Dear Friends and Family,

“And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.” Gal. 6:9

Many years ago my sister brought a volunteer group from her church in Oregon to visit us in Fond-des-Blancs. A few years after that when I was visiting her in Oregon one of her friends from that group did a beautiful watercolor painting for me and in calligraphy printed the above verse in the corner. I have kept this painting in a prominent place in our home ever since.

It is easy to grow weary when His timetable is not always our timetable or when it seems most circumstances seem to be working against anything good getting done. Right now we are in a time when lots of things are not happening fast enough for the people of Haiti. Since the earthquake we have not stopped asking God for guidance in what is best for us to do in our community under these new circumstances. It turns out that what we wanted to do before the earthquake is what we need to be doing now. Some doors are closing and some doors are opening. We are trying to take the fullest advantage of those that are opening. We are looking at possibilities for further road improvements, electricity for the community, bigger agriculture projects, and more schooling opportunities.

Some small steps taken already apart from the crisis response were the success of the first community garden. We are still waiting for two tractors on their way to help more farmers. The bulldozer is now in constant use improving some roads and creating new ones. We recently received a library of 2000 books plus library shelves for the high school. They will be housed in the elementary school until we get the high school built. We have also hired a woman who will teach at the elementary school this year, but also begin putting together policies and curriculum for the high school.

Our first L’Exode students are now becoming young adults and in this new age of communication we are hearing from many of them which are giving us great encouragement. Mostly via Facebook; we have heard from students who are now in Canada, France, the Dominican Republic and the United States. All of them are in college or recent graduates. We have also had visits from several who are still here in Haiti and are doing well. It seems when you give children a good educational base they and their parents do whatever it takes to keep them going.

The one thing about aging is having more situations we can refer to when we have seen the evidence of God working in our lives. Reflecting on those times is helpful in getting through times that seem frustrating at the moment. We are not weary of being or working in Haiti even when progress is not easy. We thank all of you for your prayers and support throughout the years and now.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

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August, 2010 Newsletter
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Dear Friends and Family,

The months of June and July flew by us with lots of school activities and visitors keeping us busy.

Jean Francois and his family moved out of our former house where they had been house-sitting for the past two years and moved into their own newly built home. We have needed to use the big house as our guest house since the teachers had to move into our guesthouse after giving back their rented home to the owner coming back to Fond-des-Blancs after the earthquake. Some of the first guests had to help us get it cleaned and remove more of our stuff out of the rooms. One group came with a sewing machine which they generously left with us. While they were here one member of the group made curtains for what we are calling the VIP guest room and for the English Second Language classroom down at the school. A group from Georgia painted the upstairs rooms and a room downstairs. A group from Fresno painted the rest of the rooms, part of the outside and put up new screening. This work is transforming the big house from our old house to the Caleb Center where Jean will spend the next three years training six young men to learn to plant churches and do Christian community development in areas outside our current area of activities. We will be talking more about this in future letters.

This month marks six months since the earthquake. As usual, nothing is moving quickly. We know a lot of medical care has continued. We were very pleased to receive a visit from Ralf who is walking with a prosthetic leg and a cane; he is up and around with a good attitude. We also know that everything necessary was done to ensure students were able to complete the school year. The exam for sixth graders was only postponed two weeks which makes us very glad we did not delay in opening our school in spite of parent complaints at the time. The government decided to split the students of our area between two schools. The younger ones took the exams at L’Exode and the older ones took them at the government national school. They used to always do the exams at L’Exode, but went somewhere else for a couple of years. We are pleased they chose to return. The exams for 9thgraders and 12th graders will happen later this month and early next month. As you have heard, as part of our plan in the decentralization of Haiti, we are choosing to open a quality secondary boarding school in Fond-des-Blancs. We are still looking for funding, but have received encouragement for moving forward in the last few days.

We have been getting rain in the last couple of weeks. This is good for the farmers in the rural, but not so good for the families living in tent cities in the urban areas. Sometimes it seems like Haiti is bi-cultural with the city and rural people living very different lives. The rural has less employment and educational opportunities, but gives better possibilities of family life, shelter, and food.

CNN reported problems with getting things through customs. We are very much experiencing this. After CNN made their report, the Haitian prime minister announced that the custom people have been directed to allow registered mission organization’s aid supplies to be allowed out of customs immediately with paper work being done later. Please pray with us that this will be true. We have two containers of supplies we have been trying to get released for the last two months.

During the last week of July our church held its annual conference. Members from all the satellite churches transformed the preschool/kindergarten classrooms into dorm rooms where they ate and slept so they could attend the weeklong sessions. There were lots of amazing singing by all praising the Lord and lots of teaching. There was also an afternoon dedicated to entertaining the young people. The objective of the conference was for fellowship of believers and inviting unbelievers to church.

