Monday - Day 2 - Journal

We met downstairs at 4AM, arranged all of the luggage and supplies, some on roofs. Brett's Isuzu had a flat tire, so we changed that with the help of one of the valets at the hotel. Josh led devotion and we prayed before we left at 5AM. It was still dark as we made our way across the city, but uneventful. We had Motorola radios that made vehicle to vehicle communication possible. The trip across the DR took about 6 hours, and 3 flat tires. Luckily there are plenty of places to get a tire fixed around here. In one little town while waiting for a tire to get fixed we bought 7 ham, cheese, and slaw pannini's being cooked by a lady street vendor. It cost about $3.50 for all of them, and they were pretty good. The scenery in the DR is gorgeous. Rolling mountains are almost always visible. We bought gas in Jimani and headed for the border crossing.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Before you watch these videos a few disclaimers. Go ahead and make fun of our unintentional fake Dominican and later Creole/French accents. They get better as the week goes on. Also, these videos were mostly shot from a moving SUV in crazy traffic so they aren't very steady and the conversation in the background reacts to the traffic. The videos are in 720p and streaming from Vimeo.com so you should be able to make them full screen and it be very crisp.

Bani from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

Vincinte Noble from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

The crossing was packed with vehicles and people. There was a market right at the border and people were buying and selling food to take into Haiti. It took about 45 minutes to get across the border, but we weren't stopped or questioned at all. We didn't even get our passports stamped, they just waived us through. There was also a big UN troop carrier with a 50 cal mounted on the front that was a little intimidating, but all of the military we ran into just let us move forward without question. The road on the other side of the crossing was a very bumpy gravel road that was cut out of the side of the limestone cliffs by a river. Once free of traffic we stopped to wait for the other vehicles to catch up as it was impossible to stay together in that mass of people and trucks at the crossing.

This one is a little long, but is all my footage of the border crossing into Haiti which was quite an experience.

Border Crossing from Jeremy Sanders on Vimeo.

One notable image was that of a single man in a canoe with outriggers loaded down with probably 10-15 50lb bags of rice paddling it down the river towards Haiti. He wasn't making much progress, but I guess he was determined. Maybe a sign of things yet to come…

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

We thought that we were seeing poverty in the DR. Poverty in Haiti is so much worse that it is not even comparable. As soon as you reach the first town the smell of the third world greets you strongly. There are tent cities everywhere. I asked Dickens if those were earthquake refugees? He said that they lived like that before the earthquake. Another thing we noticed was that the gas we bought in Jamini must have been pretty low quality. All of the vehicles reported a loss of power and rattling valve trains. The trip from the border into Petion-Ville was about 3 hours which only covers 35 miles. The images of poverty and earthquake damage were striking as we rode into town. I think they speak for themselves.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

We made it to the church about 2:00 I think. The "street" that the church is located on is a very steep dirt, gravel, and sometimes concrete road. When we got out of the cars and looked around, I was amazed that this was what these people were living in. They were very happy to have us there. We quickly unloaded and assembled a team to go to St Marc to get the food. The medical team was going to sort the medical supplies and get ready to open the clinic the next day. I left Jeff in charge of the rest of the group to get our other supplies and gear situated and to start talking to the people of the neighborhood. We met Chasnel Raymond (referred to as Raymond), Josue's brother, as well. Dickens got a guy named Michel to drive our lead vehicle and the others followed. He is a professional driver and it was a fast ride into St Marc trying to keep up. Richard had his second flat tire on the way. I stayed back with him and we worked on getting it fixed. We had a jack, jack handle and four-way, but couldn't get the jack high enough to lift the tire. While he was under the truck, a water truck came by spraying the road and soaked him while he was laying in the dirt. After that we discovered from some local guys that there was a tire fixing stand about 100 yards down the road. It had just enough air in it to drive it that far and we were able to let them fix it.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Alex and crew proceeded to the port. When he got there about 5:15PM, the guards said it was closed, but took him to the ship. The guys on the ship took him to a room and said to wait there while they talked to the captain. The room they left him in was full of other guys from the ship. They asked him if he was new on the boat, and he said "pretty new!" One of the guys he met was Roy Dixon. He is from England and runs a non-profit getting aid into countries. He had an ambulance full of medical supplies that he was trying to get to a team of doctors, but couldn't get it through customs. They customs people told him he needed an NGO (non-government organization) to consign it over to in order to get them to release it. Through that search he met the guys at YWAM, Youth with a Mission. They have a large base in Saint Marc headed up by a guy named Terry Snow who has been in Haiti for 17 years. Tom was his contact there and after Alex told Roy what we were trying to do, Roy said he would try to get us connected with them as well to see if they could help us get the food off of the boat.



Once Richard, Mark Turner, Josh, and I caught up with Alex at the port, Roy jumped in the SUV with Josh and me and we rode the few blocks to the YWAM compound. St Marc is like the Wild West. All of the roads are dirt, and there are motorcycles zipping by everywhere. The dust just hangs in the air. When we got to the YWAM compound, a guard opened the gate (more like metal blast doors) and let us through. We waited around for a while for Terry or Tom to become available. While we were waiting I called Elise to see what he thought we could do. He said that we could go see his cousin Wally at customs tomorrow and we could probably pay a little bit to get the food released. When I relayed this to Roy, he was pretty adamant that we not pay tariffs or bribes to get the food released. He said that once one organization does that it sets a precedent that harms all of the other Christian organizations trying to get aid into a country. Tom from YWAM was able to talk to us at 8PM. He went through the process of getting a shipping broker to handle the paperwork and file it with the government in Port au Prince to get your supplies released. We explained that we did not have time to deal with all of that, that we were only going to be there for a week and had to get the food so that we could distribute it. I talked to Elise and he said that we could go see his cousin Wally the next morning at the port and see what we could do. He was going to drive up and be there by 7AM. Then we went with some of the YWAM staff to a local restaurant to get some dinner. The place we went had hamburgers, pizza, and other various American foods, so I ordered a Royale Cheeseburger with Bacon. It has to be the nastiest hamburger I have ever put into my mouth. I only ate two bites of it and couldn't eat anymore. The patty was about one eighth of an inch thick and was burned to a crisp. The bacon even tasted bad. I think that this has to be the first burger in my life that I have ever not finished. I went ahead and ate the fries.

After dinner we were going to drop Roy back off at the port since he was staying on the boat. He jumped out of the car and walked over to the guards to try to get in. Well, the guards evidently had decided to give him a hard time and wouldn't let him back through the gate. Roy is kind of a hot head so he just kept getting more and more wound up. He was going on and on about how the problem with Haiti was the government and how they hold up everyone trying to help their people. He then threatened to call Fox News, CNN, the BBC, and anyone else who was listening and tell them that they were responsible for suffering in Haiti. Of course the guards didn't understand a word of English and he might as well have been yelling at a brick wall. After a few minutes of this, one of the Haitian YWAM guys that was with us jumped out of the other vehicle and ran over there to see if he could help. Once he started translating what Roy was saying that just made the guards madder. Evidently the Haitian word for the f-bomb is the same as it is in English. Somehow through all of this Roy convinced the guards to let him back to the ship, and we headed back to YWAM. YWAM lined up some bunks for us to sleep on and had some towels and stuff for us to use in the morning. I talked to Alex for a few minutes and then headed up to bed with some Ibuprofen. My neck was pretty tight from all the car riding and stress of the day and I had a raging headache. As I laid on the bunk on a thin air mattress with a sheet over it, I prayed that God would release the food, but that I also would be content with His will if it did not get released. I prayed for the safety of our team and the success of our mission to show the love of Christ to those in desperate physical and spiritual need.

