This Isn't Camping.

Growing up in our family - you know that I really love to camp.
I loved when mom and dad would let Tim and I bring a tent to set up right next to the camper.  This, however, isn't camping.  The people of Haiti are living in tents.  They are living in tents because they have lost their homes.  But even moreso, they are living in tents because they are scared.  The Haitians saw their loved ones die beneath colapsed buildings.  They saw their own limbs amputated because of the tumbling concrete walls.  I can't even imagine the horror.  Bob & Vicki both described in vivid detail what it was like during the quake.  Bob was driving back from Petionville (on the mountain side of Port-Au-Prince)  and the buildings came crashing down into the street.  He was stuck in his vehicle for quite sometime because it was absolute gridlock.  He eventually decided to walk to the Children's home.  He came across a woman who had died and was naked.  He found something to cover her with.  He then helped pull people out of buildings.  He told us how he remembers the cries and moans from those trapped who he couldn't get to.  I think that would haunt me for a long time.  Vicki was at the Children's home when the trembling began.  She saw many of the kids running out of their rooms into the yard where they were cowering beneath the metal covered cabana of sorts.  She had to convince them to move to a place where they could see the sky.  As the hours rolled on she was trying to provide basic medical care to wounds and injuries far beyond her scope.  She said she just didn't know what to do when she saw a friend of theirs bring his little boy to the compound who had a large piece of wood stuck through his back.  In the first few days Bob and Vicki exhausted their supplies and their energy.  They ran out of water and food for the masses of people who began setting up their tents in and around the Salvation Army Compound.  Currently 20,000 people are living there.  A long term solution is being developed to help people move into homes and rebuild their confidence that they can be in a home again.

While I was in Haiti there were two "tremblings" that occured.  I only felt one of them in the middle of the night.  Two of the Haitian women living in the home were staying came running out of the building.  They were absolutely terrified.  They moved their mattresses to the porch and slept there the remaining days that I was in Haiti. 

My prayers for the Haitian people are that God can rebuild their confidence to live in a covered home, especially with the rainy season upon them.  That the large organizations in Haiti can expedite the design and building process to begin making the "3-year" homes which will get people back on their feet.  (I would love to be part of a team that builds some of these homes - perhaps this summer:))  That resources such as water, food, and work will be available in the new "neighborhoods" so that people will have incentive to move out of their tents and into a more stable living environment.  Would you pray with me these prayers?  Isaiah 49:8-20 God will be faithful to answer.  Love, T