Many are asking, and since we were in Port, yesterday, the sixth month since the tremble na te, (trembling of the earth), it seemed fitting to pen what I saw and didn't see.
What I saw: Thousands of tents everywhere as has been, on every available land space in Port. Some on mediums, if you can imagine living there, with traffic flying by all the time, diesel and gasoline fumes for air to breathe, plus the dirt from the street flying in your face, your food, your home. Some of the cities are rather well organized, so that the tents are in rows, and porta potties lining the periphery.
Traffic is horrible. You wouldn't think so would you? After all, an earthquake that destroyed the capital city of a nation, thousands of homes gone, people in tents and yet, traffic....unbelievable traffic. Much of it are the tap taps, (covered p/u trucks that shuttle people from one place to another, folks tapping the side of the truck when they reach their destination. Some of it are the newer buses that the former President Aristide had brought into the country, with the word Dignite written on the side, which is the name of the project. They are Mercedes buses, sleek and white, but the air conditioning must not work because the windows are always open. I don't know what the fare is or how it compares to the pick up trucks but both are always teeming with people. While you drive through all this, there are the "hockers" who seize every opportunity to sell you something when you are stopped in traffic. I applaud them for their desire to work. You need to understand that the sun is beaming and causing temps to be at least 100 degrees by 2PM. And they are out there, relentless, to find buyers for their various items; plug ins for recharging phones, plaintain chips (very good), soda and water.
Then there are the children who are begging, tapping on your window the moment you stop and in our case, windows open so a hand comes in asking, begging, "give me" Give me something, only make sure it's money because I don't want food, if you have no money, give me your watch, your ring, something that I can turn into money, but please, food is not what I want. (These children all work for someone who is watching and waiting for the money they get. They are beaten and abused and it's the most heartbreaking situation one can ever imagine. They are fearless, young, dirty, hungry, pathetic children, swallowed up by the street and all that entails).
I saw one building being restored. ONE. I saw others that were in the same shape they were six months ago, maybe a little more deteriorated. The government buildings are the same as they were, not repaired, not torn down, simply there, crumbling.
There were people in yellow T-shirts and yellow hard hats working on rubble. Shoveling it into a wheel barrow and depositing it in a special place. Their shirts read something like "Your Government at Work". Men and women working like machines to move away cement. The positive side, they have a job. The negative, of course, for how long? and how can their bodies take the abuse? Hopefully, they are getting paid a fair wage and not working with the "hope" that payday is coming.
There are places in Haiti where an American can cash an American check and get the Haitian equivalent right then. These are money changers who've gotten rich with this method of meeting a "need" for a foreigner. We operate this way. The man to whom we go, had a grocery store that went down in the quake. He and all his family (Christians) escaped. They had been in the process of building a new store and are continuing to try and get it open soon. While you can't buy groceries from him, you can still cash a check (for any amount, I might add). We pay our staff during the summer months, payday is coming again, we needed to get the cash for that. It was quite interesting to drive up to an iron gate in another section of town that has been building up for a long time. This area was not hurt by the quake, whether the buildings are being built better or why they weren't affected, is beyond me. The iron gate opens and we drove into a huge parking lot that had a couple of employee vehicles in it as construction for this building continues. Three guard dogs, and a guard accompanied us through the empty building to the office. We were greeted warmly and assured that if the store never opened, the check cashing would continue. It's a great service for us, and we appreciate the honesty of the man with whom we deal. The money changers have so much money it's mind boggling, beyond me. We are talking about the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. There are many of these "businesses" that change money.
We saw that the Epidor continues to do great business. The Epidor is across the street from where we pick up our mail. It's a bakery and a restaurant. They now have one in St Marc as well. The restaurant was full of young people, UN workers, French police, Americans. You can purchase a sandwich, a crepe, a MacDonald's type hamburger (only the brave eat the hamburgers) and pizza. The crepes are good, consisting of lunch meat, cheese, onions, sauce cooked on a thin pancake then folded over. Enough to take away that hungry feeling. I rarely eat all of mine, take it out with me and find a child who is hungry. And I did yesterday as well. He gobbled it down. It made me wish I'd not eaten any of it so that he could have had a whole on.
