HAITI – December Update

Bill — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 05:31:11 +0000

Please scroll down to receive the latest…

Our Connection

Midway Community Church had been blessed over the last couple of years that the Lord has crossed our path with two wonderful families who call Haiti home, the Thomas’ and the Philippes. Jean and Joy Thomas, after being a part of our Church family for two years along with their sons, returned to Haiti two years ago to resume their missionary work in Fond-des-Blancs. Over the past three years Midway has sent several missions teams to come alongside the Thomas’ and their work, helped to purchase a badly needed bulldozer, and our Vacation Bible School collected supplies for the school they established in Fond-des-Blancs. The Philippe family currently lives in Cumming, and Louis “commutes” back and forth.

The Latest

Here is the most recent update we have regarding the Thomas’ work…

December 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

We are in between the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. In this letter I think I will combine the two as we review what our life and ministry has been this past year and how much there is to keep us thankful.

I usually end with personal news, but this time I will start with it. We are very grateful that our two sons who have graduated from college are employed full-time at jobs that offer benefits. Jacques graduated from college in 2010 and came home to live with us for a few delightful months, but then he moved back to the US in January 2011 and found a job in Atlanta within a couple of months. He struggled to find a roommate to help with rent as most people he knows his age are able to live with their parents for the time being. Not my first recommendation, but he did eventually find a really nice roommate through Craigslist. Lémec was living in Fresno at the beginning of 2011, but by March he had moved to San Diego. He found his roommate from an announcement on a church bulletin board. It took him a few months to find a job, but found the one he wanted and a few months after that he became engaged. We love his finance, Tara, and we are looking forward to their wedding August 3, 2012. She is employed as a labor and delivery nurse. Josiah is currently a junior in college and will get to come home for Christmas. Also this year Jean and I are celebrating 30 years of living, working and raising a family together.

The bulldozer has been a popular piece of machinery this past year. In fact it is still being rented out even though we want it back with us for land preparation for the secondary school. It will come back by the end of the year after it finishes the contract it is on now. For now the backhoe is doing a pretty good job at helping us get a start on the work. We are grateful for both machines and the work they are able to do. Work is moving quickly on the school kitchen. Once the bulldozer is back the workers will get started on the classrooms. We are very excited about this good beginning.

The farm tractor has many uses. It tilled many farmers’ fields, but we have also found it useful for keeping soccer fields and the airstrip mowed with the mowing attachment. The agriculture projects are going way better than we ever expected. We are pleased and grateful for the success of the farmers’ participation and the benefits they are receiving from these opportunities.

The church is doing very well also. Jean and Jean Francois have taken over the preaching responsibilities for the foreseeable future. It (the church) has elected 5 deacons and they are doing a good job of organizing and putting the different programs under the church in order. For Christmas a potluck is being planned. This is not common here, but we are hoping to make it a regular function of the church. Currently we are celebrating advent beginning with the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 and will continue through the prophecies of the Old Testament to arrive at the birth of our Savior in the New Testament.

This week the chairman of our board of directors, Phil Reed, along with one of the main funders of the first phase of the school construction and a couple of other friends are visiting. We are grateful to all of you who continuously pray for the ministry of HCDF and for us as a family and give regularly when you are able. We would never make it through the lean times without your faithfulness.

We wish for all of you a very Blessed and Merry Christmas.

Yours in Christ,

Joy Thomas

======================================================
Make sure to visit the Haiti Christian Development Fund homepage at
http://www.hcdf.org
Haiti Christian Development Fund
Box 934696
Margate, FL 33093-4696
954-727-3681 / 011-509-3-644-7799

Joy Thomas tells Midway children about Haiti on October 2, 2011

September 2011

Dear Friends,

Several events of interest have occurred since last I wrote.

The group from Oregon came during the hottest days of August, but they were real troopers in spite of the fact their bodies were never able to completely acclimate. They drank lots of water and a couple of times we were even able to supply them with some ice. They put up the ceiling in all the rooms of the house being built, put in door frames and doors, made porch railing, and found time to fit in a trip to market and an afternoon at the beach. One of the group members brought a pair of Speedo swimming goggles that several of us borrowed for exploring the reefs just off the beach. In all my years here and trips to that beach I had never done that before. The ocean was calm enough that we could swim out without becoming too tired. It was very fun with lots to see and he was kind enough to leave the goggles with me to use on another calm beach trip day. They were a fun group for me since I am from Oregon originally and two of my college professors were among the group.

While Jean is still in love with driving the farming tractor he had to hire someone to do it for him because the demand became so great and he didn’t have the time to do it all himself. The farming project is going beautifully and the farmers are already excited enough to be talking about forming neighborhood cooperatives for buying pumps that can stay in their area so they don’t have to wait for our traveling pumps to make the rounds.

The church is going through lots of positive transitions. The members approved a constitution and elected deacons for the first time. We’ve also begun official membership rolls. Anyone who has a history with the church has a month to officially sign up as a member without having to go through any process. After the month is over the process will become more formal according to the constitution for new members. The pastor from Fond-des-Blancs who has been leading the church for the last two years is choosing to leave so Jean will continue preaching on Sundays and Thursdays while the church decides which direction to take next. While Jean does not want to remain pastor full time both he and the church are enjoying this transitional period. When Jean has to be away (which will be most of October), Jean Francois will do the preaching.

L’Exode primary school opened as planned September 5. We may be the only school in Haiti that opened its doors in September. The new president of Haiti declared that schools did not have to open until October. We chose to continue with our original schedule with the total blessing from all of the parents. We were able to find enough teachers willing to start early with us and we are very pleased with the blessing of being able to get this new academic year underway. By the way nine of the female teachers are living in the new house that was just completed by the Oregon group. It has four bedrooms and may be a bit crowded, but they are all happy because water is delivered to their house and they get electricity for three hours every evening.

Two architectural professors from the University of Tennessee came to stake and line out the placement of the first phase of the building of the secondary school. They worked with a machete, a small chain saw and the backhoe for cleaning to make room for the lines to be laid. They took their time to be very precise. The actual construction work will begin at the end of October. The first phase will include two classroom pods, kitchen/cafeteria and one dorm.

Jean and I will be in the US for most of the month of October. We will be visiting 7 states in the southeast. We will be attending an HCDF board meeting, speaking at a church, attending a conference, visiting the University of Tennessee Knoxville and most of our children and many friends. Actually the only child we will not be seeing is Lémec. However I do have news about him. I can report that he officially became engaged to Tara Albrechson on September 16. They have not yet set a wedding date, but are talking about next summer. We are very happy and pleased for him and to include Tara into our family.

I did not include specific prayer requests with each item, but we do request that as you review them you pray as the Lord leads. We depend on you for that and our appreciation for your prayers is unending.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

August 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

Starting with the most recent news: The prayers of many were answered when tropical storm Emily did not have the major disastrous impact on Haiti that could have been possible when the storm quickly disintegrated over the mountains of the southern peninsula. Since we live right in the center of the southern peninsula we did see the beginnings of the storm with mounting winds and rain downpours that quickly led to the flash flooding of our nearby creek within minutes of the rain coming. Then everything changed. We continued to get light rain and wind the rest of the day with no major damage to anyone’s property. Port-au-Prince did not get any rain which is a huge answer to prayer since that is where the worst fear lies for the most damage if there is flash flooding from the mountains that surround it. The hurricane season has just started, but for now we are most grateful that this first storm to threaten Haiti was becalmed.

We did not have any volunteer work groups during the months of June and July, but we have had our third son home with us for the summer. Josiah once again has been one of the main stars of the summer soccer tournament of Fond-des-Blancs. He never gets to play in the championship game anymore because he has to leave for school by the time it is being played, but he is good at helping to get his team to the championships. The games are great entertainment for all of the communities that get involved.

We do have a group coming later this month from Oregon being led by one of HCDF’s board members. Among other things they will continue the work on a home that will be used for teacher housing. We have always had quick turnovers of teachers. We have a handful that have made Fond-des-Blancs their home and we are grateful for them. The others come for a year or two and decide they prefer living in one of the cities. As every year at this time, we ask you to pray with us as we search for new teachers for this coming year. We need a new school principal for the elementary school and teachers for both the preschool and the elementary school. We were able to hire two teachers last week; so we remain optimistic.

Jean has thoroughly enjoyed having the farming tractor. He has plowed several farmers’ fields for them and used the lawn mowing attachment for mowing the soccer field on the airfield. We obtained quality seeds for the farmers and around 70 of them used them on around 100 acres of farming land located near the various rivers in the greater Fond-des-Blancs area We were prepared for drought conditions. We had setup two portable irrigation systems to use on the fields located near the local creek. However, this year was not a drought year; instead we have had an exceptionally wet spring and summer which almost was too much moisture too quickly for some of the crops. The farmers are getting ready to harvest a bountiful yield of corn from this project. They had planted some beans also that did not do as well.

Jean has decided to do a series of Sunday sermons for the next couple of months on Galatians and he is working on a church constitution with the pastoral committee. We have a new pastor with whom Jean is working and this seems to be a good time to give more structure to the church. We request your prayers while all this is being put in place.

We are planning and looking forward to next month when we will start preparing the land and foundations for the secondary school. Please keep this in your prayers also.

Thank you for standing with us in prayer. We are counting on that and feel blessed to have such a base of people to keep us encouraged.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

June 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

In my last letter I mentioned the visit of an architectural student/staff group from the University of Tennessee/Knoxville that has been coming every couple months to survey and study the land where the middle school/high school will be built. They came back again in May with more complete and finalized design plans, but with a little more tweaking to do. We are still planning to begin the preliminary construction of classrooms sometime during the month of September 2011.

Along with the architectural students another student doing her graduate study research in landscape architecture has also come each time a group came. Her subject is community planning and design. She and Jean have been meeting with community leaders in the hope of being able to plan for development of the whole community.

