Returning "Home"
Flying into Haiti on American Airlines, I had the opportunity to
ask our Flight Attendant a few questions about the day of
the quake. Something I had wondered was what happened with
the American Airlines flight that was on the ground during
the quake? It landed about 4:30 p.m. and people were in the
process of disembarking the aircraft. She told us that
she was not on the flight that day, although she is part of
a relief organization founded by flight personnel to help in
such circumstances as the quake and has been back to Haiti
many times helping out in Port au Prince. People were on the
jet way when the quake hit and the first reaction of the
crew and airport employees, as well as many passengers, was
that the new jet ways had broken down. Once they realized
it was an earthquake and they began seeing the dust all over the city, the pilot had the crew and airline
personnel meet together. They made an assessment of the
runway and determined it was safe to take off again, but
because of the uncertainty of what might happen and the
aftershocks, they only had time to board about half of their
passengers. Today, the airport is still shuttling people
from the plane to a temporary luggage area in an old
warehouse. Repairs of the airport continue. I can only
imagine the feelings and fears of those on the ground who
did not make the flight. It must have been chaos.
When arriving in Port au Prince, things didn't look much
different as we made our way to Grand Goave. Six of us came
in together: Bob and I, Bobby Curlee, Karen Lydick, Elaine
Angell and a "first timer" named Katrina Miller, a nursing
student coming for an extended stay to work in clinic. More
rubble has been cleaned up but rebuilding is slow. Over
100,000 people have migrated out of the capital to other major cities
that did not sustain damage, thus putting a hardship and
drain on the resources in those communities. Not many came
out to Grand Goave or Leogane because of the severe damage
we sustained.
Elaine and Karen had not been back since the earthquake
|
The school children practice for Flag Day (top) and
then celebrate Flag Day (center and bottom) |
so it has been a time of healing for them. They've
been a huge help with two very large work teams that we've
hosted already. Lissa Knue, one woman who had been here
during the quake, returned on a team last week to
participate in building a home for her sponsored child.
Lissa told me the trip was healing. During the earthquake,
Lissa experienced a horrible tragedy when a little toddler
who had lost most of his blood died on her lap that fateful
day. Bringing joy to her sponsored family brought further
closure.
David Price returned to Haiti a week before us to resume his
oversight of much of the rebuilding of Lifeline's structures
(schools, churches, orphanage, etc.). Clean rubble is
being used at our Leogane site as filler there to help with
drainage and landscape.
The rains have come but not as much as usual (this too is a
gift from God) as people are frantically working in some
areas to put in culverts and raise up tents to avoid
flooding. The Navy continues to help with this process in
|
Bob DeVoe (left) & David Price (right) at the
Leogane church construction site |
Port
au Prince for just a little while longer. For the most part,
the U.S. military presence is gone except in Port au Prince;
basically in June the official stand down takes place
Following up with Earthquake Patients in Clinic
The first
few days here were spent working in clinic with Katrina and
teaching her the ropes. I saw a number of the patients in
follow up that had been treated as emergencies immediately
following the quake. One patient is a little girl named
"Lisa" that was treated by my sister Bertie and some of the
women on the women's team who worked in clinic during that
immediate crisis. Lisa had her pelvis crushed and had glass
in her vaginal area; she was bleeding and we all were sure
she was going to die. She hung in there and when Dr. Bill
Rutherford, Dr. Doug Harty and the Navy arrived, Lisa was
taken to the U.S.S. Bataan for treatment. The amazing thing
is that today she is back in school and running all over the
place!
She was such
a loving, sweet-smiling girl from the first time we met her,
laying on the ground outside the clinic in the grass where
many patients were waiting to be cared for those first
days. She would always reach up and touch your hand and
smile, yet we knew she was in agony! Her loving ways
haven't been stymied at all by what she's been through and
it's amazing to see her now. She looks like she's grown a
foot! She is 10 years old but when she was injured looked
like she was about 7, all curled up on the ground.
Rebuilding Churches & Schools
The
rebuilding of the Leogane Christian Church and School has
progressed tremendously. Last week Lifeline was the
grateful recipient of a large donation from the Pierre
Garcon Helping Hands Foundation to build a computer science
lab at the Leogane Christian School, similar to what we have
in Grand Goave. Once the school is completed, the computer
facility will be next.
This past
Sunday was the first day of church at the new Jeanty
Christian Church. Next week Leogane Christian Church will be
fully complete and then we will begin work on the Vieux
Cayes Christian School where part of the church (offices)
and a classroom building were destroyed.
