Dr. Etienne Reports back from Haiti

Dr. Etienne went to Haiti January 20-27 to provide medical care to the injured. I thought when he returned he would say we should turn our attention to Port au Prince and the people there who would need medical attention and rebuilding assistance.

What he said when he returned though was quite the opposite. He said, "The devastation is more widespread thank I expected. We need to press on with the project (even more now)." He went on to explain that many of the people in Port au Prince and the surrounding area were being encouraged to seek medical and other assistance outside of the Port au Prince area and that when he went to L'Estere, he found his hometown caring for many of the refugees. In the day that he was there, he treated over 200 people with wounds from the earthquake. He was saddened by the lack of supplies and medical professionals outside of Port au Prince to care for these refugees.

This only served to reaffirm that God was leading us from the beginning. One of the main themes in the recovery effort in Haiti is the decentralization of services and population out from Port au Prince and Cap-Haitian into the smaller communities of Haiti. Unfortunately, the population has already started the moving out process but the services will take years to spread out. L'Estere is about half way between Port au Prince and Cap-Haitian. Having a medical facility in the L'Estere community would be a huge benefit to the people in all the surrounding communities.

We continue to pray for God's help and guidance as we move forward in the direction he is leading us. We will meet with an architect, Jack Althouse soon who has offered to help us in designing a facility.

Earthquake hits

I was in Guatemala on a mission trip to the New Life Children's home when I read about the earthquake on CNN's website. The news was sporadic at first and then it was pretty reactive. It was hard to tell much from the website about what was taking place.

I immediately thought of Dr. Etienne and the conversation we had had a few weeks earlier. I prayed that his family in Haiti was safe and sent him an email to check. I thought it was somewhat Ironic that I was serving in a children's home in Guatemala that was started after the 1976 Guatemalan earthquake.

I reflected back on the conversations of the previous month and realized that God was preparing Servants for what was to come. It was difficult to be in Guatemala and somewhat insulated from the outside world. I didn't have much ability to speak with people in the States or to get news from more than just the internet.

My heart cried out for the people that were dead or missing...