Sunday - Day 1 - Journal

Here I will begin my journal entries for each day of the trip with pictures and video as appropriate.

Today was pretty exciting. Everything went smoothly at the church except that we had to pack the extra luggage in Kandy's van. Once to the airport it got a little hectic. That pretty much set the pace for the entire day. Checking 12 people in with 24 checked bags equals a lot of chaos. I managed to get checked in and was paying everyone's extra bag fee of $30 when I realized that Mark Fisher wasn't there. I tried calling his cell phone repeatedly to no avail in between running my Amex for the baggage fees. Finally, I asked Kandy to look up Sandy's number on the emergency trip info sheet. Sandy answered the phone and they were pretty much asleep. This was at 5am. They headed out and thought they could make it. Also in the middle of all of this chaos, Wesley Templeton is introducing me to his friend Rich and explaining how these ceramic water filters work and trying to show me how to hook them up. We say our goodbyes, go through security and make our way to the gate. Kandy calls me and says, why does security have Brett's bag torn apart? So I walk back to security where he is just getting his stuff back together. Evidently they wanted to check out his inverter and knife in his mess kit. As it ended up, Mark didn't make it, but was going to try to catch us in Atlanta.

The flight over was uneventful, the plane was half-empty so it wasn't crowded. I read some of Brainerd's journals and basically finally made it through the intro to J Edwards bio and to the first page of the journals.

Waiting in Atlanta

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

In Atlanta, we made our way from A to E terminals and to the gate. Most of the guys got some breakfast, and I think Brett Simmons got a 3 course meal that he took on the plane to eat. Mark managed to make it, even though it took Wesley driving 100 MPH and God causing an AL trooper to let them slide without pulling them over. Jim Beard and Jesse Prater met up with us there as well. Jesse's Indiana flight was delayed from de-icing, but he made it just in time.

The flight from Atlanta to the DR was about 3.5 hours. I sat across from Roy and Jesse. This was the first time I have met Jesse so we got a chance to talk a little on this flight.

When we arrived in the airport customs was smooth. We didn't even have to pay the tourist visa since we were going to Haiti. We gathered all of our luggage, all 23 checked bags. I talked to Dickens on the phone and he said he was outside in the parking lot. On the way out the door there was a guy with a sign that said "Jeromie". I said hello and he said to follow me, but he didn't look like the picture of Dickens that I saw. We were walking out and they had some cars for us, but then I found Dickens on the phone and he walked over to where we were. So it turns out that the reservation that Alex, AJ, and I setup via Skype was duplicated with another rental company by Dickens. I talked to Josue and Pastor Lackey and Josue said he didn't have any friends in the DR and to just get the best deal between the two. So after at least 30 minutes of bickering and bartering, I paid the original guy $150 to go away and got the rental Dicken's arranged down to $75 per day instead of $90. We all piled into the 4 SUV's that they had and had to put a bunch of luggage on top of the vehicles. Since Alex and team weren't even here yet with their gear and all of our stuff wouldn’t fit into the 4 SUVs as it was, I decided to try to get 5 SUV's. At the rental company they spent about an hour trying to get the contract filled out. I had to let them copy my passport, driver's license, and Amex. It was $3000 for all 5 SUV's for the week. Once we left the rental place we pulled in to the next gas station to fill up because they rented them to us empty. When we got into the parking lot, Richard said that as soon as he pulled out of the rental lot, a motorcycle smacked into the back of his SUV. It dented the bumper and broke the tail light. We decided that there wasn't anything that we could do about it, and Dickens said that he could have it fixed in Petion-Ville. We gassed up all the vehicles and then tried to pay. It worked out to about $450 USD, but the gas station was charging a premium for the exchange that caused it to be $490 USD. To avoid paying that I got into the car with Dickens and Haiti(Dickens' local contact in Santo Domingo that helped arrange things), and she drove us to a local market that would exchange our US dollars for Dominican Pesos. I felt pretty out of place in this store, and I think the locals were laughing at me, but the exchange went smoothly. We were able to pay the attendant in Dominican Peso's and get on our way to the hotel.

Bartering with rental companies

From Haiti - Jeff's Pics

From Haiti - Jeff's Pics

Having to pay the extra rental company $150 to go away

From Haiti - Jim Beard's Pics

Loading up

From Haiti - Jim Beard's Pics

Working out the contract with our professional rental company

From Haiti - Jim Beard's Pics

Hotel check-in was remarkably smooth. Everyone rested for about 30 minutes and then a group of us went to the store to buy supplies. We took two of our vehicles and followed Haiti and Dickens. There are no traffic laws that I can tell in the Santo Domingo or anywhere else on the island for that matter. People drive wherever and whenever they want. Motorcycles on both sides of the road in between cars that are barely far enough apart to fit, people passing wherever they want into oncoming traffic, it's nuts. The road in front of the store is the Las Americas highway and runs along the coast. The water down there is true to other Caribbean destinations, beautiful. The store that they took us to was underground. The parking lot attendant (with a shotgun) gave us a security pass to get our vehicle out and we went down the escalator type thing down into the store. It was like a big Sam's or Super Wal-Mart. We finally rounded up all of our supplies and went to pay when I discovered that my passport and wallet were not in my pocket. I just about lost it.I sent Josh and Jeff to the car to check if it was there while I walked around the store and looked to see if I might have dropped it. I didn't find it, but Josh came back with it from the car. I was very relieved to find them. So then we checked out and tried to pay with my Amex. It wouldn't go through though. I called the Amex 800 number and they had to remove a security restriction to allow Caribbean charges. After that was taken care of we headed back to the hotel.

As soon as we got back, I left in another vehicle to go get Alex and crew from the airport.

Picking them up was easy since they were waiting on the curb when I got there. We got them situated in hotel rooms then went to the hotel restaurant to eat. Someone said that Harrison Ford was in the bar across from the restaurant so we all had to ease in there and "inconspicuously" see if it was him. It was and he was working on getting drunk! He didn't seem interested in conversation, so none of us spoke to him. Anyway, we ate a good dinner and then Alex and I went back to the airport to pickup Dr Jarrett. I waited in the car about 15 minutes, and then Alex came out of the airport with him. We got him situated in a room back at the hotel and got ready for bed.

Updates

by Jeremy

All of this has begun to sink in. A little perspective comes with time. I have talked to a few of the other guys and we are all sleeping a lot more than normal. Maybe it's the crash from living off of adrenaline for a solid week, I don't know.

I'll link to a few of the other guys' blog posts relating their experiences below this:

Scott Ronyak's writeup

Josh Moody's writeup


I have had some requests for the detailed play by play stories. I am working on a journal that I will post when it's finished, I'm about half way finished with it so far and will hopefully post it sometime this weekend.

