January 17, 2010 - Earthquake Update 8

Whew! What a L-O-N-G, anguish-filled, heartbreaking, joyful, uplifting five days this has been -- I don't know about you but I am about ready to get off of the emotional roller coaster. I finally took a shower and actually sat down to eat and all three phones have been quiet for over 20 minutes so I want to take advantage of this time to tell you the latest news...

Darline and Roody are IN the embassy. Roody said he had expected to have to drop Darline at the gate, but officials allowed him to enter with her. One of the embassy officials, with whom Roody has been routinely dealing during his two-year struggle to obtain the needed visa to return home, said that since Roody was already in there, he will review his file and see if he can arrange for Roody to come home, too. It's a shame that it took something of this magnitude to force them to deal with his paperwork, but we will take it any way we can get it!! PLEASE PRAY THAT ROODY'S PAPERWORK IS APPROVED AND THAT HE CAN FINALLY RETURN HOME TO HIS WIFE, SIX CHILDREN AND BUSINESS.

Roody says he and Darline have already had a military "meals ready to eat (MRE)" and are preparing to settle into their assigned places in the embassy's lobby to spend the night. He is hopeful that they will fly Darline out tomorrow sometime. There are still no details as to when or where they will send her, but wherever it is, we will be there.

I inquired about Pastor Joseph's insulin and Roody said his dad has some now but does not know exactly how much he has or how long his current supply will last. He said he has encouraged Pastor Abraham to seek medical evacuation but doesn't know whether or not he will or not. My very good friend, Dianne, in the Air Force offered to check into the possibility of a crew on one of the cargo planes loaded with relief items being able to deliver some insulin to him should he choose to remain in Haiti to help his people despite his demanding health needs.

Ronald sent a text about an hour ago saying our people and folks from a neighboring school had a secure area where a helicopter could land and asked me to try to have some supplies delivered there. We are WAY too small to facilitate a helicopter drop BUT we have big hearts and know lots of people so I contacted another ministry based about 20 miles away from us and told them that if they could swing arranging for such a relief drop, we had a possible drop site.

I stressed to her the importance of sending out someone qualified as a "point person" to assess the present and required levels of security then decide if she could/would pursue this as a viable option. A successful drop of this type would be a perfect example of what is going to be needed during the years it will take to rebuild Haiti -- complete, altruistic cooperation of humanitarian organizations and the Haitian people themselves to achieve a common good.

PLEASE JOIN US IN PRAYING THAT THE VITAL, LIFE SAVING SUPPLIES THAT ARE BEING DELIVERED TO HAITI MAKE THEIR WAY OUT OF THE RELATIVE SAFETY AND MEDIA-SATURATED CITY OF PORT-AU-PRINCE TO THE OTHER AREAS OF THE COUNTRY THAT ARE CURRENTLY SUFFERING OUT OF RANGE OF THE CAMERAS.

That's where we are at this point in time. As Roody put it, "Everyone is our circle is OK". It is staggering to think what the odds must be that with death and destruction at every turn -- ALL of our folks made it through physically unharmed. I won't go into it now but, through the generosity of some local mental health practitioners, once meaningful schedules can be set and plans made, we are going to try to take a team of pediatric post-trauma professionals into Leogane to help the children recover from the psychological scars this tragedy has inflicted on them.

I have been on the computer around the clock since Tuesday and have found a night owl buddy in a Canadian acquaintance who has a ministry in a city west of Leogane. We have been up late at night all week trying to clear our heads and hearts of the day's concerns, fears, joys of finding missing people, anxiety about the future, etc. We have decided you just can't make sense of unfathomable things and that leaves us in the glorious position of having to trust that God has us in His hands and will work all of this to the good of those who love and trust Him.

My faith and love for God have been deepened to an immeasurable degree this week. I hope that you, too, will pray and seek to look past the horror before us and see the possibilities for God to shine amidst the darkness as more and more people seek His face.

Please keep praying. It's not over by a long shot and God still has lots of opportunities to reap significant harvest from this extremely ripe missions field. I'll continue to keep you posted.

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