{"id":3914,"date":"2016-10-02T22:53:32","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T03:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=3914"},"modified":"2016-10-03T06:16:21","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T11:16:21","slug":"one-tiny-life-and-now-hurricane-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/?p=3914","title":{"rendered":"One Tiny Life and now….Hurricane Matthew!!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Berill<\/a>

Berill and his baby<\/p><\/div>\n

Berill, a man who had just started working with us that morning was doing a really good job but about noon he disappeared and I was wondering where he went. A little while later he came back and I could see he was about to cry.<\/em><\/p>\n

“What’s going on?” I asked.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy baby is sick and about to die!\u201d he replied.<\/em><\/p>\n

“How old?” I asked.<\/em><\/p>\n

“About 2 months.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I hunted down some pedialite (children\u2019s hydration fluid) and headed off to see exactly what the situation was. When I arrived at the house, the yard was full of people which is not a good sign.\u00a0 It usually means someone is dying.<\/em><\/p>\n

A lady was sitting on the porch surrounded by a host of people holding the baby. \u00a0I made my way through the crowd to see him.\u00a0 He was lethargic, malnourished, and dehydrated. I didn\u2019t think there was much time before we might lose him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Everyone one was moaning and didn’t know what to do. Mama wasn’t nursing. Didn’t have milk so the baby hadn\u2019t nursed for a while. No wet nurse to be found. I knew we HAD to get this baby to the doctor quickly.<\/em><\/p>\n

I called the director at Bonne Fin, a hospital on the mainland that have helped folks we sent there before.\u00a0 He said to bring them on over.<\/em><\/p>\n

I replied, “It will take us three hours at least. We have to get a boat to take us across 7 miles of sea to the mainland. Then another hour in tap taps and motos.\u201d (motorcycles used as taxi\u2019s)<\/em><\/p>\n

“We will be closed by then but we take emergencies. Come on”<\/em><\/p>\n

He gave me Dr. Gitio\u2019s number (The pediatrician there. I knew him. He helped us with Christela. Nice man and knew his stuff.) I gave him a call.\u00a0 He confirmed the urgency of getting the baby in ASAP.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Berill, get the baby ready. Meet me at my house NOW. I will go look for a boat. ”\u00a0 (There are faster boats than ours on the island so if we could find one of those, it would be better.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Headed<\/a>

Headed to the mainland on the boat with the baby<\/p><\/div>\n

No boat taxi to be had. So we headed out to get the Just Mercy boat to the shore, a 22 foot Haitain sailboat. We put the15 hp Yamaha 2 stroke on it, hooked up a tank of gas. and were ready to go when Berill and the baby showed up five minutes later.\u00a0 The boat isn\u2019t really fast but it\u2019s what we have.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the voyage across, we supplied the funds for the taxis to get to the hospital and off they went.\u00a0\u00a0 I thought, \u201cNow it is in God\u2019s hands.\u201d\u00a0 They made it to the hospital and the baby was put on an IV. He is home now and the hospital is supplying formula. \u00a0We are grateful to God for his mercies. – Bill<\/em><\/p>\n

As I was preparing this update, we received word that category 4 Hurricane Matthew is headed to Haiti! \u00a0It is going to be devastating! \u00a0Winds are around 140 mph and not expected to decrease. \u00a0Storm surges will be 7 – 10 feet above normal tide. \u00a0Rainfall amounts are estimated to be from 20 – 40 inches!! \u00a0The eye is expected to go directly over the area where JUST MERCY’s base is on the island of Ile a Vache.<\/p>\n

The villages on the smaller islands will be wiped out! \u00a0The people have been being evacuated to the mainland but the losses will be catastrophic. \u00a0Homes will be destroyed, especially the grass huts. \u00a0Trees will be down. \u00a0Gardens will be wiped out\u00a0causing grave food shortages. Hopefully loss of life will be minimal. \u00a0The needs will be great!<\/p>\n

Bill is currently home but was scheduled to go back Tuesday along with our son Jesse. \u00a0That flight has already been cancelled and moved to Wednesday. \u00a0We hope it will go on time since\u00a0Bill is anxious to return as the people on Ile a Vache will need JUST MERCY’s help. \u00a0There is no FEMA. \u00a0There are no bulldozers or trucks or chainsaws (except ours) to help with the clean up. \u00a0 Possibilities are for Katrina-like devastation with no help in many places!!<\/p>\n

The sawmill is located in a fairly protected spot and we are hopeful that it will escape damage as it will be NEEDED with trees down and people homeless. \u00a0Funds will be needed for food, water, and shelter.\u00a0We don’t know exactly what we will find, but we know it will be bad. \u00a0If you can make an emergency donation at this time, please prayerfully consider doing so.<\/strong> <\/em>\u00a0JUST MERCY has the will and the position to make a difference in disaster relief on the island of Ile a Vache where ten to fifteen thousand people live directly in the path of the eye of Hurricane Matthew.<\/p>\n

We will keep regular updates posted on JUST MERCY’s FB page so if you want to receive those, please “like” it so\u00a0they will post on your timeline. \u00a0Please pray for the people of Haiti and for us as we return to Haiti to a poor nation hit once again with a major disaster. \u00a0May God have mercy and give His children in Haiti peace and courage in the eye of the storm!! \u00a0Blessings on you all!<\/p>\n

\"Sunday<\/a>

Sunday 8 pm Hurricane Matthew trajectory<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berill, a man who had just started working with us that morning was doing a really good job but about noon he disappeared and I was wondering where he went. A little while later he came back and I could see he was about to cry. “What’s going on?” I …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3914"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3921,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions\/3921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}