I think in the past I have mentioned a refurbished farm tractor that was recently donated. Jean has had a lot of fun plowing a few fields himself, but we have also hired someone to do it long-term. We currently have 70 farmers signed up for the agricultural project for which the tractor is being used. We bought improved corn and bean seeds for the farmers to use in their newly plowed fields. All of them have fields near the ravine where the local creek flows. Besides the tractor we have a small motorcycle looking vehicle with a small flatbed attached. This vehicle will pull the pump from field to field when necessary to irrigate the fields. No rain will make this necessary, but for now we are getting rain. In the future we may add different types of seeds, but for now we believe it is best to let them grow what they know best and see how much more yield they will get from the improved seeds and irrigation.The irrigation system will also allow them to have more planting seasons to give them even more yearly yields.

During this past month we have worked with an organization called Water for Life in getting five new wells dug in different communities in the Fond-des-Blancs area. One was put in our yard which will give water to us, our neighbors and the housing community we are planning to build. One house of that community has already been built and will house teachers for the time being. Another was put in the church/kindergarten yard and three others in other nearby communities at intersections that serve many homes.

The 2010/2011 school year is coming to an end for L’Exode. It was a difficult year as the principal and one of the teachers had to leave in the middle of the year. Jean Francois Thalon, our field director, has done a good job of keeping things running to be able to successfully complete the year. Pray for our sixth graders as they prepare for their government exams and graduation ceremony and pray for us as we search for a new school principal and several new teachers for both the elementary and kindergarten schools. We also need prayer as we search for a principal for the new school being built. Although we do not plan to open it until September 2012 we want to hire the principal soon so he/she can do the preliminary work necessary to prepare for opening day of school.

On a personal note we are looking forward to Josiah coming home for the summer between his sophomore and junior years of college. Jean and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary at the end of March, but our schedule did not allow us to go during that time. Instead we took a couple weeks in May to take our anniversary trip. It was worth the short wait.

We continue to be grateful to all of you for staying connected with us and HCDF.

Yours in Christ,

Joy Thomas

April 25, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

The appearance of normalcy has arrived in Fond-des-Blancs. Appearances can be deceiving, but the urgencies of responding have slowed to appear to be normal.
The earth still trembles beneath us from time to time, but with far less frequency.

Ironically, the one time it happened during the day happened just as the children were making noise and moving around to get to their classrooms and they didn’t even notice it. On the other hand they still run out at least once a week for noises that hold no dangers.
The planes are not bringing us food, but we still have enough food and clothes to give for another week or so. In the beginning Pastor Yves and helpers delivered food to the homes we knew needed it. The clothes were harder to deliver so we decided to open a temporary store. Jean made gift certificates of various denominations and Pastor Yves handed those out instead. People with the gift certificates can come to the store and choose whatever they want for the amount of the certificate. This method has worked very well.

We also have water filter buckets and cell phones to give as gifts. Both items will go mostly to the satellite churches. Digicel which is a telephone company in the Caribbean offered free phones to organizations that applied for them. Jean applied for 50 of them and they gave all of them. These will help us communicate with the pastors and teachers easier and more often.

We will also be receiving two large tents later this week which will be used for the satellite school whose building leaned during the earthquake. The classes have been meeting under trees in the yards of different community people. The tents will give them shelter until we can tear down the leaning structure and build again. The bulldozer will go there this week to flatten and smooth out the land for the tents.

The bulldozer has been getting a lot of use lately both for mission work and as a rental for communities that need road improvements.

Jean held a virtual board meeting with most members of the board in attendance. They had a good discussion and all of them are going to try to come for a meeting on location here in Fond-des-Blancs sometime in June. Pray that travel plans will work out for everyone wanting to come. There are several plans that need to be discussed with them.

We will be traveling to the US in May to attend the college graduation of Jacques and Manise’s graduation from dental school. She is graduating from Meharry University in Nashville, TN, and will practice dentistry in Memphis. I will let you know Jacques’ future plans at a later time.

Please continue to pray for the students of L’Exode and also for all students in Haiti as they continue their education in whatever way they can find. Continue to pray for us for guidance as we seek the best way to support and encourage the people in our areas.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

April 10, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Relief efforts continue in Haiti, but at a much slower and calmer rate. We still have a small warehouse of food and clothing to give, but once they are gone there may not be more from the sources that MAF has received from to give to us. We have a container of supplies scheduled to sail from Florida on April 15. We are beginning to focus our attention on long terms solutions that will make it possible for those who have relocated here to stay. Besides handing out food we have bought food in bulk to serve to large groups. We served a welcome to Fond-des-Blancs meal to everyone we transported from Port-au-Prince. We served another welcome meal one Sunday to all the newcomers to our church as well as regular church members. More recently we served meals to all the soccer players who participated in our Easter week soccer tournament and on the evening of Easter we served a meal to everyone at the local hospital where we showed the movie “The Passion of The Christ.” We’d wanted to show the film on the soccer field, but the speakers we needed for that large of an area did not arrive until the next week.

All three of our sons came home for the week before Easter. They were more than happy to participate in the soccer tournament with their friends. It was like old times for me to take my soccer chair to the field to cheer them. It has been a few years since all three of them were on the same team at the same time. I am always an unabashedly biased mama, but in my opinion they were among the best out there and fun to watch. They got their team to the quarter finals, but then they had to fly out before the semi finals and their team lost without them. We did not charge admission to the games so there was always large crowds for all the games which had been our intention. Twelve teams participated in the tournament.

Lemec flew in from California with a friend two days before Jacques and Josiah were able to come. Jean’s sister, Gladys, picked Lemec up at the airport and brought them to Fond-des-Blancs. We were trying to make his visit a surprise for Jean, but it may not have been a complete surprise. Jacques and Josiah flew from Port-au-Prince to Fond-des-Blancs on Missionary Aviation Flights (MAF). They also left on MAF which meant they only saw the destruction and the tent cities from the air. They are both coming back for the summer and will see it up close and personal then. (There is some clean-up going on, but the destruction is so massive that there will still be plenty to see by June.) Because MAF charges by the plane and not per person Lemec, a friend of Joey’s, another American visiting, and myself all flew out of Fond-des-Blancs with Jacques and Joey. It was a fascinating trip for me as I have never had the opportunity to fly that low over Haiti before. From our home to Port-au-Prince is right along the fault line of destruction. We couldn’t identify destroyed buildings, but we were able to see the tent cities beginning in Petit Goave, then Grand Goave, Leogoane and into Port-au-Prince. At the same time we could see the beauty of the coastline which made for odd emotions. For all its faults and problems and even in spite of deforestation, Haiti really is a beautiful country. While tourist dollars would be helpful most of the beaches are still undeveloped and therefore still hold their original physical beauty.

Also from the sky you become acutely aware of how mountainous a country it is. They also add to the beauty, but give way to a Haitian proverb, “Deye chak monn gen monn.” Literally translated means behind every mountain is another mountain which basically means behind this problem will be another; a bit pessimistic, but usually the reality in the life of most Haitians.

There are many mountains for us all to get over as we recover from the emotional and physical needs brought on by the destruction of the earthquake. We thank all of you for your continued prayers. We thank all of you for all of the financial donations you have sent to HCDF to help us help and give encouragement to those having a hard time climbing their mountains.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

March 23, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Life continues in Haiti. There is a new reality to life here, but it continues and everyone is trying to learn new rules for living it.

Here in Fond-des-Blancs life is calm on the surface. Even though there have not been any recent aftershocks there is still a very real underlying fear. Twice last week the children ran out of the school not because they felt shaking, but because they heard loud noises that made them think something bad was happening. We’ve had to instruct the teachers to quickly ascertain the situation and keep the children from running if there is no shaking. Each time there was a false running several children got knocked over receiving minor injuries. One girl in fourth grade who came to us from Port-au-Prince couldn’t go back into her classroom for two days afterwards even though she knew it had been a false alarm. She came to school and sat by the principal’s office all day asking for permission to go outside every five minutes. We were ready to write her a letter of transfer to another school, but her parents talked her into going back to her class. She seems to be calm again for now.

Last week we had two university students from New Hampshire spend the week with us. They did a great job of helping the children make personal leaves that they clued onto a drawn tree which became a decoration for their classrooms. Even the older kids were delighted with the finished product. The visitors also spend many hours talking with the English students helping them with their conversational skills. Everyone enjoyed the experience.

Some people who came here from Port-au-Prince have decided to return to the city, but many more are staying. Some schools are suppose to open in the city after Easter so some of the students are returning for that. We are happy for all those who are deciding to stay; especially those that have become a part of our church. Every Sunday we have more music specials than before because of everyone who wants to participate and that is sometimes my favorite part of the service.

We have found employment for a few more people and have started a small business loan service to help a few more become self-employed.
Missionary Aviation Fellowship planes continue to come once or twice a week delivering food. They also delivered around fifty 5-gallon buckets which are water filters. Our main community has access to clean water, but some of the satellite churches are in areas that can use them. We have also received a huge delivery of clothing from a high school in Italy where a number of US military families send their children to school.

Jean and I drove our visitors to the city on Saturday to catch their plane home. I was very surprised to see so many more tent/tarp/sheet cities all the way in on the main road as well as many more in the city itself. Even though there had been rain Friday night everywhere we saw looked dry and people were cooking, sitting around, standing around, and playing. Hopefully, the little rain has warned them if their location is safe or not. The housing problem is still the hugest problem possible. In the city the problem involves what type of housing to build, where to build, and the quantity of homes needed.

