Please read the following updates received over the weekend by our friends at The Global Orphan Project. Check back often for additional updates and more information on how you can help.
Haiti Orphan Relief and Rescue Update (1/17/2010 3:30 pm CST)
There is so much to share, I will try to be brief. Our team did another food and water distribution last night at Moise Vaval’s church campus until about 3 am this morning and then worshipped there at sonrise. Then, they went to Jean-Marc’s school for prayer. The Lord was definitely present and touched everyone there.
We are entering a new phase of our work in Haiti. Everywhere the team goes, they encounter numbers upon numbers of children wandering around – lost, vulnerable, hurting emotionally and physically, not knowing where to go or who to turn to. The refugee camps are ‘tough places’. The Global Orphan Project is partnering with Eben Ezer to create a transitional Orphan Village in Croix de Boquets for orphaned and displaced children. The purpose – to care for them while we work out their future. For some, they might be re-connected with relatives. For others, they might stay with the church family, and for others – we will need to build homes for them in Haiti. This village will also include newly widowed mom’s with children who need help for their kids for a time. We don’t know how many we’ll encounter, and feel this will be significant.
What can you do? A lot! Immediately, we need to get tents, mats, generators, more food, water and medical supplies to Croix for all of these children. Right now, that means we need funds to purchase them. Please Please give generously to our Haiti Relief Fund – 100% will go to this. Then, we’ll have many trips in the next weeks and months and will need clinicians and people who love kids to go and care at this village – check out our trips page later this week for details. And, we’ll have specific supply needs and will look to churches and groups to be able to fill containers with needed supplies that we’ll ship – more later on this.
And, please keep praying – it is impossible to overestimate the power of your prayers for these children and our team!
The Orphan Village Begins, and a Group is Going (1/17/2010 6:15 pm CST)
Right now, trucks are driving from Port Au Prince to Croix de Bouquet filled with children who will be cared for at the new Orphan Village there. They shared it was tense and very emotional finding all these little ones scared and alone. It is a new beginning. More to come.
We have four folks flying out from KC very early on Tuesday, January 19 – headed to the DR and then Port Au Prince to provide some additional aid to the team. They are Beth Fox, Mike Helmuth, Joe Fox and Rob Boyer – please keep them in your prayers. Each can take two 50 lbs bags with them, and we want to fill them with antibiotics (like leviquin) and pain medications – which are in extremely short supply in Haiti right now. You can help! If you can donate some (and can network with others who can) we need them at our offices at 3000 NW 50th Street, KC, MO 64150 tomorrow/Monday. If you have questions, reach me at aland@theglobalorphanproject.org.
A Note from Joe (1/17/2010 10:00 pm CST)
Last night we distributed food in PAP until 3:00 am this morning. We went to an orphanage that was destroyed, but all the children survived. They were under a tarp with no food and water. When we arrived late at night, their caretaker was praying for food. Imagine his excitement when an old beater pulled up in the middle of the night with provisions.
I had the blessing of staying with Moise at his church in a rough area of Port Au Prince. Hard hit. The church building didn’t make it. The church body sure did. The group went thru the area waking up mothers (most of whom who were sleeping amidst sewage with their children) and giving them food. Some praised God saying, “manna!” Then we all laid on the ground at the church watching choppers fly, and slept a couple hours.
This morning at 6 am, we went with Moise to Jean-Marc’s school. We know that JM’s little brother, Moise Jr., narrowly made it out. He got his belt stuck in the door. He ripped it off and escaped by a whisper. JM would never leave in front of his responsibility. And he didn’t on Tuesday. This morning Moise honored JM and the Lord. He climbed atop the rubble, and read Psalm 34: 1-7
praising the Lord always.
And the day just started…
Andrew, Paul and Pete continued their amazing work keeping the DR pipeline moving. Mike and Adrien readied for a medical team and supplies. I got to go to church with Moise. Really, we just picked up the blankets and worshipped. This group – who has lost so much – praised Jesus to a fevered pitch. They then took to the streets singing and dancing. And hundreds more joined the procession. They are so certain that Jesus is who He said, that nothing – not even the pain and stench of death – can move them.
The rest of the day was almost too much to handle.
We set up a medical clinic at Moise’s church. Instantly, we got jammed with need. Infections. Gangrene. Too much.
The climax of the day was that we launched the transition site for hurting PAP children at our base camp at Croix de Bouquet. We brought in the first truckload of 38 children tonight.
