from Ed Lockett's Facebook page   |    Ed's photos from Haiti (The most recent updates are first.) April 4, 2010 For those of you who still sponsor a Haiti child through this ministry, I finally received word this week about the welfare of the sponsored children. From Bananier, Marchasse and Petit Goave, only one sponsored child in Petit Goave was injured during the earthquake, and he is recovering (Thank you Lord!). However, several of the homes of these children in Petit Goave were severely damaged. In a related note, many schools throughout Haiti tried reopening this week (including Ed's Lakul school). Many others have not. I will pass on information as I get word on these sponsored schools. Ed returned to Haiti last Thursday. From his Facebook page today: It has always been a different planet here, but now it is even more so. So many things going on in so many directions. Constant change. Good service in Grand Goave this morning. A lot of people do seem to be thinking more seriously about life and death....and earthquakes. And if you have not done so already, check out this interview with Ed while he was in the states. Update from Joel about the MVI meeting Carole and I had a good time in Orlando the last few days. The MVI meeting went well, and it was a blessing to be a part of it. There were about a dozen of us, including key members of the MVI office in Orlando, the presidents of the MVI offices in Canada and Great Britain, and the president of MVI, Glen Dubois. And of course, there was Ed. I will briefly try to summarize some of what came out of it: According to Ed, a lot of help has been pouring into Petit Goave in some ways, like medical. For teams, the two biggest needs: 1. Care. People coming to help who really care about the Haitians...not people coming to do something for the purpose of showing others and their church what they accomplished with a picture of them there (apparently this goes on quite a bit). People should come who want to get to know the Haitians they are helping and working along side with them. 2. Construction. Rebuilding homes, then schools and churches, and eventually a Happy House and guest house. However, as stated above, there needs to be a focus on loving the people and building relationships as well as building buildings...to express the love of Christ. There also needs to be a mindset that people are working with Haitians, not doing stuff for them. And it needs to go a step further in that people with construction skills need to train Haitians to do the job, so they can keep doing it when the teams go home and so that jobs can be created. Along these lines, MVI will be looking to send 3 teams each month. The teams will be mixed in that they will be involved in building projects as well as relationship building activities. There will be a strategy coordinator on the ground in Haiti to ensure that the projects run as smoothly and as efficiently as possible from one team to the next. As you know, we will be leading one of those teams at the end of May. We now have a team of 14 people with a good mix of construction and non-construction (like me) backgrounds. There was much more, but I think that's enough for now. It was good to see Ed, but it was way too short a time with him. He still needs prayer to process all that he has experienced these last couple of months. Ed in the U.S. Ed made it to he DR last night, and to Tampa, FL today. Check out this story by CNN: Red tape, bad traffic, no power: 'That's Haiti' The bottom line: Haiti is making it very difficult to get relief supplies into the country by either imposing high custom taxes on donated supplies or requesting that such supplies be handed over to the government until the relief organization can be checked and authorized (but nobody believes the government will return such items). This is particularly serious for short-term missions as well as long-standing ministries in Haiti that are trying to provide immediate and life-saving help to the Haitian people. Perhaps if enough people would contact their congressman about this, the U.S. government might put pressure on the Haitian government to do something about it. it's very difficult to understand how the Haitian government could state that that there is no crisis anymore, and thus implement these rules. February 24-25, 2010 Must finish packing. We are leaving at 4:00 AM tomorrow morning to head over to the Dominican Republic. We will fly back to the States from there on Saturday. Don't know if I'll have Internet access or not. Will leave the computer on for now. I doubt anybody is going to look this happy tomorrow morning... Little faces like this help me keep coming back. As soon as I walked up, she just ran over and hugged me and wouldn't let go. (picture on Ed's FB) The US Marines completely pulled out of Petit Goave today. We still have a LOT of people coming down... We had a good day, though the packing has not progressed much... It is both easy and hard to leave now. When I think of only myself, it is easy to leave, but when I think about them... It's been a busy, and a bittersweet day. The joy I find here is like no other. I look deep into the eyes. Eyes that have seen so much and yet still have a sparkle. Eyes that can see tomorrow...(picture on Ed's FB) My body is trying to pack, but my heart... I still have a lot of things to put in order before leaving. I will be in Tampa for the first few days of my visit in the States. Will be in a meeting at MVI in Orlando Mar 4. Will be speaking at Orlando North Community Church on Mar 7th. Will be at Evangelical Methodist in Dalton, Georgia on Mar 14th. My schedule is still unfolding so will try to keep folks posted as I find out the details... Thursday 2/25 We all slept in the house last night. We all got up this morning. We have collected our tents and are trying to move on to Jan 13th. The loooooong day of Jan 12 appears to be coming to an end... There are so many awesome things going on...and one awful thing...I still have to pack... We made it through the night. All safe and accounted for. Now I need to start packing my things and getting ready to head to America for a few days... February 23, 2010 Not so long ago, we were praying for help here. That prayer has been, and continues to be answered... Rex, Another MVI missionary from Uganda. Another helping hand here and an old friend...(picture on Ed's FB) Most of today's pictures are happy pictures...(picture on Ed's FB) The sun went down but there was some serious singing and shaking going on. Good shaking. The kind of shaking that makes you laugh if you're watching and makes you sore if you're shaking.....(picture on Ed's FB) Remember this Marie Claude? Not the one that was in the rubble but the one that had hurt her hip before the earthquake. She was doing a lot better but now she has a fever. She came over to the school and had some rice and beans...(picture on Ed's FB) Working together. We plan for all of our construction efforts to be joint projects. It's not just buildings and walls that we're building... Bud Simon, an MVI missionary from the Dominican. Helping in Haiti... (picture on Ed's FB) The team is working hard and making lots of friends... It has been the hub of a LOT of activity over the last few days... Another busy day. Mostly spent at the Lakul school. 8:35 AM Tue Finally went back to sleep last night. Several times. The tremor I felt was in the news this morning. It was a 4.7. Yea though I sleep in the valley of the shadow of death... 1:30 AM Just had a pretty powerful aftershock. My reflexes aren't so bad for an old man. Woke right up with the bed shaking and was out the door immediately. Felt the floor moving as I ran. I've been sleeping with my door open. One less obstacle in the path of escape. Now I'm back on my bed. Nothing fell. Electricity is still on. Hope it stays on all night. I know I will. February 22, 2010 Let there be electricity for the new water pump. A guy from Tampa. A guy from Boston. In Haiti. The Lord brings things together in amazing ways...(picture on Ed's FB) We are beginning to build. Another truckload of rocks...(picture on Ed's FB) LOTS going on out at the school today... Gave away another 500 lbs of rice and beans today Some new friends that we may be doing some serious work with. It would take too long to go into all the details but there are some awesome possibilities here. Please pray that the Lord orchestrates this and has His way...(picture on Ed's FB) The US Marines are pulling out and for now we have these guys. The Spanish Marines. They are harder for me to talk to, but I managed to make some conversation. They go out to the Wesleyan clinic about every day. A few went out to our clinic today...(picture on Ed's FB) You can never go out there and spend more than 5 minutes without seeing or hearing some amazing things. Here's a little girl that is a few minutes old. No name yet. The mother is actually still inside on the table. This is one of three babies born this morning...(picture on Ed's FB) We still have the MV team here and they are working in different places. For me I had some meetings this morning. Started off at the clinic in the Wesleyan... It was another busy day. Good things are happening. Some of the good things even have the potential to turn into great things... Monday 11:00 AM Meetings, plans, hopes. Getting ready to head out to the Lakul where the MVI team has already put the pump in the well and water is flowing... February 20-21, 2010 I stand in awe of what God is doing right now. If I were to see much more than I'm already seeing, I think my brain would pop. The church was packed, packed, packed. The praises and sweat were flowing. It's Sunday. Four nights in the house. Each one a little better than the one before. They're planning to have church inside the building in Lakul. Will be the first time since the earthquake. It will be nice to get out of those yucky cool breezes outside, and go back to being packed like sardines in a cooking hot building... Going to try another night sleeping in the house... We now have our own tent city of gringos in front of the clinic. Some of those tents look pretty nice... They will be camping out at the Lakul school. This will be a first as we try to make the school a base of operations to work from... The MVI team made it in from the Dominican this afternoon. Saturday morning. That makes three days of sleeping inside now. Each night the sleep is a little better than the night before. Next week at this time I'll be on my way to the Dominican Republic... February 18-19, 2010 One lady called me to take her picture by her house. It hasn't been built yet. It was a pile of sticks on the ground. Somebodies grandmother. It's hard to imagine going through this at her age. She's lived all of these years, but never seen anything like this. Now, she's starting over...(picture on Ed's FB) It was neat to see that they were proud of what they had though I know this pride will not comfort them for long...(picture on Ed's FB) I was called from tent to tent to take pictures...(picture on Ed's FB) As I walked through the tents, talking with people and hearing some of their stories, people began asking me to take pictures of them posing in front of their tents. Those with big blue tarps were actually kind of proud of their work...(picture on Ed's FB) Lovely (girl's name), wearing a school uniform shirt. We don't see those much these days. No word yet on when /whether schools will resume in our areas...(picture on Ed's FB) We headed for Grand Goave and Mission of Hope. Got to the MOH school and went over to the new tent city forming beside it. What a day. We split off into different groups and directions and ended up doing several different things in several different places today. This will be part of the new normal with groups I believe.. 9:00 AM Friday morning. Two nights in the bed. Last night really nice. Busy day coming up... "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." The real Happy House has always been more about a certain atmosphere that we feel when we are together regardless of where we are. It's nice to have a house to put it in, but it's nice that it doesn't depend on the house. Some of the kids here right now have lost their houses, but they still have a home. That might sound cheesy, but, it's true... It is great to hear the Happy House filled with laughter. There have been so many kids wanting to come stay at the Happy House, even though we have been sleeping in tents. I brought several over and they are in the tents across the street from us tonight. I am hoping to sleep a second night in my bed again. All of Paul's folks are either in the house or on the porch. Manno and his wife are here. Only one bed shaker (tremor) that I felt today. 11:16 PM Didn't write much today. We had Paul and his folks come in and I'm still trying to get some more stuff done to get ready to come to the States. We did give out another 400 lbs of rice and beans today. That makes over 20,000 lbs of rice and beans in the last 4 days. 9:42 AM Thursday. Slept in my bed last night. Lived to tell about it... February 17, 2010 The kids have all gone across the street to their tents. They were not happy about me staying. They make this feel like it's Gethsemane and that's scary/funny. Sleeping in my bed and my room has never been such an adventure :o) What I have to learn here is not about whether to be afraid of earthquakes or not. It is about really, really, realizing, that this life is a vapor, that we are just passing through. We accumulate and cling to so much of this world. