Our day began early, with the sound of roosters and a delicious meal being prepared for us by the wonderful people at our base of operations. We deploy to an early meeting with Pastor Albert and Pastor Phito of The Southern Baptists (CMBH) here in Port Au Prince. Thanks to Greg Shepherd of Love Haiti Missions Project, we were able to make this connection that will enable us to partner with 24 of their network churches in PAP and 12 outside the city. What an encouragement to begin our survey of churches with 36 new partners before 9:00 am!
From here, we headed down to the city center epicenter of the quake, and began to survey the extent of the damage. Imagine Washington DC with no White House, no Pentagon, no Treasury, no Commerce Department, no Capitol Building. All the equivalent buildings here leveled. In their place, people living everywhere in the streets, some with only the clothes on their backs.
We stop to see the landmark cathedral where the national day of prayer was held. Across the street, a family of four makes their makeshift home on the sidewalk, and hangs a damaged statue of Jesus for all to see. Their home is gone, but their faith remains unshaken.
Soon our team becomes fascinated by a woman who arrives nearby to operate a massive track hoe. We find her occupational choice fascinating until we realize her task today is to excavate the site of a school that was leveled by the quake. Haitians tell us that the school was the only home for disabled children in the nation, and that most were killed in the building, unable to run for their lives. Our team stares in stunned disbelief as we watch the team of masked workers clear the debris. We lingered here, talking to a man with a broken leg who had worked in the building, but mostly just unable to leave as we are overwhelmed with sadness at the magnitude of what we were witnessing.
We eventually made our way to the city center, where PAP’s historic district is now mostly gone, and families wander looking for shelter. A small boy begs us, not for candy or food or money, but for a drink of water. We see human remains still unretrieved from the rubble, and pray for strength.
Trying to manage our emotions, we collect ourselves for an important meeting in the afternoon with Dr. Hubert Morquette, the Country Director for World Relief. The organization has been in Haiti for 18 years and its programs touch 2,000 churches nationwide. Dr. Morquette kindly shared his dreams and hopes for his country as it recovers, and gave us his insights into the plight of children here, both before and since the quake. “Now we have two kinds of children in Haiti…street children and children on the street.” In spite of the discouragement he and his team must feel after years of building church-based programs here, they remain undeterred. He arranged for us to meet next week with his team for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, through which we will connect to 10 more churches.
All told, our first day of mapping the Haitian church response to the crisis produced 46 potential partners that stand ready to care for children. We returned to our base overwhelmed with thankfulness at the way God has paved the way for us here, and the open doors we found. Now what we need are 46 U.S. churches that will rise up to come alongside these brave pastors and precious children.
Jodi Tucker for HORT
From here, we headed down to the city center epicenter of the quake, and began to survey the extent of the damage. Imagine Washington DC with no White House, no Pentagon, no Treasury, no Commerce Department, no Capitol Building. All the equivalent buildings here leveled. In their place, people living everywhere in the streets, some with only the clothes on their backs.
We stop to see the landmark cathedral where the national day of prayer was held. Across the street, a family of four makes their makeshift home on the sidewalk, and hangs a damaged statue of Jesus for all to see. Their home is gone, but their faith remains unshaken.
Soon our team becomes fascinated by a woman who arrives nearby to operate a massive track hoe. We find her occupational choice fascinating until we realize her task today is to excavate the site of a school that was leveled by the quake. Haitians tell us that the school was the only home for disabled children in the nation, and that most were killed in the building, unable to run for their lives. Our team stares in stunned disbelief as we watch the team of masked workers clear the debris. We lingered here, talking to a man with a broken leg who had worked in the building, but mostly just unable to leave as we are overwhelmed with sadness at the magnitude of what we were witnessing.
We eventually made our way to the city center, where PAP’s historic district is now mostly gone, and families wander looking for shelter. A small boy begs us, not for candy or food or money, but for a drink of water. We see human remains still unretrieved from the rubble, and pray for strength.
Trying to manage our emotions, we collect ourselves for an important meeting in the afternoon with Dr. Hubert Morquette, the Country Director for World Relief. The organization has been in Haiti for 18 years and its programs touch 2,000 churches nationwide. Dr. Morquette kindly shared his dreams and hopes for his country as it recovers, and gave us his insights into the plight of children here, both before and since the quake. “Now we have two kinds of children in Haiti…street children and children on the street.” In spite of the discouragement he and his team must feel after years of building church-based programs here, they remain undeterred. He arranged for us to meet next week with his team for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, through which we will connect to 10 more churches.
All told, our first day of mapping the Haitian church response to the crisis produced 46 potential partners that stand ready to care for children. We returned to our base overwhelmed with thankfulness at the way God has paved the way for us here, and the open doors we found. Now what we need are 46 U.S. churches that will rise up to come alongside these brave pastors and precious children.
Jodi Tucker for HORT
Boy living in front of the palace enjoys our Valentine treats
Briefing by Dr. Morquette
Dave Leventhal of our team makes a friend at Kings Orphanage
Faith undeterred
Hard to smile these days
Paul Myhill surveys the damage
Theo Sandberg later preached at a neighborhood church
What remains of Holy Trinity School
HORT Partners Map: Each day as we meet with church leaders, we map our location with GPS. We are working to identify a network of hundreds of church partners across Haiti that can respond to the crisis by caring for orphaned children with YOUR support. Follow our efforts as this map fills daily with points of hope.
great post jodi, keep writing...
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