Words..... sometimes they just flow, and other times they seem to stick in the throat – or in the fingers when trying to type them. Right now I'm grasping unsuccessfully for effective words to tell you what we saw and experienced in Haiti.

 

As most of you know, we received a phone call in the afternoon of January 15^th, 3 days after the massive quake in Haiti asking us if we could be at LAX airport at 7 the next evening  to fly to Port-au-Prince. Regardless of schedules and other plans we immediately said yes.

 

One of our long term partner ministries, Global Operations and Development, was asking us to shepherd a 10,500 pound shipment from Los Angeles to Port-au-Prince for their Giving Children Hope division. And one of our newest partners, Children's Palliative Care Community was asking for us to assess what they could do to provide the best help for hurting children.

 

Incredibly generously, one of the airlines with a history of relief involvement had agreed to carry the Giving Children Hope shipment as well as 6 of us (Norm and Cher handling assessment, Jenise – handling logistics for GODAid, Jason – a paramedic, Cozette – a medical doctor, Tom – a trouble shooter, and Luke – a long-time Haiti volunteer and invaluable master-of-many-trades) at no cost from Los Angeles to Florida. Praise the Lord for people in the world who are willing to demonstrate compassion just because it is the right thing to do!  Plus, never before in relief work were we and our cargo treated so carefully and graciously as we were by this airline from check-in to delivery in Fort Lauderdale.

 

In Fort Lauderdale things became much more hectic as we tried to get our cargo claimed, sent to Opalaka and out on the charter with us and several other relief groups to Port-au-Prince. Because of the delays on the Florida end, and the curfews imposed in Haiti, by the time we arrived there we could not get out of the airport. The airport buildings were all closed because of damage, so we spent the night on the tarmac – literally. All night long gigantic cargo planes from our U. S Air Force and from countries all over the world screamed in – idled at unbelievable decibels while our military unloaded the cargo as fast as possible and then sent the monsters screaming back out into the night skies. Planes were landing and taking off every 15 minutes, with 7 or 8 jumbos idling at all times. Add to that the streams of private jets that were constantly arriving. We were grateful for the little earplugs we had for the night, but still had ringing ears for days. But what an overwhelming experience to see the whole world responding so generously.

 

We were impressed beyond words with the fantastic organization our military brought to the airport. Haiti's flight tower had come down in the quake and many of their people had been killed. Port-au-Prince is a very small airport to begin with, and the first few days were a nightmare with planes circling for hours trying to land, near misses in the air, and many, many frayed tempers. The U.S. Marines took over the 3^rd day and at first ran the flight control out of a jeep, while they built themselves a temporary tower. What an amazing feat they accomplished in flight control – especially with so many foreign language pilots to deal with!!

 

All night long we watched as van and bus loads of Haitian U.S. Passport holders were brought to the airport to be evacuated out in the emptied military planes. It was so touching to see them dressed in the finest clothing they had available to them – indicating that they felt it an honor to be going back to the states. The children were all so well behaved in spite of being wakened when they arrived during the night, seeing these gigantic planes for the first time and dealing with the overwhelming noise on the field.

 

We were so blown around by jet force and sandblasted by dirt and pebbles every time a big craft turned a certain way, we looked as though we had been on the field for a couple of weeks before we ever got out of the airport! We were ever so grateful when toward morning the military offered us some MREs (meals ready to eat).

 

When we were finally loaded in the truck we started the very slow progress from the airport to Grace International complex where we would drop the first part of our shipment. It was literally mind-boggling to see the devastation as we made our way through broken roads and piles of rubble from fallen buildings clogging the streets. Then there were the multitude of “camps” that had sprung up all over the city. Besides those who had lost everything there are also all the people who are afraid to be in their homes either because of damage they can see, or fear that one of the constant aftershocks may cause their home to fall. Because of this it is impossible to have an idea how many people are truly homeless.

