Hein in Haiti Wednesday  1-20.2010

Bohoc 1-20.2010

Today was a day full of emotional moments. Early in the morning we took the opportunity to send our emails off and Laura Lynn updated her Blog. On the way back from the HAFF compound where we charged the batteries we decided to go check on our little malnourished baby. He looked keen out of his eyes and we were surprised what a difference one day could make. The grandfather soon spoiled that when he told us the baby had already finished his cup of coffee before we came. He was wired, the poor thing. We explained that maybe he had to lay of the Starbuck’s for a while. The conversation between the Haitians in the house was heartbreaking and encouraging at the same time. Madame Appolos told about the wailing that went on for days in St. Raphael when ever people got bad news about their loved ones. They talked about the devastation of the families that had so much hope for the children in the universities and who were now left with the memories and the debts they incurred. They also talked about the ones who had been converted and who were now in Heaven. I could not keep my eyes dry when I saw the emotion on their faces.

The mother of the little baby was in worse shape than the day before and we decided to organize transportation to the hospital( in Pignon). Greg van Schoyck offered to do this and in no time they were underway to the hospital.

A little while later we picked up some meds at the clinic and when locking the gate we were called by a woman who had made a nasty cut with a machete in her finger. Laura Lynn did her first sewing job and she did it great. I was running around her trying to keep up with her requests while stepping on an Iodine bottle that exploded under my feet. Messy! But her finger got fixed.

Returning at the orphanage the feeding of the refugees was well underway and all of them were sent home with a good supply of rice and beans to last them several days.

The little blind boys were there again and when I leaned over the oldest one to let him touch my face he gently pulled me down and put his arms in a tender embrace around my head. There was so much love in that gesture  that I had to go inside and cry out at the table. One is getting sensory overload here and it helps me tremendously to let it go every once in while. It brought memories back of Miranda, my first orphan.

God is here people and He touches your heart if you let Him.

We finished the day getting another truckload of food for the orphanage and preparing to get Laura Lynn to Port au Prince where she is going to be the nurse in the orphanage she is connected with. Seeing the devastation first hand will be rough and I am not looking forward to this part.

At 2.30 we woke up to get Laura Lynn on the truck. We arranged that the police commandant of Pignon would go with the truck for security. She left around four and I must say it was painful to let her go but she is needed in Port with the orphans there. She is a treasure.

I went back to sleep only to wake up to the rumble of the latest 6.1 quake  that rattled the little house I sleep in. No damage though but we know nothing about the damage further south.

Talked to Laura Lynn who was getting closer to Port and hopefully will get there soon. We get reports that PAP had rain last night and that people who all still remain outside were scrambling to find shelter and now another strong quake. Poor people.

We are having trouble with the bandwidth of Hughes net that runs the emails and we might not be able to send much out for the next day or two. If anyone has clout with Hughes tell them not to cut back when people are overusing. This is a vital connection for rescue efforts. One example was the news reports CNN that got out via Skype last Tuesday just after the quake. They came from right here on the couch.

Pray for Laura Lynn that she may arrive safely and be able to help a lot of children and people there. Pray also for the families back home who are in the stressful position not to know what goes on. Believe, me it is much easier for me.

I now have to go check on the baby, Laura Lynn made me promise that I would.

Love in Christ who strengthens me, 

Hein

And three texts from Hein:

- Laura Lynn safe

- i am leaving tomorrow going to Cap Haitien early to buy more food for refugees and then  fly out as scheduled

