Haiti
Georges Cadet graduated from L’Université Chrétienne du Nord d’Haïti (Christian University of the North, Haiti) with a degree in Theology on Friday, June 4 . Georges was St. Andrew’s youth intern during the summer of 2008. This past year he was called to be the pastor of a church plant in Bohoc, Haiti (this is the village that the Haitian American Friendship Foundation is located). St. Andrew’s Mission Outreach Team along with the Men’s Group helped purchased the land where the church will soon be built.
- Donation Distributions
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- News from HAFF Missionary Connie Curilla
- News about Randy + Peggy Hausler’s trip
- News about Rick Hausler’s trip
- Water for Life News
- A letter from Kristie and JeanJean Mompremier
- A letter from Greg, Barb, Gabi, and Zach Van Schoyck
- A letter from HAFF
- A letter by Interim Senior Pastor Bob David
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church has received over $11,000 for Haiti relief after the January 12 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. This money and continued donations are being distributed to eight agencies and groups for ongoing relief in Haiti. These groups are listed below with a short-description of their general mission and specific Haiti relief efforts.
Haitian American Friendship Foundation (HAFF) www.haff.org
HAFF is located in Bohoc, Haiti (near Pignon and north of Hinche) in the Central Plateau and was founded in 1977 to provide a secondary school to the Bohoc area. HAFF has continued to provide the only secondary school in the area while growing its ministries to include a Primary School Teacher and Administrator Training program, medical and dental clinics, an eyeglass clinic, emergency transport to hospitals, community health education, an agricultural outreach, Christian home economics education, and a store in which people in the area can sell their crafts and other goods. HAFF has focused its evangelical efforts on Pastor training, Bible Studies, a Summer Vacation Bible School Program, Bible distribution program, JESUS film showings, and hosting of short-term mission work-study teams. Saint Andrew has had a fifteen year partnership with HAFF in sending numerous mission teams to work alongside missionaries, and several missionary families from HAFF have joined Saint Andrew in worship and in other activities.
Since the earthquake, over 1000 people have moved in to the Bohoc area from the Port-au-Prince area. In this rural area, HAFF has supported relief efforts by helping transport people from Port-au-Prince, through cash distribution to assist 263 families hosting the original 887 refugees, and in providing 133 families with a box, tote, bucket, bag of clothing, and toiletries from items donated from the Florida area. HAFF has also scheduled a Vacation Bible School for youth during this time. All of these activities have been planned with primary leadership from the local community.
Missionary Flights International (MFI) www.missionaryflights.org
Founded in 1964, MFI provides flights for missionaries working in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. While transporting missionaries and visiting work teams, MFI also provides mail delivery and sorting for 700 missionary families working in over 225 affiliated mission organizations in these two countries. Volunteers at MFI also act as purchasing agents by locating items needed by missionaries, purchasing them, and transporting them to missionaries on MFI flights. Staff members raise their own support, and efforts are aided by numerous volunteers. MFI has transported several of our mission teams to the central plateau. Further, Randy and Peggy Hausler will be working with MFI for the next two weeks on the ground at the Port-au-Prince airport.
MFI has supported Haiti relief efforts recently by dedicating both their fleet of planes and others loaned to them for Haiti relief efforts. Flying a record of 5-6 flights a day, MFI has transported medical supplies, personnel, and basic humanitarian supplies.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) www.pcusa.org/pda
A branch of the Presbyterian Church (USA), PDA focuses on the long-term recovery of disaster-impacted communities. PDA further assists presbyteries and synods with training and disaster preparedness, assists asylum seekers in the U.S., resettles refugees in the U.S., and connects partners both locally and internationally with agencies such as the United Nations, the World Food Program, the Red Cross, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Many Saint Andrew members will be familiar with PDA-supported recovery efforts in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and Eastern Iowa after the 2008 floods. PDA provides supplies and support to congregations housing work teams and coordinating disaster recovery in these and other instances.
Among various efforts in Haiti after the earthquake, PDA has provided funds for the Hôpital Sainte Croix (Holy Cross Hospital) and the Faculte des Sciences Infirmiere l’Universite Episcopale d’Haiti (FSIL) nursing school in Leogane. As a historical Presbyterian-supported hospital in parntership with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, the hospital has served as a primary medical facility in Leogane with a nearby nursing school. The nursing school provides the only baccalaureate nursing program in Haiti and the only four-year nursing school in Haiti that admits male students. In response to the earthquake, the FSIL nursing students have established 10 emergency care units throughout Leogane with the grounds of the nursing school serving as a triage area. Thousands of patients and other people are currently living outdoors on the school grounds. It is estimated that ninety percent of Leogane was destroyed in the quake with basic electrical and sewage services taken offline. Initially, PDA funds are being utilized to provide electrical power and distribution, basic water and sewage needs, and support of vehicles for the immediate needs of the hospital and school.
Samaritan’s Purse www.samaritanspurse.org
For over 35 years, Samaritan’s Purse has been working to aid the world’s poor, sick, and suffering by providing food, medicine, and other assistance in the Name of our Savior. Emergency relief programs provide assistance to victims of natural disaster, war, disease, and famine with food, water, and temporary shelter. Samaritan’s Purse provides community development and vocational programs for impoverished communities and villages. Children are assisted through educational, feeding, clothing, and shelter programs. Saint Andrew members may be familiar with the Operational Christmas Child shoeboxes assembled by families to be distributed to children across the world.
