Bohoc, Haiti – Friday, March 5th

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday morning we woke up to a rainy Central Plateau. We had to inspect the progress on the irrigation system to make sure we can turn it on before my departure. We found things not quite ready since the earthquake repairs had taken a lot of time but hopefully next Thursday things are ready. They had done a great job building an aquaduct where the quake had destroyed the previous wooden channel. It is now much stronger than before and should work great. On our way to the top of the canal we decided to walk up to the market in Bohoc. A friend had asked me if we could check up on a relative who was laying sick at home. We found the little house, and inside one of the tiniest bedroom you have ever seen, the sick man on his bed. Samson has a late stage of prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of his body. When it was diagnosed the family did not have the $1500 to have surgery done and now it seemed too late. Beside comforting the man not much could be done. It was humbling to pray in such a poor little house with a man who soon will be in a place where all suffering will have ended. There was a peace that is hard to describe. We were in a place where everything else had lost its meaning. The door to heaven stands open on a crack. On our way back a group of women called us and were pointing at their bellies. -Hunger- We talked with them and learned that four of them had come the night before from Port au Prince. They came together with their remaining children. All of them had lost children in the quake.

We invited them to come to the orphanage for some food and they beat us to it. When we came in the courtyard they were waiting for us and we listened to their stories. After a while we were told our lunch was ready but I could not eat. Laura felt the same way and we offered the women our food. Just looking in those numbed eyes of women who had to leave the bodies of their children under the piles of rubble that once were their houses will break your heart. All we could do was show them a little love and hope that they would feel welcome in their new environment. We sent them home with sacks of rice and I know that their kids must have been happy last night.

I realized something today. When we came in January, just after the quake, our community was grieving the loss of several of our own children and adults. But it was limited to a relatively small number. Now with fifteen hundred refugees, all of a sudden there is grieving over family members in almost every house. It feels like it must have felt after the Tenth Plague in Egypt.

Again today more people came asking for food. We will need a lot of help in the time to come. Next week I will go back to the Dominican Republic to meet with big plantation owners. Mario, my new contact there, believes it would make a great case for free food. I just have to go and try it. It will be a rough week with lots of travel and very bad roads. But it will be worth it if the food begins to flow into our area. Please pray for safe travel, for Spanish inspiration and for the Haitian people. (The main language in the DR is Spanish. Their creol is also Spanish based. Any Spanish speaking persons who want to go help next week? –els)

There will be many meetings this weekend with the people who are going to select families for the new land and house project. Also with others to prepare the house building and again others on how to distribute the food we might get as early as next week. Lot of challenges but I feel I am alive and being all I can be for these, the least of our brothers and sisters. (Matthew 25)

Please help us do this work. I sometimes worry a little if I will be able to keep doing this but then again I trust God will keep providing. He has so far!

In Christ, the One who waits for us on the other side of that cracked open door.

Hein

Donations can be made by going to our website matthew28.org - look for the PayPal button

or send checks to:

Matthew 28 or Matthew 28

HeinVingerling Mark Hopkins

241 Willow Way 2105 Woodwind Circle

Warne, NC 28909 Vestavia Hills, AL 35216

Wednesday March 3

Dear Friends,

What a day we had, but let me first go back to Monday. Early in the morning we left to take the first team back to their flight from Santo Domingo. We travelled over the same bad road we came in on, be it that this time it was worse because of the rains. In Qantamith we had to work ourselves through a crowd of thousands and 4 inch deep mud on the back of slipping motor cycles. In the midst of it all were people selling meat from tarps in the mud. It really is the armpit of the world. In the Dominican we got on a bus after a very annoying haggling war with the drivers who all like to rip off Americans and so they did. I think that some of us did not want to be on the bus but it turned out to be a God thing. Halfway a couple of men boarded and sat close to us. One of them spoke good English since he worked in the States for many years. He was upset about the driver ripping us of and he and his friend Mario, arranged for a young man, the son of Mario, to wait for us in Santiago so he could take us with his taxi to Santo Domingo. Although a little crowded we made it over to the airport there just at midnight. I could not sleep on the benches or the floor so I just stayed up all night until the group left and the driver showed up again to take Laura and me back to the border. Well then it happened! Mario called me on my phone to see if his son was treating us well and he asked if it was alright if he joined us for the ride back to the border. We picked him up and on the way we got to talking about his work. He is second in command for a huge plantation. 125,000 hectares where they grow bananas for export. He asked what we were doing in Haiti and when he heard me explain that we take care of hungry children and refugees he offered us free food. He talked in quantities of 30-40 tons per week. Plantains, rice, beans whatever, it was no problem. He would have given a truckload right then and there if I would have had a way to move it. He promised to call me and he really did today! I think it is going to happen and I am working on getting the transportation set up. Awesome! All this while I am wondering how to pay for the feeding centers. God seems to have a Plan of His Own. I hope y’all are as excited as I am.