When we finally got through the traffic and headed out of town, we saw more rubble, more tents, and that tents are spreading outside city limits along the hillsides. We stopped to see Pastor Cesar. He'd had a wedding at his church on Saturday, the decorations were still up. The amusing part of that visit was the tent in the middle of the church, on top of the benches. Someone who stayed there during the night decided sleep would be more satisfying if they pitched their tent on top of the benches. Perhaps it was to keep mosquitoes at bay. We never quite got the full story. All is well there, he's getting ready to paint the wood so the rains don't damage it. He chose pink. Ahhh, it's Haiti, what can we say? He told us he had a wonderful Sunday service, that everything was going well and that he has a vision to have VBS all summer long. It's a marvelous idea to want to get the children out of their tents and have them in church. I hope he has the people to carry out this vision and I know we'll be involved somehow as we begin to plan with him in this endeavor.
Today there is supposed to be a political manifestation in Port au Prince. The way I understand it is this: President Preval has declared November for the election. Sounds good right? Well, not quite because those who will be "elected" will either be his wife or the former Prime Minister. No one in the political realm nor the people will allow this. Thus, the demonstration. We don't know how the political situation will be resolved but right now, Haiti has no government and no direction. All the Haitians we've talked with want Bill Clinton to run the country. Can you imagine? But, perhaps it's in the working and the people know more than we read in the news.
What I see is a grim future if I look from a physical standpoint. But, there is something else happening that far exceeds what the news media portrays and what one can see with their eyes. It's what is happening in the realm of the spirit. People are flocking to churches all over the country. Every pastor we speak with says, "My church is full. I don't have enough room, I don't have enough benches." It's happening, new converts, baptisms, repentance, interest in the Word of God. It's amazing that after ten years, we see a break through with the Gospel. People are afraid there will be another earthquake and they want to be right with God. They've left voodoo and embraced Christ. They are praying night and day, services at 4 AM. Services all night on Friday night. They've done this for years, they are praying in the harvest and harvest time is here. So, we are encouraged and excited not by what we see in the natural but what we know in the supernatural. God is at work and those in Haiti who embrace the Lord will survive eternally.
What have we accomplished?
Facilitated 13 teams from Jan through May: medical/surgical, teaching, evangelical.
Two quake victim boys, ages 11 and 8, out of Port au Prince, live with us.
Built a new church for a pastor who lost everything. (Continuing to help with this construction, need benches inside church).
Fed many children in that area
Gave tents to church members who lost homes
Gave clothing, shoes
Medical clinic saw 950 people in three days, all received meds and were ministered to.
Team bought new property to increase size of church
Generator
Sound system
Supplied money for a pastor to accept quake victims (children) in his school.
Clothing given to many different pastors for quake victims who came into St Marc.
Orphanage outside of Port, badly damaged, gave rice and beans, water and money.
Accepted three children from quake into El Shaddai Learning Center, free of charge.
Team helped St Marc pastor to get sound system.
Evangelical team had many new converts.
Helped those families in St Marc who increased in size due to family victims moving in with them.
Thank you
for your prayers and continued support in the efforts here. Our general fund operates El Shaddai Learning Center, the Bible school and the orphanage as well as maintains all our equipment. We need to build on our property. We are growing out of the two facilities we currently rent for school children and we are growing out of the house we live in. Only time will tell how many students will want to enroll this fall. We just spent over 7,000 dollars on curriculum for the 2020-2011 school year.
Concern: Our landlord is selling the house we've lived in for ten years. He wants 150,000 USD. It absolutely is not worth that price. If we had that kind of money we could put up a building that would far surpass this one. First, we have to put a road and water pipes in to the property, at least 20,000 USD. After that, another 20,000 USD would allow us to negotiate getting a Quonset hut type building on a boat to St Marc. (Earthquake and hurricane safe building). A new building will cost at least 100,000, if we include the orphanage and a place to live on the site I'm appealing for prayer and for help. This is no longer something we'd like to do in the future, this is something that must be done soon. In case you don't know, our orphanage is located on the other side of town, our Bible school is in another town. We'd like to pull all our programs together in one location. We can't tap our general fund, it keeps the programs moving that we do day to day. It's currently taking 7,000 dollars a month to run this ministry. We have 26 employees, and five Americans working with us.
We remain, your missionaries in Haiti.
Pastor Gary and Carolyn Walker
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