Personal Reflections on the Situation in Haiti

These are my people. We are the same race. They live in the one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere. I have been there to see the country so I can relate to how bad the situation must be because in normal times it was not great! There is no infrastructure to restore because there was very little to begin with.

I have been watching the TV coverage; one would say I have been obsessing over the photos and stories. The fact that the airport is a disaster area so that the badly needed help cannot get in. One plane circled the airport for five hours and could not land. Planes that did get in do not have enough fuel to take off. When they land, the roads are too bad to get to the capitol city. They are concentrating help on Port Au Prince but there are thousands in the countryside that no one is talking about because help cannot get in.

I am writing this with tears in my eyes because people are dying because we cannot get in to help them.

This situation will last a long time. It will take years to rebuild and get the county back to some semblance of normal. I read the flyer about the Lambi Fund

I will support this fund personally, as I know the Board of World Fellowship has been doing.

Again I pray that help will come that can work on the infrastructure so that the responders can get in. I hear that airport experts from McGuire airport are going to Haiti to help the situation. Thank God.

I woke up this morning with tears in my eyes so I had to write this.

Jeannette

Earthquake in Haiti update

Here is the news I received from our Deciples Ministry partners:


Your Global Ministries Update: January 14, 2010




Disciples and UCC… together in God’s global mission - Visit us at: http://www.globalministries.org//

Haiti Earthquake Update:

Global Ministries received news this morning that Patrick and Francoise Villier are safe. Patrick is the president of CONASPEH, a grassroots movement of 6,000 congregations and our largest Disciples and UCC partner in Haiti for almost three decades. Patrick is also a member of the Common Global Ministries Board. We also learned that Polycarpe Joseph, the House of Hope Director, is safe. The leaders of our two denominational partners in Haiti are alive. We are grateful to God for this, but deeply saddened by the loss of so many.

To see the latest updates as we receive them at Global Ministries, please follow this link and return to it regularly:

http://globalministries.org/news/lac/haiti-earthquake-what-we.html

The blog posting from Kim Bentrott, GM missionary in Haiti with her husband Patrick and son Solomon provides the latest details:

Dear Friends and Family,

I will write more later, but just want to let you all know that Patrick, Solomon and I are safe. We had just gotten home when the earthquake hit, our apartment building went from 3 stories to 2 in one sickening crunch, but our space stayed miraculously in tact and the people on the first floor got out in the nick of time.

We had a group working with CONASPEH here with us from Tennessee. All members of the group were safe. Had they been on time for dinner, this note would have a different tone. Not all people in the guest house got out alive. We took the group to the embassy yesterday and they should be able to leave the country via the Dominican Republic in the next few days.

CONASPEH building has been flattened. All my nursing students were inside. Yesterday we helped pull bodies out of the wreckage and heard some voices within the rubble. Efforts continued frantically all day to reach them.

Patrick and Francoise Villier are safe. Their house seems to have held. They lost one of their foster care children in CONASPEH.

Communications are horrible. The phone network is either jammed or down completely. The manager of the guest house and our DEAR FRIEND has taken us under his wing and brought us up the mountain. He has a family with a 3 year old girl and a new born to consider as well. We are trying to figure out our next move at this point.

I will write more soon. Please pray for Haiti. In a minute's time, buildings crumbled and life was lost. So much life. And even with that said, I think the hardest times are still coming as people try to figure out how to put their lives together again.

Much love. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Kim, Patrick and Solomon

You can follow updates from the Bentrotts on their blog: http://www.kimandpatrick.blogspot.com/

At this time the most urgent need is for funds for emergency relief. Global Ministries has wired funds from the Disciples Week of Compassion (WoC) and the UCC One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) to CONASPEH and House of Hope, our denominational partners in Haiti.

As we walk in solidarity with CONASPEH and the House of Hope during this difficult time, let us re-affirm our commitment to pray for them and their leaders, Patrick Villier and Polycarpe Joseph. Let us do all that we can to help “meet God’s people and creation at the point of deepest need” with our gifts and service. Let us also remember that as Disciples and UCC, our Critical Presence with our partners in Haiti will be required over the long haul as we help re-build the infra-structure that is so essential to the life-giving ministries of our partners. For those that have visited the CONASPEH headquarters and the House of Hope center, you will know how important these places are to the ministries of our partners… May God give us all grace for the journey ahead! '

Jeannette

The Disaster in Haiti and the UCC Response

The Christ Church Board of World Fellowship is well aware of the disaster in Haiti and they are working to see how they can help. They also know that although some things are urgent in the country this will be an ongoing situation so they have time to consider long-term support.
For years, they have been supporting the Lambi Fund. http://www.lambifund.org/
Bre Reiber the ex wife of our former minister Tom Martinez used to work for this organization. I contacted her yesterday and here is what she said:
"As of today (1/13), no one in the U.S. has heard from the Lambi Fund staff in Haiti, so we do not know if they are okay or not.  All phone and internet service is down throughout the country, so we may not hear from them for several days.  The Lambi Fund office is a small, one story building so it may have been less damaged than other buildings (unless a neighboring building fell on to it.)  I do not know how badly Lambi Fund projects in the countryside were damaged.  A Haitian art website mentioned that some Lambi Fund supported grain silos have been completely destroyed, but it is unclear to me how they know that for certain.  Someone would have to call by satellite phone to get that info to the U.S. " 
Latest news about the Lambi Fund Director: "The website news scroll says that Karen has heard that Haiti Director Josette Perard was seen walking home after the earthquake. That is great news. I know that Josette has medications she needs, though, so I hope she was able to get to them. I have no doubt she has been helping people through this. She is always there! "

The UCC has sent out and appeal for funds:
"The United Church of Christ has launched an emergency appeal for Haiti after a major earthquake struck the country. Thousands of people are feared dead and countless have been left homeless.


 The quake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale, struck 10 miles southwest of the capital just before 5pm local time yesterday, January 12.

It is still too early to know the full extent of the damage, but One Great Hour of Sharing is expecting very high loss of life, widespread destruction of homes, schools and other buildings, and major damage to key water, electricity and road systems.
 Global Ministries personnel, Kim, Patrick and Solomon Bentrott have reported in that they are safe.

One Great Hour of Sharing funds are being rushed to our Haitian partners to support their initial emergency response. As damage assessments are made and plans for relief, recovery and rehabilitation are developed, additional support will be shared. The need is massive."

One of the UCC churches in Baltimore, part of the Central Atlantic Conference of the UCC used to have an ongoing relationship with Haiti. They would send work groups out every year. I do not know if they are still doing this.

Years ago, I spent a week in Haiti with my friend who is a physician. We witnessed the poverty first hand. We were tourist staying in a hotel and we could see from our hotel window the shacks that the people were living in. I watched them carry buckets to the water spigot so that they could have water in their home. We went to the town of Jacquemel by one of few paved roads in the county that had been built by the French army before they left. It was so bad my friend said she never wanted to return to Haiti. I did bring home some of Haitian art and have three paintings hanging in my living room.

I am happy that the United State government is mounting resources to help the Haitian people. I am sure some of the search and rescue teams that worked so hard here in New York after 911 are now in the air enroute to Haiti. I hope the summer intern that worked with me at Merck who was Haitian has now become a physician and is back working in Haiti, as was his goal.

The Prayer Chain is praying for the Haitian people. So shall we all.

Jeannette