Since the earthquake in Haiti, Samaritan’s Purse has been supporting medical teams flying into Haiti and matching interested medical professionals with critical medical needs in the country. This agency is also one of several agencies working to distribute food for the World Food Program, and on February 4th, it distributed approximately 1,700 bags of rice to residents of Port-au-Prince. This agency has coordinated and sponsored the delivery of equipment and relief supplies to Haiti including trucks, trailers, a forklift, a dump truck, 6,432 hygiene kits, 8 community water filters, more than 1,000 blankets, and 1,680 rolls of plastic for earthquake victims.
United Christians International (UCI) unitedchristiansinternational.org
Based in Bohoc, Haiti, in the central plateau with HAFF, UCI is focused on creating disciple-making churches for the Glory of God. It’s primary goals are in evangelism and church planting, training and supporting national evangelists and pastors, developing Haitian resources, and training and supporting international missionaries. UCI also seeks to serve and equip the poor, train local poor in first aid and in preventing disease, and train the community in agricultural techniques. UCI missionaries Kristie and JeanJean Mompremier have previously spoken of their work in Haiti at Saint Andrew.
UCI is helping with many refuguees and the Mompremiers themselves are housing over 35 people in their home. They intend to build 2 houses for families taking other refugees. UCI will also be employing teachers arriving from Port-au-Prince who will be holding classes for preschool and lower elementary school classes in UCI facilities with books and materials also provided by UCI. They are sending charcoal for cooking and food to Port-au-Prince for those living under sheets in the city.
Water for Life www.wflhaiti.com
Upon experiencing a heart attack in 1971, Willis Miller committed to do the Lord’s will should he survive his medical condition. After his recovery, he received a call to drill wells in Haiti to provide clean, safe water for the Haitian people. After working with a number of well-drilling organizations in Haiti, Miller founded Water for Life in Haiti to continue his efforts. Water for Life focuses on bringing pure water, food, hope, education, health, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people in Haiti. Well water is essential to Haiti overcoming poverty through the health it brings to people but also the ability to irrigate crops, to provide water for livestock, and to prevent human disease through proper hygiene. Based in Kalona, Iowa, Water for Life has participated in the Saint Andrew Alternative Gift Market during each of the last few years.
Water for Life has continued its mission of providing clean water to the Haitian population after the earthquake and hope through Christ’s message of living water.
World Vision www.worldvision.org
Founded in 1950, World Vision is a Christian humanitarian aid agency focused on working with children, family, and communities worldwide in principle areas of poverty and injustice. Serving nearly 100 million people in nearly 100 countries, World Vision serves a diversity of different groups including earthquake and hurricane survivors, abandoned and exploited children, survivors of famine or civil war, refugees, and children and families devastated by AIDS in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
World Vision has been serving in Haiti for over 30 years. With the support of the Haitian government, World Vision has joined with seven other aid agencies to begin massive distribution of food received by the World Food Program. These agencies expect to distribute food to 1.6 million people throughout Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. On February 1st alone, World Vision distributed 84 metric tons of rice to feed 17,000 people at sites in Delmas and Nazon. By February 3rd, they had added two more sites in the often-dangerous district of Cite Soleil with an expectation their agency would reach 400,000 people while using local leaders to identify the most vulnerable families.
World Wide Village www.worldwidevillage.org
Chris Bursesh, an emergency physician and others from Iowa City have been working in the town of Leogane. Chris has previously worked in a hospital in this town and has been involved in many health projects within the community. To support his work there, we were directed to send our support to the world wide village.
Map taken from The World Factbook 2009. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009.
Want to make a financial contribution? St. Andrew has set up a Haiti Relief Fund. You can make donations to this fund by writing a check to “St. Andrew Presbyterian Church – Haiti Relief Fund.” This aid will be distributed to specific ministries, with a special effort made to support on-the-ground requests we receive. Some of these ministries include:
- Haitian American Friendship Foundation: www.haff.org
- Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA): www.pcusa.org/pda PDA has announced they are rushing an initial $100,000 from One Great Hour of Sharing resources to help provide immediate emergency relief to the affected people.
- Samaritan’s Purse: www.samaritanspurse.org
Want to know more about what is happening in Haiti? You can continue to read updates on what is happening in Haiti through HAFF missionary, Connie Curilla, who is adding blogs daily to her site at www.connieinhaiti.blogspot.com.
Check back here frequently for updates as we receive them.
An email from Randy + Peggy Hausler (2.10.10):
Good evening!
We just finished our day and decided to recap for you. First of all, Ambien was great! It allowed us to sleep OK along with the earplugs. Had a 7:45 a.m. meeting here under the hanger at the MFI smaller airport and met everyone, had devotions, introductions, etc. We then loaded up some pallets of medical supplies and food, along with walkers and wheelchairs…and took them to the plane to be flown to La Gonave (an island off the coast of Haiti).
We then went to the big airport next door and got our ID badges. Felt like we were both “deputized” (Randy is Barney Fife). Then, went right to work. I worked outside the airport at a small table most of the day. I reviewed passports, input data, weighed people (and their luggage). There were only a few tense moments. There was one teen with an expired passport. We had to get the airport officials to come and advise us but the mom spent a few moments in a tizzy. It was a Haitian family and she was rambling in creole. But, in the end, we were able to get her on the plane. Randy also had a more tense moment when a man snuck into our area (getting by guards and such) in an effort to get on the plane. Again, other officials came and they actually “kindly escorted” him out of the airport. But both events were quickly over and generally it was a very busy and pleasant day. Randy was doing more running around, escorting the passengers to their plane out on the airstrip, talking to pilots, hollering names loudly asking them to come forward and get weighed, etc. He was also VERY busy and I thought he did a great job. His big voice is such a blessing and he is so cheerful. Meanwhile, I mastered 5 or 6 key creole phases such as “please stand here” to get weighed or “please put your luggage here.” Of course, as soon as I speak anything, they typically launch into a creole frenzy – and of course, that is when I pull out my best phrase “I don’t speak creole very well.”