I tried to call Dickens yesterday but his number wouldn't go through. So I emailed his uncle Josue' in Orlando to see if that was still a good number to call him. Josue' called and told me that Dickens was robbed in Santo Domingo the other night. They didn't hurt him at all, they just took his phone and money. Josue' sent him some money and he was able to get a new phone. Anyway, I finally got in touch with him at his new number. We talked for about 10 minutes and he is still very appreciative for what we did. I asked him to talk to Pastor Fob when he gets back and start discussing the possibility of us coming back at some point to do some discipleship with the young men in the community. So hopefully in the next few weeks we can start putting some of that together.

Continue to pray for the people of Haiti. Pray that the young men in Haiti who do have a love for Christ will become strong in their faith and leaders in their communities. It is not scriptural to think that the entire nation will become Christians, but it is scriptural to expect all of them to hear the Gospel.

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, "'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. Acts 13:46-49

Home...

by Jeremy

Everyone made it home safely. First I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. This was a learning experience for all of us. We had to depend on God every step of the way because nothing we did was something within our power to control.

I want to share one personal experience from the trip. After we made it back from the second Saint Marc trip with the food and the overheating vehicle, I had some downtime and was hanging out with the kids of the neighborhood. They all wanted me to take their pictures and wanted me to get my picture taken with them as well. There was one boy who was a little introspective and asked me the following question. He asked, "Why are you taking our pictures?" I responded with, "So that the people back home will know who we were working with and so that I will remember you." Then he said, "You will look at the pictures, and you will remember, but you will not come back to Haiti." It literally broke my heart because I don't know for certain that I will be able to go back to Haiti. Even worse than that is that for someone his age to have that ingrained cynicism must mean no one has been there for him throughout his entire life. I hope that we can show them that there is someone who will always be there for you.

He's the young guy in the hat on the left.

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Now we have to start the difficult task of sorting through these experiences and deciding what our next step will be. There is so much need and we can't even begin to fulfill it all. We can only do the task that God calls us to do and let Him worry about the results. At the same time, we have to figure out how to help without crippling them even more by making them dependent on our American money and resources. As the American church, we think we can solve the world's problems by writing a check or sending someone some food, building a church, or new houses. More often than not, this just breeds dependency. I think what is needed more than money and resources is to spend time discipling the young men of Haiti so they can grow into fearless warriors for Christ. The people of Haiti have a strong willingness to worship God in song and spirit. They also have a strong hunger for biblical teaching that is not being met. I think that this may be the key to them raising up a new generation of leaders that will have the potential to change their country.

As we consider our next steps to reach out to Haiti, we have to ask ourselves what is our end goal. Is it to raise the social status of the people of Haiti, or is it to support local churches so that more people can come to Christ? I can assure you that buildings, money, and jobs are not necessary for the latter.

These issues are divisive and painful to sort through, but if we really want to align our outreach to these people with scripture, we must consider them carefully.

To say that I was changed by this experience would be a huge understatement. I have a strong desire to serve these people in any way possible, but know that we must temper that with a cross-cultural approach that doesn't impose our society's expectations on their lives.

Housekeeping:

• Pictures will be showing up on my Picasa web album as I get them uploaded http://picasaweb.google.com/jeremysa
• My writing isn't nearly as good as Kandy's so I'll apologize for that up front
• Here is the team picture we took Friday night

From Haiti - Jeremy's Pics

Thank You!

The flights will be coming in at various times around the country today and all of the team members will be back in their own homes tonight, spending time with family and friends. Praise the Lord!

However, there is one matter I wanted to take care of before Jeremy takes back the reigns of his blog. I wanted to thank all of you for everything you have done to make this week possible. In the world of missions, there are people who go and people who send. Many of us have been at home in the comfort of our own beds this week, but that does not mean that we were not a part of what happened in Haiti over the last few days. If it had not been for the generosity of so many people who donated money, food, medical supplies and prayers, the trip would not have been possible. If it had not been for the mothers, wives, and children of these men, being willling to let go of them for a week, none of it would have been feasible. Thank you for heeding God's call to be a sender and to enable those who were called to go.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15

And I know this is probably pretty cheesy, but I really do love this song. It was written and sung by Ray Boltz and I believe it summarizes what I am trying to say. These are the lyrics:

I dreamed I went to Heaven, you were there with me.

We walked upon the streets of gold beside the Crystal Sea.

We heard the angels singing, then someone called your name.

You turned and saw this young man, and he was smiling as he came.
He said, "Friend you may not know me now," and then he said, "But wait -

You used to teach my Sunday School, when I was only eight.

And every week you would say a prayer before the class would start.

And one day when you said that prayer,

I asked Jesus in my heart."

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave.

Then another man stood before you, he said "Remember the time,

A missionary came to your church, His pictures made you cry.

You didn't have much money but you gave it anyway.

Jesus took that gift you gave

And that's why I'm in Heaven today"

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave.

One by one they came, far as your eyes could see.

Each life somehow touched by your generosity.

Little things that you had done, sacrifices that you made,

They were unnoticed on this earth

In Heaven now proclaimed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave.

And I know up in Heaven you're not supposed to cry

But I am almost sure there were tears in your eyes

As Jesus took your hand and you stood before the Lord

He said "My child look around you,

Great is your reward."

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am a life that was changed.

Thank you for giving to the Lord,

I am so glad you gave,

I am so glad you gave.

Lyrics by Ray Boltz

Jesus is Worth It

The team is safely in their hotel in the Dominican Republic tonight. They had an extremely long journey today and experienced more car trouble along the way. One vehicle was running hot for a while and then one of the SUVs was rear-ended by a motorcycle (the second time that happened to the team this week). At one point it took six hours to travel ninety miles. They crossed the border with minimal issues and finally made it to their destination this evening.

During the trip they stopped at a park and saw several iguanas, then traveled through fields of sugar cane before crossing a mountain range. The guys had a lunch of fried chicken and fried banana chips at a place called 'Picapollo Liang', which was in the middle of nowhere in the Dominican Republic. At one point they were able to stop alongside the interstate to watch the waves crashing against the coral walls. After settling in at the hotel, they hung out by the pool for a while before dinner. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it sounded like a nice, relaxing vacation. They definitely deserved a few minutes of peace (and hot showers) after everything they experienced this week.

Although the team has had some difficult circumstances this week, what they accomplished was worth every moment of difficulty they endured. Every obstacle they had to find a way around, every "interesting" food they had to eat, every rooster crow they heard in the middle of the night, all minor inconveniences in God's big picture. Dying people heard the gospel and are now believers in a sovereign God. These men were obedient to the call and God used them in miraculous ways.

They will be back home tomorrow but I know that they have been changed in many ways because of the events of the week. The world surely looks different to them now, and I am anxious to hear the stories they have to tell.
Perhaps a missionary has been born out of this trip? Maybe one or two (or nineteen) of them will be back in their churches next week, encouraging others to go? There is no way to know how God will use these nineteen men who have so willingly spent a week in Haiti in order to share His love and spread His name.