-to talk to all our supporters and go back in February

Thursday night 1-21-2010 Ft. Pierce, Florida

I checked on the baby this morning and found him sleeping like a log. He is getting better in his skin so that is going in the right direction. His mother is still in the hospital and getting meds to get rid of the water she was retaining. She is doing much better now. I  have to thank Robin Bienfait, who jumped on the network problems and worked until deep into the night to get solutions. Robin you are just awesome. For all of you: the internet is absolutely the thing that makes this rescue effort possible. Without it nothing would happen. The communications flow in all directions and people take action. Yesterday afternoon I went to check out some fields that we are considering to buy as part of our agriculture project. We are hoping to find a grant to help us with that. The goal is to make Matthew28 independent for food. What a twist that has gotten this week. We will for a long time have many more people in the area so we need to increase the food production. This land will certainly help a lot. The other problem I see is that the children in the very rural areas will now get even less food than before. If you are down to one meal every two days you cannot go much lower. This morning we made the long trip to the airport and took about 10 refugees with us that needed to go to Cap Haitien. We fed them and paid for their ongoing transportation to their villages. When I was in the departure terminal one of the security guards asked me about our work. I told her that we had been moving a lot of people out of PAP and she asked if we could take care of her nephew who has a broken foot and cannot get out of town. It is just wonderful when you can give a solution right on the spot. Tomorrow we’ll have another truck go and he might be on it.My departure from Haiti ended with an unexpected stop in Port-au Prince. We had to drop off some passengers and get gas, allowing for an aerial view of some parts of the city. At first it looked kind of normal for a third world city, many unfinished houses, but then I started to see more detail and got more and more upset with the random devastation I witnessed. Seemingly untouched tin roof building with in their midst all of a sudden a multi storey house flat to the ground. Some of the houses were crumbled into mere rock piles. No chance for survivors. Most people I took care of this week were lucky to be close to a door when it happened. We did not see the worst part of town but this already made me sick. Once outside the airplane I stretched out on the tarmac making sure I was not to close to the concrete awnings that were still intact. With the amount of aftershocks one never knows. I laid there for 45 minutes and thoughts about thousands of people laying on the same ground just a couple of hundred yards away on the other side of the airport filled my mind. I would leave this place that still had a thick layer of dust hanging in the air and fly to the US.  People on the other side were like the ones we transported out all week long but who had not been able to find the money or a free transport. My back was hurting already, how about theirs? Had they had any food since it happened, was there water that would not make them sick, did they have to look at the ruins of their house containing the bodies of their loved ones? Maybe they were old and depending on the care of their children who laid under the rubble. Maybe they were one of the many that lost their mind and who wander aimlessly around until someone will take them out or until they die. What a difference a couple of hundred yards can make. I am writing you this from my hotel room in Florida. I am here but my heart is in Haiti. I will have to go back real soon. Just thinking of it makes me almost cry. I hope you understand this. I have been going there for twenty years and these are my people and my kids. Thank you for helping me with this.

God Bless you all, Hein

Friday 1-22-2010

Dear family, friends,

I have arrived in Atlanta and it is good to see Els again and talk to the girls on the phone. I left so quickly that we really had not much time to say goodbye but I am back in one piece and that’s good. Thank you Lord.

I hope you understand that I am torn between being here and Haiti. It was not easy to leave and I am planning to go back as soon as things will let me , hopefully within 4 weeks. Today and tomorrow I have to talk with several groups that want to support me and that is important too. Wednesday I’m  going to Birmingham, AL,  where Mark and I will meet a lady who has great possibilities for relief supplies. She organized 16 plane loads for  Hurricane Katrina!

It will then be our job to get it to Haiti and that could be a challenge. I totally understand that now after sitting at the airport in PAP for a while. Every airplane that comes in needs to turn around and taxi down the same runway. There are no aprons or taxiways. That slows everything down so they cannot receive more than 140 flights a day. Right now over 1400 are waiting to go in. I hope that some of the relief supplies can be flown directly into Pignon, the airstrip close to our orphanage. Maybe some of the (customs)rules can be bent a little but it takes government to do this.

Yesterday,  while driving my little truck (which is slowly dying) , I tried for three hours to get in touch with Paulius. The systems are so overloaded it just does not function anymore. Robin has promised help with the communication situation and we are going to see her tomorrow. It is just so great to have friends that have these skills and are willing to go the extra mile. I know that all of you are in that category and just now I am getting an idea of how much you guys are supporting us. Thanks you so much. It is overwhelming and I just had to sit on my bed and cry a bit out of thankfulness and just plain grief for what is going on. Don’t worry about me I am getting a lot of extra strength in this work but keep praying to keep it coming. Please also keep praying for Laura Lynn. As far as I know she is okay in PAP and she has already treated all the orphans that are with her.