All planes were on time today (a rarity) and they think Randy and I are good luck! So, we wrapped up all flights by 2:30 p.m. and came back to the MFI hanger. We both them spent time answering phones, booking people on flights later this week, recording all reservations. We finished all our work about 5:30 p.m. By this time Randy are I were both covered – head to toe with grit/grime and dirt. It was soooo dusty at the airport!
They do have a shower here…but VERY interesting setting. Was able to wash up a bit prior to dinner. Instead of MREs, we opted to wander over to the military area and eat with a platoon. Two of the other MFI volunteers have made friends with them and swapped goods with each other to help each other out. Thus, we had spaghetti, veggies, sauce and meatballs – all cooked by a sergeant from Puerto Rico. So, it was kind of spicy.
There have been some celebs come through the airport. Harrison Ford was here a few days ago. He flew his own plane in with supplies – landed up in Hinche (spelling?) area. Angelina Jolee arrived via helicopter form the Dominican Republic. Sean Penn called in recently. We haven’t seen any of them but various people with MFI have spoken with them.
A few other sights and sounds from today:
1. Taps playing tonight from the morgue area. When they bring in a deceased American, they play it.
2. The muslim group here does the REALLY LOUD call to prayer (at 5:30 a.m.!!!) over some type of speaker system.
3. The scientology tent is bright yellow and big.
4. Only a day, and bathroom use is already trying.
That is all for now….time for some yummy ambien and another water. Randy and I both drank about a gallon today and barely ate. It was too hot!
Love to all!
Peggy and Rando-Commando
An email from Randy + Peggy Hausler (2.9.10):
Greetings All from the MAF Hanger in Port au Prince, Haiti!!! We arrived here shortly after 3:00 this afternoon and we have set up our tent with air mattresses and are ready for a busy day tomorrow. We still don’t know exactly what we will be doing but will know more tomorrow morning. We need to get our ID badges first thing tomorrow before we can go to work. We have eaten our “South African MRE” which are said to be better than the American MRE. It actually was pretty good and FILLING. They were cool to open and watch them react chemically.
The sound of the planes landing is sometimes deafening…WOW. And some of the floodlights so bright right now and they flood the make shift hospital and the supply tents. Peg is grateful that she brought Ambien to sleep! The dust is so thick in the air we can both already feel in on our skin. We do have access to the airport flush toilet (what a blessing). Showering, well, that has yet to be seen. I don’t think that showers are an option at this time. So, we plan to keep hats on and try to splash our faces at some point.
On the way down, we met a GREAT Haitian woman who heads an orphanage. She is currently here finalizing 6 adoptions primarily in the New England area. Anyway, she left us her address and we are hoping to get her the many clothes that we brought from the Sewing for Others team. Betty Oglesby really packed them up nicely and we are so grateful to have made a contact that can use the clothes. We hope to deliver them later this week to her orphanage. Will try to snap some picture for Betty and others to see.
Our team on our plane was a hodge-podge of talent. Two plane mechanics, a medical team, engineer, and misc. We were the only ones coming to work here. There are about 4 tents out in the yard area next to the hanger. Our view outside our unzipped fly on the tent is AIRPLANE!!!! Mesquitos and rats sound like common visitors to the tent area so we are supposed to keep our food covered. We spayed our items with the spray that Kent Johnson recommended. I guess we will find out this evening if it works well.
Flying into Port-au-Prince, we flew directly over the SS Comfort (hospital ship) off shore…but really couldn’t get a feel for the ground damage from the air. It was too tough to see. There is a make-shift American morgue set up here. As they uncover bodies, they bring them to the airport and do DNA tests on the bodies for identification. I haven’t ventured over in that area – and don’t plan to. The hospital is directly behind the MFI hanger and I might try to peek over there at some point just to see how they are set up. People say here that they are REALLY busy at the hospital area so we will try to stay out of their way.
That is it for tonight. I’m signing off as I hear the constant beeping of the forklifts when they are in “reverse.” Sights…sounds of Haiti are humming here at the airport!
Peggy and Randy
Excerpt of an email from Rick Hausler’s wife, Donna (2.1.10):
. . . The interesting thing about most of these photos, is that Eric was walking around Petit Goave with Alex for many of these shots – once during the afternoon, and another time in the early morning. And many of these pictures (especially the clinic treatment photos) bring tears for Eric because he knows the story of the person in the photo – stories of loss and pain and survival. (Warning: a few of these photos are a bit graphic…) The people of that village are very special and we continue to pray that more help will come so they won’t have to suffer so much.
http://www.tcpalm.com/photos/galleries/2010/feb/01/treasure-coast-medical-team-goes-haiti-days-3-4/
http://www.tcpalm.com/photos/galleries/2010/feb/01/treasure-coast-medical-team-goes-haiti-days-5-6/
Eric is speaking at the kids’ high school school chapel on Wednesday morning. He’ll present a slideshow of his photos and then share some of his stories and what he learned there. He will speak about his trip again at our Sunday evening service this week.