Earlier today I posted a great video about reaching people for Christ who have never heard the gospel. I actually intended to post a different one, but was unable to find the HTML code to embed the video in its entirety (I'm not even sure if that's the correct lingo to tell you the truth). Unfortunately I am not very computer literate and my computer guy is out of town and could not help. So here is the link to the video. However, do not watch it unless you are ready to be challenged.


http://www.jesusisworthit.com/





"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell. I want to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." -C.T. Studd

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:24-26

Back in the DR

The team has made it across the border and is now back in the Dominican Republic. They did have to pay $400 in taxes, which was expected, and they will now be making their way to Santo Domingo. The driving conditions are still not good and they still have a long drive, so let's pray for continued safety.

Four of the team members are from To Every Tribe , which is located in south Texas. They are missionaries and three of them (Alex, Mark Faulkner, Scott) will be moving with their familes to Papua, New Guinea in the coming months.

This is a remarkable video that was put together by the people at To Every Tribe that explains the need for missionaries to go to the unreached people of the world.







"Remember, when you see a missionary coming home broken in body and weary in soul, it isn't the privations or dangers or things he's done that leave a deep hurt; it's the things he couldn't do that break his heart." -Anonymous Missionary

Count It All Joy

The first text I received from Jeremy this morning read: "Waking up to women and kids singing praises to God. They have a hope that is not based on physical comfort; their circumstances don't dictate praises"
In Josh Moody's words: "At about 5 am, pitch black dark, about 2 or 3 people broke into praise songs. A few more joined in, then a few more, and before long nearly the whole church compound was singing praises to God.....and the sun wasn't even up."

I am beginning to believe that our team is learning much more from the Haitians than they ever thought they would.

A four hour worship service was held this morning in the courtyard of the church in Petionville, to go along with the fast which all the Christians in the country participated in from eight to twelve. The local churches will be fasting for three days. Can you imagine? They barely have enough food to eat and they are intentionally fasting.

The singing during the worship service went on for more than three hours. Ronnie spoke briefly, then Jeremy spoke to the people of the church about the team's purpose for being in Haiti. He told them that the medicine and food would run out quickly, but that his desire was to leave something eternal with them, something that would never run out, something that would not leave them hungry or thirsty.
Alex then preached a sermon out of the first chapter of John, where John the Baptist called Jesus a lamb. Then he went to the book of Exodus and explained that on the night of the Passover something had to die, whether it was a person or a lamb. I got chills when Jeremy was telling me about it because the story of redemption is just so amazing that it is hard to ignore the fact that it is woven all the way through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

One of the interpreters became a believer today. To God be the glory!

The team members that I have heard from all seem to be thinking the same thing: how can these people who have lost family members, who are sleeping in the streets, who do not have enough food or clean water, still hold fast to their belief in a mighty God? One clue may be in some scripture that they shared with the locals.

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:2-5

We know that the Bible tells us that suffering is the way of life for Christians, that we should not really expect anything other than persecution and trials. It seems that the Haitians know this all too well, and are experiencing amazing spiritual growth because of that knowledge.

Some of the local teenage boys have been asking the men on our team a lot of theological questions this week. They are so hungry for teaching and are in desperate need of discipleship. Jeremy thinks that they are probably the future leaders of the church, which is a blessing because there are not many men who have stepped forward to be leaders. The church is mostly run by women because there are no men to do the job. Perhaps the things that have happened this week, and in the past month, will cause a ripple effect in the community and more men will come forward to be spiritual leaders in their homes and in the church.
There were also some older teenage boys who have begun to realize that life in Haiti is bad. They told our guys that there are no opportunites for education, jobs or even employment. Most of the men do not work, but depend on assistance from others. In many families, there may be one person with a job and they must provide food and shelter for the entire family. These teenagers were basically begging to come to the United States so they could get a job and have a chance to get out of the deplorable conditions of their own country. They were offered advice about searching diligently for jobs and working hard, and about how they could possibly work their way up and be successful. The culture they live in, however, is not very conducive to success of any kind. Please pray for these boys. Their hearts seem to be in the right place, but the poverty in Haiti is so oppressive that I pray they do not lose that motivation.

The cooking team prepared some more food today and fed about one hundred people. One of the guys (Brett, I think), went to the store for some chicken to cook and had to pay $70.00 for the same amount of chicken that we would pay $20.00 for in the states. No wonder the locals do not buy much meat. I would not buy it either at those prices!

The vehicles are another story. The one Jeremy has been driving was seen by a mechanic today and they found out that it was not the transmission but a clogged radiator hose (If that does not make sense I apologize. I do not know much about cars and the phone connection was not great).
Anyway, the hose was replaced and the truck seems to be driving well now. The team will be making the long journey across the island again tomorrow and the vehicles will be put through extremely harsh driving conditions once more.

The team will be up bright and early in the morning so they can be on the road as soon as possible. They will be spending the night in the hotel in Santo Domingo once again, and flying back home on Sunday. I can only imagine how exhausted the men are after the week they just experienced in Haiti. God has allowed them to be a part of some amazing things this week and I know the people of Haiti are appreciative of all they have done.

Prayer requests:

• Travel safety tomorrow (Saturday)
• No mechanical problems with the vehicles
• Some decent rest for the first time all week. (They will actually have a bed to sleep in and real showers for the first time in several days!)
• The Haitian people who are being left behind in Petionville
• The team will continue to show the love of Christ as they travel on Saturday and Sunday
• That God will get all the glory for what has occurred this week

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

It is well...

Here is a video to give you guys something to look at until I can get a post written. It is just a small picture of the hope the Christians in Haiti have, despite their terrible circumstances. Today they begin three days of national prayer and fasting.

Eventful Day

Today was actually quite an eventful day for our team in Haiti, which is probably why it took so long for me to get an update. The group coming back from St. Marc had some car trouble, but they manged to get all the food safely to the church in Petionville. The car trouble involved the Montero that Jeremy was driving, which had been having transmission problems all day. It went dead in the middle of an extremely busy four lane road in downtown Port-au-Prince. It finally started again and they continued their jaunt across the city, but it went dead once more. They decided that the food needed to get to the church, so Jeremy sent the other vehicles ahead except one. The guys who stayed with him included Roy Gilbert, Jimmy Sitton and Dickens. They managed to fashion a tow cable out of some rope they had and Jeremy drove his vehicle while Roy towed it. The rope broke once, but they were able to rig it again and finally made it back to the church. At one point Jeremy was crawling around in the street in the middle of massive amounts of traffic, attaching the rope to his truck. I think he had a pretty rough day.

When they unloaded all the food at the church and decided it was distribution time, they cleared the courtyard around the church, except for a few kids who were playing there. There were four officials from the Ministry of the Interior present to make sure everything went well, and food distribution began. The people who were waiting at the gate got a little rowdy and loud, but there were no fights or violence involved in the process. This had been a concern since we had heard reports of rioting and violence at other food distribution sites. The government officials who were there were very nice and Jeremy was able to speak with them at length. They even sat down and ate some of the rice and beans which had been prepared by the cooking team and women from the church. After about half of the food had been distributed, the officials told the team they were doing good work and then left. They had absolutely no problem with anything that was going on.

