It's not working, we are not back to what we'd do daily, and we have no idea when that will happen. At 5 AM, this morning, Gary answered the phone, a call from one of our students wanting to know if we'll have school tomorrow. The kids need to be in school but until the engineer that came in last night declares our building safe, there is no way we can have school. The stress cracks are in both buildings. These are relatively nice buildings, I'm wondering about all the schools downtown that pack kids in like sardines. What kind of shape are their buildings in and God forbid they should crumble under the weight of many or another after shock that could possibly take them down.
We had Bible school yesterday and had about 20 out of the 90 enrolled. Instead of regular classes, we stayed together as a group and let several give their testimonies concerning their quake experience. Since we have four students from Port, all belonging to the same church, we let the Pastor speak. I've related his experience and we are in the process of helping him rebuild. The other three were from Montrouis area, two in town and one from a village. The young man from the village said he had an appointment to discuss the Bible with another man, so he was not at his house when it occurred. His story is quite interesting and in each story, their faith in God shone brightly.
Village Story: They were sitting inside when things began to shake, the man ran outside. The Bible school student went out and said, "Stand still!" He then put his hand in the air and said, "In the name of Jesus, STOP!" The shaking stopped. It began again (a second quake hit immediately after the first one) and he saw the tree spinning around. Again, he put his hand in the air and said, "In the name of Jesus, Stop!" When things quieted down, he went home to check on his family and they were fine. He was told that his oldest son did exactly what he'd done when the shaking began. Rather than run, this young boy raised his hand and said, "In the name of Jesus, stop." He went on to tell us he has this routine of teaching his children how to speak things "in the name of Jesus."
Montrouis Story: This young man needed money and a wire transfer never came (wire transfers are how 90 percent of the population live due to relatively no employment, family members working in North American send money monthly to the tune of 2 billion dollars a year!) Since the transfer didn't come, he began to pray for money. He prayed from 8 AM to 8PM, and nothing happened. The next day he went around asking to borrow a little, then he'd go back to prayer because the transfer didn't come. His need for money was to go to Port au Prince. During the time of prayer, when he was out on the street, a young woman came up to him (a friend) telling him she was very sick and asked him to pray for her. He said, "How can I pray for you, I've been praying for several days for money and my prayer has not been answered." She insisted. He prayed and she was immediately healed! So, he was encouraged to go back to his room and pray some more. Sitting on his bed, the bed began to shake. At first he thought God was speaking to him. But when the floor began to "dance" he knew something was very wrong. Had he gotten the money, he'd have been in Port au Prince at the time of the quake. He knew in his heart that God had held up the money to save his life.
Pout au Prince Story: Pastor Cesar was having Bible school in his church. His wife was at nursing school. Ten minutes before the quake hit, she heard in her ear "Run!" She heeded the voice, grabbed her things and left the building. The whole school came down killing and maiming many. The church where he was teaching came down but it was a simple structure, tin roof. No one was hurt. Pastor Cesar's house fell, along with 20 other members of the church but no one died. They are all living in make shift tents. As I looked at his thread bare pants yesterday, I thought about how faithful he is to God in teaching the Word. I keep thinking, I've got to get this man some suits and shirts that reflect the how bountiful our Father is. We are in the process of helping him rebuild and we want to help the other church members get back under roof. We will visit there Monday and I can update you on that progress.
We took Trey and Mike to see Pierre Pyan Hospital yesterday. The young Dr from TX and a couple of nurses were carrying a big cake to a young survivor who'd had surgery. It was his birthday. We got to participate in singing Happy Birthday to him. Walking through those rooms and seeing all the fractures that had been repaired struck me emotionally because these people were found in tent camps all over Port au Prince who had not seen any Doctor. Anne Hume, a friend of ours, got an ice truck and began driving to Port and finding victims that no one had attended to. They'd put three at most in the ice truck, drive them back to Pierre Pyan, where they had an orthopedic surgeon and plastic surgeon to operate on them. They are all very young, two have been taken to the Comfort ship. We spent time praying with different ones and listening to their stories. We have medical teams coming in and they will perhaps work there as well as St Nicholaus hospital.
One of our employees has 20 people living with her. Twenty people she's responsible to feed! Her salary barely feeds her. We have given her some food and will give her more today.
Today, the engineer from Wisconsin (who arrived last night) will walk through our buildings to see if we can have school Monday. Gary and I will take the Service International team to see a refugee center as they collect data as to how they'll use our property to relocate people.
One last thing. You all are aware of the American missionaries held in Port, accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children. The woman who orchestrated the whole trip, may or may not have known what she was doing. But, we were involved in this and here is our story. Richard and Melinda Pickett, whom we've known for five years and knew they have been trying to adopt three children. We met them in Haiti at a church conference and maintained a relationship with them. Gary met Richard in Port two months ago as they discussed the longevity of this adoption. When the earthquake happened, Richard called us asking us to go to the orphanage and get his three children, and the great concern was for the girl whom at that time, he'd not had word as to whether she was okay. She had been on her way home from school during the quake and with no phone service, he couldn't find out about her. So, Gary and I set out to Bon Repos to find these kids. Their building was damaged, the kids were sleeping outside, the Pickett children were all there. We told the director, David, that we were taking the kids as per Richards request and he was glad to have us take them. When we got three in the van, he said, "There is a fourth, take him too." We did. In the meantime, Richard was arranging to come to Haiti to get his children out of the country because, many children who's adoptions were in the works, were getting to leave. A couple of days passed, David called Gary saying there were people at the orphanage who wanted the Pickett children and Gary should bring them to him immediately. Gary told him no, if someone wanted the kids, they had to call Gary themselves. No one ever called. In the meantime, Richard got to Haiti and we took the kids to him. I got an email from Malinda saying that after Richard left for Haiti, a woman by the name of Ms. Silsby, called her and asked Malinda where the children were, that she was going to get them and take them to the Dominican. Malinda told her to leave her children alone that Richard was in Haiti and he would take care of them. What we didn't know in subsequent meetings with David (because we've been helping him take care of all the children by giving him food, water, money, a tarp) was that he became Ms. Silsby's interpreter and took her to other orphanages to collect children. We've yet to ask him about that. We did ask him why he called us asking for the kids and he said he was afraid they were government people, whether that's true or not remains to be seen. The picture used on CNN is the picture I took, when we got the children into the van the day we picked them up. So, that's our story and the part we played in this huge story that has broken in Haiti and the US, over ten but mainly one woman, Ms. Silsby. What I think about the matter is unimportant. The kids are in the States now on a humanitarian parole and the Picketts have two years to get their adoption completed. The fourth boy, Junior is with us. He's happy and will be a student at El Shaddai so that he can learn English while Richard and Malinda work on his adoption as well.
To see the interview Richard Pickett did on this matter, click on the link below. Have a blessed day!
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/05/americans-kidnapping-charges/
No comments:
Post a Comment