Report from Haiti

I just received this note from Glen Schreiber in Florida who works closely with Free Church efforts in Haiti.

Pastor Steve Exantus, who lives in south Florida and directs our EFCA church
planting efforts in Port-au-Prince and Bombardopolis, just contacted me to
say that he hasn't been able to hear from our folks in Port-au-Prince yet.
Not knowing is difficult especially when we see the stark images and hear
the tragic stories and can't help but transfer the names and faces of our
friends into those images and stories.

And don't forget, Steve is also grieving the loss of his father who died in
Haiti last week and was planning to travel to Port-au-Prince next week for a
funeral service.

Additionally...

I just received this email from Henoc Lucien who leads our EFCA efforts in
northern Haiti (Cap-Haitien). It speaks for itself...please read on:

"We had a bizarre day. Last night the earthquake keeps on repeating itself.
Even this evening, it has been repeating itself. According to the Radio
MetropoleHaiti website, it has repeated itself 38 times since last night.
We have been stunned as no one can understand what is going on, yet the
magnitude is unbelievable.

I woke up at 4:am and drove to the city. I wanted to see what has happened
to our church people. Our people live all around Cap-Haitien. It is a very
fragile city as we are surrounded by the ocean. I picked up our principal
and a deacon at the church in Cap and we went on the streets to tell all the
students waiting for the bus that they could go back home because we don't
know when school may open again.

It has been raining in Cap-Haitien for at least 22 days non-stop. To the
very minute, it is raining. People are staying inside and cannot go
anywhere for their daily activities. The rain is very steady and slow and
many places start getting flooded. Today, I had to remove a family whose
house wall cracked and their house get completely flooded. So, I took 12
of them to their original hometown of Ferrier. They are in town because of
school.

Most of the attention is directed toward Port au Prince and Southern Haiti.
The Prime Minister gave a speech today and he estimated that at least one
Hundred thousand people got killed. People who are hurt are carried by
Thousands. Most of the hospitals in Port au Prince are destroyed. So
people are coming all the way to Cap-Haitien for health Care. It is
unbelievable, but no one knows what to do.

I am dealing a lot with families who have their children in Universities in
Port au Prince. Most of the young people go to Port au Prince for
University education after graduation from High School. Many of them stay
there to work after graduation. Many families cannot contact their children
because there is no telephone service in Haiti right now. One of our
pastors, Sansoir, has two girls in universities in Port au Prince. It gets
confusing because of what they are hearing. One Catholic Seminary
collapsed. The priest in charge and all 200 students got killed. Several
High Profile artists and government officials got killed. One university
collapsed with 1200 students inside taking exams. All got killed.

I just got the news that one congressman whose wedding I performed a few
years ago and whose wife was very active in our church was found dead. It
is very touching to me. This is a good friend to whom I speak just about
once a week.

One of our major need is to help bring stability to families around here by
helping them with food and medicine as they have not been able to get out
for almost a month. We are getting ready to evacuate people around Cap
Haitien as we are awaiting the worst of the flooding. One part of the city
where many of our church members live, Petite Anse, has already been
flooded. More rain will get Fort St Michel and other parts of town in deep
trouble.

This is the time to reach out and touch the poorest of the poor. Please
continue to pray.

Henoc"


HOW WE CAN HELP...

Cash is the way we can help at the moment. That's the best way we can give
them opportunity to quickly appropriate the needed basic necessities to
survive the next days and weeks.

Our EFCA TouchGlobal Crisis Response Team is readying itself to help the
rest of us respond in the most effective way possible. I am so thankful for
their experience in these matters and look forward to partnering with them
as they help us help our friends.

They have already set up an Earthquake Relief Fund and I'd encourage you go
to our EFCA national web site (www.efca.org) and follow the directions they
give.

And, of course, as both Pastor Steve and Pastor Henoc have asked, keep
praying...ask for God to show Himself in obvious ways, bringing rescue and
relief to the people, and glory to Himself.