Here are the numbers on the food which was given out today. If you remember, Kids Against Hunger donated seven pallets of food, each pallet containing thiry-three boxes. Each box contains thirty-six bags of food and each bag contains six servings of food.
Two pallets were sent to the city of Jacmel,which has received no aid so far, and the remaining five pallets were taken to Petionville. Today each family was given one box of food, which is enough to feed the entire family for a month. Half of the families were church members and the other half were not. A few boxes were left at the church for the orphans. We realize that this is not a permanent fix for these people, but we pray that they have seen the love of Christ in action and were able to hear the gospel while waiting for food or to see the doctor. We also pray that the local Christians will be strengthened by knowing that there are other Christians in the world who care about them and that they have not been abandoned by their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Today the extra prescription medications which the team brought with them were taken to the hospital where American doctors are working. Tomorrow the guys will be cooking the rest of the food that they bought and spending as much time with the local people as possible before they prepare to leave on Saturday. Some of the vehicles are in pretty bad shape because of the driving conditions on the island. Jeremy said that Roy and Dickens are going to get them all fixed up and ready for the long drive on Saturday.

Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly and there will not be as much drama as they have seen since they have been there. I am not sure what time I will update tomorrow, especially since my little ones are out of school for a snow day! If it snows where you are, enjoy it!


Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? Exodus 15:11

Not Much New Information...

This update is a little later than usual because I have not really received much information from the team today.

It was raining in Petionville when they woke up this morning and a lot of the locals were at the church trying to get out of the rain. Fortunately the rain did not last long and now the sun is blazing again.

The group with the food made it back to Petionville from St. Marc, but it took longer than planned because of some car trouble with the vehicle Jeremy is driving. I do not have any details, but I cannot help but wonder if it might have something to do with the ride to the port yesterday. Although the Monteros have four wheel drive, they are actually street vehicles as opposed to off-road vehicles. They will probably never be the same after this week.

The food has now been handed out to the locals in Petionville. The team left a couple of boxes of food at the church for the orphans and church members, and you probably remember that two pallets worth of food went to Jacmel. The food distribution was a little crazy but there was no violence during the process. There had been some concern about violence since some of the other food distribution sites have experienced rioting. Fortunately that did not happen in Petionville today.

The medical clinic has been up and running today. The medical team consists of Dr. Jarrett, two EMTs (Brian and Jesse), and pharmacist Jim Beard. I also found out that Heath Kyle, one of the Birmingham team members, has been assisting the pharmacist. According Heath's wife, it is quite amazing that Heath is on the medical team because "he is not a 'needle person'". God can really take us out of our comfort zone, that's for sure. I heard that they have been treating a stroke victim, and were hoping to be able to get her up on some crutches today. Thank God for donated medical supplies!

I will try to update again tonight if I receive any new information. Please continue to pray for the following:

• Health of the team members (physical, emotional and spiritual)
• Unity among the team
• That the team can continue to show the love of Christ
• Clarity in the presentation of the gospel
• The Haitians whose sicknesses cannot be treated by our medical team at this time due to lack of medicine or equipment
• That the Haitian people will understand why our team is doing what they're doing.
• The families back home who may be worried about their loved ones

To God Be the Glory!

He has surely done great things today.

First things first. I know that everyone wants to know the story behind what happened with the food at the port in St. Marc. There is no way I can describe it all but I will do my best. Hopefully Jeremy is keeping up with his journal so when he gets back he can fill in the gaps.

This morning Alex, Jeremy and Dickens left Petionville and drove to downtown Port-au-Prince in order to speak with the proper authorites about getting the food off the boat. It gets very confusing after this, so hang on for a minute. They spoke to the official who was supposed to be able to help them. Jeremy was told that he needed a letter in order to get permission to get the food. He was told yesterday that he did not need a letter, just a note on the bottom of one of the forms they had to fill out. This guy said they needed a letter. So Jeremy whips out the little mini laptop that he took with him and typed a letter. Then he needed to print it, but they did not want to let him print it there in that office. They finally found someone who would let them print the letter, but the printer was really old and broken down, so Jeremy and Alex had to hold it together while it printed the letter. So, he gives the letter to the guy who then says, "It has to be in French".

Are you kidding me?

They are able to find someone who will translate it into French, type it, and they print it again (the two of them firmly holding the printer together while it prints, of course). Now they have to show the translated copy of the letter to a certain man who is not in his office. No one seems to know where he is. Apparently he is somewhere in Port-au-Prince doing something. But he is not in his office.

Somehow they are able to get one of the employees of the Ministry of the Interior to drive them around Port-au-Prince, searching for the people whose signatures they need. It turns out that this employee lost five of his family members in the earthquake and was determined to help get food to the hungry citizens of Haiti. Miraculously they get the signatures they need, the port is contacted, and the man at the port says that although the port will be closing at 6:00, he will wait for them if they cannot get there by then. It was 4:00 at this time, and the port is at least three hours away from downtown Port-au-Prince. You can probably imagine what happened next. Jeremy proceeds to operate the vehicle in a manner in which I am quite sure a vehicle should not be operated, at least in countries with traffic laws. Somehow he makes it to the port by 6:00 and is able to get the food off the boat! That is not the only amazing part of the whole thing. The Youth With a Mission (YWAM) compound where they slept the other night is in St. Marc, and the workers from there met them at the dock to help them unload the food. Also YWAM let them use their trucks to haul the food back to the compound because the other vehicles had been unable to make it to the port in time. AND, there was a man from England by the name of Roy who also had supplies on the same boat. He is a philanthropist who has been a part of humanitarian efforts in several countries and has dealt with customs all over the world. He said he has NEVER seen customs turn supplies around that quickly in any country, ever. Basically an impossible task was made possible. If that's not enough, listen to this. One of the things Jeremy wanted to do while in Haiti was to go to the city of Jacmel to try to get some food and assistance there because it was just as devastated by the earthquake as Port-au-Prince but has received NO aid yet. Since getting the food out of the port has taken up most of his time, he had decided to cancel that trip because he would have had to spend the night there, and there is just not enough time left to do that before they leave the island. One of the men who was with YWAM and helping them unload the food from the boat is actually going to Jacmel at the end of the week. And it just so happens that of the seven pallets of food that they unloaded, only about five of them would fit into the SUVs that are traveling back to Petionville tomorrow. So guess what...that man is going to take the remaining food to Jacmel on behalf of our team! It is amazing to see how God's plan unfolds.

Whew!

Ok, now for what is going on back in Petionville.


The medical clinic was operating again today and saw even more patients than yesterday. Yesterday they saw about two hundred people and today they saw about three hundred people.

They are treating ailments such as nutritional deficiencies, eye infections (due to the concrete dust that has covered everything since the earthquake), headaches, etc. A lot of people are finding it difficult to sleep, which is causing physical problems. I am not sure if the difficulty sleeping is fear of another earthquake, the fact that they are sleeping in the street, or perhaps the roosters that are crowing every night. Jeremy said that some of the houses are still standing, but the people are afraid to sleep in them. That must be very intense fear. I know I have never felt fear like that, and can only imagine what they went through when the earthquake happened.

The evangelizing team has been handing out Bibles, explaining the gospel and praying for any needs the locals have. At one point today Mark Faulkner spoke with two teenage boys for more than two hours. I cannot wait to hear what came of that conversation.