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also... All kinds of things are swirling in my mind as I sit here in my room. So many people lived and died because of decisions that normally wouldn't matter. Being five minutes late. One guy went into his house to get his dominoes. That was the last thing he did in this life... Fear is such a prison... I'm thinking real hard about sleeping inside the house tonight. It would be the first time since Jan 12th. If we don't have any more tremors between now and bed time, my tent may be empty tonight... We have some folks coming in tomorrow and a bunch more coming in Friday. A LOT of good things have the potential to take place. I am also planning to visit Georgia for at least a week or two so am looking forward to sleeping in a bed and seeing friends there as well. There will be people here filling in for me during my quick visit to the States. I don't intend to change what I'm doing here too much and I don't want to get buried with administration duties so we are going to prayerfully work on a blueprint for the future... We have a lot of awesome construction plans involving a lot of training young men for long term employment in a profession that will be much needed here for the foreseeable future. I think that our work here is going to grow massively and incorporate other folks to lead some parts of it. The massive aid coming in right now is mostly geared for the short term. The Marines are already drawing down considerably. Spain is taking their place in our neck of the woods, but they too are only planning on a few weeks. A plan is evolving at this point. I am planning to come to the States March 1 and spend about 3 weeks. Going to have a big meeting with MVI in Orlando and hash out some long term plans for what we can do in and for Haiti. This meeting will be involving several other of their offices as well. I believe that long term plans are going to be part of our role here. (Note from Joel: I will be attending that meeting with Ed...which is scheduled to take place March 4) Just had a pretty startling tremor... I spent the afternoon here at the Happy House trying to get my room back in order. The earthquake dumped a lot of shelves and drawers on the floor. A lot of things were broken. I've been working on it a little at a time. Now it's time to set it back in order... 8:00 PM Not many pictures today, but we did give out another 5,000 pounds of rice and beans in several more places. Also have been getting real good feedback on some of the other distributions from the Pastors that we gave to yesterday... 7:09 Wed morning. Another day in the land of the hungry... February 16, 2010 Gonna call it a day. We have a LOT to do tomorrow. Thank you again for so many who continue to pray and keep Haiti on the front page of your hearts. It is very encouraging. The tent is calling... They say she'll live... When I got there, they were treating a young lady that had been hit in the head with a rock and stabbed in the upper left side of her chest with an ice pick...by her sister... There was MUCH more to the day but no more pictures. We found a whole lot of things in the medical supplies that they said they needed at the Wesleyan clinic. Went by there and dropped some of it off tonight.... We left them much happier than we found them, and when we said "God bless you" they felt that He had... I checked back later and found out that they shared it all right there on the spot and that every tent got some. That excites me in a big way. That was the highlight of my day. We do plan to go back soon... Some men came forward. I told them if they did it right, we'd see them again before long, if fighting broke out, we would not be back. I told them we would check later to see if the food had been shared. We gave them 6 sacks of rice and 4 sacks of beans. It got a little tight around the truck at first, but they ended up unloading in peace... I will say it's a bit of a hassle trying to talk and take pictures at the same time. Ultimately I told them that we were willing to take a chance and leave them some rice and beans if they could take it themselves and share it and not have any fighting. They said they could. Give us some people to be in charge then, I said... We were actually on our way to another drop off spot so we had about 20 bags left. Part of me wanted to get out of Dodge, but part of me wanted to take a chance. At least try to help. This little kid needs to eat. Showdown time... (picture on Ed's FB) There were mad faces, there were sad faces... There were a lot of people coming up from all directions. Some of the faces weren't so friendly looking. We needed to get moving or get ready for a showdown. I looked past their anger and my heart truly ached for them. Living in sheets. Hungry. Waiting for help that was taking way too long to get there. I know exactly how that feels... Soon the three or four people that we had been talking to began to swell. This area has not received anything they said. Seeing my white face made some folks expect some kind of help. We were taking a chance stopping to talk. So many food distributions have turned into free for alls, especially when there is no security force with guns present... As I looked out across the tents and the people beginning to gather, it tore my heart... Then we went through a winding dirt road and by another tent city. It was one of those very crowded and populated areas and I hate driving through them. As we went by, some people yelled out my name. "Fre Ed!". I stopped and was surprised to see a few people that I knew, including Fara... Then back down the mountain to another area called Rue Benoit and another elderly pastor with a few hundred people to feed. So we left Pastor Rousvel at the side of the road waiting for another truck that was coming to get him. He will then distribute the rice to a big list of families in his area. An area that has received very little help so far. We know this man. We trust this man... It was actually too high up for Manno's truck and the 2,500 pounds of r & b he was carrying so we had to meet and I took Pastor Roosvel's 600 pounds the rest of the way up in the Nissan... We went to five more places today and gave rice and beans, mostly without incident. We went up the mountain toward Vallue and met Pastor Rousvel. It's pretty high up. Some of you have been up to his church with us... Another great day for us and for the recipients of another 5,000 pounds of rice and beans! 7:23 AM Tuesday, and Jan 12th continues... February 15, 2010 You really need to check this video by the three guys that came down last week (Eric, Justin, Nathan): FPN Blog : Flesh Profits Nothing Thank you for so many prayers. And for caring. I believe that it's important for us to care about what we are praying about. I'll leave with one more shot of Marie Miline. (picture on Ed's FB) Well, here it is 9:30 and the lights are on. We have another big day planned for tomorrow. For all that I write and all of the pictures I take, it is still only a small part of what is going on here.... Edwin J Lockett Jr The Lord knew ahead of time what we were going to be doing with this truck that was donated to us...(picture on Ed's FB) The same heart that not long ago felt it could faint, now feels that it will burst open with joy that ONLY the Lord can give. I am in the safest place in the world. God's Hands... I can't begin to tell you the joy that I feel when we can bring joy into these kids' lives. Especially now. These aren't just pictures, these are people that we know...and love...(picture on Ed's FB) Happy moments in spite of everything... We were just going to make a food drop at her house, but so many kids came out to see us and the people there were really hungry so we made a new plan and sent a bunch of rice and beans all up in the hills in that area...(picture on Ed's FB) We went out again this afternoon and swung by the area where Felandez lives...(picture on Ed's FB) I really am glad to be here right now... I tried to keep the kids distracted while they unloaded the rice... It was so different yesterday, on the other side of PAP, seeing rows of houses standing upright... So much rubble... Palmis Tanpe is a little coastal village that was also hit very hard by the quake... We had three pastors in three different areas, with lists of families that they will distribute to. We unloaded rice and beans at all three locations. One place we went to was Palmis Tanpe... We had a real good day. REAL good. And another 1,000 pounds of rice and beans went out making it over 4,000 pounds the first day. A lot of thankful people will eating tonight... A note of thanx to Grace UMC and Passage Family in Gainesville Fla. Each bag of rice weighs 50 lbs. Same for the beans. We've already given out 3,000 pounds of rice and beans and it's only 1:00!! 8:39 AM Monday, Monday... February 14, 2010 We had electricity for nearly two hours. Now it's gone. Might come back. Might not. I'm too tired to care much tonight. The tent is calling. We have a lot to do tomorrow. We need to start giving out 900 sacks of rice and beans... So overall, I'd say we ended the day on a happy note... Thank you for your prayers about the containers. Hopefully this will be a way to bring in even more help. It is a joy to bring joy... Ultimately we decided to unload everything and just leave the containers on the trucks. We got what we needed. 400 sacks of beans, 500 sacks of rice, medical supplies, clothes, etc... We had already talked with Pastor Lex about putting the containers out in the yard of his church there, Mission of Hope. The problem was, no way to get the containers off of the trucks. We thought we already had that worked out as well, but, long story short, there was no one, including the UN, with the equipment to put the containers on the ground... Eventually we made it back to Grand Goave leading the way for our two containers... And after people get their rice, what to they go back to? Several hundred thousand are living in tent cities like this one by the airport. And they are no match for rain like the rain we had last night...(picture on Ed's Facebook) I am very happy to see food starting to really hit the streets now. Still the need is massive, and I worry for, and search for, those who cannot come to distributions... For all that we've been through, I am so thankful that we have not had to stand in lines or fight with mobs for food or tents. Not only have we had enough, we've been able to give to many, many, many... The churches were packed everywhere. Most had overflow into the streets. People are feeling very temporary these days. There were a couple of feeding lines that we passed. They were being guarded by US and Sri Lankan troops. The distributions seemed to be going well... We have been looking at rubble for so long, it kind of seemed that the whole world was cracked... The drive was enlightening. We left here about 5:30 AM to go meet the containers near the DR border. It was amazing to see that to the east of PAP, there was very little quake damage. Rows of buildings standing upright. It has been over a month since we have been able to drive more than 50 yards without seeing rubble and destruction. The day was long but it was profitable. The containers came through. Here's one of them fresh from the Dominican...(picture on Ed's FaceBook) This didn't feel like Sunday. Actually, most of the days of the week have lost their flavors that seemed to make them unique. A window rattling tremor about 20 minutes ago reminds us not to relax. Everything we do must involve awareness and an exit strategy... February 13, 2010 It's getting late, so I'll have to leave the rest for tomorrow. We do have one major prayer request. We have three big containers, as in little trailers from a ship carrying several hundred bags of rice and beans, coming over from the Dominican tomorrow morning. Please pray that it goes well... Now we have Stanley. He needed no coaxing. He is pretty sharp. We had areal nice time with those folks and their appreciation was very appreciated. We told them we'd be back soon... (picture on Ed's Facebook) Talked to some more kids as we were leaving. A new place, and some new friends. As they were walking away, the guy with a yellow shirt and white cap found that his house had received two bags so he brought one back to help make sure everybody got one. Manno and I were both blown away. With so many government give aways turning into riots, and here, a man brings something back... They all came dressed up... As they came out the door with their bags, nearly every one of them said a genuine "mesi anpil" (thank you very much)... Here are some of the bags. Like I said, they aren't used to the camera and they try to look serious when they see it. They laughed quite a bit and were very responsive. They just don't think big smiles are dignified looking for photos. (picture on Ed's Facebook) This was our first try giving food in this area. We shared spiritually and physically and made a lot of new friends. They aren't used to pictures yet, but they actually were VERY friendly. We had a list of about 60 names, each representing a household. It's like being able to give food to over 300 people, but only needing to have a gathering of 60. They were mostly adults and they waited patiently to hear their name called... The scenery there is quite pretty but there were several huge landslides in the area. There are some white patches on the right, on the last mountain, where huge chunks of earth and rocks just dropped off. That's how it looks far away... (picture on Ed's FaceBook) This is very near where we gave food today, in an area called Tapion. In the foreground, you can see the cement floor of what was a church. It has been cleared