 

We were at first distressed that we could not go directly to our ultimate destination, Mission of Hope. But, as is always true, God's ways are higher than ours, and it was exactly right that we be in the middle of down-town, in all the chaos, confusion, destruction, desperation, heartache and need. It would not have been right to experience a sanitized version of what was really happening. We praise Him for His arrangements!

 

As is true with many mission compounds in Haiti, Grace has a girls' home, a boys' home, a church, a clinic, a school and a guest house. Every building was damaged or destroyed. The large open air church had the least damage, so the clinic had set up in the church and organized around the specialties of the medical volunteers available. Our paramedic, Jason, and our internist, Cozette, immediately plugged into the team and went to work. The medical supplies that we had brought were instantly of use.

 

The triage area (where the waiting patients were evaluated to see who needed to be seen first) must have had 200 people waiting on the small hillside just outside the church. It was heartbreaking to see what terrible wounds and broken bones were not considered serious enough to be seen immediately because there were more life threatening cases to be treated first.

 

We made ourselves as useful as possible – finding supplies for doctors – holding instruments,  unrolling bandages – praying with agitated patients and grieving families – trying to assess the needs and endeavoring to record the stories to bring them home to you.

 

As in every disaster area, those involved plead with God to cover a multitude of situations that would never be allowed here in America. In the open air church with a dirty cement floor, what passed for a sterile examination site consisted of the blue disposable underpads placed on the floor. In that environment emergency C-sections were performed, horrendous lacerations were sewn as best as possible, infected wounds were cleaned, and even amputations were performed. Ghastly circumstances, all covered by the blood of our miraculous healer, Jesus Christ.

 

When the clinic would shut down at sunset since there was no electricity in the city, we would have time to walk the grounds of Grace where it was estimated there were 12,000 to 14,000 people “camped out” on the grounds. There was hardly a tent in sight. People simply marked off a portion of the ground with whatever they had (bed sheets, a table cloth, a piece of plastic, a tarp) tied to sticks stuck into the ground. This provided the most minimum of privacy, but a place for the family to meet and sleep together for the night for protection. What few items they had salvaged from their homes were now treasured possessions. And lucky the family that had found a pot in which to cook rice or beans, whichever was available for distribution.

 

As we talked to person after person who had lost many family members, or all their children, and had no home left we constantly saw them lift their pain-filled eyes to heaven, raise their hands and say, “But God is good! He has His reasons!”

 

Although we slept on the ground with everyone else, we were provided thin mattresses from the broken guest house on which to sleep. It was awkward being treated so royally when most had nothing. The babies were all sleeping in an open shipping container. One night we were even provided with a pup-tent. That sounded wonderful, except that it was the 2 of us and 10 trapped hungry mosquitoes who made quite a feast out of us all night.

 

But we were sung to sleep by the people in the camps singing hymns long into the night.  We could recognize almost all and sing along. One night the last song I remember hearing was “The Love of God” (The love of God, how rich, how pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure, the saints and angels song.) And we awakened in the morning (shortly after the rooster stuck his head into our pup-tent and crowed in our faces) to the lovely strains of hundreds of people singing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”. God has indeed blessed the poor with richness of faith. Afternoons we watched the women gather under the trees to pray and pray and pray.

 

When it was time for us to move on to our other location, as we waited for the truck to arrive to transport us, our precious Luke was helping the men try to fix a broken well so that there was  water available other than just the bottled water. Right as they were forcing the last jerry-rigged piece into place something slipped and crushed Luke's hand. They brought him into the compound bleeding profusely, in terrible pain, close to shock, with a horrible wound that was filled with dirt and grease. We had no pain medicine available or irrigation supplies and he had to endure our flooding it with alcohol and peroxide and wrapping it the best we could until we could get him down to where the doctors were working. While it has now been cleaned and stitched, there was no X-ray availability. We are praying that when he returned home the X-rays showed no crushed bones or joints.