Some of the guys have spent a good portion of the day playing with the children in the neighborhood. The kids are very affectionate and they love all the attention they are getting from our team. They have also been playing with the soccer balls the team brought down. Isn't it great that something as simple as a game of keep away can be enough to take their minds off of the tragedy for a little while? I feel for these little ones most of all. Their little worlds have been rocked by massive destruction. They are witnessing things that no child should ever have to witness. Yet we know that our God is a big God and He can heal all wounds, whether physical or emotional. In one of the emails that Josh sent to his wife today, he spoke of watching a tiny little girl get ready to lay down for bed...on her sheet in the middle of the dirt street. These heart-wrenching stories are almost more than I can bear. My heart breaks for them, especially knowing that most of them do not know Christ and have no hope for their future. Josh also talked about how difficult it was to explain what Christ had done for him to someone who had never even heard of God! I am praying that God gives them the wisdom to say the right words at the right time so that a seed is planted, even if they never see the fruit from their efforts.



These are pictures of Brett Simmons, one of the Birmingham team members, with some of the kids in Petionville. He has been handing out bibles and sharing the gospel since he's been there. He is also a chef, so he will be doing his fair share of cooking tomorrow.

...we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thes 1:11-12

In His Hands

I have not received much new information this morning except that the guys at the base camp in Petionville have already begun to cook some of the food they bought yesterday. They will be preparing rice and beans, which is a Haitian staple, and will be adding some protein to it with the canned tuna and sardines they brought from the Dominican Republic on Monday.

As far as I know the rest of the team will be heading to St. Marc this morning for one more attempt to get the food off of the boat. Thank you to everyone who has been praying constantly for this situation. We know that it is in God's hands and He will be glorified no matter what happens.

I was not able to post anything about the worship service which was held last night because, well I was tired and could not type anymore :) So here you go...

At around 6:00 local time, the team participated in a worship service in the street not far from the church where they are sleeping at night. There were about one hundred people there and from what I heard it was pretty amazing. Our guys were able to witness worship taking place in another culture, which can be quite breathtaking even for those who have experienced it before. There was a lady who led the worship service and although I do not know her name, I do have a little bit of background information about her. Jeremy's initial contact in Haiti is a man named Josue Raymond (sp?). He is from Haiti, but now lives in Florida and works as a principal at a school there. Shortly before the earthquake his father, who still lived in Haiti, passed away and Josue went back to Haiti to bury him. His father was the pastor of four churches in the area, including the church where our team is working this week. While Josue was in Haiti for the funeral, the country was crippled by the earthquake and Josue ended up staying for a while to help the people in his hometown as much as possible. He is back home in Florida now, but has done a lot of hard work to get our team where they need to be and to establish contacts for them. He also runs an organization called Hope 'N Literacy. The lady who led the worship service is Josue's father's widow.

During the worship service she read Luke 21. Then Scott Ronyak, one of the missionaries with To Every Tribe in Texas, preached the sermon. I hate that I missed it because Jeremy said that Scott did a tremendous job. He began with creation and explained the fall of man, then took them all the way through to Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. They plan to do a worship service every evening while they are in Petionville, so please pray for the Haitian people who may be hearing the Gospel for the first time, and also for the ones who will be delivering the message.

You can probably understand that it is difficult for me to relay the information about these events since I am not actually there with them. I am getting reports from different people all day and I hope I can piece it together enough that you have a small picture of what is going on with our team in Haiti, but I apologize if details are not always exactly accurate or timely. Pray for me as I try to put it all together in a way that is clear and concise.

As I receive information about the situation in St. Marc I will pass it along.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15

Ups and Downs...and Up Again!

What an emotional roller coaster! Today has been full of ups and downs but God is definitely in control of it all.

Although we were sure that the food would be released from the boat today, it did not happen. There are a few more hoops to jump through, but we believe that it will all be taken care of tomorrow. Jeremy, Alex and Dickens spoke with the proper authorities in Port-au-Prince today, filled out the mountains of paperwork, and did a little jig for the Minister of the Interior. Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but it certainly didn't sound easy. Tomorrow morning they will take the "official in charge of aid coming into the country" back to St. Marc with them. I am not sure of her exact title, but that one fits. If she approves the release of the food (and why wouldn't she?) then they will be able to load it up and finally take it back to Petionville. There it will be prepared and distributed as originally planned.


Since Dickens, Alex and Jeremy had to go to downtown Port-au-Prince today, they were able to see the worst of the earthquake damage. Jeremy was unable to find the words to accurately describe what he saw. He just kept saying, "it's bad, really bad". There are still bodies under the rubble that have not been recovered, most of the buildings have collapsed, people are sleeping in the streets, and concrete dust blankets the city. It is much worse than any of us can imagine.



Back in Petionville the medical clinic went well today. The medical guys saw many patients and gave out lots of medicine to those who needed it. Even better than that, several people met Jesus for the first time today. The last number I heard was five, which just blows me away. God works in mighty ways through His people, doesn't He?



In my last post I talked about the people singing praises in the streets at 5:30 this morning. I just want to take a minute to break that down a little more. These people already lived in overwhelming poverty and have just been devastated by a massive earthquake. Many of them have lost their homes, vehicles and even loved ones. They are sleeping in the streets and have nothing. They live in utter filth and despair is all around them. Yet here they are singing praises to God as the sun comes up yet again. What a testimony of God's faithfulness! They have nothing to cling to but Him, no earthly treasures to hinder worship, nowhere to turn but the Giver of Life, the One Who gives and takes away. It seems that we have much to learn from these "poor" people of Haiti.

Update on the Food Issue

For clarification, I want to give a few details about the food that was donated and shipped to Haiti.
One of the team members from Texas, Jimmy Sitton, had some contacts at an organization called Kids Against Hunger. They make a special food which has been used to feed malnourished children around the world. It consists of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables, and a vitamin and mineral powder. It contains all of the amino acids required by the human body and is highly nutritious. All that has to be added to the mixture is boiling water, so the meals are very easy to prepare. The website says:

According to the food scientists developing the food, it supplies the optimum amount of nutrition for a malnourished child. It provides not just a meal, but better health to starving children. Additionally, our bags are specifically made from moisture-proof and odor-proof material to prevent spoilage and insect or rodent problems. The food bags are also three-ply for strength. Kids Against Hunger's life-saving meals have a shelf life of at least three years.

The organization donated the food for our team to distribute and/or prepare for the citizens of Haiti who desperately need food, and it was shipped to the port of St. Marc where it has been awaiting the team's arrival for a couple of days. There are 50,000 meals on board the boat, just waiting to be distributed. It is difficult to imagine why the customs officials in St. Marc are making it so difficult to obtain these life saving meals.

I will do my best to update you on what happened this morning in St. Marc.

Jeremy's team, which consists of Jim Shaw, Josh Moody, Mark Faulkner, Mark Turner, Alex Sisson, Mark Fisher, Roy Gilbert, Richard Bradley, and Dickens, awaited the arrival of Elise, the pastor of one of the churches they are working with in Haiti. They thought that since he was a local pastor, he would be able to get the customs officials to let them have the food. He arrived and they began the process of trying to get the food off of the boat. One official told them that he could get it unloaded for them without delay. Then another one found out about it and decided to let them know that they were required to complete some paperwork, which would cost $150. Alex's bargaining skills came in handy, and they were allowed to get the paperwork done for free. They were all set to get the food again, then found out that more paperwork had to be completed by the Minister of Finance in Port-au-Prince. They tried to get customs to fax the paperwork to Port-au-Prince, but they refused. It had to be done in person. Unfortunately St. Marc is three hours from Port-au-Prince, but they had no choice but to head that direction. Jeremy, Alex and Dickens will go directly to the Minister of Finance, which is beside the palace in Port-au-Prince. The others are going back to the base camp in Petionville to help prepare the food they bought yesterday in the Dominican Republic. The last thing I heard was that they were planning to pick up some more rice, beans and water on the way back to Petionville so there would be more to prepare and distribute.

