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COG Team to Haiti Relief - Feb 2010
Day 1: 16 Feb 2010 - The team left Minneapolis at 6:15 am this morning bound for Haiti. The day went well, the travel went well. We met lots of interesting people and were encouraged over and over for going to Haiti. Even as we were disembarking in Miami the flight attendant thanked us over the PA system! We were met in Santo Domingo at the airport by two YWAM vans and taken to the YWAM base for supper, a place to sleep and to arrange our travel plans for tomorrow into Haiti. We can't wait. God has showed his hand and presence with us to this point. This will give us more confidence for the times when things don't go as planned.
Please pray Psalm 90:17 with us for the upcoming 2 weeks: "May the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of His hands; Yes confirm the work of His hands."
Our verse for Wednesday morning is Psalm 119:147 "I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words." NLT We will be up by 3 am (DR time) and driving by 4 am on a 7 to 8 hour bus ride into Haiti
Day 2: It is 2 am CST as we are up and have eaten breakfast. Our bus should be here in a short while and 25 cases later we should be on our way. The night was short but we "cry out for help and put our hope in His word". In our tiredness last evening we told ourselves that when we got up because of the time change it would really feel like 5 am not 3 am. Opps - it felt like 1 am and it was. All our team members are doing well and being stretched as we move into the next step. Our host this morning as she prayed for us reminded us to follow the Lord's leading and not our preset plans for the day or week. What a great reminder - she encouraged us to stop and minister and listen and care for people along the way. Pray that we do this.Dominican coffee is very good! Hopefully we can add to this blog later today.
Praise God - good news were are at GLA Infant House in Petionville Haiti! The bus ride was great. Only 6.5 hours including the slow traffic in Port-au-Prince. The city certainly was hit hard. An understatement to say the least, but recovery is underway.
Day 3 – 18 Feb. 2010
We are all on the balcony at the Infant House of GLA. The weather is perfect. It rained some again last night. A mixed blessing. There are so many in tent cities; which is misleading. Very few have tents and are under sheets, and blankets and some tarps. Everyone has been assigned a few babies to care for and that is why we are on the balcony. The place to play with kids. Everyone got a good night sleep which was very needed after 2 very short nights getting here.
A word about our team. First thank you for your donations and thanks for your prayers. Here is our team with just a small amount of all the donations through Cross of Glory. Left to right: Emily Buck a nurse; Jane Paterson who spent 6 months serving here 07-08; Charley Chamberlain a trauma nurse from Fargo ND; Emily Benson enjoying her first time to GLA; Nancy Paterson mother of Jane and 2 children adopted from GLA; Chris Van Oss glad to be serving here; David Chamberlain son of Charley and willing to do whatever and Ron Gullman seated hiding his coffee cup.
Infant House balcony with kids
Dave on Toddler House balcony
Sorting food donations that arrived via cargo plane
Dixie co-founder of orphanage at Fort Jacques
Day 4 – 19 Feb 2010
They tell us commercial flights will resume today into Port-au-Prince (PaP). We made our exchange there on Wednesday from the DR bus to the GLA vehicles. It still looks crowded and rough so we will see. Yesterday included some more sorting of donations and creating give-away bags for the Kenscoff Mountain area, an area south mostly from GLA and Petion Ville. The mayor who knows Dixie is hoping we can bring tents and emergency supplies for about 50 families who lost their homes. We will go today and deliver stuff. We will see the devastation first hand and hopefully hand out the care bags and offer prayers as we listen to their stories.
A few key things shared at debrief time last evening. Jane found herself pushing an orphan around and around on the balcony for over an hour. Her thoughts were, “I didn’t come all this way to push a little cart and not touch and hold and play with the children!” Then the thought, “This child is an orphan, he has nothing. If he wants to be pushed around and around and is enjoying it, I can do that!” Thank you God and Jane for that insight. Emily Buck shared that she wants to do something “permanent” and leave something with the people here that will be theirs and benefit them way after we are gone. Their worlds have fallen apart may God lead us in this way? Nancy and Emily Benson (see how we need to type out both names all the way?) shared that they felt it is significant that they have difficult children. They are angry and sad and can be hard to manage, not because of the earthquake, they don’t even know about the earthquake, but because of life. It has been hard on them so far and they are still so young. May we bring real joy to their lives and meet the challenge.