That’s all for now.
Love,
Donna
An email from Rick Hausler’s wife, Donna (1.26.10):
Hello everyone,
I spoke to Eric twice today, as he needs my help trying to figure out if he’ll be able to get up to HAFF in Pignon this weekend, or if he should instead take the Amway Jet home on Saturday. The in-country charter service MAF previously told him “no” due to lack of fuel, but he wants me to follow up and see if the situation has changed in the past week. I don’t have the answer yet, but friends at HAFF are inquiring, and maybe tomorrow he can make his plans.
Otherwise, here’s the scoop on today’s activities:
No teams went out on mobile assignment. A group of 12 left Haiti, so all the rest stayed in Petit Goave. But they ran completely out of some vital supplies by early afternoon and had to shut down for the day. 
Eric took another long walk around Petit Goave with one photo-journalist named Alex from Stuart, FL to talk to folks and take more pictures. Alex was challenged by one Haitian man to be the voice for the community and tell the world how badly they are suffering there. Alex plans to post a bunch of pictures on the website on Thursday, I believe. I’ll send links as I find those.
Later in the afternoon, the US military (from Camp Le Jeune) showed up with truckloads of medical supplies!!! So the clinic is completely re-stocked, perhaps better than before and they’ll begin seeing patients again tomorrow. Praise God!
Eric heard that of the 4 babies who were airlifted to the medical ship yesterday, the newborn and the twins are doing OK, but one other little 4 month old boy died. Even as he was telling me this, a loud noise picked up in the background and he thought at first it was a mourning wail for someone else who died, but eventually he decided that it was just sad singing – kind of like Haitian Blues.
That’s all I have for tonight, except for a very cool report from a Ft Meyers FL news station, where the news anchor flew to Haiti on a private plane, and specifically up to HAFF on the Plateau. See this link for a great report about our dear friend, Greg Van Schoyck. http://www.nbc-2.com/global/story.asp?s=11883522
Love,
Donna
A news article about Eric (Rick) Hausler, who is in Petit Grove, Haiti about 2 hours (20 miles) west of Port au Prince providing service to a team of doctors as an interpreter. The following is a news article about the medical team (Eric is in the blue striped shirt): click here
An email from Eric’s wife:
I just heard from Eric again. He was out on another mobile clinic today, this time to a tiny village near the epicenter about 8 miles away from Petit Goave, and he doesn’t even know the name. He says it’s too small to be on a map.
The group of 3 doctors (and one nurse I think) and Eric set up shop in the courtyard of a demolished Wesleyan church. One doctor (Kris Thede – a friend of the Van Schoycks who speaks Creole) did the patient triage, and the other 2 doctors saw patients, sharing Eric as interpreter. They were able to use some of the church benches for seats. Once again, they saw many people with previously untreated wounds and broken bones, meaning that their injuries are 2 weeks old now. Many broken hands and feet. They saw about 100 patients today.
Eric said that one of the hardest things each day is listening to each person’s experience. Most had a story of how a concrete wall fell on them, and now they can’t sleep or eat because they are so scared. They don’t know what to do next, since they have lost their homes and all their possessions. One sweet lady name Rosalee pleaded for Eric to please remember her in his prayers when he leaves. She is about 40 and a single mother, with a broken foot. She and her family are sleeping in the woods. Please pray for Rosalee.
After Eric returned to Petit Goave, he took about an hour walk with a young Haitian man age 23 who plans to come to the US for college (accepted at Georgetown!). They walked all over Petit Goave and saw thousands of people who are sleeping in the open on the streets because they have nowhere else to go. It just struck him hard that it’s like this all over the region. He wonders what will happen when the rainy season comes and the people have no shelter. It will be catastrophic all over again.
(Donna’s editorial comment: The situation seems nearly “impossible”, but we must cry out to the Lord to help these people get through the difficult days ahead. We can’t forget about them in a month or so when the news forgets them, because their problems won’t be solved quickly. Every little bit helps and each person can make a difference.)
The whole group (over 30 people) is being fed well by Haitian cooks making rice and beans every day. Tonight they were supposed to get lobster sauce with their dinner, because someone went out and caught 7 lobsters for the group for doctors!
A news article about Rick Hausler, who is traveling to Haiti on Thursday, January 21: click here
A letter from Kristie and JeanJean Mompremier received Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 10:18 pm:
Dear friends;
Thank you so much for all the prayers, letters, support, and donations that you have been giving us. We appreciate it very much.
Right now, we have over 24 staying with us. That is in addition to the family that we have living with us all the time. Sometimes it is hard to be responsible for so many but we are so thankful that these people are not in Port anymore. People still have to sleep in the street because of the instability of the houses. Just yesterday, there was another aftershock. Unfortunately, there are many thieves in the streets of Port-au-Prince. We are very glad that our house is full and that there are 24 people that have a roof and food to eat. We are happy that the Lord can use us in this way. We will take in more, if need be.