off. Behind it you can see what's left of a house. It was a two story house, the upper level is now the ground floor... (picture on Ed's FaceBook) This is actually from yesterday morning as some of the doctors had their last pow-wow on our front porch. They were very busy while they were here... (picture on Ed's FaceBook) It was a good day and an interesting day for us. The food distribution went VERY well. Later, a bunch of us were talking this afternoon about the day of the quake and what all happened. The kids told me some stuff that I absolutely don't remember. Stuff that happened to me... "The pain is too heavy — words cannot describe it," Haiti's president at a memorial service commemorating over 200,000 dead. February 12, 2010 We are planning another food distribution tomorrow in a new area that we're working in. Should go smoothly. Things are still unfolding here in many directions and at a rapid pace. Information gets outdated here very quickly... It's kind of ironic, there were over 30 of us here, counting the HH residents, ALL operating out of the Happy House, yet ALL sleeping outside in tents each night. Now we're back down to 10. I really want to come back and sleep in my room. My back and my air mattress in the tent are not getting along well at all... All of our company left today. I stayed home and started organizing some of my affairs at the Happy House. Also had a nice afternoon with the Happy House kids, who, by the way, really worked hard taking care of so many people during this week. Fri 7:23 AM It has now been one month since this day began... February 11, 2010 The series of Facebook messages today in particular were filled with pictures to go with these messages. You can friend request Ed to view them, or check out Missionary Ventures web site (http://www.mvi.org/about/gallery/gallery-haiti-earthquake). The pics at the bottom of that page will be the most recent (from today), and you can tell from the some of the captions which ones go with each message. The kids all dress up to come to the food program. Every one of these kids on the front row live in mud huts. Three of them I know, lost their homes. Not sure about Betchina, the one in the green. She already lost her parents a long time ago... Had to split up in sections to do the feeding. Had a bunch of older folks come as well... Later at the Lakul school we did our feeding program for a little over 200 folks. We also did some big time singing and I had a couple of little guitar players help me out... This is where they have church now. We gave them another tarp because Pastor Ferer said there were too many people to fit under the first tarp... Pastor Ferer is now living in this big red and gray tent with 17 other people... Met (teacher) Ferer is one of our teachers and also the pastor of this church. We are heading down below, behind the church. It will basically need to be totally replaced... After our visit with Marie C we went to visit met Ferer and see the damage done to his church. Many of our groups from the States have visited there with us. They have always received us well. Here is the front of the church as it is now. You can see the platform where we have stood so many times... Her bandages and head wrapping were dirty by the time they came to the clinic at the Wesleyan where I was translating for the doctors that cared for her. That's how we met. Today, though her understanding is small, I see her as someone that the Lord really had His Hand on, and we will try to help and do what we can for them as well. We don't know the future, but Marie's father is now dead, and her mother is not well. Those of us left will try to stay involved... The pick scraped the side of her head, down to the skull. I have written about this part already so will not repeat everything again. They were shocked to find her alive with many cuts and bruises, and now a gash on the side of her head. They took her to the hospital in PAP where she had her head wrapped up. Soon after, the cousin returned to Petit Goave with Marie C in tow... They returned a few days later two retrieve the bodies of the remaining two. The caskets were ready and they brought clothes for burial. Some men began breaking up the rubble with hammers and picks. Soon they found the body of the young girl and removed her. As they moved on one guy brought his pick down and there was a loud cry in response... She has a little one and a half year old brother that miraculously made his way out of the rubble with barely a scratch. Aside from that, there was a young lady and Marie C inside still. Looking at the massive damage and not hearing any cries for help, convinced them that the two remaining in the house were dead. They were afraid to sleep near the house so they went elsewhere to pass the night... Back to Marie Claude. She had been living in Carrefour before the quake. Now her mother's cousin is the one keeping her. The cousin was visiting with them in Carrefour when the rumbling began. The house collapsed with 3 people inside... Quite a day and too many pictures to post... Not surprisingly, there is quite a bit more to the story than the little bit that I learned the day they came to the clinic. We're getting ready to take off again, so will write more later... We brought her to the Happy House today to give them some food and supplies and to learn more about her... Here's a new friend. Her name is Marie Claude, not to be confused with the other Marie Claude that I wrote so much about before the earthquake. This is the little girl I wrote about that spent 4 days under the rubble of her house... Having doctors with us that deliver babies has given us a thumb on the pulse of the massive amount of children being born here. Two more last night. Laaaaaate last night... We are planning among other things to have another feeding program out at the Lakul school. It's Thursday morning. I only know a little bit of what I think this day holds, and that little bit may not even happen. February 10, 2010 Some Spanish and American marines are moving onto the Wesleyan ground now so that should provide a little bit safer of an atmosphere there at night... The lady from the truck last night that came to the Wesleyan clinic, came again today. They were much friendlier this morning. We set her up to get the care she needed and I went on. She did indeed have a miscarriage and had to be flown out to the big ship for further care. Went back over to see Pastor Lex and the folks at Mission of Hope. They have started moving the tent city from the front of the church yard over to an empty lot next door... After a little time at the clinic we headed over the mountain to Grand Goave. They are starting to move the boulders and debris out of the road. Some of those boulders were bigger than our car and driving through narrow spaces between them made for a scary ride... It's been a busy day so far. Home for a little and then we will head back out. We went by the clinic at the Wesleyan this morning. Seven babies have been born in the last several hours. 7:AM Wednesday morning. Sleep last night was short and sweet...especially short. February 9, 2010 I'm not sure what to feel. It's the miracle of life...born into a very hard place at a very hard time. I do know this, this is not the end of her story, it is the beginning... Things were much settled down now and some of us were about to leave when I heard the doctors start saying "push, push". Let's hang around a little longer and see if it's a boy or girl. Within 20 minutes, a baby girl drew her first breath of life. I witnessed my first childbirth... They made a real long trip for nothing they felt. The area they were from is little place I have heard of so I began talking about that area. They began to warm up.Long story short we sent them on their way to return tomorrow and they were appreciative of the effort we did make. I can't overestimate the importance of communication... She said she was one month pregnant. David did what he could to do a quick check but said they needed some equipment that was not there. It appears that she has miscarried. They wanted to leave her there, but there was no place there and the truck full of people were various relatives and folks that helped carry the lady to the nearest road to be able to find a truck... A drug given to women that are pregnant... She had been passing dark colored blood. She had a paper from some other doctor which was not only in French, but was written in doctor handwriting. We couldn't make much of it. David, one of the doctors eating supper with us each night recognized a drug prescription on the paper... They had made a long trip from way back in the mountains to bring a lady in for a consultation. It was already way dark and the clinic closed since several hours. They felt it was an emergency and felt the woman should be checked now... There was a pickup loaded with some kind of scary looking folks, many were young men and they seemed up to nothing good. I couldn't do anything for the pregnant ladies but I was able to do some calming and translating for the folks in the truck... The needed some help ASAP. Two ladies in labour and some shady characters hanging out around their clinic. They needed some obstetric help and some "man power".. We headed over there right away. There were two women in two different places, moaning, at times yelling as, they struggled through their deliveries... 10:41 PM Been a long time since I've been on the computer this late at night. Was going to shut down a few hours ago but we got an urgent call from a nurse at the Wesleyan clinic compound... I've got to say that right now, I feel really glad, and even privileged to be here. We're going through the fire, but it's only burning off what needed to be burned off. These kids are wanting to come to the Happy House and it breaks my heart that we can't bring them all. "We're still sleeping outside too" I tell them. Doesn't matter, they want to come sleep outside with us... (picture on Ed's Facebook) We gave some financial help to several families this afternoon as we passed through. Nobody saw anything. We just act like we need to see something inside the hut we want to help, and once out of view, we make a quick pass and a God bless you... Most of the huts and houses along the shore have been reduced to rubble, but the people were still very happy to see us. We traveled around a bit today. Went out to the shore area, Ofisie near Ft Royale. There are sweet things coming out of these bitter times. You could cry your eyes out here every day, for joy or for sorrow, depending on what you lock your gaze on. Most days I do some of both... 7:05 AM Tuesday. Four weeks since or world was rocked. It's still all part of the first day for me. We still have electricity. No rumbles serious enough to wake me up last night. There are some dogs on the other hand that really need to go somewhere very far away. The house is full of doctors taking showers and getting... February 8, 2010 It's 8:00 PM but all is not black. With electricity it doesn't seem so late. This should help things move forward massively. Things continue to get better/worse...I'm still thinking about those kids this afternoon... Well, turned out pretty good for a Monday... And as of about an hour ago...WE HAVE ELECTRICITY!!!! There is so much happening right now. We also have a crew of doctors eating supper with us each night. Doctors from India, Dominican, Columbia, America, Viet Nam, etc. I'll try to get some shots of that tomorrow. Did I mention the Germans that are getting involved with our clinic? There is waaaaaayyyy too much and every hour is full... Manno and a crew of church volunteers have been helping folks clean and set up temporary shelters. We are praying for Renee, Mrs. Pastor Lex. I appreciate Mission of Hope in Grand Goave and we are planning to do some good things together. I know missionaries aren't supposed to get along and work together, but sometimes we have to break the rules :0) The kids wanted me to sing with them. I was honored, sad, ashamed. etc. All that they are going through, several of these kids are already orphans, and they want to sing. I am honored that I can bring them joy, sad for the condition they are in, ashamed because.... The kids took me down in to the rows of tents and many showed me their "homes". The little guy with the red sleeves wanted me to "chase" him so that he could lose me in the maze of sheets...(picture on Ed's Facebook) The whole front part of the church ground has become a sea of tents and make shift shelters...