While in Port-au-Prince we learned of an organization working in our part of Haiti to provide artificial limbs to those who lost them as a result of injuries incurred during the earthquake. We have two people in particular we want to help with this. Please pray that we can get it worked out for them.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers and support even though you haven’t been hearing from us so often. We continue to do what we can to support victims and their families of the earthquake as well as everything that was being done before the earthquake.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

======================================================
Make sure to visit the Haiti Christian Development Fund homepage at
http://www.hcdf.org
Haiti Christian Development Fund
Box 490127
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33349-9990
954-727-3681
March 1, 2010 – HCDF Earthquake Update #20

Dear Friends and Family,

In the north of Haiti in a town called Milot not far from the larger town of Cap Haitian are the ruins of a palace called San Souci built by King Henri Christophe. He also built the Citadel that still stands above the town of Milot. The palace is in ruins because an earthquake brought it down in 1842. All Haitian school children learn about it in school. That is the last major earthquake anyone knows about in Haiti. 1842 is more than a life-time away which may help explain why no one was too terribly worried about building codes protecting against earthquakes.

Hopefully, lessons will be taken from the news of the Chili earthquake. While still a tragedy everyone recognizes it would have been far worse if they had not been enforcing building codes against earthquakes in that country for years. We have all been looking for a way to rebuild Haiti quickly, but in reality there is no quick fix if it is to be done correctly.

This past weekend the southern peninsula of Haiti received flooding rains. (Fond-des-Blancs received all that rain, but being located in the mountains, it is hard to flood. The biggest danger is the flash-flooding of the river.) The rains flooded the town of Les Cayes and several smaller towns along the southern national highway. Fortunately, those same rains did not reach Port-au-Prince or the other worst earthquake hit surrounding towns. If they had, there would be more death tolls to talk about. And there lies the Haitian dilemma. How do we build to code quickly enough to get all those displaced people out of the danger of being drenched in rain or worse swept away by the flooding and mudslides? The city needs to be cleaned out before the rebuilding can start. If you are willing to keep Haiti on your prayer list, this problem needs lots of prayer.

The MAF planes stopped coming when all the pilots who know our airstrip were sent away for rest and relaxation so no planes came at all last week. Jean contacted MAF to find out when or if they would resume. They told us it would be at least another week, but that we if we could send a truck in they would fill it for us. We are sending a truck tomorrow (Tuesday, March 2). The will fill it with some food, but mostly with shoes and clothes which are also needed. It was more exciting to have things come in on the planes, but anyway we can get them is still effective.

The aftershocks are fewer, but still coming. A 4.6 one woke us up at 5:34 this morning. There were two in that size range last week. Chili has been experiencing even more immediately after the major earthquake even more then Haiti did. The stress of those after the major trauma make people do things they wouldn’t do in normal times. We saw this a little in Haiti and are seeing it in Chili. This is one reason we wanted to get as many people out of the city as possible and to get the children into somewhat normal routine again. Very few communities have opened their schools again. We are very gratified that the other schools in Fond-des-Blancs followed our example and opened their schools too. The children who are new to the school are fitting in well; perhaps because they probably already have cousins in the school. We have always received USAID food for our school, but they hadn’t delivered since before Christmas. We were able to keep the children fed using some of the food coming in on the planes. This past week the organization that is responsible for delivering the food was finally free to deliver the regular food. God was in the timing as the school food comes from a warehouse in Les Cayes. If they had not delivered it last week, it would probably now be sitting drenched in a flooded warehouse. We continue to feel and see the Lord’s blessings.

Yours in Christ,

Joy Thomas

February 18. 2010 – HCDF Update #19

Dear Friends and Family,

Surprising Blessings!

During this past week six planes full of food were delivered to our small airstrip. None of these flights had been prearranged by us. One morning we received a phone call from MAF saying they had been given some food to deliver and asking if we would like to be a part of the deliveries. We ecstatically said yes. The food is what is known as MRE’s or meals ready to eat. The meals are being delivered to people in the nearby communities and to families in our six church stations which are 5 to 10 miles in radius from the delivery point. We are not trying to feed a few all their meals; we are trying to give many and especially those with family from the city encouragement and as much aid as possible. We have also used some of the food to feed the 500 children in our preschool/kindergarten and elementary schools. We have always received USAID food for them, but we had not had any deliveries for over three months. It is lovely to see the Lord answering your prayers and the prayers of everyone here too.

The fun part was that the planes came in two at a time which added to the excitement. One would land and a few minutes later the second one would come. So now we are not just an international airport (previous flights came from Kingston, Jamaica) it also is becoming a “major” airstrip with more than one plane at a time on the ground. J
Last Sunday we did a potluck at our church to honor and welcome the families from Port-au-Prince. A few church members understood and brought food to share. I am proud of those few, but it would have taken a loaves and fishes miracle to make it enough. Fortunately, we had plenty of beans and rice and salad for everyone who came to church that day. We also had a whole pig cooked so that everyone had an extra treat of meat with their meal. As Jean said, the potluck idea was an experiment that went fairly well and we learned how to explain it better for next time. Besides giving the food there was also a room full of clothes which were only for the families who have arrived from Port-au-Prince. Some of the clothes we already had for give away, we purchased a couple of bails of used clothes, Jean and I went through our closets, some of the church members brought a few, plus two large boxes of clothes from one of the planes.

The elementary students of L’Exode finished their exams for their second term last week. Even though they had had only a few days of school after Christmas break before they had the undesired break brought on by the earthquake. Their first week back in class was for review and then the exams. I have seen the results of the exams and am very pleased that most did so well with all the stress they have experienced in the last month. This week usually would have been a break for them as Haiti usually makes a big deal of celebrating Mardi Gras. During that time we usually allow our church and school to be used as a Christian camp for youth groups from the cities. Obviously, that wasn’t something anyone was doing this year so we thought it would be best to continue classroom studies and make up for a little of the lost time. Even though many of our students are Catholics; none of the parents objected to this.
Jean and friends are looking into housing opportunities that could possibly provide employment opportunities as well as long term housing for those needing new homes. This is our next big prayer concern.

Matthew 6:33-34 – But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

It is true that each day has its own trouble and Haiti will be experiencing that for some time to come, but we are also experiencing the surprise of blessings each day. We are grateful for that and thankful for all of you.

Yours in Christ,

Joy Thomas

February 12, 2010 – Haiti Earthquake Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Today marks one calendar month since the earthquake. It has also been over a week since we felt the last aftershock.

We went to Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, two weeks after the first time we went together. The scenery of destruction is still everywhere and still shocking to see. One of the bigger differences in what we saw was with the tent cities. There are more of them, but many of them are actually fairly decent tents instead of just sheets for shelter. The tents are great for the immediate need, but seeing the number of them makes one realize how much needs to be done very soon. There are some people (not the majority) who have homes, but are still afraid to sleep in them. Hopefully, they will move back in soon. Another change was road conditions. It was good to see large machines out clearing the rock slides off the main roads and repairing the roads. The road built near Miragoane last year after the hurricanes to replace the road that sunk into the lake is not only being cleared, but improved. For now the improvements mean making it smoother even though it is still a dirt road. Mount Tapion is also being cleared. However, the places along the road that cracked and buckled during the quake are only getting more dramatic to see and scarier to driver over.

As I mentioned earlier, MAF was finally given permission to fly here out of Port-au-Prince. They flew in Monday, Tuesday, and again on Thursday. They have flown in three different planes to get the feel for it and brought another pilot to practice landing and taking off from here. They always manage to bring in a few supplies, mostly food, each time they fly here which is very helpful. It is all looking good for continued flights.

We completed our second full week of school today. Last week and the first part of this week were review and the last three days were exams for the 2nd quarter. Third quarter will begin on Monday. In past years we have given Mardi Gras week off, but this year we are planning to work through the week. Any catholic families can keep their children home if they feel that is important. Very often in the past the church and school were used for camp for protestant groups from the city. This year, obviously, the needs are different.

One other thing I noticed on our trip to the city that wasn’t that different from all my time in Haiti, but strongly confirmed is the amazingly strong will for survival that the Haitian people possess. The streets were full of people moving forward. There were many cleanup crews wearing look-a-like t-shirts to identify their jobs and others getting back to the day to day effort of putting their street businesses back up and running.

We are happy and relieved to see that, but we are also happy for all the people who are recognizing that the city doesn’t have that much to offer them for now and are doing what they can to make a life for themselves and their children here in Fond-des-Blancs. We are pleased for all the help you have given to help us help them get here and to help them with food, clothing and educational needs. Beyond that we have been able to provide a few jobs. We are looking ways we can do more of that.

James 5:11 – As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Yours in Christ,

Joy L Thomas

February 7, 2010 – Haiti Earthquake Update

Dear Family and Friends,

Before I start this letter I need to correct an error in my last letter. The word “not” was left in the sentence trying to say that all of the previous flights coming into Fond-des-Blancs have been coming from Kingston, Jamaica, and/or Les Cayes in the south of Haiti. I don’t know how the word “not” got into the sentence. We were circumventing the Port-au-Prince airport which has been so busy with military, governments, and large organization flights. The flights out of Jamaica have been very good for our community.

As most of you know, we built the airstrip at the urging of Missionary Aviation Flights. After it was built they were not able to obtain permission to land here. This has been a prayer concern for over two years. We are seeing the prayers answered now. They have been given verbal permission and we continue to pray that written permission will soon follow. They flew in to Fond-des-Blancs for the first time yesterday morning. All the flights have been fun and exciting distractions for the community, but this one was special to us since it has the possibilities of becoming an ongoing service to the community. The first pilots who flew in were the adventurous, living on the edge of danger type guys and got their thrill from flying into an unknown rural airstrip like the one here. The MAF pilots, I am sure, are also very adventurous, but also much more cautious and careful for now and the future. They came with a six passenger plane, buzzed the field both directions and then landed. After landing they walked and measured the whole field. They then wanted to take two passengers up for a short flight and then a landing. After the two people they took up three other passengers. I guess they were checking how the field held up under different weights. The field has already held up under a much larger plane with a lot more weight so that test went well. They will come back with other pilots to familiarize them with the airstrip also so any of them can fly in with food or passengers at the first opportunity.

