In many places in Haiti, things don’t appear much different from what they were a year ago. Reports say that only 10% of the rubble from the January 2010 earthquake has been hauled away. And every available lot is still filled with tents.

But there is good news …

A number of good changes have occurred in the past year:

• The children in HIM’s orphanage have been safely relocated to their new home in Grand Riviere. The new lot provides a beautiful place for the children to play.
• The mission house at the new location was repaired and expanded.
• God provided a generator that provides all the electricity the compound needs.
• A new building was erected to store food.
• Bunk beds were built for the orphans and each child has a new mattress, sheet and blanket.
• The mission school now has 150 students, including the orphans.
• At Christmas, each child got a complete, new outfit, a toy, and a Creole New Testament.

Goal for the coming year:

• Add a second storage to the orphanage.
• A couple is planning to go to Haiti as missionaries!

God is working in Haiti!

Dear friends of Haiti orphans,

We are glad to report that the children are doing very well. What a blessing to see them running and playing. When the children awake in the morning, they start by singing and praying and thanking God for all that He has done for them.

The building project is moving along as we work to enlarge the house there at Grand Riviere.  The cement floor has been poured on the addition. Now we can finish the first floor and start on the addition upstairs. Please pray that God will continue to supply all the funds to complete this project.

We have started a milk project that will provide two glasses of milk a day for the children.  This will cost $60.00 a month, over and above the $1300 we already send monthly.

We are considering taking possibly 5 more children and helping a young man that had both legs amputated from the earthquake and has very little help. One of our orphan boys needs a hernia operation that will cost around $500 to $600.00 (US dollars).  Will you please pray that God will provide for these special needs here at the orphanage.

Report from Frank Vaughn

My first trip to Haiti after the earthquake was very dramatic as I was not fully prepared to see all the devastation. I praise the Lord that I found all the orphan children alive and safe. They were, however, living in tents out in the street with very little food or water. The house that we were renting in Port-au-Prince was still standing but had been damaged and was not safe to stay in due to the aftershocks of the earthquake.

Prior to the earthquake, plans were being made to move the orphanage to Grand Riviere, but we were not ready to do this because the house there needed significant repair and the finances were not available. Because of the earthquake, I had to make a decision to move the children as soon as possible. With much prayer, we started the process of raising the funds to accomplish this. Praise the Lord that He is providing. The children are all moved to Grand Riviere at this point but are living in very crowded conditions. The cooking facility is outside covered by a tarp. When it rains, it is very hard to fix the meals for the children.
 

We were blessed to have Mike & Daryl Hobbs with us in Haiti for a week. Daryl was able to give physicals to all the children at the orphanage.

I will be taking the first work team of 8 men to Haiti on March 23 through 30. Please pray for us as we try to repair the house and make things livable.

Please pray for the many people that are to be released from the hospitals but have no place to go because their homes were destroyed in the earthquakes.

Many of these people have lost legs, arms, hands, or feet. The refugee problem will be huge. We are praying that God will show us what He wants us to do. I know I can not take on the whole country, but every thing that we can do will help and give us greater opportunity to reach the country of Haiti with the love of Jesus. I want to do the things that God wants me to do to help in this time of crisis. To this day, they are still experiencing aftershocks in Port-au-Prince, so the devastation continues.

Our total goal for the Haiti Relief Effort is $100,000 of which we have received $37,000 to date. The funds will be used to remodel the home for the orphans, continue to provide food and water, medical needs, and other basic necessities for the refugees and orphans. This will also help cover the cost of transportation, materials, and supplies.

The earthquake happened over two months ago, and many of our lives have gone back to normal after we got over the initial shock of the devastating news. The people of Haiti have not been so fortunate. They are still living in the middle of this crisis, suffering with the damage and loss of life that surrounds them. These people need our help and our prayers.

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See more photos in the “Photos” tab above.

Frank Vaughn and John Dykes have returned safely from Haiti. We will have a report of their trip soon.

Frank Vaughn and John Dykes are in Grand Riviere, Haiti. They arrived safely on Thursday afternoon, January 21. They found that our orphans had been transported to Grand Riviere and had gotten there just before MFI landed. We are thankful that everyone is safe and uninjured.

Daryl Hobbs, former missionary to Haiti, now serves at a medical clinic in West Palm Beach where many of her patients are from Haiti. She writes:

A woman sat on the exam table at our clinic with tears streaming down her face as I asked about her family in Haiti. “I was so worried! My mother is 92 years-old, and lives in downtown Port-au-Prince. It was several days after the earthquake before I heard any news of her. I finally received word through a friend that her house had collapsed, and everyone around her fled. Hours later, a neighbor found her and took her to an open field with thousands of others. She was okay, but had no food or water. “I called my son, who lives in Kinscoff (about an hour away from Port-au-Prince), and told him that his grandmother was found, and to hurry to get her! He did, and said that my mother was so happy and relieved when she saw him that she burst into tears and threw her arms around him!” We are SO grateful that God took care of her!”

