As, most of you probably know Haiti endured a massive earthquake (7.0) on Tuesday, January 12th and almost everything has totally been destroyed. The country was unstable before the earthquake hit, not even a week ago, but now with very few medical supplies, no food and no water, survival of the fittess has begun to take place. It is mass chaos down there and we cannot seem to get a good grasp of how truly our friends are holding up.
I do not know how many of you know that I was planning (and still am planning) to go to Haiti to work with the school and orphanage. (I decided in November 2009 to make the trip over spring break, from March 12th-22nd) Tim Bristol has been down many times and works with the nursing school, elementary school, orphanage (Operation Love The Children of Haiti [OLTCH]), and the church down there. And my church up in Minnesota, Freshwater Community Church, has begun to partner with the orphanage down in Haiti just in tha past year or so. In November 2009, I began to learn more about the orphanage and the children there. Jasmine and Greg, the owners (who are American by the way, not Haitian), came to visit Freshwater Community Church and I had the opportunity to meet them and discuss what I could do while I was down in Haiti (in March 2010) with the orphange. They are such a great couple and God has truly blessed them for their obeidence in Haiti. I began learning about the kids as well and now feel like I practically know them, although I have never "actually" met them. God really began to press Haiti and the Haitians into my heart. Haiti is a country in desperate country in need of so much.
I just want to first give those of you who don't know much about Haiti and my connections a chance to know more about it and then I will update you all on how things are going so far...well, update you as much as I can!
The orphanage that is very dear to my heart and that I will be helping is OLTCH, Operation Love The Children of Haiti and it is loacted in Leogane, Haiti. That is about 20 miles from Port Au Prince. They house 38 orphanes and about 10 workers, in a small two-story building. They rescue dieing orphanes off the streets and treat them back to health, while teaching them Biblical truths and leading the to the one who created everything! The ages of the children range from newborn to 12-13 years old. Jasmine and Greg do a great job and the stories of the children are phenomenal! The whole Bristol family (Tim, Christina, Kristofer, and Hans) have been down to help in the orphanage and the school and now it will be my turn to go! Also, I was going to be working at the elementary school teaching english and running a VBS (Vacation Bible School) program for the children (which is dear to my heart and passion as well), but I don't think that will be happening anymore because the elementary school is leveled.
That is pretty much my connection to Haiti. The Bristol's (who are like my family up here) had a passion for it and Christina Bristol mentioned to me that I needed to be praying about it one day in October 2009 and little did I know that it was God wanted for me.
So, with that said, the news of Haiti now breaks my heart. I find myself weeping over the devestation there and the stories I hear, as well as seeing pictures of the horror. The hardest part is not really knowing what is going on. We know only about 1% of what is really going on and with no real contact with anyone down there it makes things frustrating. Not only that, but by the time we recieve news of anything, if we do, it is about 24-48 hours old already! It makes it really hard to know how to pray, what to pray for and doesn't help in our assurance that those we know and love are okay. We will hear one thing and then literally 24 hours later we get news back of something completely different. Like I said, this just adds so the frustration we already have.
Here is as much information as I know about Haiti, but be warned, it will most likely change and change fast as we recieve as much new information as we can, as fast as we can.
Although Port Au Prince was hit hard, Leogane was hit even harder. On tuesday, when the earthquake hit, almost all the kids where in the basement and the workers were taking 4-5 kids at a time and throwing them to each other to get them out of building as fast as possible. Throwing them out the windows to people as there were a lot of kids to get out of the building. All of them got out safe, not one scratch! PRAISE THE LORD! The building however, although it is the only building (two-stories as well) standing in the whole area, every other building around them leveled, it still has suffered great damage. And because of the big aftershocks (5.0 and 5.5), it has too much damage for them to ever live in it again. They are now living outside the nursing school (which is about 20-30 miles away from their building) in the 10 acres of land, along with 5,000 other Haitians!!! We are thankful though they are there and have a place to stay because there, although it is crowded, there is protection from the government and it is on the map so the government can air-drop SOME food and supplies to the 5,000 people. However, we are still very concerned about Jasmine and Greg themselves as they are continuing to live at the orphanage building to literally protect the very little food and supplies they have left that haven't been stolen yet, while the workers stay with the children at the "refuge camp" at the nursing school. We are all very worried about their protection because in this state of survival of the fittess, anyone will do anything, including climbing over the wall of the building and beating Greg until they get the food or supplies they want. It is super scary to think about, but totally realistic. Still though, there is just not enough supplies and food to feed the children from our orphanage for much longer!
Yesterday though, we did a fundrasier for OLTCH at the local grocery market Mackenthun's, bagging groceries and raised $2600 which Tim will take to help them down there and then today at church, the people from our church gave almost $4000 to help support the orphanage as all the money will go directly to getting food and supplies to them. So God is providing like he promises!
Well, oher than the orphanage, the nursing school is like I said for the most part still okay and holding up. The elementary school and church though are not, as much as I know. The church especially is leveled, but we haven't heard much really. At this point that is all the updates I really have.
Tim and a few others are heading down on Saturday the 23rd and we will know that just how much damage was done and what the next step in helping the orphanage will be. He will be assessing it all first hand. This leads me into my next section of this blog, the prayer request section.
Right now there are a few specific things I am asking you all to pray about...
one- pray for Tim as he heads down. We trust that God will keep him safe, but it is still a scary thought. pray that he will be able to get a good assessment to help us in the next step of aid for the orphanage and country too. pray for safe travels and against sickness. pray also for us here, waiting to hear from him, especially Christina and the boys.
two- pray for their packing in heading down there. Tim wants to take as much as he can to help the Haitians, but there is only so much he can take with all the stuff he has to take just for himself. pray that God will make more room than we think possible so he can take more supplies to help.
three- pray for Jasmine and Greg and their protection and what not, along with praying for the kids. They are all very scared and hungry.
four- pray for us as a Team, who are going down in March (God willing). pray that we will be able to discren well when to really go, if to go at all. We need prayer also as we stay here trying to prepare and wait for Tim to return.
five- pray for the Christians in America and around the world. pray that we listen to God as he leads us to give and pray for the Haitians!
That is all I have for now. Actually, I am probably missing something in this blog because there is just so much to remember. Well, if I forgot something I will just write another blog! lol
I will keep you all updated as best as I can. As soon as I know you will know. But keep praying, that is all we can do. Call out to God!
In Him,
Katelyn
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