JeanJean has been busy organizing the community leaders into a response committee. Our relief efforts are basically the same as we had envisioned at the onset of this disaster. With the community, UCI will be continuing to send trucks into Port to evacuate people. We will not only be retrieving people from our area but also offering the trucks to take people to other parts of the country where their family is. We had taken 5 young women out of Port on Sunday. We didn’t know where they were from and they were scared that they wouldn’t get a ride if they said they were from Ranquitte–a community behind our own mountains. People are desperate to get out of Port, and they will get on any truck they can, no matter where its destination. They don’t bring anything with them except the clothes on their back. They just want to get out. We thought that we would be taking in these 5 girls into our house. However, when they got to our place, were fed and given a place to sleep, they felt comfortable enough to tell us the real story. Luckily, they had family only an hour away from us. We found transportation for them and got them to loved ones. We would like to offer that to others. UCI’s board met together this afternoon and decided to make every effort to reunite families. Pray for the 3 trucks that will travel to Port to transport more refugees.
Another area that UCI’s relief funds will go to is to supply food for the families that are receiving people. There are families that have taken in as many as we have. These families will give and give, but sooner or later, their stores will be depleted. We are glad that we are able to help this way. We hope to offer money to people in the near future so they can get back on their feet. Most of them have viable skills and just need help to start over. We don’t want to be caught giving food indefinitely and never letting the families take control of their own lives. The Mompremier family has land on the mountain that can be worked and we will offer this as well to the families that have no land.
It has been wonderful to see how the community is banding together and giving generously. So many people have offered food, money, and their homes. They may only have a space on the ground to offer someone, but it is so much better than sleeping in the streets. Our youth group prayed with the families who lost sons or daughters today. They sang, read the Bible and prayed with the families. Then we gave an offering that we gathered and soap for the family to wash their clothes. Lastly, the youth offered to come and do laundry or help in their yards. I was really proud of the group. Jacqueline and Rosenie did a great job of leading the youth and it was a privilege to be with them.
It has also been a busy afternoon for me with my nursing skills. I have sent a lot of supplies to our local doctor but I also have been seeing a lot of people myself. There are many cuts, bruises, sprains, and other external problems. But, more often, we see many people that are still in shock. A young man came to me that just left Port this morning. He is from our area but was living in Port, making sandals for a living. His good friends were the young men from our area that died. He spent days trying to find the bodies. He has slept out on the streets every night since last Tuesday–which means he hardly slept at all. He is a young man but he looked old and he had no strength left. He kept talking about the aftershocks and how each one made him relive the earthquake. His problem is the same for many. In our house, every single night someone screams in their sleep. Each one that I talk to has said that it is still hard to sleep at night and eat during the day.
Keep your prayers coming!! Pray for JeanJean as he counsels many that suffer from the shock. They were still pulling people out of the rubble yesterday! Praise the Lord! There are still many good people helping their fellow man. There are so many stories of God’s grace.
Thank you again for all your support.
God bless you,
Kristie and JeanJean Mompremier
A letter from Greg, Barb, Gabi, and Zach Van Schoyck received Tuesday, January 19 at 1 pm:
Dear, dear friends,
We wanted to give you an update and a short recap of the activities of this last incredible week. First, we want to praise the Lord for you and for the many, many, many prayers that you have prayed. Those prayers have supported the Haitian people and us in ways that are beyond understanding. God’s grace has proven, over and over again, to be sufficient. And so, bless you for your prayers and your love and your concern for our Haitian brothers and sisters, and for all of us trying to help in any way we can.
As some of you know, HAFF is located about 80 miles northeast of the capital city. We felt the quake, but only mildly. Because cell phone lines were cut immediately, it wasn’t until a few hours later that we found on the internet that the quake had damaged Port-au-Prince significantly. We immediately tried emailing and calling our many friends in the city, most of whom were former students of ours who were in university in PaP. Among those was Fabneau Jean, our Zachary’s best friend and our second son. We were still unable to reach any of them. Meanwhile Zach, at school in Atlanta, was frantically doing the same thing. He could not reach Fabneau, but miraculously was able to reach another close friend, Tonpy, one of Fabneau’s roommates. Tonpy relayed to him that he had been inside one of the upstairs rooms in the house along with Fabneau, Fabneau’s cousin Lolo, and Jauslin and Romond (two other young men from our community who were former students from our school) at the time of the earthquake. But he told Zach that of the five people, only he made it out of the 2-story house before it collapsed like a house of cards. He believed Fabneau and the three others to be dead under the rubble. We got this news around 11 o’clock Tuesday evening. From the States, Zach began making plans to fly down and help dig them out, hoping against hope that they were still alive. From our end, we quickly made plans to drive to the capital immediately with the fathers of Fabneau and Jauslin. In the middle of the night, we packed the Land Cruiser with 15 gallon jugs of diesel fuel, ten gallons of water and a hand-pumped water filter, a shovel, a Haitian hoe, a heavy pry bar and machetes, a box of limited quantities of assorted first aid supplies, and whatever food we had in the house. At the last minute Greg grabbed two long extension cords, a floodlight and a 400 watt inverter that when plugged into the cigar lighter, produces 110 volt power. By 4:15 a.m, we were pulling out of the front gate to begin the journey. As we left the gate, two more dads anxious for news of their children in PaP joined our packed truck. In all, there were 5 dads in our car, plus the two of us (Greg and Barb). Because we had no phone communication and didn’t know the extent of the chaos in PaP, we felt as though we were flying blind but needed to get down there anyway.
The people of Haiti in general, and our many students and local families with people in PaP in particular, were heavy on our hearts as we made the journey. We reached PaP by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, 15 hours after the quake. The devastation was beyond imagining. Big buildings, crumbled like cookie pieces. Bodies, covered at street corners serving as temporary morgues. Thousands of people, walking in shock along the roads. A sense of unreality pervaded. Our eyes could hardly take it in; our minds could hardly believe what we were seeing.