(picture on Ed's Facebook) It was a bittersweet visit. Great to see Pastor Lex and the orphanage crew and other friends, but sad to see the vast amount of people living under sheets and tarps... We went to Grand Goave this afternoon to visit our good friend Pastor Lex at Mission of Hope... Monday morning. Feeling much better now than I was Saturday. We had some rain last night. We have a lot of people here with us right now and the schedule is getting full. Things are happening too fast to be able to even sketch an outline of what is going on here. Mostly good stuff. I will try to make a time this evening to do a little catching up.. We still appreciate everyone's prayers. February 5, 2010 One thing for sure, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... For all that has happened here physically, there is also MUCH that is happening here spiritually and mentally. Wow. It's already 7:30. The tent is calling. My tummy has encountered something that is encountering it back. I feel like tonight could deliver a pretty decent sleep. We have a lot of folks coming in over the next few days. Things continue to rumble below the earth and above as well. The fault line made a lot of folks in the area afraid that they were about to drop off into the sea... There is a long fault line that ran all the way up the shoreline. It passed right through the middle of this hut, which belongs to Islande's grandmother. (picture on Ed's Facebook) Glad that Candy and Jaklen made it in last night with lots of stuff we need. (picture on Ed's Facebook) It's so easy to be useful here :0) Okay, got a tummy ache and a tired body but did get some good pictures today and had some really nice visits and gave out some more needed supplies. Also had several visits from pastors and leaders and we gave 3 big tarps to three churches that are meeting outside with no covering. "Be strong and let your heart take courage....Let's go minister to some faint hearted folks... There are lots of little shimmers of hope appearing. Almost like the sun's rays beaming through the clouds. It's still pretty dark overall, but the light is beginning to break through. I'm about ready to move to the verse after my heart would have fainted... We have a lot going on today. We have another feeding program for the kids near the school. We have some more supplies to give out and we have lots of kids that need visits :0) Only one serious tremor that I felt this morning around 4:20 AM. Friday. TGIF? Doesn't make any difference at all here. I'm still having Tuesday Jan 12. Candy made it in late last night. Her car had trouble in PAP but a Sri Lankan UN camp was nearby so they put many hands together, fixed her car, and sent her to us. We are thankful she made it in. February 4, 2010 Let's pray for Candy and head for the tent. Today was fairly calm, but not long ago, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... Pray for Candy, the other MV missionary that is on the way here. Her vehicle has been giving her some trouble and we want her to be safe, which she was last time we talked. She is still a couple of hours away and may need to wait till tomorrow to finish the trip. Please pray for her car and her safety. Later in the day, some folks with hammers arrived and managed to get her mother out. There are so many stories here. Everybody has their experience of where they were when it happened. There were many tragedies but also many miracles. Her mother and one other lady were alive but unable to get out from under the rubble. All through the night they moaned and cried for help. Eventually some people came and though unable to get them out, they did bring some water. Sadly as the sun came up, the other lady passed away. Only Berline's mother was left alive.... Berline, one of the kids that live with us was sharing about her mother who was in PAP at the time of the quake. She was sitting with 5 other friends talking in the shade of a concrete balcony. When the quake hit, the balcony above collapsed immediately killing four of the six women... Here it is already 7:00 PM. I ended up spending the day around the house. We had a lot of company today and I am still trying to organize pictures. There was another amazing story from right here in our house... I know that people, me included, like to read stories with happy endings, but some stories are too big for a page in the paper or a 2 minute flash in the news. Some stories are going to take a long time to finish. Thursday. We're here for another day. It's a beautiful morning as far as the weather goes. LOTS of rumbling this morning, mostly from big trucks and helicopters. Didn't hear the dogs last night. Going to head out to Lakul. February 3, 2010 I had the opportunity to speak with both Glen Dubois (MVI president) and Ed on the phone today. Help is coming in. Two teams are already set-up for late February into early March. Ed will then be coming to the states for a short time, partly to decompress from everything that has been non-stop since Jan 12, and partly to meet with MVI to do some serious long term planning for helping Haiti, and Petit Goave in particular. One thing that was very clear from speaking with both Glen and Ed is that this (Haiti recovery) is no sprint, but a marathon, and we need to be in it for the long haul. I will say this, no matter what happens for the duration of my life, be it long, or short, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... Also I got more info on the little girl that spent 4 days under the rubble. We are hoping to hook up with them tomorrow and get more involved with her. Things really do continue to get better/worse. We really do need a new Haiti. This is definitely the end of much of the old one. I'm really proud of how many of our people are rising to this occasion. We are hoping to see Candy tomorrow, another MVI field coordinator. It was a good day for us. What a day. So many things are happening here that it's hard to write about so few of them. I feel pretty hopeful most of, but not all of, the time. It's dark again. Had a couple of tremors today, three if you count the food distribution :0) Just got a call from Manno, the food distribution is finished and things are calm. So after a rocky start, all said and done it was a success. Nobody got killed, no windows got smashed, no houses got burned down, and a whole lot of people got food. My hat is off to the Haitian police that showed up. Thanks for praying. And it's only 2:00 in the afternoon! Reynold just called from the food distribution and said that everything was now running smoothly and that there were three Haitian policemen there, not necessarily in that order :0) So, no food distribution today? Manno just called and said that the Haitian police showed up and that they are again trying to give out the food. The Haitian police are keeping folks in line, so this may happen after all. As for me, I'm going to eat lunch. I sent Reynold back down there to see if he could get some pictures and hopefully we will have some good news to report later. The Sergeant was VERY friendly and apologetic about us not being told in advance of the food coming our way. He said he would try to push for a few soldiers to give security tomorrow. He was doubtful though. If it would've been his decision to make, I think he would've sent guys on the spot. Unfortunately, it's not his call. Eventually after talking to some folks, I drove on back here to the house. I talked to Pastor Lex over in Grand Goave. He's always got friends in the Sri Lankan UN troops. He said they could send help tomorrow. Then I got a call from the Marines checking to see how things were going. The crowd was now scattered so they snuck me out through a back entrance and around a couple of buildings. Again, nobody was after me, it was mostly a matter of staying out of the crossfire. They shut down the distribution and I drove the car out of harm's way. I called one of the guys that has direct contact with the marines to see if they could send some help. "Not likely" was the response. Then Daniel came up, "you have to get your car out of here before some of these rocks break the windows." He was right. Then folks on the inside started throwing back. A couple of guys went up on the roof of the school and started throwing rocks at the crowd. I was truly touched by how many people inside gathered around me and tried to rush me to safety. I was not an intended target of the rocks, but people outside were just lobbing them over to hit whatever they hit. No more pictures from this point. Chaos broke out. Screaming, running, wacking. Then some people outside started throwing rocks. Rocks are something Haiti has always had too many of. As they began to come down in the school yard, we had to take cover in the classrooms. When the gate opened, one guy tried to push his way in. The guys guarding the gate gave him a big shove back into the crowd. The crowd pushed him back into the gate. The guys at the gate grabbed up pieces of wood and pipe and went out to clear out the door Then came the spark... I suggested we toss the lists and just start bringing people in in groups of 10 or 15. There was enough for everybody there and this would have sped things up massively. They agreed. The people at the front gate however, were getting more and more rowdy. They didn't know why it was taking so long and were certain the food would run out. Still it was going way to slow and people outside were continuing to heat up. I made my way inside, no small feat, to see if we couldn't speed it up somehow. We had enough boxes for every person there to get one easily. Kids and women also passed calmly with their boxes with no problem. The majority of the people weren't bad, but the ones that were, were. We didn't have as much problem with bullying as we did with panicking. People were going in the front and coming out the back with their box on their head. No one tried to take anything away from anyone else. Finally some movement at the gate and then everyone tries to lurch forward. They are trying to call names from a list and it isn't working.. The people at the gate did not want to form a line. There are a LOT of people that were sitting patiently waiting, but those who don't want to follow rules were clogging things up. What they came up with was not feasible for the situation at hand. Mobs and a hot sun are never a good combination here. They were taking way too long to get things started inside the walls of the school. I stayed outside for the first part. The longer people stayed in the sun, the more agitated they got. 11:18 AM Back from attempt to give out the food. It did not go well. There were too many obstacles to pull it off, starting with the food coming and us not knowing ahead of time. There were no soldiers and it was harder to keep order. I had intended to let the Haitian committee set up a system for distribution. 8:21 AM LOTS of dogs barking last night. I think a lot of it was gratuitous. It may be time to try to get folks interested in dog meat here. They were just tag teaming last night. And with that, we're off to what will hopefully be a reasonably successful food distribution. Pray. February 2, 2010 Reminder: HUGE need in Haiti right now....tents and tarps!! Once rainy season sets in, which it soon will, difficult living conditions for many Haitians now will become unbearable. So, if any can be dropped off at Princeton Community Church in Pennington by Thursday morning, it will be a huge blessing. We will also let you know of any similar opportunities to help in the future. I hope that the compilation of Ed's Facebook messages sent out here each night helps you to have a feel of what it's like for someone who is living it each day, who is hanging onto to Lord to sustain him, and who is being a blessing to many in tremendous need. And that your prayers for Ed and the situation in Petit Goave and Haiti are making a difference. Thank you immensely for all of the prayers and encouragement for us already. Believe me, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... Okay, 7:30, it's getting late and the laptop battery needs to charge up. Again we ask everyone to pray for the food distribution tomorrow. By the way, there are 36 bags of rice, beans, and vitamins in each of those 800+ boxes. Under normal circumstances, one bag makes 3 healthy servings. Just add water. Help is still coming in and things continue to get better/worse. Pray hard for the food distribution tomorrow. What a day. Now, the sun is gone, all is dark. We had a couple of serious tremors this afternoon. Not time yet to sleep in the house. The marines have been real nice, but it appears that they will be greatly reduced in size after a couple more weeks. We will have the equivalent of the Spanish Marines taking over the base. Trucks unloaded, and the soldiers are gone. Excitement is over for today. There were a lot of hungry eyes watching all that food get unloaded. The Marines could not stay or help handing out the food. They just deliver, which we are thankful for. Tomorrow we will see how well the actual distribution goes. We rounded up a bunch of Haitian men to help unload the trucks. Several of the Marines were impressed at how orderly it went. I was proud of our community today. Over the last few days I've had the chance to talk with several soldiers and am getting to know several of them. It's nice having them around. They were going to unload 800 plus boxes of food at our Lakul school, but we decided with so much, it would be better to use the government school down the road because their property is walled. We still will be able to distribute it. And without warning, we got a special delivery today from the Marines. It was a real busy day today. Did a little translating at the Wesleyan this morning then headed out to Lakul. Manno had a group of volunteers from the church helping clean up and rebuild some huts. That was pretty sharp to see. I guess when I write here, I am partly writing my own personal feelings, but also I am trying to express how so many Haitians here feel, most of which do not have Facebook or an audience to hear them. I don't want to sound too negative, but I also don't want to block out the suffering here. For me personally things are looking up and I want to share that here. Hard to believe that 3 weeks have passed since the earthquake here. Things continue to get better/worse. There are so many lives drifting here now. Even though many were lucky to have survived harrowing ordeals, their bodies bare marks that will stand as a reminder of these times. February 1, 2010 I've tried to be brave through all of this, but I must admit, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... It's dark and the tent is calling. Had a decent day. Meeting lots of doctors, soldiers, and