Leogane Christian Church: after the earthquake (left) and under
construction (right)
We need to
construct hundreds of school bench/desks to
replace those that
were destroyed when the
school walls fell on them in the quake. $100 will build a
school bench/desk for 2 to 3 children. Consider buying a
bench or half a bench for a sponsored child!
For
your tax-deductible gift: Checks can be written to "Lifeline
Christian Mission" and sent to our office at 184 Olde County
Line Road, Westerville, Ohio 43081. Credit card gifts are
also accepted
online (simply
explain your gift designation in the "Comments" section
included with the billing information) or contact Lifeline's
office at 614-794-0108.
Distributing Relief Supplies
During the
short two weeks we were in the United States, 10 containers
of food and relief goods cleared customs in Haiti. Our new
warehouse had just been completed when they started flowing
in. Six containers went to other missions - each one having
300,000 meals of the rice-based Kids'
Food on them. Most of these were containers of
food bagged and donated by Kids Against Hunger, Impact
Lives, Meals From the Heartland and Outreach International,
with shipping paid for by our faithful friends at
IDES
(International Disaster Emergency Services). Since
then, seven more containers have cleared customs and we
still have a dozen more in process. A special thank you
goes to Firmin Louis, Lifeline's Container Processing Agent,
for the outstanding work he is doing clearing containers
through customs; a very difficult and time consuming task.
Relief items in the warehouse (left), reaching across the miles
with kids food from kids in the USA (center), and receiving
a container from Impact Lives
The first
week we returned was like "old home week" as we were able to
notify dozens of missionaries and pastors to come and obtain
relief goods: mostly clothing, food, medical supplies and
appliances, 5 gallon bottles of water, bedding, tents, the
rice-based "Kids Food" and much more. Many of the
missionaries we hadn't seen in years came and we had a great
time loading down their vehicles with the goodies. All of
these missionaries are having a huge impact here both
spiritually and physically.
Last week we
were visited by Jim and Kim Dewar and Matthew Rust,
representing the Master Foundation. They provided 4
containers full of relief goods (remember a container is 40
foot long and holds about 40,000 lbs). God worked it out so
that the shipments all arrived while they were here to
oversee unloading and begin immediate distribution. Some
things went to the tent camp immediately, others to Port au
Prince, and today a large load went to Laregal. Each day
another large box truck full of relief goods and food will
go out to a different location.
Matthew Rust and the Haitians pray over the container before
unloading & distributing it (left) and distributing relief
goods and food (right).
Also last week we had a visit from folks with Meals From The
Heartland who supply a very large portion of the food we
distribute. This team of 10 included a young man named John
Cheathem who held a concert for the youth of the church and
it was phenomenal; young and old alike praised God with old
and new songs! It was really a musical paradise that
evening and it amazed even us veterans as how these talented
singers can bring so much beauty from their voices of
praise. In just a matter of a couple of hours John and
Robenson Faustin, one of our young adults who grew up in our
church and is very active, put together a duet that brought
the house down (not literally of course)!
Basketball Camp
One of the
highlights last week was having Amy Stephens, Girls
Basketball Head Coach at Drake University in Des Moines,
Iowa, and Sandy Clubb, Athletic Director for Drake
University, present a basketball camp for our 4th through
6th grade girls at Grand Goave. Isaac Fils, who grew up in
our children's home and now works with Lifeline full-time as
one of our Lovelink staff (Isaac studied computer and does
our spreadsheets and paper work associated with the
sponsorship program here), is extremely talented in
basketball, has coached and sports is his first love. He
worked with Amy and Sandy and the program was a huge
success to the point that Isaac now is the coach of our
first ever girls basketball team! Thanks to Amy and Sandy
and everyone for this gift to our young people.
A news crew
followed Amy & Sandy's time during the basketball camp.
Visit their
website
for the video and more on this story.
Coach Stephens hands out uniforms (left) and Isaac coaches the
new girls basketball team (right)
Tent Camp
Although the
number of people who are living in our tent city have
diminished some, the tents remain. Many people are still
afraid to sleep in their own homes, so they go to their
homes during the day but then come back at night to sleep
here at their tent.
Upon
returning and visiting in the tent city, we learned that
Matilde and Marlene organized having the 4 a.m. Prayer
Meetings in the tent camp. With people displaced they could
not continue to meet each morning in different homes. Here
in the camp they are ministering to non-Christians. Matilde
says that they sing, pray, read from God's Word, and the
church leaders preach to the people; many are responding.