This morning Laura and I went to Fontaine to do a clinic. Early in the morning the people lined up and by the time we arrived there were over six hundred people waiting. Way to many to be able to see in one day. We worked ourselves silly and had several pretty stressful moments trying to stay in control of the crowd but it worked and at least 400 plus received medication and prayer before we called it a day and left the rest of them to a local doctor. Laura had her first day in Haiti and is pretty shocked by all she sees. She is working the camera but also helped out in a great way with the clinic and she is determined to make a great documentary of our work here. That’s what we need!

Back at the orphanage Laura took more pictures of our kids receiving cards from Scottish school kids who made wishing cards for their Haitian peers. They were all in awe.

I had meeting time to arrange for the food transport and we are getting ready to put the show on the road. Thursday we will take possession of the land and Saturday the selection committee will have its first meeting. So much to do in so little time.

Good times and bad times. Last night after traveling up the road from Cap Haitian we were stuck behind a big truck and we were going slower than walking up the mountain. The smoke made me get sick pretty quick and those of you who know how motion sick traveling by night makes me will be proud of me. I kept it in for 4 hours. Then I had to get out and climb on the

back of the truck to stand in the wind. The last hour I really was spent but I think it was more due to not having slept for 38 hours. But hey, I am feeling good again today and I know that many people are praying by the energy I have. Thanks guys.

I am going to bed now. Talk to you soon,

In Christ,

Hein

Donations can be made by going to our website matthew28.org - look for the PayPal button

or send checks to:

Matthew 28 or Matthew28

HeinVingerling Mark Hopkins

241 Willow Way 2105 Woodwind Circle

Warne, NC 28909 Vestavia Hills, AL 35216

February 28th

Dear Friends,

Friday was an incredible day! Early in the morning we heard a group of people singing and the sound came closer and closer. Soon a huge truck with seventy people on the back pulled in the yard of the orphanage. Paulius had sent the truck to pick up elderly and blind persons from the villages around us. Since we had an eye doctor, Ivan, on the team we wanted to take advantage of his skills. The scene that unfolded is hard to describe. I have never in my life seen so many helpless people gathered together. Many of them could hardly move around because of their general state of weakness. Most of them were severely dehydrated. When Paulius spoke to the group and told them the need to keep drinking they responded that they could not drink much because their stomachs were empty all the time and drinking water makes the hunger feeling worse. What a hopeless statement! Their bodies need the water because they have so many ailments caused by the lack of it. But what do you say when they have no food?

We were able to help many of them with their complaints and Ivan has a good idea of how useful it would be for him to come back another time to do cataract surgery on many of them.

Some gut wrenching moments. A little girl was brought to us whose whole body was deformed as a result of severe malnutrition in her early years. She was ten years old and so tiny. Her spine had curves in it that made me think of the s-trap you find under a sink. It was curved in both directions. Her little hands were hanging limp and a big knot was at each arm where the wrist was supposed to be. All we could do is give her vitamins and I just had to hold her for a while to hide my tears and pray for her. Things like that make you humble.

All day long these people sat in the courtyard patiently waiting for their turn. We were able to give them cassava bread and peanut butter to eat and water to drink. For most of them that was the first food in a while. I hope you get an idea of the pain I feel even when writing this down.

At the end of the day they left the same way they came, on the truck. Still blind or not able to walk, but with hope in their hearts. They left singing again! What an example to us.

Ski and Mark worked hard on getting the light system installed. They got most of it in and we hope that today we can turn the light on. No more mattress fires from fallen candles. Lauren -civil engineer- looked at the water works and will start calculating the details for a new irrigation canal serving several farmers and our land at the river.

Saturday brought more action on the clinic front. Of and on we had people walk in all day, many from Port au Prince who had been displaced. Ivan, Kyle and Lauren were busy with it while Ski finished up the light system. Just to jump ahead we tested Sunday morning and turned it on. We have light!

Mark and I took a long motorcycle ride to Ranquit where we signed the land papers. We own the land now and we are going to start the project. Tonight we’ll have the first meeting with a group of people who are going to select the people who will be eligible for a house and garden.

Saturday night the staff and the children threw a party for Ivan’s birthday. You should have seen his face! There was a small mountain of rice and beans and some macaroni salads. It was a feast and the children and staff filled up on it. These are things they talk about for a while. It was also the last night by candle light and it gave some special atmosphere.

We have had our share of travel problems with Spirit Airlines canceling one flight after another. Ivan left this morning via Santa Domingo, the capital of the DR. It will take him until tomorrow morning to get there. The rest of the team will have to gamble on Port au Prince as their departure city. Things look good as I type this up but you’ll never know. Waiting is such a big part of life in Haiti because nothing comes easy. No tools, no skills, no food, no money, no healthcare, no infrastructure….but lots of time.