workers. Most are pretty decent. Only one major tremor this evening. Somehow in the midst of such a catastrophe, God's hand draws a line. This is as far as it goes. I can't help but believe that the Lord must have some special plan for her. Keep her in your prayers. If that pick had landed even a half inch closer to her head... A man with a heavy pick brought the spike down to start breaking up the concrete that had entombed what they thought was a lifeless child. The pick came down right beside the little girl's head, tearing away the skin, thus the skull revealing wound. The girl cried out, no small shock to those who came for the burial. I asked the lady why they did not try to rescue the girl sooner. "We thought she was dead". They came with clothes to dress and bury the girl in. They were preparing the funeral. They had not heard a sound from her for 4 days. And there was at least one other person that died in the house. At least a square inch and a half of skull showing. She was lucky to be alive. As I talked to the lady that brought her in I was floored. The little girl had spent 4 days under the rubble of their house. The father died from injuries received during the quake. The mother is in the hospital in PAP. No pictures from this very busy day but one AWESOME story. Marie Claudinette, not to be confused with Marie Claude, is a 5 year old that showed up at the Wesleyan clinic this morning. One side of her head was full of scrapes and abrasions, the other side had a gaping wound down to the skull... February the first. Haven't noticed any serious tremors for about 24 hours. I still hope from time to time that I will wake up from all of this and find it was a bad dream. This will not be fixed by the end of the week. We will rejoice in progress, but the task of rebuilding will be enormous. January 31, 2010 A HUGE immediate need in Haiti is for tents and tarps...for people to live in, especially before rainy season begins. There is an opportunity to donate new or slightly used tents and tarps that will be flown to Haiti next weekend. If you can help, please drop them off at Princeton Community Church in Pennington by Thursday morning February 4th. We will keep you up-to-date on opportunities like this to help as they become available. Below are some of Ed's Facebook messages from today. Ed has also been posting lots of pictures. If you would like to view them, you can friend request him on Facebook (his email is EdinHaiti@aol.com). When it just really comes right down to it, man knows not his time. For me, I am learning a deeper meaning of "Wait for the Lord". In Psalms 27, that comes right after My heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... We are ready for January to be finished. Though mostly just a psychological gesture, it will feel like we have a break in time. We have better hopes of February. Not much in the way of tremors today. The geologists warn that there could be another even bigger quake imminent. Or, it could happen within the next hundred years or so. As we were leaving Bethany stepped forward, thus she is in focus and the rest are blurry, to say THANK YOU. She was happy, we were all happy. The Happy House has always been more of an ambience than a house. I wish I could do more for them right now. But... (picture on Ed's Facebook) We took the Malaria medicine out to the boy that was sick. Several other folks there were sick too so the doctors/nurses took a quick look at them. They were truly thankful that we stopped by. Here another day has come and gone. All is dark. The nights are much more pleasant now. I am tired and look forward to being out like a light before 8:30. Sometimes the helicopters fly so low that the whole house rattles. We've made it through the quake so far, now if we can just make it through the helicopters. Sun 8:14 AM Made it through the night. Fairly calm but still enough rumbling to keep us alert. Getting ready for a gathering of believers, church. January 30, 2010 We received word from Ed this morning that he has been able to speak with some kids from Marchasse and as well as with Met Jack, the principal of the school there. We were thrilled to hear that Marchasse was not affected by the earthquake!! We are hoping that the school can start again soon. Okay, gonna head for the old tent. Church tomorrow. Will be good to see folks. Did I mention that the verse that best describes how I feel is "My heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living..." Pase bon nuit. "Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise, Thou mine inheritance, now and always... E I've never felt so unattached to my material possessions. I'm investing in a greater Kingdom that earthquakes cannot shake. It may sound trite, but, I really do believe it. We will be working in the tunnel and in the darkness for a while, but I know that God is here. We will learn patience and we will wait for the Lord. I'd rather walk in the dark with Him than in the daylight without Him. My faith is just getting purified in this fire. 6:52 PM The sun is down and all is black. Almost time to head for the tent. Needless to say, these few pictures do not begin to capture the scope of what has happened here. My eyes saw much more than my camera. I am dreaming and hoping, but we are still a long way away from seeing light at the end of the tunnel. People are building with old scraps of tin, plastic, wood, cardboard, sheets, palm branches, anything they can stick together. All along the highway, anywhere there is an open field, these cities are springing up. Most of the population is still afraid to sleep inside. Aside from that, MANY have no place to go now. Tent and sheet cities are popping up everywhere, some with 10s, some with 100s, some with 1,000s, some with 100,000s Things continue to get better/worse. More help coming in, still for so many, nothing has come. PAP is still a nightmare. We did not pass any bodies in the streets we went through, but the massive destruction wrought by 35 seconds of the ground shaking, just defies imagination. Spent the day in PAP. We met with Monique, got some more supplies and even ate at a restaurant. We sat just inside the door. Ismael and I both had our chairs turned sideways and we were both pointed at the door. January 29, 2010 Pastor Abner's wife was able to get to Florida a couple of days ago. No matter how all of this may pan out, I will always remember it as a time that my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... Well, 6:00 PM and there is only a little light left. We had a lot of hungry company here at the Happy House this evening and they are beginning to leave. I have a meeting to go to and then hopefully back to the tent. It was awesome to see so many of our teenagers helping take care of the food program today. Kids that have been under our wings for so many years. Now they are young adults that will play a vital role in the new Haiti. We still have a lot of big plans and dreams. As long as nothing else major happens, the damage to the Lakul school is reparable and the school could operate by the beginning of March. Also, there were MANY people in the streets with brooms. People are starting to clean up. There weren't too many tremors today, though there were a few light ones. There is talk in the government of trying to get school going before too long. That would ease a lot of tension and help keep people out of trouble. Decentralization has been needed for so long. Other cities need to be developed more. PAP was horrifically overcrowded. It may be a painful adjustment but Haiti would be MUCH better off if more attention was given to other areas. Things continue to get better/worse. People that aren't getting help are getting more desperate. Crime is getting bad in PAP as women and children become vulnerable in the makeshift camps. On the bright side, thousands are leaving PAP. This has needed to happen for years and years. Dropped her off at home with an empty tray. Her life was hard enough before the quake. When people pick on kids like that it makes me think about doing things that I shouldn't. So, she made it home and had a little extra money. She wanted to come with me. We're all still sleeping outside. I'll just say that we got involved and the bullies took off. I didn't want her to try to make it back home with her pomkets, so I bought the rest of them and let her keep the change. Gave the kids the pomkets and everybody was happy. Bethany was carrying a little tray of pomkets to sell. They are sort of like cupcakes without icing. Some bullies started trying to steal them from her. They got one little bag from her. (picture on Ed's Facebook) Had a good feeding program again this afternoon. Approximately 200 more plates of food to a mostly different group. Se Gui is still doing the clinic out there daily. So much rumbling. Could be helicopters coming. Could be armored personnel carriers coming, could be big trucks loaded with food, could be another earthquake. My door is always open and I'm ready to run :o) A new day. Pretty good sleep last night. We have some meetings and another feeding at lunch time. No big tremors this morning. It would be so awesome to go a whole day without the earth rumbling. January 28, 2010 It's night again. Everything here is dark. Everything except my computer screen, which the bugs can't resist. Nearly time to head back to my tent. I am one of the lucky ones that has a tent. Doesn't look like rain at this point. The moon is full tonight...and so are the streets. So, anyway, we gave supplies to 45 families this afternoon. Also, fed several folks here at the house and met with a few pastors. The weather was beautiful. We have ice and gas in town now. That's great news. Don't know when there will be electricity again. Lest we get too lost in the future, the ever present tremors keep us in the present. I hate those things. I believe that wonderful things are going to rise out of this nightmare. We are getting some BIG dreams. It's going to be a long hard road, but it's going to be worth it. Manno and I were talking and looking at how many decisions we made and how many things we did over the last several months, that all laid the groundwork for what the future here holds. It is amazing to see how the Lord was leading things in a way that we did not understand, but now it is all beginning to make awesome sense. Talked with Glen at MVI last night and we are beginning to make some big and awesome plans. There is definitely a window of opportunity here. A chance, not to rebuild what was, but build something better. Talked to some more marines today and did some translating for them. They are trying to set up some areas for food distribution. As we continue to give out food and supplies, I realized, we've been doing this for the last 14 years. We have a pretty good system. Almost 6:00 PM Today was a little more laid back. Started cleaning my room some. A lot of things fell over and broke during the quake. Drawers hanging out and shelves overturned. Broken glass, etc. Another day. Fewer tremors last night. Stars were bright. Truck pulling in to the camp at 1:30 AM was very loud. January 27, 2010 6:00 PM It's starting to get dark. For us the day is winding down. I am in my room typing this. The generator is roaring outside. Edna is playing and about drowning it out with her noise. The kids are all in the yard. We will soon head to our tents. Today was a little better for us all. Please keep praying. And on the way home we passed Felandez wandering alone. She said their hut was okay but they had no food. We gave her some money to give to her aunt that she lives with. It will buy groceries for a week. The tremors weren't as bad today. If we don't have any rain tonight, we might be in for a decent night's sleep. Deedine was listening for her name. It was on today's list. All of the kids invited were on the list. Some other kids came as well and some of them will be on the next list. (picture on Ed's Facebook) Some of the kids gathering for a game. Most of them dressed up in their best clothes as though they were coming to a fancy dinner. All of them are living in the street and many do not have homes any more. (picture on Ed's Facebook) We had about 200 kids at the food program this morning. We had invited 150, but we knew there would be some extras. Had a good clinic and gave out almost 200 more plates of food. It was orderly so we're going to keep doing it as long as we can. I was contacted by the man organizing a lot of the relief in Petit Goave and the marines are interested in using us and our school for food distribution in the Lakul area. They want to come out and see the place, maybe tomorrow. We're planning to do another feeding and clinic out at the Lakul school today. Some families have started moving in now. Grace chapel has about 10 people. The vast majority are still sleeping outside. Daily aftershocks help stoke the fear that inside is not safe. MANY old historic landmarks are gone. Many people are gone. When will things get back to normal? Normal is gone. Part of what makes all of this hard to deal with is the fact that things will never be the way they were again. After the hurricanes, we cleaned up and eventually things got back to normal. That will not be the case now. Much of Haiti's history has been destroyed, including the National Palace. Day 16 in Haiti's newest chapter. We had rain last night and that's not good for the average tent. It wasn't a hard rain but it got everybody up about 2 AM. We've been blessed that it's only rained once. January 26, 2010 And did I mention, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... More help continues to come in and