I was one of the first two passengers to get to do the first fly around. I had requested that honor. I got to choose the second person. I chose Naomie. She is the principal of our kindergarten/preschool. When I became principal of the primary school, she was the very first teacher I hired. That was 14 years ago and she is still with us and she has always shown that her best interests are for the children. She is the only teacher who has stayed this long. It was very fun to share that experience with her. Jean chose the other passengers. He chose Pastor Yves, the councilman for our community and the young man in charge of cleaning the field after animals have used it for pasture. None of them, including Naomie, had ever flown in a plane before.

As if that wasn’t exciting enough for one day, we had even more Saturday evening. Jean completed a video disc of clippings of fallen buildings in Port-au-Prince and newscasts about it in French. He started it with Wyclef Jean singing and ended it with three different French singers singing appropriate hymns and the last of a group singing “Just As I Am.” The video was shown twice with thousands of people filling the market place to see it. We only stayed for the first viewing and were pleased by the reverent reaction of the people.

This morning the church was filled to capacity once again and the service went well. We were told of a widespread rumor going around the country that another large earthquake will happen if everyone does not do three days of prayer and fasting on certain days. We are all for prayer and fasting, but not under false pretenses such as this. Jean spoke to the church explaining that that requirement is neither spiritually or scientifically correct. We know everyone’s old realities can never be again, but we are working hard to help the people in our community face the future with faith and courage. It will take time, but with God’s grace we will move forward. Please continue your prayers for this.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

February 5, 2010 – Haiti Earthquake Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Our first week of school is completed. On Monday 83 students came in spite of many fears and chaos in the school yard from parents trying to make us do things differently. Just before the school day was over we experienced an aftershock. Everyone inside the building went running. The teachers and students came back in for a few minutes to get their things and we took the time to give all gifts to tell them thank you for coming. On Tuesday only 41 students came back. I guess the aftershock made them nervous. It made us nervous also. I walked around the school yard begging God not to allow another aftershock during the school day. We had another strong one in the middle of the night Wednesday night, but we have not had one during the day since Monday. On Wednesday and Thursday we had between 60-70 students and today we were back in the 80’s. We had 31 students who came all five days. They received more thank you gifts because of that and we complimented them on their courage. We hope and pray all or the majority of the students will come on Monday. I heard the Prime Minister of Haiti on CNN saying they want to open all schools still existing on Monday.

The children that came on Wednesday got to go on a field trip. The twin otter plane flew in loaded with food. We walked all the children over to the airstrip to have front row “seats” to see the plane come. They got quite a show as the pilot chose to do two flyovers before actually landing. He chose to come in from the opposite direction the other planes had chosen and that gave all of us a surprise.

We received really good news this afternoon. As I’ve mentioned before, we built the airstrip at the encouragement of MAF (Missionary Flights International). Unfortunately, after it was built the Haitian government employee in charge of the airport and airstrips would not give them or anyone else permission to land in Fond-des-Blancs. The planes that have been flying in have not been flying in from Les Cayes and Kingston, Jamaica.

Today MAF was finally given verbal permission to fly here from the Port au Prince. They will do their first flight tomorrow. They will probably be allowed to continue flying into Fond-des-Blancs even after this crisis is deemed over which means volunteer work groups can now choose to fly all the way here with a stop in Port-au-Prince. This is a huge answer to prayer.

Please continue to pray that the parents will send their children to school, that financial and food donations will continue to be sent to HCDF, and that both physical and psychological wounds will continue to heal.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

February 1, 2010 – HCDF Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday was a great day at church. Some of the special music was by young people who have returned to Fond-des-Blancs after losing their home or school or both in Port-au-Prince. It was very moving to see and hear them praising God in spite of their circumstances. Also we had a guest preacher from the US who did a wonderful job of explaining the plan and love of God for us no matter what is happening in their world.

This morning was a little difficult. We opened the school, as announced, and many students came. Many parents also came. We had already met with them and explained our desire to do what is best in getting their children back to a normal routine. At the time we thought they understood, but this morning we saw that some did not understand as well as we thought and they used their voices to discourage other parents. We were very happy for those parents and students that had the courage to come into the building and spend the day in classes. Only 70 students out of 275 at the primary school attended classes today.

(The kindergarten/preschool had a larger attendance because their buildings have tin roof.) The others were still fearful about coming into the building. We were very proud and appreciative of those who came in although there was a crowd outside urging them not to. Thirty students from Port-au-Prince last week registered to become a student at L’Exode. Only three of them actually came today. We put together gift packages for all the children who came and an extra gift for the students from Port-au-Prince. In each package were a French New Testament as well as school supplies of paper, pens, pencils, crayons, and socks and some also received underwear. Each child also received a small toy.

We intended to make the first day back a short day. We called for an assembly at 11:30 am so we could give them encouragement, our appreciation, and their gift. At around 11:15 there was an aftershock. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough time for all the children and teachers to run out of the building. The upstairs back door ramps worked well and no one used the stairs. Jean’s English class was also in session and they also ran out. As they did they dumped their aluminum chairs on the floor making a ton of noise as they went. The noise made me nervous until it was later explained to me that it wasn’t the aftershock making the noise. The minute they were all outside we called them back in. It took a little convincing, but they all came back into the assembly and received their gifts. Even the parents that had been waiting outside allowed them to come back and some came back with them.

As nothing in the school fell down and all the children were orderly in getting out quickly, we are hoping this will encourage others to come tomorrow and in the days to come. It was a scary moment, but we had already warned them that small aftershocks can continue for a few more months, but we believe the school will hold and it is best not to wait to get school going again. We will be having another PTA meeting this coming Saturday. Hopefully, the parents will start having more confidence by then. We understand their fears and ask you to pray for each of them to see the need to continue their children’s education and that their safety is in God.

The plane of food we thought was coming today is rescheduled for tomorrow. Pray it gets here. A helicopter came in today to look into the idea of being able to transport patients from the USS Comfort to the local hospital here for after-care. The small helicopter that came in today landed on a field near the hospital, but they said the larger helicopter carrying patients would have to land on our airfield. We are so thankful God pushed us to get the airstrip built even though it took a couple of years before it could be used. Its importance to the community and the patients at this time is immeasurable. Thank you for your prayers in getting it opened.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

January 30th Haiti Update

Dear Family and Friends,

Wednesday and Thursday our pastor and church elders began visiting the people who attend our church that received the most refugees or family members from the city and gave them each food that had been delivered from the planes. By delivering the food instead of having them come get it gives the pastor a chance to gage the emotional needs as well as the obvious physical needs.

We did not have any more planes on those two days and were not sure if they would be coming back, but all that changed today. A larger plane came in twice today. The first flight was for carrying in food. The pilot did a great job, but was shaking after the landing because the weight of the larger plane pushed it to the edge of the field, but he did get it stopped. When he took off, he just barely missed hitting the top of a mango tree. On the second flight he came in with just enough fuel for the flight to take off some of the weight. The takeoff and landing were much smoother as a result. This flight brought three visitors to us from the US who brought in much needed cash to enable us to pay month end salaries, to buy building supplies and food. The first flights of food earlier in the week were donations. The flights and food today had to be purchased out of Jamaica. It is your donations that enable us to do that and we are very, very grateful. There photos on the HCDF website of the planes coming and going under Media and HCDF menu options. They are very exciting events for the community. The vast majority of people in the community have never seen a plane except way up in the sky flying over them.

Today we were able to give food to two other churches and we have kept enough for the school so that we can give a hot meal beginning on Monday to all the students. The two doors we are adding to the school are almost complete. The doors are being added on the second floor to allow the children to get out quickly without using the stairs. The school is built into a mountain so ramps will take the children onto the mountain. Today be a big day of organizing for the additional students. A book shelf in the library fell and needs to be arranged again and we need to go through our textbook supply in hopes of finding enough for all of the new students. It is still being discussed, but we will probably need to hire another teacher. We have a couple of choices among the refugees.

We have gone almost 48 hours without any felt aftershocks. That is truly a blessing and if that continues it will do much in calming the fears of everyone. The aftershocks make everyone believe another big quake could come any day.

Many of you have asked us to let you know if there is anything more you can do. We now have a contact out of Lake Charles, Louisiana that will be able to ship containers that are especially earmarked for HCDF. With this ability we can now suggest that churches or schools or organizations or any group of people can fill a small container and drive it or ship it to Lake Charles to be sent with others. If you are interested, you may check the website for the specific needs (The information should be posted by Monday). The need for these things will continue for a few more months. We do not need water bottles for our area. Anyone interested in us may contact us and we will give you the contact information for the people in Lake Charles.

We are always pleased and in awe when we see the Lord opening doors to enable us to give more and more help to our community. Thank you for your part in that.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

Day 14 – Earthquake Update
January 27, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Today marks two weeks since the magnitude 7 earthquake hit Haiti. We have had countless aftershocks in that time. Jean is back from his trip to Port-au-Prince where he founds things there about the same as we found them last week. The main difference in our world is that most of the patients at his sister’s hospital are now inside the hospital and no longer demanding to be cared for in the yard. He went to pick up Dr. Clarke, an orthopedic surgeon from Alabama via Georgia. He is getting experienced at the airport and was able to get all the way out to the tarmac to meet him instead of spending hours outside not even knowing if the plane has arrived. Jean did not think the road looked any more cracked or broken than last week so that is a relief for now.

I did not go with him because one of us needed to be here to rush to the airstrip if a plane came in carrying food. I stayed glued to the house waiting for a call telling me one was coming. One never came. We had been told there was a possibility for two, but it didn’t happen. I will ask again that you pray that more pilots can be found to continue the process of bringing in food to our community. It does not look like much will get to us through the larger organizations any time soon. The larger airport still seems to be bottle necked in some way and struggling to get aid to the thousands of people in tent/sheet cities in Port-au-Prince.