We dropped off 2 of the dads so that they could begin searching for their families in their respective neighborhoods. We continued with Fabneau’s and Jauslin’s dads to the boys’ house. The two story house was demolished. We had just been to the house 2 weeks before and had been so thrilled that Fabneau was living in a nice house with water, latrine, and shower in the yard. But when we arrived and saw the extent of the damage, it appeared that there was no hope of ever finding their bodies. But we had to try. And so began 3 days of digging through the broken and crushed cement roof and walls and rebar to find them. Among the many men digging were Fre Fabius (Fabneau’s dad), Fre Telius (Jauslin’s dad), and Fre Rosmy (Romond’s older brother). As the day progressed, the number of men digging increased as more and more people from our area came to gather on the street in front of the house. It was to serve as a home base for many of our local people wanting to get back to Bohoc/LaJeune.
By early afternoon, we began to hear the weak voice of a young woman calling from under the rubble. Our hope was renewed as we followed the voice and tried to dig our way to her. As the men dug to try to reach her, she was able to feebly tell us that she was being pinned. By late afternoon, we pulled her out alive. She was Fabneau’s cousin Lolo and one of the five people in the boys’ upstairs room at the time of the earthquake. She was carried to the street where we tried to attend to her visible wounds, knowing that internal injuries were a definite threat. But within an hour, there lying on the street, she died.
Many, many people in the neighborhood came to us for first aid. We tended to as many as we could with our limited supplies. Most had been injured as concrete blocks fell on them during the quake. All were amazingly patient as they waited to be tended to through our feeble efforts. No one wanted to go back into any homes that were still standing, because of aftershocks and the news that it was unsafe to do so. As a result, almost all of the survivors we saw and heard about slept on the streets of PaP that night.
The Haitian men kept digging tirelessly. God gave them an extraordinary, and what could only be a supernaturally-provided, strength. Thursday morning, Greg and Barb (along with Tonpy), drove the 1 ½ hours to the Haiti/DR border to meet Zach, who had flown in to the Santo Domingo airport late Wednesday afternoon. Despite word that the border was closed – and no real plan for where/how to meet up except the agreement to both be at the border – miraculously, after five minutes, there came our Zach walking across the border, accompanied by a photographer friend from the Ft. Myers News-Press and the journalist he was travelling with. We quickly loaded them into the truck and headed back to the city to join the others in the rescue efforts at the boys’ house. By late afternoon, Jauslin’s and Romond’s bodies were found and unearthed from the rubble. Zach, Greg, and Tonpy were able to secure (amazingly, by God’s grace) three body bags from the UN headquarters. But the work continued to find Fabneau. It was to be another almost 24 hours of non-stop digging before we could unearth his body. Throughout Thursday night, the people sleeping on the streets around us held spontaneous prayer services, singing and praising the Lord for His mercy. Their faith strengthened ours, and the work continued. Our truck and the inverter we had brought enabled us to have a light throughout the long night of digging. By Friday, it became apparent that we could not return with Jauslin’s and Romond’s bodies, as had been planned. And so the men took them to a nearby cemetary and were able to bury them there.
During the day on Friday, Barb (who had been administering first aid throughout the week as best she could) met up with a young Haitian doctor in the neighborhood who was willing and ready to start treating the more seriously injured, but had no materials to work with. He gave us a list of medical supplies he needed, and by God’s grace Greg, Zach, and Tonpy were able to secure everything on the list. Barb was able to help the doctor and a few other Haitian medical professionals as they treated the wounded. What a privilege this was for Barb.
The digging for Fabneau continued, because no one was willing to stop until we had found him. Finally, around noon on Friday, the diggers began to uncover his body. It took them several hours to completely remove him from the debris. We buried him in the same cemetary as the other boys. We then immediately began making preparations to leave PaP with as many Bohoc/LaJeune-based survivors as we could. Unrest had been simmering in Port all day, and we were concerned that if we stayed in the city any longer, we might not be able to get out safely before things completely boiled over. Early Friday evening, we and the exhausted fathers left Port-au-Prince in our Land Cruiser, driving behind a hired camion (large truck) full of about 40-50 local community members who had been displaced by the earthquake and were trying to get home. After a long, exhausting trip, we arrived home in Bohoc at around 2 am Saturday morning.
We came back to find a community shocked and devastated. The deaths of Fabneau, Jauslin, Romond, and Lolo are being felt by everyone. As young university students, the three boys represented the hope of the community’s future, and they were well-loved and respected by all. The community is also desperate for news of many family members still unaccounted for in the capital. Phone lines have opened up but many are still unable to reach their loved ones. Streams of refugees are coming to our area constantly, as thousands upon thousands of victims flee the capital. Our church, where the three boys attended, had a memorial service on Sunday. It was God-honoring, comforting, and allowed us all to grieve and mourn together. School has been suspended for the week, but our schoolmaster and vice-principal have planned a service for our students on Friday to honor the three boys, since they had all been students at HAFF. From there, our 210 students will divide into three groups to visit the three families to pray with them and offer their comfort.
In the meantime, we are at work, shoulder to shoulder with our community leaders, building plans to help the displaced and our local families who are receiving them. Watching the community and church leaders working together is a beautiful thing to see. We are also working logistics, listening to our brothers and sisters as they process what’s happening, and trying to serve in whatever capacity God would have us. We are convinced that our local area is where God wants us to minister in this crisis, because our entire community is being affected.
