Friday UPDATE – Kids OK
Sorry it’s taken so long for another update. I need to be brief. Here’s the situation:
The kids in the south have endured much but seem to be safe.
Gonaives is a mess. BUT, the 250 orphans in our children’s village are ok. In fact, the water has receded in the village such that the grounds of the children once discarded in this country will become a staging ground for a large relief effort tomorrow (Saturday). Through the help of Ed Barber, one of C3’s key players in Atlanta, we secured 2 helicopters on Friday. Dony and Louis and 140 pastors they’ve trained have set the children’s village as a staging ground for (a) relief to our children in Gonaives – 400 of them; and (b) relief to the 300,000 in Gonaives suffering so miserably. It’s brutal. Right now, I think it’s fair to say that the most miserable place on earth for a human being to “live” is Gonaives, Haiti. We’ve secured a huge supply of food and water. Virtually the entire population of Gonaives have gone without food and water for over 2 days. We’ll start running about 2,000 lbs. of food and water every hour tomorrow. I figure we’ll be able to get in 14,000 lbs. plus before dark, God willing. That will shore up our kids and provide sustaining, life saving relief for thousands others. The biggest threat to this effort is that the people there are so desperate that they rioting is a real possibility. These people aren’t animals. They’re just hungry. They have children to feed. What in the heck would you do if you saw a shot at a meal in that situation? You get that point. It’s our understanding that the local police and U.N. will secure the perimeter of the children’s village to allow us to stage the relief effort. A top gov’t official will be working with us in this relief effort, and we’re hoping that seeing what a little weenie organization like C3 can do frustrated by inaction will motivate other “emergency responders” to get off their butts and get some food and water in there.
Time and circumstances permitting, we’ll fly to the south just to check on all of our kids there and take them a load of food. No guarantees. We’ll just have to see what happens.
Thanks to El Shaddai. Dony and Louis have mobilized an army for this relief effort. Their local leadership inspires.
Thanks to Mission of Hope in Titanyen. MOH, a C3 partner with 16 homes just about finished and full, is providing the food and water and a heck of a lot of logistical support.
Dan Tasset and the Nueterra crew, thanks. We asked you to get us to Atlanta and, Dan, we asked you last minute to drop what you’re doing and come along to help get the logistics arranged. You didn’t hedge. We’re humbled.
Ed Barber, thanks, bud. For you C3ers, Ed, John Larimer and their crew in Atlanta are really on the start of C3 Atlanta. Ed stepped up huge. He got the choppers arranged and got us from Atlanta to the Dominican Republic to meet the choppers to get to Haiti in the morning. Ed, I wish you were here to watch this unfold.
Enough accolades. Friday’s a big day. Please pray for us. We’re in way over our heads, which is exactly where God wants us to be.
Sorry I don’t have time to report more. I probably won’t have time to update you until Sunday.
Prayer is good. Please give, too. We need to rebuild and we have a HUGE number of children who’ll be orphaned or abandoned because of these storms. We need to meet this test.
God’s in control. The glory for what will happen tomorrow is His – 100%.
Faithfully yours,
Joe & Mike
from Dominican Republic