We remain committed to enabling everyone that has left the city for here to find assistance and a redefining or new beginning of their lives. Besides physical needs there are a lot of emotional needs. We really want prayer for ourselves and our church and teaching staff to be able to address these needs. We had a very full church last Sunday and I mentioned yesterday that we have several new children, who have lost everything that was their life in the city, coming into our school.

As an explanation, many schools in Haiti function both in the mornings and afternoons. Primary students attend in the mornings and middle and high school students attend in the same buildings in the afternoons. The younger lost their schools, but it was the older students who were caught and perished in their classrooms. We have a former student and neighbor who lost all her classmates. She did not go to school that day because her menstrual period was giving her problems. I cannot imagine how her brain can grasp that.

I may not continue to write daily, but will write at least once or twice a week for a while when something big enough happens. The needs go on and on so we hope your hearts and prayers will stay with us, Haiti, and everyone in Fond-des-Blancs even if you don’t hear from us daily.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

Day 13 – Earthquake Update
January 25, 2010

Dear Friends,

This was a day of ups and downs.

The down side is that no plane of food came in. A larger plane had buzzed our airstrip yesterday afternoon and we were told it would be coming today bringing much for food. For the smaller plane we always got a call just before its arrival. The larger plane was to be coming out of Santo Domingo and there would be no one to call to alert us it was on its way. Therefore, all day today whenever we heard a plane, which was quite a few times, we would run out to see if it was circling for a landing. It was tough to get disappointed so many times. Perhaps tomorrow. Like everywhere, our community still needs lots more food. Now that it has started coming in everyone is looking to us for it. Please continue your prayers for this to happen. We know it is possible. We hope and pray it is in God’s plan for here.

The up side is that children came to register at both the preschool and primary schools. All the parents or caregivers were cooperative and not afraid of our buildings. We accepted everyone that came today and will keep registration open for tomorrow also.

Also, Jean was able to get the English classes started again today. Again, all the students came into the building without fear or overcame their fear as they saw others going in. Everyone assigned to class today came. A teacher new to the community who lost his school in the city voluntarily helped Jean and the students. That was nice to see. Hopefully, we will be able to offer him something later.

The preschool/kindergarten will begin all its classes on Wednesday. The primary school will wait until next Monday. I am excited to get the children back into a routine. The children coming from Port-au-Prince did not seem too traumatized while registering, but we will watch carefully for any signs of stress that we can relieve. At least half of them told us they had arrived in Fond-des-Blancs with nothing. We are supplying them with uniforms. They are second-hand, but they seemed appreciative anyway.

Jean will be going to Port-au-Prince in the morning to pick up another doctor. Please pray for his safe travel there and back. We heard the news say there are too many doctors in the city. That is probably partially true in that there could be too many in one place, but there is still a great need for doctors. Dr. Erik Thomas, who came in last week, has decided to stay another week. I am sure he would not decide that if he didn’t feel he was needed. The only thing he is asking of us is that we find a way to get his clothes washed.

We know time is moving on for most people and other crises happening. We thank you for your continued interest and prayers.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

PS to our friends in Fresno: Tomorrow, Jan 26, is our son, Lemec’s, 25th birthday. He has to work during the day, but if any of you know how to reach him, please help us celebrate him from afar.

Day 12 – Earthquake Update
January 24, 2010

Dear Friends,

Today has truly been a day of much needed rest.

This morning the pilot flying out of Les Cayes made his third trip into Fond-des-Blancs. In total he brought in 1500 pounds of food. It’s a great beginning. We hope and pray he or others will be able to continue coming. His coming gave the community a good psychological boost to know there are possibilities of help coming. While we are still hoping they will continue to fly in food we are also planning to go out to buy food from bulk selling merchants not far from us once we hit the paved road. With all the people that have come from Port the need for food is becoming great. We took a survey at the church to see how many of our church families have grown and by how much. Thirty of our families have tripled the number in their households. The thirty families had 58 people in total before the crisis and they have added 171 new people to their households for a total of 229. If this proportion from just some of our Church members is reflective of the rest of the community, we are in for some challenging times in the coming weeks and months; even years.

It is obvious that food is their greatest need and on our church survey education came in second with clothing also mentioned several times. One person put beds which I am sure they all need, but just didn’t think to mention. Others put housing knowing that many of them will be staying long term.

As I’ve mentioned before, we are working hard to get our school up and running as soon as possible. At the parent/teacher meeting on Saturday Jean gave them the statistics we found on line from USGS Release: USGS Issues Assessment of Aftershock Hazards in Haiti… for the next 30 days. Their assessment was not encouraging. (We felt an aftershock as I was writing this and we just heard CNN report that it was a 4.7). The parents asked us to do school in the yard, but the logistics of that are not easily feasible short term or long term. Our plan is still to register new students tomorrow and Tuesday and begin classes inside the school next week. We’ll see how many come. We’ve already begun working on the two extra doors upstairs to give them a little more confidence that their children can get out quickly if necessary.

The students of the English classes that Jean had started for high school students just before the earthquake are eager to get started again with many others asking to register also. We are working on getting more notebook computers so that we can accommodate the additional requests.

Our bulldozer has not yet made it to Port. Jean’s sister has requested it, but we still have not found a way to get it there. It needs to get there on a flatbed. In the meantime we have been putting it to work around here. We needed a new road into the school and wanted to flatten the yard to make a larger soccer field and play area. We are still working on that. We did not need it to get the airstrip ready as we had done the heavy machinery work when it was first built and it held in spite of the hurricanes last year. We had a group of men clear away rocks and sticks that animal owners had put there to allow their animals to graze. They also cut the grass shorter. The road to the airstrip had been pretty washed out by the rains of the hurricanes so the bulldozer was very useful for redoing that road for us. There is still one more road we want to get done before it temporarily leaves if it leaves at all. I wanted all of you who helped us buy it and get it here to know that it is being used.

One way that Jean finds to calm his stress is to play “What a Friend we have in Jesus” on our keyboard. He plays it and other songs at different times of the day. It is a good reminder that we are not alone in anything we do. We are also comforted by all of you out there. Thank you.

Joy

Day 11 – Earthquake Update
January 23, 2010

Dear Friends,

THE PLANE CAME!!!!!! HALLELUIAH!!!!!!

At 11:30 am this morning we received our first load of food aid. The pilot’s first name is Andrew from Delaware. He is one brave man! Our airstrip had never been tested before and he chose to land without wasting fuel on a flyover. He promises to come back this afternoon if he finds aviation fuel for his plane. He brought 400 pounds of rice, beans, and oil with promises of more to come. As it comes we will be sharing it with all the local schools and needy families. Unlike what you have sometimes seen on the news, our people did not riot and run away with the food although people were coming from everywhere.

We want to publically thank HCDF’s newest board member, Ed Simmons. His wife is a pilot out of Florida and it was through them we made contact with the pilot(s) coming.
The following is the letter I originally wrote for today. You can’t experience our anticipation since you already know the outcome, but wanted to send it this way.

Yesterday I asked you all to pray about getting our local airstrip open for bringing in aid and people. I asked because Jean was already in contact with a group of pilots who themselves are gathering food and fuel out of Jamaica to fly into Haiti. Jean was on the phone with them for much of the morning helping them see the airstrip on google earth and giving all the explanations possible that can help them understand the condition of the field. It is being cleaned as I write this. They are planning to come this afternoon with rice, beans, oil and some fuel. They could still look at the field and decide they can’t land there, but that is not our expectation. Thank you for your prayers that are helping to move this forward. Keep praying as we are almost there. If they fly in and land today with no problems, they will continue to come to deliver supplies. This is huge for us and our community.

The food will go to the schools and to families that have received family members from the city. A survey is being done by local officials to help determine where the biggest needs exist. We have one family in our church who have had close to thirty family members come to them. Sleeping arrangements could be crowded, but possible. Feeding that many, though, could get tough. Jean is also in contact with a contractor who has dealt with FEMA in the past and believes he can get us a grant to get small pre-fab homes from them and perhaps other agencies. This would be a big boost to the families and encourage people to stay. Pray that this will happen soon.

Yesterday some official came and asked all schools to open this Monday. Our school is the only two story school in the area which makes it scarier. It is built into a mountainside so today we have people working on making two door ramps that open onto the mountain so the children could get out quickly without having to use the stairs. This may change, but right now our plan is to open on Monday only for registering new students and then begin classes on Wednesday. This will give time to get the door ramps completed. We are meeting with the parents later this morning. We have always met with the parents once a month so it is easy for us to arrange meetings with them.

We were told there were at least 100 more people in the city waiting for our trucks to come get them. We sent a large truck for them yesterday. Even though there were three rendezvous points only around 50 people came in on the truck. We will send it again if requested, but we are thinking we have found most people from this area who wish to come. Earlier trips had brought in 100 to 200 people per trip.

I have been trying to get our updates out in the mornings, but I need to switch to evenings. In the beginning we were home most of the time to receive calls, to allow people here to call out, and to be on the internet to get information to help get aid on its way. By evening I was too exhausted, but could do it in the mornings even if it took a couple of hours because of interruptions. Now we need to be out of the house during the day overseeing the work needing to be done. I really want to give my support to the children and the school so be patient and don’t worry if you don’t hear anything until late in the evening.

Thank you for praying with us and for sharing your donations with us. We see God opening doors and making good things happen. We will continue to be here to make sure we can be His hands in whatever ways He helps us see.

Joy

PS This should be obvious from our letterhead, but I want to make sure it is clear. We heard on the news that all donations given to a US organization for Haiti can be deducted on this year’s taxes. Even though our mission name begins with Haiti to show that is where we are working we are a US recognized, tax exempt mission.