Pray that we continue to be open and flexible and do what is needed. Pray that God will use us exactly as he wants even if we don’t know it. Pray that real relationships will be formed with the people here both in the orphanage and in the community. Most of us have the language barrier, pray that we demonstrate God’s love and remain interested.
Thanks for praying!
Some more photos
A Video on the balconyFollow-up for day 4 -
Day 4 cont. We made it to Kenscoff with the bags and the tents. What a rode, straight up the mountain. Actually back and forth up the mountain. The destruction was hard to look at but families wanted us to see and have their pictures taken by their destroyed homes. It took quite some time to distribute stuff because we first visited everyone by hiking down to their homes. Then we all hiked back up to the trucks and systematically handed out the bags and the tents. Trying to figure out how to set up the tent to show them how we had quite a time of it.
Each evening we debrief together join us as we go around the circle each saying a few things we thought our felt on our trip to Kenscoff. What follows is a brief few sentences from each of the team.
Charley – excited to go up to Kenscoff and meet the people. They wanted to show us their houses and their situations. They seemed proud of where they lived and very resilient. It was wonderful especially to see how Jane, Nancy, & David related to the children and each developed a following.
Emily Buck – Today was a mixed bag of feelings for me. On one hand I was saddened to see all the devastation around me and the destruction these families were dealing with. On the other hand for these people this was a joyous day filled with much needed supplies and a change for them to show the world what has happened to them. So proud and so thankful – I wish we could have done more!
Chris – I felt like what we brought the people today was so little. It was such a drop in a bucket compared to what they really need. I kept worrying they were going to be disappointed that this was all we were bringing. It’s hard to not be able to do more.
Emily Benson – Even though I was not able to participate in the distribution of the tents and the bags full of blankets and toothbrushes, etc. I could see the happiness on the peoples’ faces and the joy that our simple presence brought to them. I also slept in the car for a while, and it was surrounded by a number of Haitians and I felt as safe as I feel back at the orphanage even though I was alone in the car.
Jane – I loved seeing the faces of the children when they learned that I spoke Kreyol. They got so excited to know that I could talk and joke with them. Once we made that connection they walked with me holding hands up the hill. They are so happy when they can interact with a “blanc!”
Nancy – I was very moved by seeing the rubble of a person’s home, and not seeing anything that made their house a home; no dishes, no furniture, nothing personal. It was just a pile of rubble. Yet all the families were proud of their homes. They wanted us to take their photos. It brought me to tears. Then we found several children who just loved on me. They loved taking pictures, they loved petting my hair. While we walked back up a steep hill they stopped with me while I tried to catch my breath.
David – It is really hard to summarize. Highs and lows. Every house was pancaked or structurally unsound. One Person, Eskom?, asked me when more help would be coming from the organization (I think he meant the main relief efforts by UN and NGOs). I had to tell him several times in front of a group of Haitians that I didn’t know. I felt horrible. On the other hand, I would hold out my hand as I walked and kids would touch me. Two boys ended up holding my hand as the supplies were distributed. Then we helped one person setup his tent. It took us a long time to figure it out (Ron, Dave, Charley, James). The man whose tent it was couldn’t wait to climb in. Before we got it done he did and pretended to lay on the ground in luxury and everyone laughed and enjoyed it. Destruction, Pain and Joy. Setting up a tent for Jesus.
Ron – I loved standing with the people in their broken down houses and having pictures taken with them. They loved it. I had to share the experience with David and let him be in some of the pictures. It was a really great blessing to have these kids sing to us in French, English and maybe Kreyol. Hopefully we can upload that video soon with others like it.
