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