We are also trying to Zach back to school in the States. Please pray during these next 48 hours that the logistics of that happening will work out, that he’ll be able to catch up on his schoolwork, and that God would continue to minister His healing grace in his heart. He has been used mightily during his time here, displaying courage, quick thinking, strength, and maturity; he has been a great comfort to the grieving families and to us. We praise God that He brought him here. We also praise God for our daughter and trusted colleague, Gabi. Her presence, calm gentle spirit, willing heart, and many skills have been used by God to bless us and help so many. God had her here for this season for His purposes, and we praise Him for that.
Thank you for letting us share this with you. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your love for the Haitian people and for us. We covet your prayers for the hundreds of thousands of people who are suffering, and that God would allow us to be used as His instruments of love, tender mercy, and grace to everyone in the coming days, weeks, and months. Please continue to check our blog site and website, and know that we love you all.
Trusting in our faithful God,
Greg, Barb, Gabi, and Zach
A letter from Haitian American Friendship Foundation (HAFF):
18 January, 2010
HAFF Haiti Earthquake Response Plan
Dear friends of HAFF,
So many of you have emailed or called us over the past few days, expressing your sadness for Haiti’s situation and your prayers for the people here. This has been such an encouragement to all of us and to our Haitian friends and neighbors. Thank you for reaching out and enveloping us with your support.
Many of you have also asked us how specifically you can help with the situation down here. We apologize for being so late in getting back to you, but because so many of our community’s young people were in Port-au-Prince at the time of the earthquake, our primary focus was finding them and getting them back home. We also have been focusing on helping the local community find information about the situation in Port-au-Prince and the status of their loved ones, as well as helping them grieve during this initial shock.
We are now prayerfully considering, as a staff, which specific course of action HAFF should next take as an organization in the coming days, weeks, and months. There is so much need and so much devastation that we want to help in the wisest way possible – in the way that God wants us to respond. After discussing and praying together, we feel that we should focus our efforts on our local community, in helping the refugees and displaced victims who will be moving here from the city. There are many relief and aid agencies that are better equipped to address the needs in Port-au-Prince. And while the majority of the devastation happened in Port-au-Prince, this is profoundly impacting people and communities all over the country – include our own community. There is in progress a steady stream of refugees who are leaving Port-au-Prince and returning home to their families in the provinces. Many of our Haitian colleagues, for example, have multiple displaced family members coming to stay with them, since their houses in Port-au-Prince were destroyed. And it is only beginning. Many native Port-au-Prince residents don’t have anywhere else to go, and many could eventually begin coming to our area looking to start a new life. With this new influx of people to our community, many local people are going to be facing more financial challenges, when they didn’t have enough funds to begin with, at a time when food and gas prices are soaring as a result of the quake. We feel strongly that God is leading us to help our local community members as they open their arms to those who have been displaced.
When a disaster strikes a nation, relief is done so that there can be rehabilitation, and then eventually development. While there are many, many areas of Haiti that desperately need pure relief, we feel that our community is in a unique position. It has been actively developing for years, and this means that our period of relief can be shorter than other areas of Haiti might need. It will be applied within the context of a community that has been growing stronger and more stable throughout the years. HAFF’s long-term goal has always been to train up leaders for tomorrow’s Haiti, and we know that God has been preparing and equipping this generation to rise up and help their fellow Haitians. We believe that in this time of immense crisis and need, God is calling HAFF to stand alongside and support our Haitian community.
HAFF has spent over 25 years in the Bohoc/La Jeune community, playing a role in its development and the equipping of its local leaders. Over the past few months, several of us on the HAFF staff have remarked to each other how truly special this community is compared to many other Haitian rural communities. There is much poverty to be sure, but there is a certain stability and together-ness here that is not seen in many other places. God is clearly and visibly at work in this area. Over the past few days of this crisis, the community has demonstrated that they are strong enough to survive this hardship. Many, many families have personally affected by the earthquake (having friends and relatives unaccounted for in Port-au-Prince), yet they have banded together to support each other – in both spiritual and practical ways – and it has been beautiful to see. And many community members – young and old – have taken the initiative by beginning to organize themselves to act. Just this afternoon, for example, two of our former students approached some of the staff with an idea for starting a disaster-response committee, the majority of which would be composed of young university students from our area. And this is just one example of the leadership within our community.
We have been so encouraged by this, and feel that as HAFF responds to this crisis, we do it in a way that gives the community ownership from the very beginning. In the next day or so, we hope to sit down with wise and respected community members, both young and old, to ask them how we as a community can respond and the role that HAFF can play. We hope to follow their lead and support them in tangible, practical ways. For example, as funds become available, we would like to help local families host refugees by providing resources such as bags of food, tarps and blankets, gallons of kerosene, and other much-needed supplies. We also would like to supplement our employees’ salaries to help cover the added costs that they will incur by housing these refugees. We also foresee that there may be a need to transport refugees into the community. When the immediate crisis is over, Haiti is facing months and even years of recovery. We know that relief money doesn’t always last as long as the need is there. But long after this earthquake disappears from the news, the country will be fighting to recover. We hope that by trusting and empowering our Haitian neighbors to rally together and help their countrymen, we will be establishing a good foundation for long-term, sustainable progress in this area.