Day 5 – 20 Feb 2010
The way GLA operates is to take Saturdays as a down day. Most volunteers are assigned 7 babies that they spend an hour with each day for 5 days straight. As you can imagine by Saturday a break is needed. In our case we arrived on Wednesday and worked that afternoon, then Thursday and Friday. Many of us really wanted to “do a lot today” and there was very little assigned to us. We held our group devotions on the balcony as we played with the children we have been assigned and since most of us only have 2 babies not 7 we kept them much longer. After lunch (which by the way the food here is very tasty and there is plenty of it) many of us rested, napped, read, played basketball. Marck the adopted son of Bickels loves the game. There sure is plenty of banter in Kreyol on the BB court over fouls, traveling, what the score is etc. Not everyone rested though a few on our team were very industrious and packed 75 bags for distribution in another part of Kenscoff area that was hit hard by the earth quake. We hope to make that delivery on Monday morning similarly to Friday’s delivery.
At debrief tonight each team member needed to describe their day with just 3 words. You can imagine how hard we laughed. That was followed by a round of “spoons” and our own made up version of “black jack”. All the while some of the team had children on their laps. A highlight – Jerry sitting on Emily Bucks lap has a very contagious and cute laugh. Maybe we can get that up on YouTube and have him compete with the other babies laughing. Look at future posts for a video of it.
Here is another short video of children singing – “I don’t know why Jesus loves me”. Listen carefully it was an awesome experience. They were at the bag and tent distribution yesterday. CLICK HERE!
Day 6 - 21 Feb 2010 Sunday we attended an English service in the morning and 4 of our team hiked in the afternoon up to a waterfall. Those who were here in 2008 will remember the hike. We all spent sometime with our children and had another lower key day. Check out this photo. This is the only wall standing and notice the writing on it: Romans 8:31! Find a Bible and read it. What an amazing thought - "if God is for us who (or what) can be against us". All who stand strong stand strong in him regardless where we live, no matter our circumstances.
Day 7 - 22 Feb 2010
Monday started very early for many. At 4:30 am there was an afterschock that woke up most of the city. Some of us slept right through it. Ron left early for the airport with James (grown foster son of John and Dixie who does a lot of misc. things especially driving volunteers around) and Greg (who was leaving to return to Calgary after serving here following the earthquake). We traveled though some of the worst hit areas of downtown including the National Palace and all the government buildings. It is hard to keep taking in a processing the devastation. At one point one whole mountainside looked like most of the dwelling had crumbled and there was no one around. After the trip we found out that another aftershock hit at 10:00am and some patients in a local hospital were scambling to get out and tripped over each other injuring one of them. Part of our team helped all morning with taking monthly photos of the babies so that they could be saved or sent on to the adoptive parents. There are still a few babies who have parents waiting for them. For most of our team the afternoon become frustrating or boring. We had a number of potential things we were supposed to do and they all fell through one by one. The decision was made to get our babies and take them for a walk outside of the walls of the orphanage before supper. This proved to be the highlight of the day for our team and most of the children who got to go with us. Nancy had a great opportunity to chat with a young man the whole way who knew English quite well. Next time we have an other afternoon like this we will go for a prayer walk, take the kids for a walk or somehow make the most of the situation. The staff at GLA feel overworked and at times we add to their work in order for them to get us productive. 3 of our team leave for the Domincan Republic early Wednesday morning. They want Tuesday to be a great last day here. Thanks for your continued prayers.
Day 8 - 23 Feb 2010 AT 1:27 am this morning the earth shook again, this time very few of us slept through it. We were told that it registered 6.1 on the scale. The toddlers in the toddler house who were a little older woke up ready to run outside. The reality of being in an earthquake zone hit hard. Just yesterday we had talked briefly about how the song sung in the contemporary service at COG "I can feel the mountains tremble, I can hear the oceans roar..." doesn't feel like the right song for right now. It probably is anyway because God is still ruling the universe and knows the details happening to every person he made and loves all over this world. The earth shook again about 3 am. Some had fallen asleep - some had stayed up. We are sure that God loves the people of Haiti. Over 200,000 dead and over a million without homes. It is hard to accept - may he use each of us where we are to express his love for all. Here these words again, "For God so loved the world that he gave is only son, that whoever believes in him should not be lost but have life with him forever and ever!" (John 3:16). The whole team went through the city together this morning. This time many pictures were taken and will be posted soon. Two of our team (our medical ones - Charley and Emily Buck) are at the Baptist Hospital for the afternoon. The rest of us are playing with babies or updating websites. More soon - Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God! 1 Cor 10:31. Thanks for reading and praying.