In fact, tonight while our work team was having supper
together, Matilde asked me to come to the chapel to take
photos. A wedding was taking place between a couple that
has been living together for years who are residents of the
camp and they have been receiving encouragement from the
church. We visited with the woman and witnessed to her last
week with our team from First Christian Church, Canton, Ohio
and Christ's Church of the Valley, Philadelphia, PA (a great
team of talented and hard working people). I went out and
took some photos and it was a beautiful ceremony.
Afterwards they asked to use one of our vehicles for the
traditional parade to the reception site. It's quite an
honor for them to have a nice car to take them through town.
Building Homes
We've
constructed 5 more
homes
since returning to Haiti on May 2. A total of 20 homes have
been built since the end of
February when we were able to resume this awesome ministry
that has led dozens of families to Christ.
The greatest
challenge facing the people of Haiti now is housing and the
rainy season. We are doing our best to build homes but there
are so many more people who need homes than we have funded.
If you know of available grants/funds for rebuilding, send
the information our way....we have the ability to construct
3 homes per week. Our build schedule takes us to the end of
July. So we could construct dozens more homes. The cost is
$4000 per home. Each work team that comes also participates
in this awesome and rewarding ministry.
You can provide a "Home Raising Grant" to a needy family.
Lifeline wants to provides funds for families to be able to
relocate either to a new owned or rented home, or help them
repair the home they have. Grants ranging from $400 minimum
to $4,000 maximum per family will be given. The donors of
the funds will receive a family profile and photos of the
need and work done. A new 2-room cement block home will be
constructed for a $4,000 grant.
For
your tax-deductible gift: Checks can be written to "Lifeline
Christian Mission" and sent to our office at 184 Olde County
Line Road, Westerville, Ohio 43081. Credit card gifts are
also accepted online (simply explain your gift designation
in the "Comments" section included with the billing
information) or contact Lifeline's office at 614-794-0108.
Sponsor a Haitian Child
Hundreds of
Haitian children are available to sponsor for $30 per month,
such as these precious kiddies below! Email
Lovelink@Lifeline.org
to sponsor a child or visit
www.Lifeline.org for
kids who are available to sponsor immediately.
Work
Teams in Haiti
This past
week our work team from the United States witnessed 8
baptisms and 2 members of the work team were baptized too...A.J.
and Josh! The ocean is our baptismal here and it's so
beautiful.
Right now we have a combination of groups here:
Cox School
of Nursing, Springfield, MO;
University
of Kansas at Lawrence, Kansas;
Mid Atlantic
Bible College in Roanoke, North Carolina;
and SCAMPS
Campus Group from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana
led by Mark Gallagher, a long-time veteran of Lifeline work
teams. They are building 2 homes this week.
Today while
some of the team mixed the concrete for the foundation of
one home, another group put up a plastic covering for a
make-shift tent home for an older lady that caught Bob's
attention out near where the new home is being built. Such
service is so rewarding.
Sunday
worship was in the typical Haitian fashion of sensational
music and praise for our King. And we shared worship not
only with Americans and Haitians but we had 3 visitors from
Samaritan's Purse who are based here for a year. One is
from the U.S., one from Burma and another from Ethiopia. Our
spirits were united in giving glory and honor to Jesus.
Something interesting that we need you to pray about:
Many of the
58 women who were here during the earthquake have told me
they are coming back next January for our women's work
trip. Where am I going to put them all?! Maybe we can have
a reality program and pitch tents for us all to live in and
experience what our Haitian brothers and sisters have
endured. (Just a little joke!!!). But seriously, we may
have two different dates/groups. Please keep this in your
prayers.
A
Special Honor
Last week,
Major Betsy Ross received a
medal for bravery.
Lt. General Ken Keen presented this award because of Betsy's
heroism exhibited in the rescue of a fellow soldier at the
Hotel Montana in Haiti following the earthquake.
Lt. General
Keen and Major Ross visited Lifeline's Grand Goave campus
on March 17.
Photo: Major Betsy Ross (right) with Gretchen and Lt General
Keen (center) at Lifeline's Grand Goave campus
Beyond Haiti
Lifeline's work also continues to thrive in Honduras,
El Salvador, Cuba and the USA. Exciting things are happening! Be watching for an update on these ministries coming
in the next few days!
God bless you and thank you again!
Gretchen DeVoe
Co-founder and Administrator
Lifeline Christian Mission
|
Our great grandsons keeping up with Bob & I on the
computer! |
Pierre
Garcon, Indianapolis Colts Wide Receiver, Visits Lifeline's
School in Leogane
Items
Flowing In
Homeless
in Haiti 
Help
a Haitian Child or Family 