Greetings to everyone in Portland!

Today is Sunday in Haiti and it is a day to worship the Lord, amen!  After a good nights sleep (ear plugs are key) I awoke at 04:30 to get ready for the day and to start my devotion time by 0500.  It is dark and relatively cool at that hour and I sat on the balcony with my bible and headlamp to listen to God.  And what He said was “trust.”  Specifically, He will keep in perfect peace those who are steadfast, because they trust, Isaiah 26:3.

At 6:30 we headed out to our first of two church visits.  Hundreds of people in an open air space with a roof praising God with amazing music: pure voices, joyful hearts and a little country western on the keyboard. These people are happy to be in church! Curt was able to greet the congregation and share with them our love for the people of Haiti.  At one point they asked all the people with January birthdays to come up onstage for a prayer and a song.  Not one to miss out on a blessing and being a January baby I hurried up with about 50 others to be loved on.  After 2 hours at this church we hurried across town to attend the church here in Grace Village.  By now it is getting hotter but that doesn’t stop the worship team from leading the hundreds here in an equally joyful and energetic time of song.  Praising God has no boundaries: not cultural, not economic, not language not even air temperature! After church we head back our rooms and a great Sunday lunch.  Then we hit the storage area and continue sorting through mounds of syringes, bandages, nasogastric tubes and hundreds of other items we brought over on the plane with us.  We have some great stuff to stock the clinic with this week.  Thanks to everyone who contributed items.

At 3 pm Michael took us on our tour Grace Village.  The building we are living in is actually a partially built children’s hospital that was used by Doctors Without Borders for a year after the quake.  The next building on the property is a girls orphanage where the girls actually sleep out in wood huts because they are still too afraid to sleep inside.  The church building had much of the cement exterior damaged by the quake but the interior was saved because of the steel trusses used to erect it.  After the quake Michael told us it was one of the few undamaged building and was set up as a hospital complete with operating room.  So many people did not survive because of the lack of medical care available.  The tragedy of the earthquake for people here is almost unspeakable.  A number of buildings on the property were destroyed including the school and guesthouse.  Michael told us how valued school is here in Haiti.  There is no free school like we have in the states and so many people can’t afford to attend.

Grace Village is committed to providing education in the orphanage and even in the tent city.  Which leads to the last part of our tour: through the tent city where roughly 11,000 people live in tents erected two years ago. They are on dirt floor and filled with whatever personal belongings people have.  In the one I looked into there was a bed, a stool and two pots cooking over a charcoal fire.  Haiti is a country with no fuel source for the masses except charcoal made from trees.  The result of this is that most of the forested areas of Haiti have been stripped of trees, which leads to erosion, flooding etc.  As with much in Haiti the short-term answer to one problem has led to terrible results in the long term. In the tent city people buy and sell items of daily commerce: food, entertainment and even cell phone charging. There have been classes to teach people their civic duty and how to live in close quarters with others peacefully.  There are many children running around all yelling “hey you.”  They are all adorable and fun loving, sharing their smiles with anyone who looks their way.

Grace is slowly trying to find alternate housing for the people living in tents, some of them want to move away and some are content to stay here.  Tomorrow we will begin seeing patients in the clinic.  As Michael says much of what we see will be the result of malnutrition and not being able to afford medication.  We covet your prayers for our time here in Haiti, that we would be a witness of God’s love and care and that, as was preached in church this morning, we would “receive” God’s blessing also.

Thanks so much for your prayers, love and support.

The Solid Rock Haiti Medical Team.