I was able to get through to Pastor Diogene this morning. He sounded more rested and energetic — thank you for praying for him.
As president of the UEBH (Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Haiti) Diogene had an office in a STEP Seminary building. That building was destroyed in the earthquake. All the UEBH offices and the STEP offices were in that building. So Diogene has been in a lot of meetings to discuss what direction God would have them go in this area. Please pray for wisdom for Diogene and his UEBH leadership team.
Pastor Diogene reported that none of the over 250 pastors in the UEBH had died in the earthquake. However some of them have lost wives and several have lost children and many members of their churches. Diogene has had much opportunity to minister to these pastors. Our food distribution ministry is now reaching out to 15 of these pastors who have not yet received aid from the UN or World Food Program. Each of these pastors has there own “camp” that they are reaching out to with food. Thank you for praying for these pastors as they deal with their own grief and then also minister to so many hurting within their churches.
Yesterday Glenn visited several of our schools and churches. He didn’t find any structual damage — however there are small cracks that will need some attention. We are thankful that all of these buildings are still habitable and our school ministry can continue.
Pastor Diogene and his ministry team are preparing for the evangelistic crusade that will begin next Monday. They are cleaning up an area close to the PAP church, building a raised area to lead from and putting up some large tarps for some cover. But most of all they are praying for God to open many hearts to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for being part of this prayer team.
Thanks so much for partnering with your prayers and support.
Tags: earthquake, evangelism, food relief
Glenn arrived in Tricotte last night and will be spending the next few days there. Tricotte is about 120 miles north of Port au Prince and is the location of our orphanage. Most of our 33 elementary schools are in that general area. Glenn will be traveling to many of those school villages in order to verify the welfare of our students and the condition of the school buildings and churches. We have had general reports that all is well but we want to do a thorough inspection to be sure there is no earthquake damage. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earthquake, food relief
Doug is on his way home — his family has given a great deal these past three weeks — and we thank them for that. Doug’s work in Haiti has been so timely. I am encouraged, watching how God has used Doug. The gifts that Doug used during these past three weeks are an example of spiritual gifts in action. Many of the things that Doug did while in Haiti were way out of his comfort zone. But with God’s supernatural enabling, Doug accomplished much in the strength of the Lord. Thank you for your prayers for Doug. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earthquake
We haven’t had much information coming out of Haiti today. Doug and Glenn did go to the UN meetings this morning and they learned that Port-au-Prince has been divided into 16 districts and five major organizations are responsible for those areas. World Vision has been assigned the area where we have been distributing food. That means that all the donated food will be flowing through those five organizations. Doug now is trying to make contact with the World Vision leadership in Haiti so that we can work with them and access some of that food for our area. Doug seemed to think that this new procedure will be positive in reaching into all the areas of PAP. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earthquake, food relief
I could envision Doug doing cartwheels in his excitement when I talked to him this morning. All of your prayers and all of his meetings and hours of networking with many people during this week have paid off. This morning we received two dump truck loads of free food, a total of 550 cases of “ready to eat” meals. There are 12 meals to a case so a total of 6600 meals. There are six different varieties of TV dinner type meals. And they come with a heat pack so they are a hot meal immediately ready for hungry Haitians. We are praising God for His provision of this food today!
Doug didn’t know if this is the first of more loads to come — but we thank God for whatever He supplies! Doug really appreciates your prayers and support — he told me to pass on his gratitude to you all.
Glenn was at the PAP church building site evaluating the damage and seeing if there is a safe way to start some demolition. Pastor Diogene also had a Haitian engineer at the site checking out the foundation and basement ceiling in order to make a decision concerning the possibility of rebuilding. Information will be put together and we’ll let you know what the outcome will be.
Glenn also was able to spend some time today Daniel Thalisamo and Mickenson. They too appreciate the prayers of their American brothers and sisters in Christ. Glenn said they are doing quite well for all they have been through.
We appreciate you all — thanks for your prayers and support.
Tags: earthquake, food relief
I’ve heard from both Doug and Glenn this afternoon. Glenn spent the morning fixing the brakes on the Dihatzu 1-ton truck. He didn’t have all the tools he needed so he had to go to the Home Depot of PAP (it was open thankfully) to purchase what he needed. With the brakes now working properly, this afternoon he made a run to the Dominican Republic to pick up a load of vegetable soup mix that had arrived from The Gleaners. Doug is enjoying having Glenn there to help share the load. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earthquake
I talked to Pastor Diogene tonight and he sends his greetings and his appreciation to all of his friends and partners in this ministry. He also really appreciates your prayers for him and his ministry team. The food distributions has been going very well — often on the news we see the lack of control when food is given out but Diogene says that his ministry team has handled the distributions with out incident.
In addition to the distributions that Diogene’s ministry team are doing, there are several other pastor friends of Diogene who are coming to Diogene to receive food to share with their people. And then there are many of Diogene’s church members who have left Port au Prince and gone back to home villages in the rural areas of Haiti. Diogene has sent food along with them as well. So your contributions are going much farther than we thought. Thank you so much! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earthquake
Glenn Bridges connected with Art Berry from Bellingham in Dallas last night. They arrived in Fort Lauderdale at about 11:30 PM, checked into a hotel and got a little sleep. They were up early and started working on the details of their flight to Haiti today. It seemed that it wasn’t going to come together and they were considering spending another night at the hotel when the phone call came. “I have two seats available on a small plane that departs in about one hour. Do you want them?” Glenn and Art grabbed a taxi and headed directly to the airport. I had to send additional documentation and at 10:00 AM PST I received the phone call saying that they were on the plane and ready for takeoff. We are so thankful to God for providing these seats today. Thank you for praying! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earthquake
Doug spent about three hours at the UN & World Food Program meetings this morning. Although we have not received food from these sources, Doug is confident that we could begin receiving food as early as tomorrow. So please keep praying for this opportunity.
Pastor Diogene received word this morning that the wholesale food warehouse, where we bought out the food last week, has received a new shipment. So we were able to purchase more rice and beans today and have made a second distribution to the large group of people on the hillside near Diogene’s church. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: earthquake