Day 10 – Earthquake
(January 22, 10:40)

Good Morning Dear Friends,

Ralf Etienne is the name of the young man who was the impetus for Jean’s urgent call for orthopedic surgeons. Ralf is a graduate of our school and his father worked with us during the reforestation project and now heads our credit union. Ralf was living in a 4th floor apartment and was trapped upside-down in rubble for five hours. Perhaps being near the top instead of the bottom made his rescue possible, but he was pulled out with a major injury to his leg. His leg has since been amputated around mid-thigh. It was not one of the doctors answering our call that did the amputation, but I want to give Ralf recognition for being the reason so many others are getting help. I am comforted by a quote from Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN, in part …the amputations give life.”

We have been recording different stories/images from the different news programs we have kept running on our television. We took these recordings to the church last night to show to those who normally attend the Thursday night Bible study. Jean did not have time to clean up the recordings and take out the commercials and bits recorded when we would forget to hit the pause button. We expected our regular church members and thought it would be ok to show it that way using the fast-forward button. This did work for a while. Jean is going to try to clean it up some and maybe add some more and show it again. We are going to show it again because the turn-out of people coming to see it shocked and surprised us. The church was full to overflowing, standing room only (approx. 400-450 people) and that many or more standing outside trying to see through the windows or get news from those closer than they were.

We have always understood that much of the world understands more of what is happening in Haiti than the Haitians themselves. Most Haitians only know what happened to them in their community and to their families. They have been living the tragedy 24 hours a day, but do not have access to televisions to get a broader picture of it all. When you see the frustrations on the streets, it is because they have no idea how much help is trying to come their way. Those in Port au Prince know the planes are coming in because they can see and hear them, but many don’t see any results of their coming. Now that the search and rescue is basically over we hope the medical supplies and food will start getting out faster.

Anyway, their reactions to seeing the destruction of so many buildings and to seeing some of the injured were sometimes rowdy and sometimes silent gasping. We appreciate their curiosity and need to know. Personally, I was a little embarrassed by some of the commercials. Jean always fast-forwarded through them, but I didn’t like them seeing the contrast of their lives (even before the earthquake) to the extravagance and nonsense they were seeing in the commercials.

We had hoped to open our schools on Monday, but after the Wednesday morning earthquake that is no longer possible. We will have to go at least a week or two without any aftershocks or earthquakes before the parents will be able to send their children without fear. As for ourselves, we are also afraid of having a building full of children when an aftershock hits. The reaction would be panic stampeding out of the building where children would be injured even if the building held.

Yesterday we sent a new driver to the city to pick up the incoming doctors. They eventually got picked up and delivered to the hospital, but the experience definitely made us miss Bebe even more. The new driver doesn’t understand the city the way we had thought. The drama of helping him find the doctors was almost overwhelming. Fortunately, we were able to have sporadic communication with both the driver and the doctors; but even with that the driver was so confused it still took him a couple of hours to connect with the doctors even though he couldn’t have been far from them.

Also yesterday I was disappointed to learn that all the other American missionaries from three different missions within a 20 miles radius of us have left Haiti. I don’t understand that reaction and am embarrassed by it. Perhaps they think they can raise more support and supplies by going. I want to thank all of you over and over for the amazing support you are giving us and enabling us to stay in the community where we can give psychological support by our presence as well as practical support. Our belief in relocation is that you need to be with the people to understand their needs and how to minister to them.

Jean has been talking with contacts that make the opening of our airstrip appear to be a strong possibility. Please pray that this will happen. This would greatly facilitate getting food aid into our community as well as other care-givers.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

PS We were in a panic, yesterday, to get our update out in the middle of several aftershocks so I did not reread it before sending. Sorry for all the fragmented sentences and other errors.

Day 8 and 9 –(January 21, 12:40)

Earthquake update

Dear Friends,

Yesterday around six in the morning we were up and just getting ready to go out the door for a trip to Port-au-Prince, when we felt and heard our house shaking …again. We ran out of the house realizing it was much bigger than most of the recent aftershocks. However, we did not realize how much bigger and how much closer it was and did not even begin to entertain the thought of not making the trip. As we were driving out of the community, the road was lined with people who had left their homes once again in fear.

Miragoane, our closest larger town, still seems to be ok, but five miles down the road everything starts to change. The first damage we began to see was on the detour road that was built because of the damage of the hurricanes last year. It is still very drivable, but had rock slides in several locations that made driving possible for one car in one direction at a time. Then as we neared Petit Goave we began seeing and experiencing large cracks through the road and along the sides the road as well as seeing crushed homes and businesses. The television news mostly only shows Port-au-Prince which was the hardest hit. We knew the damage was more widespread than that, but we were still surprised to see how soon the damage started to become apparent. The word damage may be too small of a word. Devastation is not too big a word to use for what we were seeing. Neither in the city nor out this direction were all buildings brought down. It is a little strange to say, but it actually became weird to see what buildings did survive; sometimes they were in the middle of buildings that were pancaked. Hard to understand.

After Petit Goave comes Mount Tapion. For those of you have been here that is the mountain that gives you a beautiful view of the Caribbean Sea and the mountains coming together. The road going up it is very scary in many places. The results of the rock slides are major. There are places where vehicles must totally leave the road to get around the huge boulders and landslides that came down with the boulders. I can’t imagine or know what type of machine will be large enough clear these areas, but I am sure something must exist.

After Mount Tapion, east of Petit Goave, we traveled through several smaller towns seeing the devastation to buildings all along the way. Then we arrived in Leogoane where the shock really began setting in on us. It is most difficult to see large schools and hospitals completely destroyed. It had taken a week to get help out to them, but we did see a squad (not sure of correct military term) of US marines there. They were just getting set up so hadn’t done much yet except to calm people by letting them know help was on the way. I hope they get organized quickly.

From there on into the city there was no break in destruction on all sides. We had to back track twice; once because of congested traffic and once because of shooting. We heard the shots and saw the people running and knew we needed to start backing up immediately out of the situation. That was downtown. As we were backing up there was a policeman who knew Jean and called his name with suggestion on the best alternative route for us to take. Nowhere else other than down town did we feel any danger such as that. Everywhere else was packed with people but it seemed calm; maybe even in a daze.

What we did see beginning in Petit Goave through Leogane and all over the city there are tent cities or often sheet cities. Several sheets are connected together to make walls and a roof. Many are living that way because they are homeless; others are living that way because they are too fearful to live in their homes. Fear that any one of the numerous numbers of aftershocks will bring their home down also.

Haiti has long been a country of bottled and bagged water since municipalities are not able to provide purified water to individual homes. There have always been merchants selling water on the streets. We were encourage to see several of these merchants in many neighborhoods and no one was attacking them to steal the water. Some food merchants are also coming back to sell. This is a good sign, but the people who lost their homes also lost their money for buying anything so they still need assistance in their day to day existence. We passed numerous neighborhoods that posted signs at the ends of their streets that are written in English letting any group going by that they still need assistance in their neighborhoods.

Our first destination in the city was the airport where we were to pick up an incoming doctor. We saw some organization, but still lots of confusion. I asked every police and military personnel I could get to what planes had landed and where we should be to ensure connecting with the doctor. We were there for over an hour with no results. We finally left for Jean’s sister’s (Gladys) hospital. Because of the early morning earthquake all the patients were in the hospital yard and afraid to go back in. Tents were set up for them and we had brought several tents with us which were set up so there was enough for the patients and for medical supplies and for consultation rooms.

We went inside to help with organizing supplies in there and Jean was able to get her internet system up and running again. Once that was done communication became much better for them and even for Jean as the system enabled him and the incoming doctor to text with one another. Jean left to get him, but still amid the confusion it took a few hours to get him. There is the large terminal and a smaller terminal. The personnel I had spoken with earlier assured us passengers were only being processed through the larger terminal. That information turned out to be incorrect, but through the texting they eventually found each other. (Our car went back to Port au Prince today to pick up two more doctors. Hopefully, our experience yesterday will help them find those doctors much more quickly.)

The first doctor who came over the border with Gladys had operated late into the night even after his long trip. We did not get to meet him because he had been transferred to another hospital in need knowing another was coming for Gladys. We didn’t get a lot of stories because everyone is too busy getting or keeping everything in order to keep the care coming. I took some video, but we will not be sharing those any time soon.
It somewhat feels weird writing because I know I am not able to find words to fit the emotions we are all experiencing, but we do want to share as much as we can about what is happening.

Thank all of you who have written and called in the last 24 hours. We know we worried you, especially after you heard of yesterday morning’s earthquake, when we were not responding. We are very glad we made the trip. It was important for us to see beyond our community. It helps us know we need to continue getting people out of the city and to foresee future needs.

Just as I was writing that last paragraph another large aftershock struck. It was long enough that Jean and I left the house. The psychological effects of these are enormous for the people.

One more thought before I quickly close to get this out to you. Beside everything else we really want prayer for everything that needs to happen will happen to get our airstrip open. We are really afraid the roads I mentioned earlier will be falling apart soon and may become un-drivable.

Thank you for your love and concern. We can no longer answer all of you, but we love hearing of your love and concern. Also, we just received an email from Paypal in response to Jean’s request that they will refund all regular fees for donations to the Haiti Christian Development Fund until February 11. That is a praise.

Love,

Joy

January 20 @ 8:24pm (via Facebook) from Joy Thomas: We felt the 6.1 quake just as we were going out the door to Port. We went anyway. Had an amazing day in both the bad and good concepts of amazing. Will write an update to our email list tomorrow. We are back home.

Tuesday – 01/19/2010
Day 7 – Earthquake Update

Dear Friends,

We just received word that Jean’s sister, Gladys, has finally been able to arrive at her hospital. We received a text a 4 this morning that she had crossed the DR border. What should have been an hour or hour and a half drive, at the most, took five hours because of all the obstacles on the roads. Anyway, she is here now and brought with her one of the orthopedic doctors that responded to Jean’s urgent call.