Josiah has been running the English language center since he came home for the summer. He is also playing in a couple of soccer tournaments. It has been a pleasure to have him here and we look forward to Jacques’ homecoming for the month of August.

Please remember to pray for the development and financing of the Caleb Center and the Secondary boarding school (which is a middle school and high school combined.)

Yours in Christ,

Joy L Thomas

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July, 2010 Newsletter

Dear friends,

Some of you are longtime friends of the Haiti Christian Development Fund’s ministry in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti. Others have joined us since the devastating earthquake of January 12. To all of you, I want to say a hearty thank you. Because of your generosity we were able to respond to thousands of the victims of the earthquake with transportation, food and clothing. We have hired a number of the ‘refugees’ with needful and meaningful jobs. We altered our enrollment guidelines at L’Exode Christian School in order to absorb a number of the students whose schools and homes were destroyed in the city. We have extended the services of our Credit Union to make business loans to the newcomers into our community.

We had the dream of retaining over fifty percent of those who relocated from Port au Prince to the security of Fond-des-Blancs but we may be losing that battle. The level of investment required for creating the economic incentive for them to remain in the community is currently beyond our available resources.

We would like to turn Fond-des-Blancs into a model rural community that would be an attractive destination to those still suffering in the city. We need to establish the basic services needed for businesses to flourish, i.e. water, electricity, sewage, communication, etc. The Credit Union needs new capital to extend its lending capabilities to existing and new businesses. We need to layout the framework for new housing development to accommodate the new residents.

This letter is focusing on the need to expand the successes of L’Exode Christian Primary School into secondary education.

One of the sectors most affected by the earthquake is education. Thousands of students died as they sat in classrooms throughout Port au Prince and their school buildings collapsed on them. Some have reopened under strained condition. Others just can’t. Most of the students are living in the raw conditions of the tent cities. These young people are the future of Haiti and their education should paramount.

Our solution is to establish a boarding school here in Fond-des-Blancs that will offer an opportunity to those students to continue their education in a safe environment that is conducive to learning. Some of the characteristics of the school would include:

Excellence –Literally the best school academically anywhere in Haiti.

Connected –This is the electronic age. The school will partner with other schools around the country and the world; every student will have constant access to the internet.

Socially active –Whether in the arts, sports, community integration.

All in a Christian atmosphere that aims to give every students from every walks of life an opportunity to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

We would like to open this Fall. This is a tall order. There are buildings to construct; staff to hire, enrollment to process. All require a ton of money. Visit our website (www.hcdf.org) for more detail on the vision for the school. We want to have $200,000.00 on hand to start construction; thus committing ourselves to the project. If you can underwrite the entire project, we will start tomorrow. If all you can give is 5, 10, 25, 100, 1000, etc… do it today. We will keep a progress bar on the website to keep you informed of how the drive is coming along.

I really need your help. Send whatever you can today and help us insure that Haiti does not lose an entire generation of young people.

Yours in Christ,

Jean L Thomas

* * * * *

June 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Summer everyone. We, as a family, enjoyed the month of May. As a Mother’s Day gift to me, Jean sent me to see my mother. My sons have planned surprises for me all the time so I learned from them and surprised my mom with my visit, with my sister, LuVonne’s, help. I bought flowers and balloons and had my sister drop me off around the corner from mom’s house. LuVonne went to our parent’s door as expected, and then I showed up at the door hiding behind the balloons. Both of my parents assumed I was a florist delivery person and did not realize it was me until they heard my voice say, “Surprise!” I spent a week dividing my time between my sister’s home in the Willamette valley and my parent’s home on the northern Oregon coast. It seems I brought the sunshine with me and we had great weather for lots of walks.

I then flew to Atlanta where I met up with Jean. Our son, Lémec, joined us and we could drive together to Nashville, TN, where we attended our foster daughter, Manise’s graduation from dental school. Her birthday is this month and she is in her mid 30’s. She was born in Fond-des-Blancs and was 11 when we moved here and she became a part of our family. After 6th grade we sent her to Port au Prince for her secondary education. We did not pay for her under or post graduate studies, but we helped her get to the US on a student visa and then another family helped her with her continuing financial needs. We are proud of her because she took every opportunity presented to her and worked hard to take full advantage of each one, and now she is Dr. Manise Labady, DDS.

Even before her graduation ceremony was over we had to leave to drive to Berea, KY, to attend Jacques’ college graduation the next day. We were able to attend both his baccalaureate and graduation ceremonies. He was very excited to be graduating and had everything very well planned out for us such as where to park, where to walk, where to meet him and when. He is completing one more class and then will join us for a few weeks this summer before reporting into the Marine Corps in Virginia.