Day 9 – 24 Feb 2010 Were there tremors last night? Who knows – some say yes some no. Correction from the night before – the biggest aftershock was a 4.7 at about 1:30 am not 6.1! This morning started very early for the 3 on our team heading back to the DR. American Airlines is flying in and out of PaP now but seat availability is very limited and ticket prices are quite high. Glad we had the original return plan in place before we left Minnesota. They ride the bus back to Santo Domingo and stay at the YWAM base overnight and fly through Miami to MPLS on Thursday the 26th! We will miss them very much. Thank you Emily Benson, Emily Buck and Chris VanOss for your service and time in Haiti. Each of us have more children assigned to us but it’s already not the same without you here. We will get some information from them this evening and update travel successes when we get them.
A few shots of the devastation in downtown. What do you do with a building like this? It’s almost all there, just no longer level. The now famous picture of the Catholic Church with the cross still standing. Behind it still stands half of the church.
Yesterday turned out to be a good experience for our two nurses as they helped out in the hospital. Emily did things she had not done before and Charley got a good feel for how Haitian hospitals work.
More for day 9: We are still waiting to hear from the 3 who went to Dominican. We have no reason to be concerned; just want to hear how the trip went for them. We will have to do the same in a week. We played with babies this morning each of us has more to keep us hopping. This afternoon was spent sorting the bags we are taking up to Kenscoff either tomorrow or Friday. Think about this, really think about it. What if you were waiting for relief following a devastating earthquake where you lost your home. Up drive 5 or 6 vehicles and each family receives a single bag with: a blanket, sheets, a towel or 2; 3 bars of soap; 3 bags of rice (not large); toothbrushes and toothpaste. How would you feel? It has been 5 weeks, they have nothing. Please cry with us for the dear, resilient, loving people. Pray with us for real help to come. Pray that we know our part and do it with diligence.
More photos!
Day 10 - 25 Feb 2010 Well before bed last night we had confirmation of the 3 arriving in Santo Domingo which was good to know. They had a long hard day as far as we can tell. Something for us to look forward to. Today for them is also long but hopefully not so hard - please pray for them in the coming days as they need to debrief and process all that has happened to them. Pray that God transforms them for eternity through their 9 day relief mission to Haiti. For us today involved taking the 70 bags up to Kenscoff to a different area than we went to the first time. There appears to be less damage overall, but as Dave noted; "If your house fell you don't have a house!" We looked at some damage and tried to say we were sorry in broken Kreyol. Then the distribution began and it went very smoothly until they started handing out clothing. It didn't go bad it was just more chaotic and hectic. We talked and played with kids or chatted with people who were hanging around. There are a few people who know English quite well or at least want to practice it. John Joel waxed elequent when he said: God is above, God is beside, God is within! He started by saying God is upstairs, but he wasn't using slang, he was just trying to think of how to say "above". When asked if he believes in God, he said yes! Does he know and believe in Christ - he says yes he does. The whole experience was very good. Sunburn for some though. When we returned the remainder of the afternoon was spent with our kids and after supper or devos and debrief was listening to Dave's story and praying for him. We will hear each remaining person's story in the coming days when we meet. It is so fun to learn more about each others lives. Dave is a wonderful guy and a great asset to have on our team.
Finalizing the packing of supplies and waiting for our ride with James.
Click for the rest of today's photos!
Day 11 - 26 Feb 2010 - Friday in Haiti can feel like Friday in other places in the world. The Haitian workers were looking forward to the weekend and organized a big basketball game for quiting time which was lots of fun. We don't understand what they are saying but they can sure argue over fouls, the score and other infractions. Our day started with each team member taking their hour or so with each of our assigned children. Our heads were in the clouds and it was misty for most of the morning. Ron was able to talk with Mike Gunderson who is in a town about 2 hours away, much closer to the epicenter of the quake. We thought that maybe we could meet up with them on Friday so hoped that might happen. In the afternoon we visited Jame's mom's place and surveyed the destruction. So sad, but boy is she a sweetheart! James is like a grown up foster child of the Bickels because his father past away and his mother was not able to care for him. He orginally was in one orphanage but was not able to stay there as an older child or teen. He lives and works at GLA and cares very much for his birth mom. They are living in a tarp tent - a large space but there are about 10 people living there. From there we went to check out the new place that James is helping his mom build a house. We are praying about working through GLA to help James help his mom. Please pray with us about offering this financial relief. Here are a few photos showing where James' mom lived and a short video showing the new location for her house. Another video of area.