Although it seems as if the situation is bad, we know that God still has a plan and He is working it out. Our guys are extremely blessed to be a part of that plan!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

I just wanted to post a quick update about the happenings in Haiti this morning. Jeremy's team was able to sleep on bunks in the compound and actually got some rest for the first time in a few days. They even got coffee this morning :) The last information I heard from him was that Elise, the pastor of the church in Haiti, was there with them, trying to get customs to release the food. Then he said, "lots of moving around. Update later". I am unsure what exactly is going on, but hopefully that is a good sign that something is happening.



The team in Petionville stayed in the church last night in an attempt to get some rest. Unfortunately the roosters in the neighborhood had other plans for them. As soon as the guys were settled in for the evening a rooster began to crow. Then another one answered. From what I can gather, that went on all night. Poor guys! Maybe they will be so exhausted by tonight that sleep will come despite the noise. Even though they are probably walking zombies by now, it seems that God is doing wonderful things there. The locals were singing Psalms in the streets early this morning and Brett and Jeff joined them. What an amazing way to connect with the community! The team was able to buy bibles in the native language, and they are using them to share the gospel.



They started the medical clinic this morning and it seems to be going well. I do not have information about the type of medical problems they are seeing, but perhaps I will find out some time today. The team has set up stations around the church. First, the locals see the doctor, then the pharmacist, then the evangelist (Scott Ronyak). Right now there are fifty to sixty people waiting to see the doc, and while they are waiting, Brett Simmons is sharing the gospel with them through an interpreter. Scott Ronyak was priveleged to be able to lead someone to the Lord this morning! As I said, He is already doing a wonderful work through the team in Petionville.

Jeremy just called to update about the situation. I'll update after I get my little one from school.

Tuesday, February 9th (AM)

I have not received any new information since last night, but please remember the situation at the port in St. Marc this morning. Customs is refusing to let go of the 50,000 meals donated by Kids Against Hunger due to the team not having a local sponsor. They are working with a local church but apparently that does not count. As soon as I get any news about the situation I will post it here. Since I will be in Bible Study this morning, it will be after 11:00 before I can update the blog, but for those who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I will update there.

Also remember the medical clinic which will be starting this morning in Petionville. Pray for strength for every team member as they are dealing with the weariness of travel and just being in Haiti, a land so different from their home.

We should also remember to praise God for the things He has done since our team has been in Haiti. Several situations have worked out remarkably well and even though some situations have not worked out as we planned, we know that God has a plan and it will all work out for His glory.

Monday, February 8th (PM)

What a day our team has had on the little island of Hispaniola! They were up bright and early this morning to begin their journey from Santo Domingo to Petionville, Haiti, and what a journey it turned out to be. The five SUVs were loaded down with equipment, supplies and food. The five drivers were: Alex Sisson, Jeff Kuespert, Mark Faulkner, Mark Turner and Jesse Prater. By 6:00 AM Central time, they were halfway to the border. The road, which had been decent, became narrower and narrower. By 7 Am they were in Vincente Noble, and by 9:45 they were in Jimani. At this point they had already been plagued by three flat tires. Yes, THREE flat tires! Fortunately they were able to fix them and continue on their way. By 10:45 they were at the border crossing, which was the craziest driving experience Jeremy had ever been through. In his words "Vehicle 1 across border, others somewhere behind, crossing is single lane rock culvert, crazy traffic". He told me later that there were thousands of people going back and forth across the border, with no discernable traffic laws to govern the flow of cars. There was a UN vehicle there with a huge gun on it (I think he said a 50 cal if that makes sense). Armed guards were stationed at the border, acting as "traffic cops" apparently. Praise God, the team was waved right across the border. No taxes, tariffs, searches, nothing!



At about 1:30, after a long, arduous journey, they finally arrived at the church in Petionville which will be the base camp for the week. They unloaded everything from the vehicles then began to set up camp. One group stayed behind and the other group began the drive to the port at St. Marc to pick up the seven pallets of food donated by Kids Against Hunger. The drive is supposedly two hours, but I think it took them closer to three. The group that went to the port includes: Dickens, Mark Faulkner, Josh Moody, Jim Shaw, Alex Sisson, Mark Fisher, Mark Turner, Roy Gilbert, Richard Bradley and Jeremy Sanders. The group that stayed behind to set up camp includes: Ronnie Sanders, David Jarrett, Heath Kyle, Brian Bacola, Jeff Kuespert, Jesse Prater, Jimmy Sitton, Scott Ronyak, Brett Simmons and Jim Beard.



The road to the port was quite interesting in its own way. One text I received read, "cows on road @ 70 mph". That can't be good.

One vehicle suffered another flat tire (#4 for the day). Jeremy and Richard stayed with that vehicle and sent the other three ahead to attempt to get to the port before it closed for the evening. I received a text from Jeremy at 4:18 telling me to call Alex and see if he made it to the dock. When I was able to get in touch with Alex, he said that they were unable to get the food. I found out later that customs was not allowing them to get the food off of the boat, citing some outlandish rule about needing a local sponsor to approve it. I am not sure what that is all about, but the group was forced to spend the night in St. Marc. Initially they planned to sleep in the cars, which did not sound like a great idea to me, but I guess you have to do what you have to do. However, through God's providential timing, they were able to get connected with some American mission workers who have been in Haiti for nearly twenty years. The guys will be staying in a compound tonight, which is owned by a group called Youth on Mission. I think they will even have beds to sleep in. Who would have thought that something like that would happen? Jeremy said that he has had to exercise more faith on this trip than he ever has. I am sure that probably goes for most of the others as well.



As far as the situation back in Petionville, I do not have nearly as many details since I have mainly been communication with Jeremy, who is in St. Marc. As far as I know, everything is going well and they are in a very safe situation. I have not heard of any incidents of anyone feeling threatened at all. The sleeping arrangements are somewhat humorous, as they are practically sleeping on top of one another in the church. Of course most of us know that the kind of church we are talking about is not the typical American church, but a church in a third world country. Brett sent a picture that he took with his phone. It is a little hard to see, but I think you can make out enough details to see what is going on.

Tomorrow morning in Petionville the medical clinic will begin to operate, with Dr. Jarrett leading the way, and the two EMTs, Jesse and Brian, helping out. Hopefully they will be able to demonstrate the love of Christ as they care for the physical needs of the people in Petionville. Please pray for wisdom and patience for those treating and those being treated.

Also pray for those who will be preparing food. I do not have details on that yet, but hopefully they will be forthcoming. Food was purchased in the Dominican Republic, so if something happens and the food does not make it off of the boat, there will be some food to go around.

