Newsline Haiti
Updates
Jan. 21, 2010
"O God, you
are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you..." (Psalm
63:1a).
HAITI UPDATES
1) Brethren
delegation in Haiti begins reporting from earthquake zone
2) Relief supplies
go to Haiti from the Brethren Service Center
********************************************
Because of the volume of news about the Church of the
Brethren relief efforts for Haiti and the delegation working in
Port-au-Prince, daily updates on Haiti from now on will not be
sent out as separate special issues of Newsline. Readers are
invited to go to
www.brethren.org/HaitiEarthquake
for daily online news updates, and to the blog at
http://blog.brethren.org/?p=41#comments
for regular postings by Haiti delegation member Roy Winter.
Regularly scheduled issues of Newsline will continue every other
Wednesday, the next on Jan. 27, with other special issues as
needed.
********************************************
1)
Brethren delegation in Haiti begins reporting from earthquake
zone
A delegation
from the Church of the Brethren has begun work with Eglise des
Freres Haitiens (Haitian Church of the Brethren) in response to
the earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince area last week.
The delegation
now in Haiti includes Ludovic St. Fleur, coordinator of the
Brethren mission in Haiti and pastor of Eglise des Freres
Haitiens in Miami, Fla.; Roy Winter, executive director of
Brethren Disaster Ministries; Jeff Boshart, coordinator of the
church program that has been rebuilding homes in Haiti destroyed
when four hurricanes and tropical storms hit the island in 2008;
and Klebert Exceus, consultant for the hurricane rebuilding
program.
Following are
excerpts from a first report phoned in yesterday by the group.
Winter made the phone call on Jan. 20 from Exceus’ home in
Port-au-Prince, where the delegation was meeting with members of
the National Committee or leadership team of the Haitian
Brethren:
"Klebert started
the meeting...by saying that God is with us. He allowed Satan
even to affect Job, but He didn’t allow Satan to destroy Job,
and Job remained faithful. He said we have much to be thankful
for. Even at this time, we’re called to be thankful and give
glory to God in all things.
"It was very
noticeable among the leadership team, most of whom I’ve met
before, how different some of them were and how their demeanor
was very subdued and how tired and stressed and frustrated
people were. It was absolutely heart-wrenching to hear them talk
about it. As we discussed the next steps for us and evaluating
the situation, they didn’t want to talk about rebuilding--they
wanted to talk about food and water and how desperate people
were, including them.
"To hear the
leadership of the church--these are mostly young men, it’s a
young leadership--to be stuck in a time without food and water
and to be so desperate for it, and to hear the anguish in their
voices, it’s so heart-wrenching. And they set that aside, and
they try to think about what’s right for the church.
"They’re all
spending the night at Klebert’s. Klebert is extending all of his
hospitality and all of his resources, making them available to
the Church of the Brethren right now so we can help these people
recover.
"It is
abundantly clear, just after our short meeting, that we have a
real need to be here and minister to our church members. They
have some desperate need right now, and we’ve got to find ways
to support them and meet their needs.
"We, the Church
of the Brethren, are going to have a broader response. We’re
going to work in Port-au-Prince, we’re going to be part of the
Church World Service response. It’s very important that we
support that CWS response. This is something the Church of the
Brethren is doing...in partnership and collaboration with Church
World Service.
"Delmas 3 was
the ‘mother church,’ the first Church of the Brethren in Haiti,
as far as we know. The church building was heavily damaged and
partially collapsed. Of that membership, at least 30 homes are
destroyed, many people are missing, and at least one life was
lost. It’s amazing that it was only one at this point.
"Throughout the
area, there’s always the question about the people missing. Even
up north in Gonaïves, families from the church there talk about
their family or friends who were visiting or had gone to
Port-au-Prince for a holiday, and they have not heard and they
just don’t know. The stress and the pain of not knowing--how
that weighs on people.
"The second
church that was built here is Croix-de-Bouquets, and Jean Bily
is the pastor. He and his wife and one-year-old son escaped
unharmed, but their house was destroyed. They went up to the
Gonaïves area to find someplace where they can get access to
food and to live with family there. That’s what many of the
Church of the Brethren members have done if they could.
"Pastor Ives
Jean is the moderator (living in) one of the hardest hit areas.
We hadn’t heard whether he was alive until today. He apparently
is alive but was injured. We’re going to try to see him
tomorrow. Many homes destroyed and loss of life in that area. We
expect the preaching point there to be pretty heavily
impacted--the real concern is for food and water."
In a follow-up
call about the activities of the delegation today, Jan. 21,
Winter said:
"The delegation
is handing out the tents and water purifiers that they had
brought to Church of the Brethren members. (The Haitian Brethren
leaders) had held back 20 cases of canned chicken (that was
donated by the US Brethren last year) for special events or
emergencies. They’re feeling blessed that they had the foresight
to do that. The chicken was distributed, and it was a real
blessing to the neighborhood."
Brethren
Disaster Ministries staff reported today that the delegation
"has yet to speak to anyone who has received direct aid. Perhaps
that’s because the Brethren in this area are staying put, and
they aren’t in the worst hit part of the city."
Today the
delegation hopes to get closer to the center of the
Port-au-Prince area most affected by the earthquake, and to
visit Pastor Ives Jean.
Daily updates
from the delegation’s activities in Haiti are to be posted at
the blog
http://blog.brethren.org/?p=41#comments
.
2)
Relief supplies go to Haiti from the Brethren Service Center
Relief materials
are being sent to Haiti by the Church of the Brethren’s Material
Resources program at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor,
Md. The Material Resources staff led by director Loretta Wolf,
are working to coordinate shipments to Haiti being made on
behalf of Church World Service (CWS), IMA World Health, and
Lutheran World Relief, among others.
A $25,000 grant
from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund is
supporting the initial CWS response to the earthquake, and
helping to pay for the immediate distribution of relief supplies
to earthquake survivors including hygiene kits, baby care kits,
and blankets.
Twenty IMA World
Health medicine boxes have been prepared to be picked up today
for a Mennonite shipment to Haiti, Wolf reported. Another 60
medicine boxes will be shipped to Haiti on Friday on behalf of
Church World Service.
Earlier this
week, CWS had arranged for one air shipment and one ocean
shipment. The air shipment of 14,743 pounds of blankets, baby
kits, hygiene kits, flashlights, and toothpaste left New Windsor
on Tuesday, bound for Haiti. The ocean shipment of a 40-foot
container of blankets, baby kits, and hygiene kits was scheduled
to leave New Windsor yesterday. "Initial plans are for the
container to enter through the Dominican Republic," Wolf said.
A group of 13
Church of the Brethren volunteers from Wyomissing, Pa., are
volunteering in Material Resources today packing CWS hygiene
kits, baby kits, and school kits, which will be shipped to Haiti
or used to replenish those shipped.
"We have
received many calls from persons wanting to volunteer and are
scheduling them as we have materials to work with," Wolf said.
A video report
on the work of Material Resources appeared yesterday on Channel
11 television WBAL TV in Baltimore, Md. View it at
http://www.wbaltv.com/video/22292207/index.html. |
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