New site of proposed home.
New site different angle
Day 12 - 27 Feb 2010 What an earthquake in Chile and an 8.8 how terrible?!? The quake lasted for 90 seconds twice as long as the Haiti quake. So sorry for the people of Chile and all who will be affected by the tsunami. Our day started by talking again about earthquakes and giving the balcony area where we play with the kids a very good cleaning. Jane is an expert and led us to complete a very good job. From there we proceeded to clean out the carport area of the main house where UHT milk boxes and juice boxes were being stored. It was the hardest and grossest job so far - rats, cockroaches and spoiled milk made for a stinky job. But we were victorious and did the job. Here are a few photos showing how we cleaned up the boxes to put them away properly.
Day 13 - 28 Feb 2010 - It is Sunday, the Lord's day in the Christian church all over the world. Last night did not go well for Dave who got sick. He is in bed recovering. Charley was going to stay with him and found out that he is sick as well or got sick this morning. The rest of us may get it as well we pray and hope not. Our team had plans to attend a Haitian worship service together. Jane, Nancy, Ron and Magdala all went up the hill from GLA and joined the exuberant worshipers in a packed out church. What a great experience - no we don't know Kreyol, but we could feel it. The service was not that long (2 hours) and as we filed out new worshipers filed in to begin a new service. No transition time the musicians just kept playing and started all over again. This may work at COG, what do you think? Here is a couple of short videos to just give a feel of the service. Click here #1 Click here #2
We had rice and beef for lunch. The first beef other than hamburgers since we have come. Rice is served in different forms at every meal. Please pray for our last two days here. There is so much to do that we will never get to. There are some important discussions to be had and decisions to be made. God is good. Remember our opening request: Please pray Psalm 90:17 with us for the upcoming 2 weeks: "May the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of His hands; Yes confirm the work of His hands." We need his favor as we complete the mission!
Day 14 - 1 March 2010 Our team spent part of the morning up at the toddler house where there are older kids and most of them are in school. We were able to play with them in the courtyard area when they were on breaks. 30 of the toddlers are the ones brought here from a orphanage that was damaged in the quake. Stickers and jump rope very popular and for a few of the kids they just wanted someone to hold them. These kids are old enough to know what happened in the earthquake and many of them woke up the other night when we had the aftershock. The afternoon was filled with playing with our own assigned babies on the balcony. In the evening in addition to debrief and devotions we played horse and pig in the semi dark with a few Haitian friends.
Day 15 - 2 March 2010 Nancy and Ron had an important meeting with Dixie the co-director of GLA this morning talking about the future of relief work and GLA ministries. We hope to post some of the information soon in the form of prayer requests. For now please pray for us as we pack, plan to take one final walk with our kids outside the gates of the orphanage and gear up for 2 days of travel. Day one will begin at 5 am with getting up and getting to the bus. Riding it for 10 hours or so - plus going through customs at the border. Thursday will be our final day as we fly back to Minnesota from Santo Domingo through Miami. Thanks for your support and continued interest and prayers. We hope to see many of you on Sunday the 7th at Cross of Glory!!!!!!!
Day 16 - 2 March 2010 We got up early and got on the bus right away. We learned last week about buying the tickets ahead of time which we did. The total time on the bus was still 9.5 hours with 2 hours at customs. There was some much going on at the border including the loading of these trucks with flour by hard working sweaty Haitian men.
The bus was very nice and full of interesting people. The topographical changes between Haiti and Dominican were fun to see.
This sign greeted us as we came into Santo Domingo. The significance? Charley is a trama-nurse and flys patients around so it was just funny to see.
What else can we say about today? James said this week the quote of the trip: "What you don't know is a lot bigger than you are!" Please write to us and tell us what it means, we are not sure but think it is profound non the less.
