The last week and a half have been busy with coordinating efforts, generating support, and meeting with lots of churches & individuals who might be interested in helping our work in Haiti.
It was a joy to be able to bring Pastor Menes Valme to the US a few days ago. Pastor Menes is a special man and a trusted counselor and evangelist for our 22 churches. He hasn't been a full-time pastor for a couple years due to serious health issues. He is in the states to see a doctor for his kidneys (he has severe diabetes). Pastor Menes lost his 19 year old daughter in a school collapse. Beremy was to graduate from high school this year and wanted to go college to become a doctor. As my wife, Rachel, sat with him the other night looking at pictures of her, Menes just began to weep and shared "Beremy told me she wanted to get married some day and have a daughter so I could have a grandchild that would dance for me". Pastor Menes, like many Haitians, has a lot of grieving and recovery ahead of him.
I'm leaving this morning to return to Haiti. It's been less than 2 weeks since I was in Haiti, but it feels like much longer. I think often of our pastors, orphan caretakers, school teachers, etc., many who are sleeping in one of the refugee camps and doing anything they can just to get a little food. It's been tough to reconcile that as I lay my head down each night on a nice soft pillow in warm house protected from the weather.
A couple of the guys going with me will be focusing on making some structural and electrical modifications to the Camatin facility. We hope by this time next week that the facility will be 100% ready for all the orphans from the Coq Chante orphanage that collapsed (only about 20 minutes away from Camatin). A few of the orphans have already moved there with a portion of the caretakers. Some of the families of the orphans are still reluctant to see the children move in to another concrete structure, because of fear of another earthquake. But as time goes by, people are slowly starting to sleep indoors again and feel more comfortable inside buildings. I think this will be a slow process of overcoming this fear for many Haitians.
Part of our team will also spend time at our collapsed facilities in Port-au-Prince, in the City of God and Savane Pistache areas. We've purchased tons (literally) of food with money given from so many generous Americans and will be distributing it in the locations in the city, as well as several of the communities we work in outside the city in more rural areas.
We appreciate everyone's continued prayers and support.
Keep praying,
Brian
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