men will do what they can, but I know that ultimately it's in the Lord's Hands. Gonna call it a day. It's only 7:23 but it's pitch dark outside. Gonna eat some spaghetti and hotdog and then head for the tent, which I am thankful to have. We're not eating well, but well, we're eating. Also, the kids are telling us of some areas where the bullies gang up and take everything away from everybody later, after they get home. I relayed that info as well. It is a huge task and we are dealing with hundreds and they with thousands. I shared a few of our ideas with them, we'll see what happens. One thing is to spread out the handouts and do them at the same time in different places. This breaks up the crowds and keeps would be bullies from being first in line at each stop. They can't be more than one place at a time. They did a food handout near the dock here in Petit Goave today and it got out of hand as well. Everyone is afraid there won't be enough. Usually there isn't, especially when bullies take more than their share. In communities that we work in, we are able to make sure each family gets some. The food handouts in PAP have not been going well. Too many people, and the strong push ahead and take most of it.. Ironically, often the people that most need help are least likely to get it. This would have been the case even before the earthquake. Met with some US Marines at their base today. They had my name on a list and had been waiting for me so somebodies call somewhere did some good. They were very friendly. It's still a bit unclear what all they will be doing here but we're glad they're here. There are tent cities popping up everywhere now. Some number in the thousands. These kids all want to come to the Happy House. I keep telling them that we are ALL sleeping in the street. They still want to come. They're really safer where they are right now. (picture on Ed's Facebook) Another loooong day. Spent the first couple of hours at the Wesleyan clinic. Got Marie Claude in for a check. A new friend, Dr. Steve checked her out. She came through good. Another day in the land of the living. I can't even begin to believe that 2 weeks have gone by since this all started. Sadly, we learned last night, that little Emmanuel did not make it. The little girl with Malaria is still with us. Emmanuel is with Jesus. January 25, 2010 The verse Ed keeps quoting, Psalm 27:13, is one which has been personally very significant to me. It's a promise the Lord gave me when I was going through the darkest period of my life. I can testify that His promise is true, and we can pray and believe it for Ed and those he is working with and those he is working for. Most people are still thankful to be alive. Still, so many have lost family and homes. The future is just a big blank for most. Even for me, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... Darkness has fallen. Thought we were going to get some rain but we were spared. Had a couple of strong tremors about an hour ago. Many folks are already headed for bed. Mostly in the streets. Things continue to get better and worse. Mario, in the yellow, has decided that Jesus is a better Way. He shaved off his gang braids and has started attending church faithfully. The earthquake gave him a nudge in the right direction. Keep praying for his brother on the left. (picture on Ed's Facebook) We gave out almost 200 plates of food at the school this afternoon. As soon as the plates were empty, they were washed and filled again. Se Gui, Manno's wife, a recently graduated nurse, spent the day seeing patients at our clinic out in Lakul. (picture on Ed's Facebook) First thing this morning, I checked on the kids I asked prayer for yesterday. They all made it through the night and were all sent to a hospital. Emmanuel, however, was not expected to make it. Been a busy day. Will try to get some pictures posted (on Ed's Facebook). These are all from today at the clinic at the Wesleyan and at the Lakul school building where we had a smaller clinic and feeding program. It is another day in the land of the living. Had three strong tremors so far this morning. Thankfully we haven't had rain during all of this. LOTS to do today. January 24, 2010 It's been a loooong day. Gonna head for the tent soon. Again, thank you so much to those caring and praying. And also, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living...Goodnight...Lord willing. There was a little 3 year old girl at the clinic today. The mother said that since the earthquake, the little girl has trouble sleeping. She wakes up trembling and jerking. I cannot say it enough, my heart would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living... Only one real tremor today. The geologists told the army, who told us, there is still the possibility of another big quake. We are still sleeping outside. More and more though, people are coming together and helping each other. Particularly the church. There are so many people suffering here now. There always has been but now it's worse. Today was just a long flow of broken bones, Typhoid, Malaria, gashes, and wounds. Add to that a massive dose of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A view under the tarps. Different tarps cover different type cases. Most treatment, except for surgery, is being done outside. Inside is still not considered safe. (picture on Ed's Facebook) This little girl is hanging by a thread. She has advanced Malaria. I don't know her name but please be praying. (picture on Ed's Facebook) This Emmanuel. He was born the day after the quake. His father died in the quake and now he is barely hanging on. (picture on Ed's Facebook) These are Christian doctors and nurses here volunteering their time and working tirelessly. So many lives in the balance. I will try to post a few pictures from the day. I was too busy to take many pictures but there were a few that had to be taken. We were on our way to church this morning and swung by the clinic that they are doing down the street. They had a yard full of patients and almost no translators so I decided to stay with them. They are really doing a tremendous job and I was honored to be able to help out. Sun 7:32 AM Another day. Still here. Slept pretty good.. Would really like to sleep on a bed again. Church in a while. January 22, 2010 Still here. Just came back from PAP. Went in with Paul and some doctors. Came back with Jon and Elizabeth. Today has been a little quieter as far as tremors go. We were able to get gas in PAP. The roads were fairly open. Still the masses of humanity living in the streets is truly heartrending. Tent cities are growing at a rapid rate. Some already have thousands of people in them. Many people are building little shacks with scraps of tin and plastic. There are Cite Soleils beginning to pop up everywhere. It is surreal to see so many people living outside. Nearly everyone, myself included, is afraid to chance sleeping in the houses that are still standing. The sad fact is, hundreds of thousands have no house to go back to. So many people. Help is trickling in VERY slowly here in our neck of the woods. I though a bunch came the other day, but most left. Still we are getting some Christian doctors coming in and doing some major stuff. We are still giving out food and money to several camps of people and to many families at the church. We are going to be increasing that. Manno's wife treated several people today at our clinic by the school. There is a flurry of activity. Saw Marie Claude and she's doing better. Hunger is setting in for a lot of people here. That's one of the beasts that we are trying to fight. A lot of people are doing all they can here. A LOT of unsung heros. Most of the people here do not have Facebook or generators . While I want to try to be a voice for the people here and represent them in a sense, and try to help, the fact is, I can leave, I have another country, I have many possibilities of places to go even if I lose everything here. Most folks here are at the end of their rope.. We have a busy day lined up tomorrow. Again, THANK YOU for so many prayers and encouraging words. They make a HUGE difference. January 21, 2010 Messages from this evening (pictures on his Facebook page and at www.mvi.org): My body is here, but my life is hid with Christ. It's dark now. Peoples voices echo off the walls that are still standing. It's been another long day. The Lord is REALLY my strength. Tremors or not, THE Rock never trembles. I can tell people are praying and that they care. I feel encouraged. Better days will come and one day, even these days will be a memory and a testimony to God's grace. Just the same, some help is trickling in. We are connecting with various people, some that we knew, some that we did not and they are bringing more help. Paul is here with a batch of doctors who worked at tents by the hospital all day. Getting ready to call it a day. We had a couple of big tremors and still lots of little ones. We were able to give out more food and money today. We did not get as much help as I thought yesterday. Lots of helicopters came in but left only a few of the folks they brought with them here. Messages from this morning: Most of the population is still sleeping outside. I'd like to have at least a couple of days without tremors before I sleep inside. With help coming in now, that will be a major pressure release on the area. Masses of people have come in to the makeshift clinic that was on the news. So many injuries. Broken bones, scalp wounds down to the skull, infections, smashed limbs, etc. Several need amputations. Most folks feel thankful and special to be alive. There is a joke here that everybody got saved the day of the earthquake. Thursday 8:00 AM We're here for another day. Things are beginning to unfold rapidly at this point and it's going to get harder to keep up. There are certainly a LOT of unsung heros here, and there. Help is continuing to come in this morning. January 20, 2010 Joel: I just spoke with Pastor Abner. He has made the difficult decision not to try to return to Haiti at this time. There is nothing he can do there at this time except be more of a burden, and his health is not great. Instead he will try to get his wife, who is in poor health, to the states. She has been sleeping with counltless others in the fields. He reports that his home has damage. Of the three churches/schools he has in Port-au-Prince, one was destroyed and the other 2 have serious damage. The building in Petit Goave has one side with serious damage. No news on Bananier or Marchasse. Facebook updates from Ed: We have a LOT of work to do. Will be back later. THANK YOU so much for praying and please don't stop. I'm still counting on the Lord just the same. Helicopters, doctors, bulldozers, marines, police, Paul, etc. Help is here! LOTS of help. January 19, 2010 More information on Ed's ministry: - Ed's web site - Donate to the relief effort - Updates on upcoming mission trips to Haiti Facebook updates from this afternoon and evening: Another day and the sun is going down here. Also the hopes of the people are going down here. The "help on the way" is still not here. I have come to hate the night here. Now we don't just pray give us this day our daily bread, we pray "Give us this day..." If not for the Lord...my ROCK, my Fortress, in Him will I REALLY trust. So, the tremors are still here though getting fainter over all. The rain is getting ready to fall. We are using our last gallon of gas in the generator as I type. The UN is still not here. A few Christian doctors are here for a couple of days. Though it has been 8 days since the earthquake, it has all been one looooong day for us. Thank you so much for the prayers and please keep praying. ALL of the patients that I got to share with were thankful to the Lord to be here. Their stories were amazing. And there was great joy in knowing that we were "not dead yet." Broken bones, crushed bones, open head wounds down to the skull, it was hard to see. Also a news crew from NBC came out and filmed quite a bit and I did an interview with them and used my few moments to share the need here. Don't know if any of it will show up anywhere but the message is getting out. Thank you to those of you using government contacts to try to get this slow machine moving. We just met with a small group of doctors from the Wesleyen mission and they set up a camp and started treating severely wounded. I spent most of the morning and afternoon translating for one of the doctors. Here's an article from the news I just found: http://newsblaze.com/story/20100118171449zzzz.nb/topstory.html The longer they wait to help, the harder it will be to help... and the fewer there will be to help. I am venting these feelings with the hope of sharing more of the human element involved here. People here have felt abandoned for years. The world goes by as they wait to die. It is unnerving to hear so much noise in the night. All of this in the pitch black. If not for the Lord, we would perish with fear. Danger in the streets from gangs and thieves, danger by the water, the mountains continually rumble, and danger IN YOUR HOME. Where? Where do you go? The hungrier people get, however, the more they will start doing anything they need to to survive. There is also an anger boiling that nothing is being done here in this area. We hear of PAP and all the help there while we wither away here. There is enough for everyone, but it is clogged up in politics and poor planning in PAP. The house is standing but we do not trust it yet. I'm also very concerned that the longer we go without help, the more people will start roaming in gangs and looking for food and things to take. Right