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

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