So here is how you can get involved: if you feel led to donate, please mark your gift to be used where most urgently needed, both to meet immediate needs in the community and also to continue to help HAFF support the community in the future. Send your tax-deductible gift to:
HAFF
P.O. Box 3421
North Fort Myers, FL 33918 (mark your check “Use Where Most Urgently Needed”)
Or go to the DONATE NOW page of the HAFF website: click here
Funds will be used to assist the community’s own efforts to help refugees and those who have lost loved ones, and to continue to invest in the development of the community in the future. Bohoc/La Jeune will still exist long after the relief and aid agencies pull out. We’ve been so encouraged this week as we’ve seen how this community is determined and capable of taking action to help those who have been most affected by the earthquake by welcoming them with the love of Christ. We want to help them do that and hope to support them in whatever ways we can. We hope that you will catch this same vision.
Finally, many of you have expressed the desire to come down to HAFF and help. We are so appreciative of your willingness to drop everything and serve. However, we all feel strongly that, for the moment, in these first few weeks, it is critical that our Haitian brothers and sisters feel empowered to take the lead. Once they have figured out how they as a community want to respond – knowing that we are there to help – there may be some tangible ways that some of you can be of assistance on the ground. And we will let you know when we sense that it is the right time for that. But until that time, please PRAY and GIVE as you are able, to allow us to have resources to pull from as we help the community through this crisis.
Thank you again for your outpouring of love, support, and prayers. We all feel truly blessed by your encouragement, and are passing your encouragement on to everyone that we see.
God bless you,
Greg and Barb Van Schoyck
Executive Directors
for the HAFF staff in Bohoc, Haiti, W.I.
A letter of response by Interim Senior Pastor, Bob David:
Dear St. Andrew Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in Christ. Over the past 15 years, up to 40 members and friends and staff of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church have been on mission relief trips to Haiti. Some have participated multiple times. St. Andrew has built long-term relationships with Haitian ministries, missionaries and residents, particularly through the Haitian American Friendship Foundation (HAFF). Given these connections, the past few days have been chaotic and difficult as church staff and members have been awaiting updates from those we know in Haiti. There has been relief when transmissions indicate people are alive. There has been sadness when reports confirm deaths of those we know.
This is a tragedy of overwhelming proportions. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere with little infrastructure to serve its people. Now, with hardly any resources to activate a response, they face a devastating disaster.
In the Gospel of John, when Jesus is informed of the death of Lazarus, he weeps tears over the loss of his beloved friend. We weep too over the losses our Haitian brothers and sisters are experiencing. We also weep for all the Good Fridays the impoverished people of this land have known throughout their lives.
But we are Christians. We are people of the Easter Sunday resurrection. We are a Jesus people, convinced that Life rises from the rubble of Good Friday.
And just as Jesus stood before the tomb of his friend, Lazarus, and called for Life to come out, Jesus urgently calls today for Life to come out of this unspeakable disaster.
And so I write to you with a desire, a fervent hope. And it is that God can mobilize the tremendous gifts of the St. Andrew community to bring an outpouring of relief and Life to the Haitian people.
My friends, the Spirit has cultivated rich long-term relationships between St. Andrew and the people of this island country. And now the full purpose of these on-going links is becoming clear – so that God may be deeply honored as we demonstrate our highest capacity to love these hurting neighbors as we love ourselves.
Here are the initial ways we can begin to do so:
Pray. Lift up to God in prayer: the survivors, the grieving, the people of Haiti, the emergency responders in Haiti, those responders arriving from overseas, ministry workers, health care workers, government officials.
Donate an offering. St. Andrew has set up a Haiti Relief Fund. You can make donations to this fund by writing a check to “St. Andrew Presbyterian Church – Haiti Relief Fund.” This aid will be distributed to specific ministries, with a special effort made to support on-the-ground requests we receive. Some of these ministries include:
- Haitian American Friendship Foundation: www.haff.org
- Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA): www.pcusa.org/pda PDA has announced they are rushing an initial $100,000 from One Great Hour of Sharing resources to help provide immediate emergency relief to the affected people.
- Samaritan’s Purse: www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/Haiti_Donation/ St. Andrew Children’s Ministry is encouraging families to donate online to Samaritan’s Purse: Parents are invited to encourage their children to participate by helping them to give of their own money – from their allowance, birthday money, Christmas money, etc… This is an opportunity to teach children the importance of giving in the name of Jesus Christ. In addition, all of our Sunday School offerings for the months of January and February will be given to this cause. We chose Samaritan’s Purse because our children already have a connection with that organization. Samaritan’s Purse is the sponsor of Operation Christmas Child, our annual “Shoebox Project.” Each year, St. Andrew families fill shoeboxes with gifts for children in Third World countries to be distributed by Samaritan’s Purse.
Become informed. A Haiti HAFF missionary, Connie Curilla, is adding blogs daily to her site at www.connieinhaiti.blogspot.com. As we receive it, we will also be adding important information from our Haiti partners at our St. Andrew website: www.saintandrew-ic.org/mission/haiti.
Mission Relief Team. As part of a longer-term response, conversation has begun about a St. Andrew Mission Relief Team traveling to Haiti to provide direct hands-on assistance. Prayerfully consider participating.
Pray. St. Andrew Youth Director Randy Hausler and wife Peg, and Randy’s brother, the Rev. Eric Hausler from Michigan, are considering traveling to Haiti. Rev. Eric is fluent in the native common Haitian language, Creole – a mixture of French and African languages. And so with Randy and Peg’s support, they hope to provide translation services for relief workers not familiar with the language. Pray for a way to open for these gifts to be utilized.
The peace of Christ and his Life be with you,
Rev. Bob David
Interim Senior Pastor