now the population is ready to, and will, kill any thieves that get caught. There is no jail now. Several thieves have been killed in PAP and some in this area. Imagine a world where taking a nap on your bed has the very real possibility of killing you. Praying to live through each shower. We have enough food for ourselves for a few more days. We're not eating real healthy, just eating. I have yet to get my appetite back. The kids are all pulling through. The Happy House is still standing with what appears to be not too much damage. But the continual tremors make it a scary place. So where are the Happy House folks at? We have been helping a few hundred people by giving rice, beans and medicine. We have sent a continual flow of money and food to several families, groups, and neighborhoods. We had a bunch of rice and beans in the school for our feeding program and have given all of that away. Each night that goes by, sleeping in the streets, dealing with tremors, running out of food, no help coming, all of this puts everything closer to the edge of a population earthquake. There are more and more thieves at night. Gunfire at night. Dogs everywhere bark all night long. The nights here are not restful but keep getting noisier and more dangerous. Eight days after the quake, helicopters pass over head but do not touch down. No soldiers or police in the streets. People's nerves are getting thinner because many feel we are not on the help map and we are just waiting to die. The tremors keep everyone on edge and they feel if death doesn't come by another earthquake, it will come by starvation. Here is what is happening on the ground in Petit Goave. The population, all of us, continue to sleep outside. Food supplies are going down. Gas is at best very hard to find. When a little comes in, there are long lines and fights at the gas station. Needless to say the price has gone up considerably. We get NO news here of any kind of a schedule or of plans for help to start arriving. Tuesday 8:11 AM Still here. Still waiting. I am truly amazed at the lack of communication and lack of coordination in this relief effort. We have a UN base here in town but there is no activity coming out of there. No police in the streets. A building full of rice was looted right up the street from here yesterday. January 18, 2010 Joel: Here's part of an email I received this evening from a good friend, Sandra Sowers. She and her husband Rick helped start and run the missionary guest house in Port-au-Prince where we stay, Providence Guest House (they now live in the states). The house was destroyed, but Gertrude the manager who is another friend of ours, got out OK. However, please read the update from Sandra and request for prayer: "We too have been contacted by many wanting to know about the guesthouse and Gertrude, Rosie, Ti Jean, Frantz and the staff. We have seen the body of Christ is action. Many have committed to praying for the needs that we have mentioned. Our hearts broke when we heard Ed and other missionary friends outside of PAP wondering if and when help would arrive. Many we know in PAP have been devistated by the loss. Gertude is now in severe shock and needs to be upheld in prayer. All of our staff and every other Haitian in PAP the we know whose life had been spared has lost their home. The need is tremendious. But our God is bigger than it all. This is the opportunity for all of us to step up to the plate. The response we have seen is overwhelming. I have had the opportunity to network with many Christian friends that we met over the years in Haiti this past week and all have rallied prayer teams and support for our brothers and sisters in Haiti." Ed's messages today: 6:02 PM We're still here. The tremors are still here. The "help on the way" is still not here. Mon 1:02 PM A lot of people coming here to the house to eat today and we've sent out several bags of rice to several places today.. We are in the yard at the Happy House today. Doing a little cleaning inside. Running back outside REAL fast every time a tremor rumbles. Comical and very scary at the same time. Lora says thank you for praying for us, and for the help being sent to us. Her main prayer request is for everyone to find a place to live and that she would be able to communicate with her mother and sisters. [Note: Lora was able to speak with her mom on the phone this evening!] Daphne says she is happy to hear that so many people care and thank you for the prayers. He main prayer request is for the tremors to stop and for there to be peace. Ismael, one of our Happy House guys, says, he is well thank the Lord and that he is counting on your prayers and he wants the tremors to stop. Amen. Mon 8:34 AM Slept really good last night. The weather is quite pleasant though the atmosphere remains very tense and on edge. We're going to start bringing more families in out at the school. Still no sign here in Petit Goave, of all the aid coming in. The tremors continue. LOTS of good outdoor church services yesterday. The Happy House is still upright with only a little damage ... I'm still not hungry. January 17, 2010 There is definitely strength in binding ourselves together like the early church did. It has been so encouraging to me personally to get so many e-mails from friends in the States, Canada, England, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Egypt, etc. We normally have so many things to fight about, but right now we have more important things to do. We need each other ... at least when we have earthquakes. After getting through the initial clean up stages, we will set our sights on rebuilding. Right now we just want to stay alive and help others do the same. I told the church this morning that we must tie our hearts together and if anyone is hungry, make us know. There should not be one among us that has to go hungry. There is not much of a government functioning here now. Never was, now there's even less. What we need to do, and can do is help keep folks alive until more substantial help arrives. Our immediate needs are food and water. We can still get that here for now. What we need will be money to feed all the people we are helping. We have enough friends and infrastructure in our areas to have successful distributions. As to Haiti's immediate needs, we are not even close to rebuilding time. There is much work that only big organizations with big equipment can do. Bulldozers and cranes are needed all over. Dead bodies still clog the roads of PAP. In some places they are being pile intentionally as road blocks to force the government to come and take them away. I shared with the church this morning that our brothers and sisters around the world were praying for us. I tried to make them know that we are not forgotten and that it's still in God's hands. They were encouraged to know so many are watching. It feels good when a helicopter passes over, even when they don't stop. Makes us feel like somebody out there knows that we're here. I feel real good about that. We are in a survival mode as we wait, what seems to be forever, for help to get here. Some helicopters have passed over and circled but nothing on the ground yet. We have two bulldozers for this whole town still trying to dig bodies out of the rubble. We are now organizing a base camp at the Lakul/Royale school. Haiti will not be having school for the rest of this year, so we are going to use the building to house many of the families that lost their homes. The school is still standing. Also that will make it easier to give food and there is some security in larger numbers of people right now. We're going to try some New Testament church. We don't have cable here and my only access to the Internet is via a satellite dish on our roof which gets it's power from the car batteries. My laptop obviously has its own battery. We have a generator so as long as we have gas we can continue to charge things. Of course if the house collapses, and it may, that will be the end of my transmissions. With the continual tremors, we are not done yet. Just a quick note about how I'm communicating. A few people have asked how I am able to get online in the midst of all this. We have no electricity. For years we have not been able to rely on electricity here so we have a battery bank of car batteries wired together. When we don't have electricity, we small things off of the batteries. Back from a real encouraging church service. Out door service of course. Also quite a bit more people than normal. Give us this day, our daily bread. A sad symbol of Haiti right now was in the news here last night. The Haitian flag at the National Palace cannot be raised due to all the damage there. We are starting to get phone service. We will not likely have electricity for several weeks. We are still having tremors. Sun 8:21 AM Still here. January 16, 2010 Joel: Through this ministry (Haiti Friendship Ministries) some people still sponsor individual children in Haiti. I'm sorry to say that it will be quite awhile before I can obtain any information about the situation of such children, much less information on the condition of the schools that people currently sponsor (like Marchasse). Pastor Abner won't be back in Haiti until next Thursday, and it will then take some time to assess the situation with all of his schools and churches. On another a note, I was able to speak with Ed on the phone tonight. Apparently cell phone service is again working in Haiti. The Happy House, as with most all buildings still standing in Petit Goave, have cracks in it. Ed says that that they are not deep, but with ongoing tremblers everyone in that town including him and the kids are sleeping outside each night. Petit Goave still has not seen anybody in charge or any help. Prayer is the biggest need. Money is needed because they are running out of that ... but at the moment he has nobody that can cash a check. The road is open to Port-au-Prince, but the place he used to be able to reliably cash checks, One Stop, is completely gone. Food and water will be a big problem soon. The biggest practical need at the moment is for heavy machinery ... to lift the pieces of the fallen buildings and get both live (if any) and dead bodies out. There is nothing like that in Petit Goave. One issue Ed foresees with people and teams coming to rebuild, which will not be feasible for some time, is that the prices for construction supplies may skyrocket, especially early on. I told him that many people here are keeping them in prayer. Ed's Facebook messages for this evening: Well-another tremor- I really hate those. My laptop juice will be gone soon. By God's grace, we have lived another day. We were able to bless and be blessed. Don't know if we will wake up tomorrow here or in Heaven, but we are in His Hands, and though we are seeing darkly right now, He is our Shield and our Peace. We don't know, He does, and for us, trusting is more important than knowing. Little Edna, Manno's girl, was selling leaves this morning. All six for $200 or a quarter each if you buy them individually. I told her I would buy them individually, smiling. She suspect something so she upped the price. I told her I wasn't going to buy them at the new price and she smiled cleverly and said she would just go sell them somewhere else. People are thankful to be alive, and feel blessed to have not perished, yet on the other hand, they have lost everything. Their lives are all they have left. And this is not a great place to be living right now. There are also an increasing -just had a tremor- numbers of dazed people wandering aimlessly. The humor is black right now. Some people are making jokes that they made it through the quake but will die of starvation now. Rumors are rampant as always in the streets. Huge hordes of folks headed up into the hills after rumors that a huge flood, was coming from the sea. After a couple of days and no flood, now they are running back down into the towns because they heard the mountains are going to crumble. Houses are all death traps and many have stories of narrow escapes. Some had the warning of a few blocks falling first and were able to get out just as a wall or roof came down. Some escaped but not without injury. Some people, feeling the earth trembling actually panicked and ran into buildings for cover. There are such extremes of laughter and grief as people wandering the streets reunite with relatives. How ironic that "home," the place we normally used to feel the safest, is now the place we all fear most. Everybody's sounds began to run together. Crying babies. Sick kids. Laughing kids. Playing kids. Sick older folk. Anxious conversations and cell phones. Who is alive, who is not. Dogs barking. Pieces of old carpet scrap being arranged for bed time. Young men talking about what will happen next. All of this under the tapestry of a bunch of old sheets. Everything is outside. We visited another yard with about 30 people camping on carpet under sheets. One lady lamented that she did not have enough sheets to make a house. There was no food being prepared since they were out. Thankfully we were able to remedy that. The sun's light began to go out and the audio begin to take place of the visual. Carrido, a little boy is sick with Malaria. This sure doesn't feel like a Saturday or any other day for that matter. It seems like it should be 11:00 or later. We went out and delivered some more food and funds. The kids were awesome. The population is still living in the streets so we could not stay out long after dark The roads are full of tent/sheet cities and sleeping people. Rows and rows of them. Gonna sign off for now. We're going to take some supplies out to some