The Rescue Mission Begins…..

When Category 4 Hurricane Matthew roared through Haiti on October 3, Bill was home on a short visit.  We immediately went into emergency mode, working the phones, making contacts, lining up real possibilities to get food to the people as quickly as possible, and sending out a plea for funds to make it work. We are SO GRATEFUL to all those who gave so quickly and so generously!!!

After several flight cancellations due to the hurricane there and in Florida, Bill finally arrived in Haiti five days after the hurricane hit.  The original plan had changed several times due to conditions on the ground.  Over the next two days, he bought food, arranged for a truck, and picked up four more guys who came in from all over the world to help,  Cristian from Thailand, Richard from South Africa, Cody, an EMT from Kansas, and our son, Jesse.  They headed out of Port au Prince with the truck load of food on Tuesday morning, the 11th, arriving at the sea that evening where the truck was unloaded and the food put on a large boat normally used to haul concrete and sand.

Upon arrival in Ile a Vache after dark, there was such a mob waiting, they couldn’t unload the food and had to wait till the middle of the night when the crowd had thinned out.  Still, some food bags disappeared into the night.

Except for a coconut tree crushing the porch, the base was in good shape.  We praise God that we have a place to work out of and will not have to spend a lot of time fixing the base but can work to help the people of Ile a Vache.

Our village of Kaykok is probably the most protected place on the south coast of Haiti.  Most of the village’s fishing boats survived including the ambulance boat.  Many of the houses in the village still have their roofs but trees are down everywhere, including on some houses.  The rest of the island did not fare so well.  (See pictures below.)

The gardens are gone!  All tree fruits like coconuts, breadfruits, etc., staples of the Haitian diet, are gone.  There are no Walmarts, no FEMA, and no government programs to help people who have lost everything.

Our Haitian helpers organized the first mass food distribution.  They repackaged the food into bags for each family to hopefully last them a few days.  “Tickets” were made and passed out to the people to come and claim a bag the next day.  When the time came for the distribution, the mob of people pressing in around the fence grew and grew.

The plan was to let five or so in the gate at a time to come to the deck and get their bag of food.  Bill, Jesse, and Cody had to go out the gate, lock arms, and hold the people back, trying to let in just a few at a time.  The people nearly pushed the fence down.  People were getting angry and some were hurt.  As they came in to the area where the bags of food were, they sat on a bench and our Haitian daughter, Sherlie, prayed for them and thanked God for those who had made it possible for the food to be there. But the whole situation was dangerous and chaotic.

Bill wrote later about the difficult situation on the island.

4:30 am here and maybe I’ll have a few minutes to let you know some of what has been going on.  We were able to get two shipments of food here ( 20,000 pounds) but it has been increasingly more difficult since that time. Looters and highway robbery and lawlessness have made transport down the peninsula difficult.

Transferring the food from the trucks to the boats to move them to Ile a Vache is likewise a dangerous and difficult task. Masses of hungry people, children and old people, and all in between, no law and order, and with little self restraint, they become mobs in moments. 

No supermarket just down the road, there never was. However, a little commerce continues. Merchants ply their goods here and there with little molestation and in relative peace. I think it’s the tons of free food that send the population over the edge.

If they have a little money, they will find a way to buy and sell. But then imagine waking up in the morning in a world with 99.9% unemployment. Every penny you have is in the bank and the banks just failed. All the crops of half the country have been destroyed by a cat 4 hurricane. All your stores are gone. Water if you can find it is contaminated and sickness and disease is commencing. All the places you once found food are all gone and no help is coming.

Some such picture is what we face and we must figure out how we can best help. – Bill

The next day, the guys loaded the boat with some food and took it around the island a ways to another little fishing village.  The people lined up in an orderly fashion to receive their bags and were so grateful for the food!  What a different experience!!

On the other end of Haiti, though they did not get the full force of the hurricane’s wind, there was still much wind damage and flooding.  The school JUST MERCY supports in the mountains survived but with a damaged roof.  The house the teachers lived in during the week (some come from Port au Prince to teach all week and go home on weekends) was destroyed.  The villagers have already come together to fix the roof so school can happen.  They start again this Monday but the teachers will have to spend the night in the school till they can get at least a room of the house fixed to stay in.

Richard expressed a real TRUTH about the situation.

I was born in South Africa in 1970 and I grew up during the Apartheid era where I witnessed first hand the horror of one ethnic group oppressing the other and the effects that it had on our society as a whole. In Haiti I can see the same kind of oppression; but it’s not by a different group of people, it’s by a power from a different realm altogether. Because the people of Haiti live in a great darkness desperately devoid of the Light of the love and Truth of Jesus. What we have witnessed in the last few days in our efforts to bring food and aid to the people here – where a father would steal food from a son, and a son from his mother, and a neighbor from a neighbor without any apparent conscience, no sense of wrongdoing – gives testament to the darkness these people live with and in their hearts. A darkness rooted in voodoo and superstition, desperation and fear, so deprived of the light of Jesus, is what seems to be the governing force over this society. We need to remember, in the midst of the desperation and devastation, that even as we work to rebuild broken homes and supply food to the hungry, if we are not bringing the light of Jesus into their hearts, their society will remain in the darkness. So as we bring in food and clear away rubble, as we rebuild roofs, replant gardens, and work to help these people rebuild their lives, the battle is between the light and the darkness in their hearts, and we need to never forget that. – Richard

More stories will be coming.  Thank you for praying and for sharing.  Blessings on you. (Scroll down for more pictures.)