The doctor was visiting with someone who is on the email list you are on when Jean’s request arrived. The doctor had just been telling him he had a desire to go, but did not want to go without knowing he had somewhere specific to work. We are thrilled everything worked out so quickly to get him here all the way from Oregon. He will be working at L’hopital Espoir with Jean’s sister.

Besides that good news, the other good news is that gas was available at the station nearest to us. It was being hoarded, but the mayor of Miragoane (the largest town near us) sent the police out and forced the gas station owners to open their stations. This means the big truck we have been renting should have no trouble getting to Port to transport people back here. It left this morning and is scheduled for another trip tomorrow. As long as we can find gas, we will not need to skip days.

Daily we have an ongoing line of people coming to our home to use our phone or internet to contact family not living in Haiti to let them know news of their families here. I’ve mentioned this before, but as a little comic relief I am mentioning it again to tell you the affect it is having on our cat. Yesterday she started crying and didn’t want to drink or eat anything I gave her. Finally I took her away from everyone into our room, closed the door, and sat with her until she fell asleep. It seems she was stressed by all the activity.

The policeman I mentioned yesterday got back last night bringing his surviving family with him He and his friend gave us a briefing on the best and safest roads to take in the city as we are planning to go there tomorrow. Jean has several people to see, groups coming and things to do. Pray for our safe travel and ability to get around to do what needs to be done. We plan to come back the same day if possible.

We just heard about the 5.8 earthquake near the Grand Cayman Island. We don’t know if that will affect us or not. The news says it was not on the same fault line.

Keep praying. Thank you.

Joy

Day 6 – Earthquake

Monday, January 18, 2010

Dear Friends,

Yesterday was a fairly satisfying day. The truck we rented plus two smaller trucks from the hospital all loaded with people originally from Fond-des-Blancs who are now homeless in the city, but able to come back to family here. They arrived just before dark yesterday evening. We had tables and chairs set up in the school yard where they were served a hot meal and, of course, cups of our clean spring water. They were all appreciative, but we didn’t have time to sit with them to hear their stories because they needed to get to their families or friends who are providing them with a place to stay. One table, as I was serving them water, wanted me to know they were a family unit that got away together. It is an understatement to say that that was heartwarming. They have nothing left of their former life, but they are together.
We did not have to leave anyone behind that was at the rendezvous point, but all that were here say more are coming. We will be sending the truck out again tomorrow. Thank you for assuring us of the financial means to transport and feed these people. Gas is difficult to find, but can be found if the money is available.

The way things are at the moment is that it is impossible for us to receive physical donations of food and clothing from the US, but your financial contributions enable us to buy it for now. It seems the larger merchants in the area still have food supplies in their warehouses.
For today our pick-up went out again. It uses less gas, but also carries less people. A Port-au-Prince policeman (originally from Fond-des-Blancs) came yesterday to ask to borrow it to bring in his family. He understood the gas problem, but was somehow able to find 4 gallons. On the news you may hear things about the Haitian police force. I believe they are doing their best, but each of them have their own families they are caring for. One of Bebe’s sons is a police officer and took time to help his family and attend his father’s funeral, but immediately went back to work the next day. This man will do the same. He lost his sister and her son, but will be bringing in her family and others. The sister died because she did what mother’s do. As everyone one else was running out of the house, she ran in to get her baby. Those few seconds were fatal as the house crumpled on top of both of them.

Late last night Jean added more people to our email list. We want to thank all of you for contacting us and for all the help you are providing. If this is your the first update you have received, you can read the previous one at our website (www.hcdf.org).

For those of you who have read my previous letters know I talked about a supermarket in Port au Prince. The news people have been covering that particular market extensively. It seems they have been finding people alive in the debris. There are still many missing, but it does the workers good to know their efforts have not been in vain and a reminder that there are things positive to focus on amidst the other.

Thank you for your continued interest in staying in touch with us.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

Saturday – 01/16/2010

Dear Friends,

We are beginning to add good stories among the sadness. Our car brought in Fernande yesterday. She has a few cracked ribs and some cuts and scrapes, but she will be well. Geralda also arrived yesterday. She is totally fine physically. Both are former students of L’Exode. Both are also examples of the emotional toll we will be dealing with even for those not badly injured. Both girls have horrifying stories of what they experienced as the earthquake was happening and for the next few days. They have to somehow deal with the knowledge that the teachers and students and the school they knew no longer exist. Many secondary schools function in the afternoon so many students were caught in collapsing schools. Geralda had not been feeling well so didn’t go to school. She was able to run out of her house and up the street from the falling buildings.

It has been an interesting phenomenon for me to see the reactions of family members once they find out their relatives are alive. It is like they used all their courage waiting for the news and once the news arrives, even though it is good news, they fall apart. Carline, who works for us in our home is one. I told you about her 11 year old daughter yesterday. The daughter is here and healing well, but yesterday I had to help her through an emotional crisis like a panic attack I guess by what could have happened.

Even for myself I am surprised when the emotions come. I took Carline’s daughter to the clinic for her first care, but today I had her come to me so I could put antibiotic cream on all her cuts and scratches. My mind did go to the fear she must have been experiencing as the blocks that made these injuries were falling. (I brought the first aid supplies from the school to my home so I can give first aid to the neighbors coming in with minor injuries. I am thankful for all the antibiotic cream and band-aids a group from Georgia just brought to us in November.)

Since so many are coming in with only the clothes on their backs, we continue to give out clothes. I was going to give all the clothes to the church at Christmas time to be distributed, but never got around to it. Now I am thankful for that so they are available now.

We met with our teachers today to discuss when will be the best time to reopen the school. As an educator, I always believe it is best for children to be in school; to provide them with some normalcy in the midst of knowing that nothing will really be normal for years to come. We have decided to open a week from this Monday. Some of the teachers are still waiting for news of their families. Most of them are from towns outside Fond-des-Blancs (mainly a place called Cayes) and this will allow them to go home to have more opportunity to receive news. Everyone has a friend or a cousin or others who were living in Port. Waiting one more week will hopefully give all the local families to get a little more settled into this new reality. (And also the less aftershocks we feel with time will help calm people. We still feel them, but not as often.)

Jean sent out a request for orthopedic doctors. The response was amazingly quick and generous. There is one coming early next week and another making plans to come and still others looking into the idea. We will use at least one in our area where we have local people waiting for their care and one for Jean’s sister hospital in the city. Hers is one of the few still standing and operational. For now one is coming from Georgia and one is coming from Oregon. We praise God for this huge gift.

Communication in Haiti is still difficult, but that has been another service we have been able to provide for several families. Many have family members in the US, Canada, France and Guyana. They come to our home and use our internet for emailing or telephoning via what is called Voip. It allows them to assure their families abroad that they are ok.

We are grateful we can continue to be in touch with all of you. Thank you again for your many notes and contributions.

Joy

January 15, 2010 2:30 PM

Dear Friends,

Yesterday, we once again visited people in the community listening to their stories. Some were still waiting for news of their families, some knew their family was ok and on their way, others know their family survived but injured and didn’t know how they’d be able to make it to Fond-des-Blancs. In response to the last one we sent our pick up to the city early this morning to pick up two specific people, but also to bring as many others as they can. We will send the car in daily if necessary as long as we can find gas for it. Jean had a meeting with the hospital administrator this morning and learned that they had also sent a truck to Port au Prince to pick up people. We are grateful.

Last night I took the hospital their first patient from Port au Prince. She is an 11 daughter of someone who works for us. She was attending school in Port. She was running from her home when some blocks fell on her. She has open wounds and traumatized, but she will be fine. Two of the young men we spoke of yesterday also had wounds and are receiving care today.

We visited with the young men and their parents yesterday. I can’t give their whole story, but the main thing that I hadn’t thought of before is that all they and everyone else will be coming home with nothing. They had to run out of their house only with the clothes on their back. Two of them had to make the trip home barefoot because they were barefoot at the time they ran from the house. They could not get back in for anything. We were able to provide them with a few clothes and sandals.

There is no need to send clothes at this time as it would take too long to get to us. We will use monetary donations to buy clothes for others in our local market as the need arises.
Jean already wrote to share the horrors of the injuries we are hearing about so I won’t go into any more of that for now. Except to say the ones we are hearing about are mostly former L’Exode students who are the ages of our own sons. Our hearts are breaking for them and their families.

Their futures are uncertain.

On a lighter side, our son, Lemec, was interviewed twice yesterday for local television stations in the Fresno area. Both NBC and CBS came to his home and interviewed him about his family and friends in Haiti. CBS from Fresno also interviewed Jean via the telephone. Today Berea College had a prayer chapel for the people of Haiti at noon. Last night Jacques invited the local ABC station to cover it and they did cover it and interviewed him as well. We hope to see the interviews online later. We are delighted that our boys are able to have an active part in getting the news out about the suffering in Haiti in general and of their friends in particular.

Thanks to all of you for your many messages of comfort and encouragement and assurances of prayer. Thank you also to all of you who have already understood the financial cost of caring for people after a disaster and have given us a glimpse of hope that we will be getting the finances to do as much as we possibly can. We appreciate all of you and are depending on you.

Joy

_______________________________________________
Newsletters mailing list
Newsletters@haitifund.org
http://mail.haitifund.org/mailman/listinfo/newsletters_haitifund.org

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 10:55 AM
from Jean L Thomas

Where to Give

I’ve been asked this question by a lot of people and I’ve been dodging the question and answer because it was not totally apparent to me yet what our involvement was going to be. Neither did I want to say, ’send us money’ without a plan. I could predict that a mass exodus from the city would be forthcoming but that was not the focus for the past couple of days. Now it is starting.

We need money!

Everyone out in the rural community has a relative in Port au Prince and that is very true for Fond-des-Blancs. A lot of them are hurt and helpless in the city. They are beginning to trickle back home either whole or hurt.

