Earthquake - MP Eye Witness - Haiti

Hello to my Mission Possible family –                                                       Julie's Team Pictures

This is Julie Bishop with an update for you about our beloved friends in Haiti.  As God would have it, I was there in Haiti last week with a mission team of 12 people.  Our mission was to take student photos and conduct Women’s Health seminars for Haitian women and young girls.  Our mission changed when the 7.2 earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday, January 12.

Some of the statements our team made about the earthquake were,  “it sounded like elephants crashing through the roof and things on shelves caved in around us”, “ it felt like all the grandchildren had just jumped on my bed”, and “it seemed like the concrete walkway we were standing on was swinging and the trees around us were shaking”.  Part of the team was busy taking school pictures at the MPCA school when the earthquake hit.  The students at the school were very frightened and ran from the buildings, not knowing where to go.  The rest of the team was organizing the supply room at the mission compound and heard Mirlande, the wife of our Haitian leader, Hervé Pierre, running to her upstairs apartment, crying for her 5 month old baby, Jacob.  Amazingly, he had slept through it all and thankfully was unharmed.  We were all shaken, but none of us were injured.  We immediately felt several aftershocks.   It didn’t take long for us to understand by way of email and internet that although we were spared, just 60 miles away, Port au Prince had been devastated.  We are heartbroken.

Immediately our team regrouped and began pulling out the abundance of medical supplies that we had begun to sort and organize that very day.  We sorted, grouped and packaged the supplies to take to the earthquake victims flooding out of Port au Prince in search of medical care.  Little did we know that all the first aid supplies, medicines, baby products, diapers and blankets that we collected from friends and family before our trip would not be used for our Women’s Health work, but to provide immediate relief to those in this desperate need, but God knew.  We also watched as the Lord orchestrated our plans to organize the medical supply room at the Mission Center to enable us to easily find, group, and send out the many extra medical supplies left by other medical teams to a nearby hospital that was in desperate need.  We rejoiced in the fact that God had used many unknowing people in the relief effort of this massive earthquake.

When two of our nurses went to nearby St. Marc hospital with Hervé the following night, they were able to deliver medical supplies and also witness hundreds of people lining the hallways lying on makeshift “mattresses”, sometimes two to a pad,  waiting for help,  The few hospital personnel stated simply “We need help”.   The inner struggle for these nurses is hard to describe.  How they longed to help in any way possible while we were being told that our team must flee the country as soon as possible for safety’s sake. 

After a tense drive away from our safety at the Mission Center, skirting Port au Prince, (which we saw with smoke rising from across the bay) we were able to cross the border into the Dominican Republic on Thursday.  We were overjoyed to see Ruth Sam, wife of Moise (our Mission Possible leader in D.R.) waiting for us at the border.  She had been visiting her sister in Port au Prince when the earthquake struck.  After 2 days of not hearing from her, Moise and MP staff were extremely concerned and longing to hear she had survived the disaster.  You can imagine our delight to see her safe and sound (Moise was ecstatic!)

Earthquake victims were even flooding into the Dominican Republic to seek medical help.  Children were bringing in other children, patients with no family and only a towel to cover themselves, and many with broken bones that had made the 4-5 hour trip from Port au Prince.  Mission Possible students and church members were already serving as interpreters for Spanish speaking doctors who were trying to communicate with Creole speaking Haitians, and were organizing church members to bring food, toiletries, and company to those in the hospital with no family.  Once in DR, our team met up with another MP mission team already there which felt led to use the money they brought for their mission and instead buy sheets, water, clothes, soap and food for those in need.  We also were happy to get leave our clothes, toiletries, shoes and other useful items to be sorted, cleaned and distributed by our Mission Possible church in the DR.

What is the future of Haiti?

Haiti is the poorest country in our hemisphere.  Things have always been hard in Haiti.  This week’s events will make life even more desperate for the Haitian people.  For Mission Possible Haiti, specifically, it will be more difficult to feed our students due to limited fuel and prices on food which have already begun to rise.  Two buildings at our Lahatte school collapsed during the earthquake and will need to be rebuilt.  None of our students or staff were injured, but many are missing loved ones who live in Port au Prince.  Our Haitian leaders are heavily burdened by the challenges they will face in caring for those in need around them.

How can we help?

Many have asked how they can help.  If you have been moved by what you’ve heard or seen on TV and in the papers, an immediate way you can help is to partner with Mission Possible churches in Haiti and the DR who are ministering to earthquake survivors. 

People are streaming out of Port au Prince to find safety and medical help, even crossing the border into the Dominican Republic.  Mission Possible churches are taking on this opportunity to care for those in local hospitals who have no one to care for them.  This is an extremely important need because these hospitals provide only medical care.  The patient’s family is responsible to bring in food, water, soap, bedding and other basic essentials.  Patients who possibly have lost all other family members in the quake have no one to help them and are desperate for these basic needs.

Your donations provide immediate relief, in the name of Jesus, to children without parents and to people with missing or deceased families.  Funds are needed to purchase basic supplies to keep these earthquake survivors hydrated, clean and fed.

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