families in Lakul. Still having tremors. May get some rain which we would rather not have at the moment. I'm ready for some smiling faces. Will check in later Lord willing. For better and for worse, Haiti will NEVER be the same. I honestly believe that after we get through all of this, Haiti will have an opportunity to really improve and things will be much better than they were before. Also I am sharing here with the Haitian people about the vast army of people praying on our behalf. It is also VERY encouraging to them. We are not alone. We are not forgotten and Christ through us can reach out and comfort those in despair. These things bring out the best in us and tend to give us more of a heart like Jesus. COMPASSION. Another thing happening now is that thousands of people are leaving PAP, many on foot, carrying what they can on their heads and they are heading out to relatives in the provinces trying to escape the Hell that PAP has become. Nearly everywhere there is a pile of garbage in PAP there are bodies as well. Words cannot begin to convey what is unfolding here. So far we are able to get basic foods and water. If help doesn't get here soon, that will run out before long. We have had some helicopters fly over head but nothing on the ground yet. If anybody seeing this knows anybody coming in any official capacity, we are in the town of Petit Goave about 50 miles west of PAP. I can be contacted via Facebook or this website. Reynold went to PAP yesterday. Bodies upon bodies piled in the streets. So many buildings in ruin. We lost a few people there. Enosh, Myrlande's brother died in the collapse of their house. MANY, MANY people we know here in Ti Goave have lost their homes. We are just thankful to be alive at this point. Thankfully there hasn't been any rain. They are starting to get the bodies out of the rubble here. Still there is an open mass grave at the cemetery and it has yet to be covered. The smell is unbearable. There are still bodies strewn around. Those alive are wandering, wailing, searching for family that they haven't been able to contact. Hunger is setting in. We've had several people come here and we've been giving out what we have. We are still having tremors but they seem to be getting smaller and fewer. Still they are enough to keep us all on edge. The population, us included, is still living outside. The main highway has thousands of people camping on it. There are tent and sheet cities everywhere. Back on line. I can't believe it's Saturday. This has all been one long day. We are getting more news now as the phone lines are opening up, some good news, some bad news. Some folks are still alive, some are not. Daphne just found out that her uncle did not die. January 15, 2010 We just got news that Daphne, one of our kids that lives at the house, lost an uncle. As days go by, some will get some thrilling news that their families are alive and well, many, however, will only have their worst fears confirmed. For so many the waiting and not knowing is maddening. Students that have not come back from school. People that went to the store and haven't been heard from since. With so bodies piling up in so many places, mass graves are being dug and many bodies are getting buried with no identification. Some people will never know. A big issue for most people here now is trying to get news of loved ones. With the phones mostly still out and no power and little radio, most people are just waiting. Every day that goes by without news deepens the fears and despair. We have a girl with us right now, Lora, whose mother and sisters live in a part of PAP that was hit really hard. We cannot find any news of their fate. Had a decent sleep in the car last night. Was awakened by aftershocks several times. The house is still standing. The population continues to sleep outside in the streets. The main highway has thousands camping on it. The clean up process hasn't really started significantly here. Until the aftershocks s...top, we are still stuck in the day this all started. It has all been one big long day to me. January 14, 2010 Joel: Just received a call from Pastor Abner. He was able to find out that his wife and daughter in Port-au-Prince are OK....thank you Lord! He still has not been able to contact them to talk to them, and he will not be able to get a flight to get into Haiti until next Thursday. Last messages from Ed for today: I'm getting ready to sign off. Laptop battery about dead. Manno is here with me and passes these words on to those of you reading this, "Sometimes some things difficult come into our lives. One thing we learn, it has showed us how many friends, brothers, and sisters we have in the world. Thank you for your prayers." Goodnight. It's about pitch black here now. We'll be calling it a day soon. The tremors continue. Thank you again for so much concern and so many prayers. This truly overwhelming and we want to be helping others through this time even as we struggle to find our own way. The Lord is our Hope. Our strength. Our strong tower. Happy/Sad. We dropped off a major load of rice and some money, but this was before we gave them anything. These are some of the kids that I mentioned living under the sheets. We came back with a big sack of rice and some money to help them out. They were very happy. We spent the morning checking in with people and we gave out a couple hundred pounds of rice and a fair bit of money to families to help for the moment. As we are able we will be doing much more of this. Manno and I are already making a list of huts to rebuild/replace. We passed one place and there were several families all camping under a string of sheets tied together. The kids came running out immediately, all thrilled to see us. They are all sleeping on straw mats and sheets underneath their little makeshift shelter, Some lost their homes, and even for those who didn't there is still no sleeping inside. One of the things that really tears me up, and I may not even be able to write this...the kids we saw on our way out to the school. They still came running out to us and calling our names with great joy as they always do. But, many of them had piles of rubble behind them. Rubble that 2 days ago was where they called ho....me. How can they even think about smiling at a time like this? We are getting a radio station from PAP and they are instructing folks on how to deal with all the dead bodies. Valerie, one of our students, and their hut collapsed behind them. She was trying so hard not to cry, and I feel like a real geek taking pictures of the pain, but I hope that making people see will get them involved and we will rebuild a place for them to live. I feel that these little snippets I'm writing don't begin to convey the suffering here. Everybody is living in the street, including us. We have many friends that lost their homes/huts. Ti Kit, where many of you have sipped coconuts, lost their walls. Valerie's hut across from the school totally collapsed...BIG tremor just sped up my heartbeat... Just got back from our ride to Lakul. It's a nightmare here. They are starting to dig mass graves for the many unclaimed bodies. Some areas,the smell is unbearable. We still are having tremors. Just now in fact. We are going to try to drive out to the Lakul area and see what has happened and see what we can do. This has been like one long bad day to us. It is still sinking in that we are alive after seeing the "end of the world", but it is also sinking in how many thousands are not still alive. Though I can get e-mails out, I cannot communicate much within the country due to the cell phone services being down. As far as we have heard most of our immediate families and friends are okay, but our news here is limited to who we see. Again, a lot of people want to know how to help and as I posted, coming down here is not feasible right now, but hopefully after a few weeks it will be an option. The rebuilding that needs to be done here will take years. Donations can be made via the Missionary Ventures website. The Happy House is still standing at this point. There is much damage here in Petit Goave. The news on TV is mostly coming out of Port Au Prince but there are many other towns that have been rocked though there are no cameras there. Phones and power still out. Shortages of food and water are starting to hit. None of us have been hungry yet any way. We had rice and ketchup yesterday. The fog is clearing some. Slept last night for the first time in a couple of days. The tremors keep rumbling which makes this all seem a very present danger to us. In the news it would seem that the earthquake happened Tuesday, but we are still connected to that day with the continual aftershocks. Thee were 3 big ones this morning. We are sleeping outside. January 13, 2010 I must say with tears in my eyes, I feel truly overwhelmed by the amount of people praying for, reaching out to, and thinking of us here. Truly overwhelmed. After a few weeks travel will be an option. Also donations can be made via Missionary Ventures as they are setting up a Haiti relief fund. Also some folks have mentioned having people here and not being able to get news. Remember that there is no power and the cell phone companies are out like a light. I have a sat dish hooked to car batteries and that is how I am able to communicate. A LOT of folks are asking how they can help after praying. I stress that prayer is the first thing. We still don't know if we're going to get through this. Aside from that there will be massive reconstruction needed. A lot of homes, churches, and schools caved in right here in our area. It is not feasible to get on a plane right now and come down. It's chaos here and travel is extremely limited. Checking in to give and get news. Things are still tense with continual after shocks that seem to know no end. There have been three since I turned the computer on. Amazing to see a city full of people camped out outside of their houses. The red cross has been collecting bodies here in Petit Goave. I don't think we have anyone alive buried in rubble here, unlike PAP. Phones are still out. No power. No radio. The airport is closed. Most roads are impassable. Many have huge holes now and massive debris. We have several folks staying in our Royale school. There was a lot of damage out along the shore. By God's grace I will say that so far we are still here. The school in Ft Royale/Lakul is okay. Some of you that have been here have visited Met Ferer's church. We have news now that it has collapsed. The inside of the Happy House is a small disaster zone. A lot of broken things. The tremors continue though and we only dash in and out when we need to. I haven't slept since yesterday and I feel like it is still Tuesday. I am thankful that we are alive. I am still amazed at how drastically things can turn on a dime. Christians here are reaching out to each other. Needless to say we are back outside the Happy House, thus I can communicate. Going to take a look inside and see what all has happened. I know many things fell and were broken. The tremors are making us extra cautious. There is distant weeping and wailing as I type. I here helicopters. The sunrise this morning was very pretty, what it's shedding light on is a nightmare. To show you how bad it is, for those who have stayed at the hotel here across from the big Catholic church. The Catholic church is completely reduced to rubble. The whole area looks like a war zone. I keep hoping to wake up and find this was all a very bad dream, but it's beginning to seem like it's real. Phone lines are mostly down still so we are unable to communicate even within Haiti. And with no electricity the radio stations here are all out in our area. We are still alive at this point. We spent the night under the stars up in the hills. Didn't sleep too well. The streets are completely packed with people wandering around. It's 6:30 AM. The damage here is Petit Goave is massive. Our house is still standing for the moment but another one two houses up from us collapsed. The main stresser right now is the continual tremors. They continued all night and right up until 4 seconds ago. It's like things have not settled yet. Even if we live to tell about this, Haiti is in the middle of a major catastrohe. I'm not trying to sound dramatic, but I want folks to keep praying. This isn't over yet. January 12, 2010 The ocean is getting rough so we are going to try to head for higher ground. That means I will not be able to send messages for a while. The earth is like a boat to us with it's trembling. It's going to be a very long night...I hope. Now we find out what our trust level is. This all just came out of nowhere. Thank you for the prayers. The Lord is the only thing not shaking right now. Also there are tsunami alerts and we are right near the water. Whatever happens, neither Haiti or us will ever be the same. Everything is black. No electricity. For sure, if we live to see bedtime, no one will be sleeping in doors. Still alive as news trickles in. It is not over yet where we are. Every few minutes there are rumblings. We don't know if it's fading out or fading in. It's like the whole world was getting ready to fold up on us. We are still getting continual aftershocks. Houses rumbling. We're praying and waiting. I'm outside using wireless to transmit this. This is a bit scary even for me. Eyes off the quake and on to Jesus. Phones are all down. Streets filled with wounded, screaming, confused people. We are trying to stay away from anything that can fall on us. We have earthqakes and aftershocks shaking our world right now. PRAY. Buildings and houses are still falling. We are in the street right now.