 

Soon we left Grace International for Mission of Hope. MOH is located closer to the airport than Grace, but set just up the side of the hills surrounding Port-au-Prince. Both because of it's location and because of the integrity of their structures they had very little damage. On their 78 acre campus only the boys home was damaged so badly that it was not usable, but the boys were being housed in very nice tents which MOH had on hand in their warehouse. MOH normally servers over 100,000 meals a week out of their gigantic warehouse. They distribute through churches and orphanages all over the country. God had blessed them with having their warehouse completely restocked at the time of the quake, and since it hit they have served over 2 million meals, all distributed in Jesus' name.

 

We were incredibly impressed with Mission of Hope's leadership, staff, functioning and long term planning. Even though they had a 5/10 year plan when the quake happened, by the time we were there they already had logistics people, architects and engineers on the field trying to discern what changes needed to be made for the immediate and long term future of serving the country of Haiti.

 

It was a beehive of activity with medical groups, Convoy of Hope groups, well drilling groups, engineers and handy-men coming and going at all hours. Although their water supply was cut off, too, they managed to feed and “house” (in guest rooms or tents) flocks of people who had come both announced and unannounced. We were so impressed with their calm organization and depth of knowledge of the island. The breadth of their ministry to the suffering all over Haiti was a joy to see.

 

Perhaps the highlight of our time at MOH was the Sunday Morning church service we were able to attend. Oh, how they praised the Lord! Tears were flowing everywhere. And they prayed – they really prayed. The pastor chose a passage from Job for his message. But he preached of Job's perseverance in impossible circumstances!! He exhorted them that they had been spared from death for God's eternal purposes. At the end of the service people streamed forward to accept Christ as Savior. The preceding Sunday they had seen over 200 come forward for salvation. God is truly using this horrible event for His purposes and glory!!

 

At every stop along the way there were children – children eager to be loved, hugged, tickled, kissed, talked to – whether or not they understood what we said, and children to be prayed over. Oh, do we love that part of every trip!

 

There are some faces from our time there that will never fade from our memories. And we hope you will take them to heart, too.

 

Precious Tatiana – maybe 13 year old, whose right arm was crushed so badly it had to be amputated, and whose leg had compound, complex fractures, laying in her bunk with the most angelic smile, refusing to take anything but Tylenol, saying “Thank you, Jesus, for saving me.”

 

And Josellin – a young teen whose leg was amputated, who was trying to prop his stump of a leg up on the bunk above him to relieve the throbbing, and was so incredibly grateful when we found just a pillow to put under his leg to elevate it. What a thrill to see a smile from him before we left.

 

And Kevens – a little 7-year-old whose whole family was killed in the quake, and who had just been taken in by the orphanage, being so brave and trying to be happy, but the fear just radiated from his eyes.

 

And Robinson, one of the older orphans, who had taken Kevens under his wing, and made sure he never walked away from the little guy.

 

And Danita, a tiny, beautiful young blond who answered God's call to rescue the suffering children in Haiti, and went on her own to find a place to live and started rescuing street kids. She started with 14 and now has over 80 and has branched out to 2 additional homes. She has been an inspiration for several other young lovely American women to join her. She lives by miraculous faith!

 

And Jake, a young man whose whole life fell apart here in the states, who now works at a high paying, high-profile job just so he can go several times a years to serve the orphanages in any way he can. And has started his own video company to be able to raise awareness and funds for work in Haiti.

 

And Brad, whose missionary parents affected him so deeply that he and his wife have taken over the mission and are raising their young children there. What a gift he is to Haiti!

 

And there are more. We covet your prayers for them and for so many others – the children who are on the streets not even knowing if they are orphans or not. For all of the homeless, who see no hope of ever having a home again. For the government, to be open to help in changing the way things are run there. For the hungry, to not turn to violence out of desperation. For our broken hearts not to heal. Most of all, for whatever the Lord's best plan is for Haiti to be realized....

 

And for these inadequate words to find a way into your minds and hearts.