This morning in church, the little girl who had seizures in January, looked from across the room and smiled at me. Then she pushed through the crowd of people until she reached me and crawled in my lap. I wonder if she remembers something from the time that we were holding her in our arms trying to save her life. It just felt so good and I can’t wait to have our first grandchild in my arms. (Lord willing this September!!-els)

This week pray for us when we are doing a clinic in Fontaine, a very poor area.

Well, like always I wish I could show you in person what goes on. Many people in this area are working hard to get food to the more than 1500 refugees that have been added to the population. The world food organization donated 22,000 lbs of rice and 4400 lbs of beans to be distributed to the needy. We just brought in 4000lbs ourselves and are doing the same thing. But the needs are much bigger and more structural and that’s why we are doing the building project. We need to get from relief to rebuilding as soon as possible.

Thanks for your support as always. Consider ways to help this country get back on its feet. A house with a garden in our project will cost only $2500,-. That is a lot of money for me but maybe it becomes a realistic goal for some others or groups of others.

In Christ

Hein Vingerling

Donations can be made by going to our website matthew28.org - look for the PayPal button

or send checks to:

Matthew 28 or Matthew28

HeinVingerling Mark Hopkins

241 Willow Way 2105 Woodwind Circle

Warne, NC 28909 Vestavia Hills, AL 35216

February 25th - Haiti 2010 trip 2 update 2

Greetings from the Central Plateau. We arrived yesterday after the longest trip ever. We got to see Santiago and the road from there to the border at high speed. Once at the closed gate it was waiting and waiting until the Haitian side of the border bridge woke up and opened shop. In the meantime we were able to watch all the illegals cross through the river from Haiti to the DR: people who cannot pay the 10 dollar entry tax. Funny to see all the law abiding folks wait in a line for hours and the ‘smarter’ ones just wade through the river and get in for free. Oh well. We arrived safely in Bohoc in the afternoon and within the hour we started a clinic and treated a lot of patients who had come from Port-au-Prince. Most of them have no money to go to clinics or hospitals. Ivan and Kyle are getting their Haitian experience and are doing well with it.

Today Mark and Ski stayed behind to work on the electrical system and they made good progress. It looks like we might have light before the weekend is over. I know that will make a lot of people happy. There have been some fires in the past caused by orphans who took candles to their bedrooms. Hope we can avoid that.

Lauren, Kyle , Ivan and myself went on a clinic trip and saw about forty to fifty people that had all kinds of ailments. Reason we did not see more was that our truck did not start and it took 4 hours to get another one. This is Haiti! The one patient I cannot get out my mind was a young man who had a triangle of loose skin about the size of a silver dollar (yep I know those are round) at his tail bone and it was kinda rotting out. AUCH ! He was in such pain but had no money to go to the hospital. Ivan took care of him and we pray he will heal soon.

It is very visible that there are more people roaming around without aim. Hopefully that will change soon because it will cause problems sooner or later. Tomorrow we expect a large crowd in the clinic set up at the orphanage. People who live hours walking away have been notified and will be coming to get free help. Many earthquake victims from P-au-P who need ongoing care, are expected too. It will be quite a day. Early, before they come, we will go to inspect the land once more before we’ll sign the contract on Saturday morning. I want Mark to see it before we go ahead with the plans. I just can’t wait to talk with the local leaders tomorrow night and get their input. After that we can start the building process as I believe the people here need to see new things happening for encouragement.

Spirits are still high although everyone knows that hard times are around the corner. Well that’s it for now. I will try to get some news out every day or at least let you know on Saturday what happened with the land project. Thank you for all you do for us.

Love in Christ, Hein

For donations and more info about the orphanage please visit matthew28.org - you will find a PayPal button there or you can send checks to:

Matthew 28/Hein Vingerling

241 Willow Way , Warne NC 28909

Wednesday, February 24th

Dear friends, A little travel report from the mission team. On Saturday a phone call from Spirit Air: flights for Monday morning Febr. 22 to PaP canceled. After 2 hours on the phone flights rescheduled for late Tuesday afternoon to Santiago, Dominican Republic. Atlanta -Ft Lauderdale -Santiago arrived 1:30 am Wednesday. On a bus to the Haitian border by Ft. Liberte. Got to the border at 6 am. Closed -to be opened at 8 am. A quick call from Hein around 8 am: 'It's a zoo here. There's a bridge with a locked gate. Illegals are wading accross under the bridge, legals are waiting at the gate.' Next a short call: 'On our way to Cap Haitien.' Then a text msg: 'We just got in! Yeah we're there!' Arrived at the M28 orphanage around 2 pm and starting a clinic around 3 pm. No time to waste! They'll sleep good tonight. Please keep them in your prayers, to be continued.... love, els