As we refine the process, we’ll likely bring in hundreds more in the coming days, and, God willing, take care of many more than that in damaged and ravaged orphanages. If resources allowed, we could take into permanent care many thousands of orphans.
The process of getting the children is brutal. There are probably hundreds of thousands of parents sleeping in urine soaked trash who’d give their left arms for someone to take their children – because the kids are fading and getting sick. We have to select the orphans and highly vulnerable children in our path, and turn away from so many. Such are the decisions to be made minute by minute. Not heroic; just tough reality right now.
Tomorrow we’ll let you know more detail on need. Here’s a foreshadow:
1. keep spreading the word and raising funds – that dictates speed and scope.
2. we’ll start planning for teams to go – needing your service here (particularly at the transition site).
3. we’ll likely need 10-15 churches, businesses, families to sponsor a village to take care of the orphans we’ll need to permanently place.
You all amaze us. You continue to move the chains. There are too many of you to thank, individually. Please, keep it up. You are making a huge difference!
Let me close with this. Praise God. We started the transition village and fed so many orphans and hurting children just today. A special day. Today is Jean-Marc’s 9th birthday.
Happy Birthday, Jean-Marc Vaval. The Lord is using you to keep us strong so that many children may live.
Joe
Moise’s Prayer (1/18/2010 7:30 am CST)
From the rubble at Jean-Marc’s school, here are the verses Moise shared;
Psalm 34:1-7 ‘I will praise the Lord at all times; his praise is always on my lips. My whole being praises the Lord. The poor will hear and be glad. Glorify the Lord with me, and let us praise his name together. I asked the Lord for help, and he answered me. He saved me from all that I feared. Those who go to him for help are happy, and they are never disgraced. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord camps around those who fear God, and he saves them.’
Haiti Rescue Update (1/18/2010 8:30 am CST)
Here are some fast updates:
- Our team of four is headed out early tomorrow morning from KCI, please pray for them and donate meds or baby formula to our C3 Offices today.
- There are some awesome folks who are stepping up in great ways to help: Ed Barber and our Buckhead church team from Atlanta are filling a 20ft container full of tents, tools, clothing, meds and baby formula that will ship out of Miami on Wednesday and arrive in the DR on Saturday. Maria Barroso is coordinating all the shipping and clearing for the container. Many people are bringing meds to us today. More stories to come – just love seeing folks engage with their hearts and hands!
Haiti Rescue Update (1/18/2010 10:00 am CST)
MP3 update from Trace Thurlby, take a listen: Haiti update 90 seconds 1-18-10
Haiti 2nd Team Update (1/18/2010 6:00 pm CST)
Our group of four leaves early tomorrow morning, and thanks to your generosity, they will have bags full of medications for the clinic at Eben Ezer. And, Team #3 is being assembled as I type – clinicians who will leave on Saturday and need even more medications and formula to take with them (if you are interested in going, respond quickly to info@theglobalorphanproject.org).
You all are an amazing Go Project family. The online giving and churches and businesses – we are awestruck by your generosity. And…please keep sharing the story and giving – as Joe shared last night ‘We’ll likely bring in hundreds more in the coming days, and, God willing, take care of many more than that in damaged and ravaged orphanages. If resources allowed, we could take into permanent care many thousands of orphans.’ You can make that happen!
Haiti Update from Joe (1/18/2010 10:00 pm CST)
I felt the most at risk in the wee hours of the morning. Not on the streets. Not in an aftershock. But in a truck with 10 others. We were flying on a road heading north and a horse ambled out on the road… And stopped! We rubbed that horse’s bottom as we whizzed by.
Today was a day of prep for the next wave. We’re planning to scale the transitional orphan village. A lot of planning must occur on the fly. We are ready to rock.
As I write this, the kids are playing buckets as drums, singing, and dancing.
Look, the people here aren’t thugs. Hungry? Hurting? Heartbroken? Oui. But also helpful, hopeful, and humble. Look at these kids’ eyes and you’ll see. Feel their breath on your cheek when they crash in your arms. Listen to them rejoice. There is good news. You are investing in children here and in your own hearts.
We vow to keep telling you the good news.
I’m beat. I have a chance to slip in a bit of sleep and I’m taking it. I’ll get up early and give you more substance. What’s needed for the transition village? What else is needed? What about coming to serve? All that and more.
Goodnight.
Joe
P.S. To Dan Southerland. We connected with your buddy’s orphanage in PAP. 151 kids. One of their homes fell. They have some food. But they’ll go bone dry on water by tomorrow night. We’re bringing them water in the morning.