1. Our first line of intervention is to help ferry them back to Fond-des-Blancs where they can get personal care at the local hospital. My car is in Port au Prince right now picking up some of the injured. Two of those being transported now are injured former L’Exode students. Darilus Etienne who has worked for us for over twenty years has two gravely injured children. He took them to Miragoane where he resides but there is very little care. He went to Les Cayes, again very little care. We are making arrangement to bring them here where they will get the personal care but not the full medical intervention needed. Those are just a couple of examples. The numbers are growing by the minutes.

2. We could use a couple of orthopedic surgeons here in Fond-des-Blancs. The hospital does have operating rooms but no orthopedist. Most of the injuries from the earthquake are broken bones; often multiple fractures. Darilus’ son Ralf, a graduate of L’Exode was on the 4th floor of his apartment building when the earthquake hit. He was trapped and left hanging upside down for six hours before they could free him. The bone to one leg is crushed, there is no skin left on that let. He is the one who has been transported to Miragoane then to Les Cayes and back to Miragoane with no assistance. We hope to bring him here today. Since the airlines are not flying, we will meet whoever can come at the Dominican Republic border and drive them here to Fond-des-Blancs.

3. I am not even going to spend a lot of time recounting the dead except to say that our beloved friend and co-worker Abenard’s funeral will be tomorrow here in Fond-des-Blancs. We need funds for funeral cost and assistance to his widow.

4. Once we move from the dead and injured, we will still be facing the exodus of the living who have no home, no job, no school in the city. We need to start preparing now for food and housing for those who will be coming.
We’ve always had this little saying to describe our ministry: ‘We are not asking you to save the whole world, or all of Haiti; just a little part of it’. As always, your contribution will be used 100% right here in the community to relieve the pains and sufferings caused by this disaster and lay the foundation for ongoing rebuilding of the lives that have been uprooted and destroyed by this earthquake.

You can contribute online (www.hcdf.org) or you can mail a check to our office at the address below. We are going to deplete whatever reserve we have (which is never much) to meet the challenge we face and trust in your compassion to replenish it.

Yours in Christ,

Jean

======================================================
Make sure to visit the Haiti Christian Development Fund homepage at
http://www.hcdf.org / info@hcdf.org
Haiti Christian Development Fund
Box 490127
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33349-9990
954-727-3681

FROM: Joy Thomas, Jan. 14, 11 AM
______________________________________________________________________
Dear Friends,

We want to keep you updated from our perspective of happenings in Haiti. I will admit, however, that it is difficult for me to sit down and go through everything in my mind. Doing so becomes emotional.

Yesterday we told you about our personal loss, but after awhile everything seems personal if you know the people at all. This morning we received good news of a family whose parents are our good friends and their 5 younger sons are friends with our sons. The five sons were all living in Port au Prince together going to high school and undergraduate schools. The father left Fond-des-Blancs early yesterday morning to look for them. It is a 60 mile trip and he had to walk at least 20 of it because there were so few modes of public transportation available. Not even the motorcycle taxis were willing to go all the way into the city. (I think that situation has improved today.) He found his sons on the street of their neighborhood. The house where they had been staying was completely destroyed. They were home at the time of the quake, but all but one of them were able to run out in time. One got caught inside, but a later aftershock re-shifted the house and the brothers were able to pull him out of the rubble. They are all coming back to Fond-des-Blancs today. We rejoice that they are all well, but also recognize their future is bleak at the moment. They will not be able to return to school this year. Most of their schools no longer exist so they can’t even get papers to prove what they have completed. This is going to be a problem for many many young people.

Not long after learning about them we learned the death of one of our former L’Exode students and injuries of two others. We are going to do what we can to get them back to Fond-des-Blancs to our local hospital because we know they won’t be able to get much care in the city.
My favorite supermarket in the city was totally flattened. We heard it only took minutes for it to fall meaning none of the customers or workers were able to run out before it fell. In my mind’s eye I keep picturing the grocery aisles with the guys stocking the shelves and the dear cashiers happy at their jobs and the managers who always sat near the front doors. I didn’t know them personally, but still my heart hurts knowing they are all gone. I will never walk those aisles again or greet those people again.

Our former home is still standing, but has suffered several large cracks. Jean thinks it is still structurally sound, but none -the- less the family that has been living there has moved into the group guest house.

Yesterday we spent most of the day visiting people in the neighborhood who are waiting for news of their family members in the city. Cell phones have been down and transportation difficult so news has been slow in coming. We are trying to let everyone know we are here to help them in whatever way is possible whether it be funding their trip to the city to look for their family or to provide ways for them to relocate back to Fond-des-Blancs. We know the needs are going to escalate as the news is able to get back to us.

Short-term search and rescue and relief is very important for the next few days, but for us long-term reconstruction of lives is going to become progressively important. Jean is sending out feelers for grants that will help us help in areas of decentralization & relocation with housing , education and income producing activities here in Fond-des-Blancs. We have always had the idea to do a secondary school (high school), but never felt we had the funding. But now that so many schools in the city have been destroyed and it is going to be years before living conditions get right in the city again, we are thinking that now might be the time to do it.

So for the near term we want to help our community find their family members in the city and to help them with relocation. For the long term we want to do what we can to make it possible for the victims of this disaster; especially those who are from this area to restart their lives.

Until tomorrow…

Joy

PS: These updates are being posted on the website. We will try to get one out every morning. If you do not receive one, check for the latest at the website: www.hcdf.org. Click on ‘Click for updates…’ on the opening slide.

FROM: Joy Thomas, Jan. 13, 10 PM : We have heard lots of unsubstantiated things today, but the thing we hope is true is that cell phone service is opening up again. That would sure help families connect with and get news of each other.

FROM: Joy Thomas, Jan. 13, 8 PM : We spent much of today visiting people in the community who are still waiting to hear news of their family members in Port. We can’t be a part of search and rescue, but we want to be available to help with relocation or health care if necessary.

FROM: Joy Thomas, Jan. 13: Had a big tremor at midnight so we slept in our car. Jean has gone out to seek information. I am off to the school basically to send the students home. We all have family in friends in Port. I’m thinking this is not going to be a good day.
Today at 7:17am · Comment · Like

Haiti Christian Development Fund
Post Office Box 490127
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33349-9990

Email : info@hcdf.org
Phone : 954-727-3681

January 13, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you all for your many phone calls and messages via email and Facebook. We will do our best to respond to each of you personally.

As we were preparing to settle down for the night at midnight, there was another major aftershock so we decided to sleep in our car. Almost everyone slept outside and many went to the church to sleep in the yard there. There is some structural damage in our area including our larger house, but there are no personal injuries or casualties.

All of us have family and friends in Port-au-Prince and are still waiting on news of them. We have received some good news about Jean’s family, but at this writing we are still waiting for news of his brother and nephew. The schools in the city just opened after Christmas break so there are many many young people from our area who just went back to the city. We and their parents are waiting for news of them.

Our personal tragedy so far is our driver Bebe. Most of you who have been to Haiti have met him. He was at his home in Port and had been ill. He was trying to move to what he thought would be a safer place, but during one of the aftershocks he fell and was killed.

We are wanting to send our bulldozer to the city. We are trying to reach World Vision where Jean’s brother works to offer it to them, but the information between us and the city is not easy and we have not been able to reach either Paul or World Vision.

I went to the school to send the kids home, but it was a unanimous decision by all parents of students of all schools not to send the children. Everyone is holding on to loved ones nearby while waiting for news of loved ones in the city. It has always been ironic that it is easier to communicate with the US than with people in Haiti. Now it is even harder than before.

I have felt three tremors or aftershocks since I began writing this. The last one was large, but I did not run outside. I must be tired.

Our two sons in college are available to come with aid groups as translators if any of you know of any group that wants to come or any organization that need expert translators.

I will try to write a daily update. Thank you for your prayers and concerns. The known needs of this tragedy are just becoming known.

Joy

PS: We can be reach in Fond-des-Blancs at the main HCDF phone number: 954-727-3681

Midway Community Church » Midway News

Women’s Bible Study – Wednesdays

2012 Winter Bible Study:

Exploring the first five books of the New Testament.

We’ll be meeting at the home of Jeff and Cristell Perkins

Women of Midway mini-retreat!

2012 “Souper Bowl” is January 29th!

AWANA Grand Prix!

Schedule

January 28, from 9 – Noon Grand Prix Workshop (Design and build)

February 25th, drop in anytime between 9 and Noon – Mandatory weigh-in

March 3rd, 11:30 – 2:30 RACE DAY!

Matt Rowland of Surfing the Nations…

Surfing the Nations

AWANA is BACK!

Saying goodbye to 2011…

The Advent Season 2011

HAITI – December Update

Please scroll down to receive the latest…

Our Connection

The Latest

Here is the most recent update we have regarding the Thomas’ work…

Annual Christmas Program- This Sunday, 6 PM

Watch LIVE on the Internet!

Midway Community Church » Midway News

Women’s Bible Study – Wednesdays

2012 Winter Bible Study:

Exploring the first five books of the New Testament.

We’ll be meeting at the home of Jeff and Cristell Perkins

Women of Midway mini-retreat!

2012 “Souper Bowl” is January 29th!

AWANA Grand Prix!

Schedule

January 28, from 9 – Noon Grand Prix Workshop (Design and build) February 25th, drop in anytime between 9 and Noon – Mandatory weigh-in March 3rd, 11:30 – 2:30 RACE DAY!

Matt Rowland of Surfing the Nations…

Surfing the Nations

AWANA is BACK!

Saying goodbye to 2011…

The Advent Season 2011

HAITI – December Update

Please scroll down to receive the latest…

Our Connection

The Latest

Here is the most recent update we have regarding the Thomas’ work…

Annual Christmas Program- This Sunday, 6 PM

Watch LIVE on the Internet!

January 28, from 9 – Noon Grand Prix Workshop (Design and build)

February 25th, drop in anytime between 9 and Noon – Mandatory weigh-in

March 3rd, 11:30 – 2:30 RACE DAY!