I almost forgot one thing. You will never guess who was at the hotel in Santo Domingo last night. Harrison Ford! Yes, THE Harrison Ford. As in Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, Han Solo, etc. You know, HARRISON FORD. Ok, maybe not everyone will be as excited as me about that. I mean, it's not like I got to see him or anything. But it's still pretty cool, don't you think?

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

Monday, February 8th (AM)

This morning the team is traveling from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Petion-ville, Haiti. They planned to meet in the hotel lobby at 4 AM, make sure that all the supplies were loaded, and begin the journey across the island. Petion-ville is a few miles south of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

According to our Haitian contacts, the trip normally takes about four hours. However, due to treacherous driving conditions since the earthquake, the trip now takes seven to eight hours. From what I can tell, the distance is about 234 miles, and the team will have to cross some mountains and will more than likely go through a few military checkpoints along the way. The last text I received from Jeremy was at about 7 AM Central and they were coming through Vincente Noble, which is in the Dominican Republic. A majority of the remainder of the trip will be along the coast (I think). If you have any updated information from anyone on the team, feel free to let me know. I am pretty sure that communications may not be as reliable during some of the trip as they have been, so I do not know how often I will receive updates.

Prayer requests for today:

• Safe travel across the island to Petion-ville


• Pray that the vehicles will not have any mechanical issues on the journey


• Pray for the men who are driving that they will have wisdom to handle an difficult driving conditions which arise


• Pray that they will be able to cross the border with no problems


• Pray for the people of Haiti who need God's peace today


• Pray for continued unity for the team


• Pray for the emotional well-being of the team as they begin to see earthquake damage in Haiti

That last prayer request is a very important one. A few days after Hurricane Katrina, Ronnie, Jeremy and I traveled with a group to Gulfport, Mississippi to do work not unlike what they are doing in Haiti this week. Although we had seen the images on television, no picture could portray the actual devastation of the coast. I was completely unprepared for the things I witnessed while in Gulfport and I carry those images with me even now. The things that our team to Haiti will see this week will be so terrible and heartbreaking that they may not even know how to react. They have seen the ongoing television coverage, but I am sure that can not fully comprehend what has happened until they see it. That will happen today and I know that they covet your prayers as they walk through the tragedy.

***Right before I submitted this I received a text from Jeremy and they are in Jimani, Dominican Republic as of 10:00 AM Central. They have had three flat tires already if that tells you anything about the driving conditions. Please pray!****

Day One Pictures!

As I was getting ready to log off for the night, Jeremy sent me some pictures from today. There aren't many yet, but here you go. I'm also including a couple from the church this morning.

Jeremy and Josh loading the bus. I guess UA and AU fans can get along sometimes :)

From L-R: Jeff Kuespert, Brian Bacola, Jeremy Sanders, Richard Bradley, Josh Moody, Heath Kyle, Mark Turner, Brett Simmons

Here they are at dinner in their hotel. That may be Dickens in the hat, but I'm not certain.



Jim Shaw at the airport

Richard Bradley, Brett Simmons and Jim Beard at the Atlanta airport

Sunday, February 7th (PM)

There is already plenty of news to report from our traveling friends today. Hopefully I can get it all down so that it makes sense to everyone.

The Birmingham crew arrived safely in the Dominican Republic. After meeting up with the two guys who drove to Atlanta (Jim Beard and Mark Faulkner) and the one who flew into Atlanta from Indiana (Jesse Prater), the flight to the Dominican Republic went very well.

The Texas crew, which includes Alex Sisson, Mark Faulkner, Scott Ronyak and Jimmy Sitton, was driven to the airport early this morning by Mark's wife Belinda, and after a couple of stops, they have now safely arrived in the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Jarrett, whose flight from Washington D.C had been cancelled due to the snowstorm, was able to ride a train from D.C. to Philadelphia and catch a flight there. He should be in the Dominican Republic any minute. That is a huge prayer answered. Since it is not safe to travel across the island alone right now, the team thought that they were going to have to leave one man behind to wait for Dr. Jarrett to arrive late tomorrow afternoon, spend another night in a hotel in the Dominican Republic, then take a bus across the island to Port-au-Prince. Now they will be able to make the trip to Haiti with the whole crew intact. Praise God!

Now for what has happened on the ground so far.

The team was able to secure their rental vehicles this afternoon, which is also a prayer answered. While this may sound like an easy task in the U.S., it was not so easy for them today in the Dominican Republic. Last week, Jeremy was able to communicate with the rental company about his wish to secure two mini buses, each with a ten passenger capacity and space for supplies. This was pretty complicated and required a three-way skype call between Texas, Alabama, and the Dominican Republic. When the call was finally over, everyone was content with the arrangements until our Haitian contact, Dickens, arrived in the Dominican Republic on Saturday and informed Jeremy that the vehicles were not reserved as we had thought. Fortunately Dickens was able to speak with another rental company and secure four Monteros. When the team arrived in the Dominican Republic today, who was there but the original rental company, with two mini buses waiting for them. They even had a sign with Jeremy's name on it. Unfortunately, the Monteros were also reserved and waiting for them. The original rental company was not very happy about the situation (understandably), and did not want to give up their customer. After some discussion, the mini bus guys finally left, and the team proceeded to load up all of the equipment and supplies into the four Monteros. The only problem was that they could not fit everything into the vehicles. This meant that they would have to rent another Montero, which took much longer than it normally would around here. It took over an hour to complete paperwork and get the vehicle. You can probably imagine that the team was slightly frustrated at this point, but they were hanging in there.

So, the vehicles were finally loaded up and the team was leaving the airport. All they had to do was fill the vehicles with gas, then get to the hotel and unload. They attempted to buy gas, but the gas station would not take any of their credit cards or US dollars. Jeremy had to ride with Dickens over to a local market and exchange his dollars for pesos. They were able to pay for gas and (finally) proceed to the hotel. Unfortunately, a careless motorcyle rider plowed right into the back of one of the Monteros as they were leaving the gas station. The guy got up, rubbed his knee, and took off. No insurance exchange, no "sorry, man". Nothing. Dickens said that they can get it fixed in Haiti. Jeremy's not so sure, but I guess we'll see.

Next, they checked into the hotel and headed to buy more food and supplies to take to Haiti tomorrow. They loaded up on basic staples such as rice, beans, canned tuna, sardines (which the Haitians love apparently), powdered milk, and some spices to make the food slightly more palatable. They also purchased cooking equipment to help with food preparation this week. At some point Jeremy realized that he did not have his wallet or his passport. After searching the store to no avail, a couple of the guys (Josh and someone else- I don't remember now) walked out to the car that Jeremy had taken to exchange the money earlier, and found the wallet and passport between the seats. Hallelujah! Groceries were purchased and all was well.

The Texas crew arrived next and they were taken to the hotel, where everyone finally got a decent bite to eat. As of a few minutes ago, Dr. Jarrett has been picked up by Alex and a few others, and is being transported to the hotel.

God is good!

It's getting late here now, and I'm sure I'm not making much sense anymore (I've been up since 2:45 AM, but did have a little nap this afternoon), so I will post more tomorrow morning. Just remember to keep the team in your prayers, as they will be leaving for Haiti at 5:00 AM. More on that tomorrow.


Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise...For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. Psalm 48:1, 14