I finally got Paulius on the phone and we talked about sending more trucks in to pick up people from PAP.  We also discussed the possibilities of building little houses for the family members that come back to the country side and who have lost all they have. This might be a little early right now but I realize that if we do not address the local lack of living space we will have a great problem on our hands within a few months.  From my earlier reports you might have an understanding for that but I want to let you know that the community is stretched beyond their capacity as it is and the additional people might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Most people live on one meal a day or even less in the outskirts. We are not talking super size meals either. We have had to give out a lot of food already to handle the shortages and this will increase a lot. The same goes for the medical care. The local clinics are running out of useful stuff and we’ll have to get more. That’s why I am back right now.

Mark and I are working on going back in four weeks with  a medical team and to get our agricultural project in the works.  We hope to increase the food supply that way and to have food for the hungry, independent from the outside world. We need to plan for it and get a flight in, maybe through the Dominican and then over the road. Enough to pray for again.

I will continue to update you on what we know and the plans we have. Thanks, Love in Christ, Hein

Monday 1-25-2010

Dear Friends and Family

I am sitting here with Els listening to the unbelievable stream of emails that you guys have sent our way. I simply cannot grasp the outpouring of support that is taking place. If what you do is reflective of others, than it might well be that God is up to something really BIG. I feel the love so strong that from time to time the tears and this wonderful feeling take my breath away. I have been trying to convey that feeling to my brothers and sisters in Haiti because they are the ones that need to hear that right now. Outside the mission compound of our neighbors is a series of blackboards. Every day some teacher writes in very neat letters the news and announcements. I have asked them write about your support on there. They need to know that they are not left alone. The Haitians are very grateful for the help they receive. When you watch the news please filter out the negative comments. Lots and lots of good stuff is happening. I have never before seen people get together in this way. It is also very humbling to receive thanks from refugees. This week a man came in and while holding my hands and with tears in his eyes he thanked me for getting his family of 19 out of the city. I could not speak and felt so undeserving of this and wished that all of you who make this possible to be there. Stuff like that needs to be seen in the face of news that talks about corruption and other bad news. If God is in this, who can be against us? Keep the faith and unimaginable things will happen. Yesterday and today I have been working on the next team and we have it all together. God willing we will leave on Feb 22 with a six person team to do medical, agricultural and engineering work. We hope to visit several of the villages around us where we always have had feeding centers. In 2009 we had to close these places because of lack of funding. I think we are getting in good shape to open them up again and start feeding the children who are so malnourished that it hurts to think about it. In November we were in one center where the leader asked me to find a way to start feeding their kids, in the meantime several of them have died of starvation related causes. Under the pressure of all the earthquake events the food will undoubtedly get very expensive and they will get even less. Just to give you an idea: most of them get about a handful of ground corn every two days!If with your help we can avoid the problems in our area to become unmanageable then we are doing great things for the restoration of Haiti. As you may have read before I have been looking at fields that we can buy to increase our agriculture. This project will offer a chance for employment and for new food sources which are independent from the price fluctuations we face now. We hope to secure an $80,000 grant for this project and my hope is that we will be able to move the process up, to start as soon as possible. This weekend we have been jumping through hoops to get money in the hands of our director in Haiti, Paulius. Thanks to Steve Bennett, who drove to the Ft. Pierce airport, we will be able to continue to pay for the trucks to go into  Port au Prince to take people out. The thought of them ending up in refugee camps gives me the chills. Although I understand the logic behind it, I also know that this will make things worse in the long run. The more people we get out of there the better it is. Like I said the money flows in from all sides. I would like to share with you that in a little village in Scotland mysterious bags with coins showed up on the door step of the manse, with a note on it that says “for Haiti”. In the same village the only two stores have boxes on the counter to gather up money for Haiti. The congregations of the three “wee kirks” have donated the offerings of the last two Sundays. I can just visualize that scene and I would love to be there to give everyone a hug. I hope that one day I can visit with everyone who is involved. From a snowy mountain in North Carolina (what a difference a few days make) Love in Christ, Hein