A couple of days after the graduations we flew back to Haiti. Josiah flew with us to spend most of the summer at home, and at the airport in Port-au-Prince, we met up with two young women from Kansas who came to spend a week with us. It felt good to be back in Haiti, but still shocking to drive through the devastation. There always seems to be more tent cities, but we did also see some signs of clean-up work taking place. We gave the girls a true Haitian traveling experience by having two flat tires on the way home and had to make a slight detour into one of the smaller towns on the way home to get one of the tires repaired. We did not get back to Fond-des-Blancs until late that evening, but they remained good sports about the ordeal and continued to be flexible and of good cheer throughout the week. They helped clean out Jean’s office at the old house so we can make into a guest room for visiting speakers to the Caleb Project. It was also the room where we had our bookshelves that leaned across the door during the earthquake. Fortunately, the room had a second door through the bathroom. They helped carry out all those books which will eventually find a home at one of the schools.

I asked for prayer for Ralf who broke several bones in one leg and lost the other leg as a result of injuries from the earthquake. He has now received an artificial leg and is learning how to walk with it. We have many students who came to us after the earthquake. Many of them are staying, but some had to return to their initial schools because that is where they were signed up to take their final government exams. The exams for our 6th graders will be June 30 and July 1. This is only a two week delay from the original date planned for the exams. For L’Exode students this will not be a problem as we were only closed for two weeks. I hope that those who didn’t get back to school until April will be able get a lot done in the next few weeks. Please continue to pray for the students of L’Exode and the rest of the students of Haiti.

We have many items that have been purchased to help us with our ministry here that need to be shipped to us. The last time we did a lot of shipping we lost several items. We are changing our methods which should help, but would still appreciate prayer that everything arrives well and in a timely fashion. We have two farming tractors, a container of supplies and a 6000 French books library needing to come.

We have already begun a farming cooperative. We are seeing both success and failure. We are successfully growing many vegetables that have not yet been grown in this area before, and hopefully we continue to learn from the failures.

Unfortunately, our new pastor was recently in a motorcycle accident and he was not wearing a helmet. He was severely injured but seems to be recovering well, but we are taking him to a neurologist to make sure he does not have head injuries that cannot be seen, but can still affect him. Please pray for him also.

We have many volunteer visitors coming this summer. We always look forward to visitors coming. Pray for safe travels for all of them. I will try to begin writing more often again to keep you updated on how things are going for everyone and everything. Perhaps if I write more often the letters can be a bit shorter.

Yours in Christ,

Joy

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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

The Midway Youth Ministry will be going on a mission trip to Haiti this summer: July 6-12.

*update* 16 of us are going to serve the Thomases in Fond-des-Blancs and Savanne Henri.

Our next meeting is July 5th, from 3-5pm. Bring your packed bags (under 50 lbs.)!

Please pray that our team:
1) that the kingdom will advance through our service
2) that many people will come to faith in Christ through the ministry of HCDF
3) that God will be glorified by our attitudes
4) that we will grow in unity
5) that we will be safe

Full Details
Commitment Form
Letter of Parental Consent 2010

Urban Plunge is a one week intensive experience, August 1-8. It’s one part urban education, one part mission trip, and another part retreat: all with a focus on Jesus and His heart for people. Throughout the week as you serve with our community partners, youʼll get to know our New Brunswick urban community, the “least of these,” and the Christians serving them. We also want to help you discover practical ways you can carry what youʼve learned with you throughout the year.

*update* 7 of us are going to New Brunswick this year to serve the PlaySAFE summer kids program. It will be a great opportunity to show kids and their adult leaders the love of Christ.

Pray for us:
1) that God’s fame would grow in New Brunswick, NJ
2) that the Point church will be encouraged
3) that we will get to know kids who need to know Christ’s love
4) that God will expand our understanding of missions

Volunteer Packet

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 the past two years along with their sons, returned to Haiti last Fall to resume their missionary work in Fond-des-Blancs. Over the past two years Midway has sent several missionary 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 (he is a surgeon, and was here over the Christmas Holiday but returned to Haiti soon after the earthquake).

The Latest

Here is the most recent update we have regarding conditions “on the ground”…

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

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

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

======================================================
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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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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

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Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan’s Purse. Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian ministry led by Franklin Graham, the son of Dr. Billy Graham. People across the country are filling shoe boxes with small toys, school supplies, hygiene items, and other meaningful gifts.

This Christmas season, a needy child overseas will receive our shoe boxes, along with Christian literature in his or her own language. What an opportunity to reach these children with a clear presentation of the Gospel!

Thanks to ALL those families who were a part of this exciting opportunity to share God’s love with a hurting child.