A man sat on the exam table, his smile not hiding the strain in his eyes…. When I asked about his family in Haiti, he struggled to maintain control – fighting back tears. “My brother lost 3 children. They heard one of them crying for help for 3 days, but they couldn’t get to him. After that, they didn’t hear him anymore….” My heart was bleeding with him, but I assured him that our God is the “God of all comfort,” and that we can trust Him completely. He nodded his agreement.

A woman came in for her annual physical. As soon as she saw me, she said, “I’ve lost all my strength….I lost my daughter….” As I asked for more details, she told me that her daughter just graduated from nursing school last year and married a doctor this past July. She had just left the hospital where she was working and called her husband to let him know she was going downtown Port-au-Prince for a few minutes. The earthquake struck while she was downtown, and she was buried under a collapsed building. Before she left, I prayed with her – praying that her daughter would be found, if still alive, and that God would give grace to the husband and family if she were not alive. As she left, she thanked me with a smile. Truly, we do serve the “God of all comfort!”

Frank Vaughn and John Dykes arrived in Grand Riviere today to find the orphans had already arrived! Thank the Lord. There is still much to be done. There is an immediate need of food and bedding.

On Thursday, January 14, Hope International Missions responded to the crisis in Haiti by sending in veteran missionary and Caribbean Region Director Frank Vaughn. The Vaughns served in Haiti for 15 years, and Brother Vaughn has intimate knowledge of the country, its people, and its customs. He also has a heart for people. We thank the Lord that HIM is blessed with a man of this caliber in such a position at such a time.

Brother Vaughn, along with approximately 20 other people, boarded a Missionary Flights International (MFI) plane on Thursday morning and set out for Haiti. By the time they reached Haiti, however, the Port-au-Prince airport would not allow them to land due to traffic congestion and limited resources at the airport. The flight continued on to Provo, Turks & Caicos Islands, where the passengers and crew spent the night.

By Friday morning, the situation at the airport had improved to the point that the MFI flight could land. Brother Vaughn was able to get a ride from the airport to Bon Repo where the HIM orphanage is located about five miles from the heart of the city.

These photos show a little bit of the damage to homes and businesses between Port-au-Prince and the orphanage. Many modern structures (a mall, for example) and large homes were brought down by the power of the 7.0 quake.

As was previously reported, the orphanage home was still standing. Quite a miracle, considering the devastation in the structures surrounding the home. (These photos show destruction of structures in the immediate vicinity of the orphanage.) The secondary building that the orphanage used as a kitchen suffered severe damage. Due to continued aftershocks, no one in Haiti is allowed to sleep inside a house of any kind – too much danger of an aftershock bringing down more buildings. So everyone is sleeping outside, including the ten boys and staff in residence at the orphanage. You can see their tents in one of these photos.

Have you heard the adage, “Good fences make good neighbors”? Our friends in Haiti take this a step further. Most of them surround their homes with a block wall, high enough to keep animals in or out. Without such a wall, your home could be open to chickens, goats, pigs, turkeys and MORE that freely roam about. Those who can afford it build a high wall to keep out aggressors of the HUMAN kind as well. These photos show walls in some state of disrepair.

Here are some photos of the boys at the orphanage. As you can imagine, they were “down” when Brother Vaughn arrived, but he was able to get them to smile! Some of these photos remind you of the “Got Milk?” advertisements, don’t they? Well, this isn’t about milk. The children have spread a skin lotion over their upper lip to keep the death stench at bay.

HIM has been planning to move the orphanage from its current location to further out in the country, approximately 50 miles from Port-au-Prince, where the HIM school and church are located. The new location needs some remodelling and major cleanup, which HIM hoped to accomplish with several work teams going in over a period of weeks. Now, the children are going to be moved immediately, whether the new facilities are “ready” or not.

Brother Vaughn is returning to Haiti on Thursday, January 21. One of his main objectives is to assess the needs at the new orphanage location. He will learn just what supplies are needed to complete the work and will get a better understanding of the overall work that has to be done. Then HIM will be in a position to plan for work teams to go into Haiti and get the job done.  Please pray with us for God’s continued guidance as we move forward in trying to bring some sense of stability back into the lives of these orphans.

It has been a blessing to see various groups working together to provide relief to the people of Haiti. Missionary Flights International has been a long-time partner with HIM in providing transportation to and from Haiti and the islands of the Caribbean. Another group, Missions Aviation Fellowship (MAF), provides in-country flights in Haiti, using small planes to make short runs within the country. Their organization had about 25 people located in Haiti when the earthquake hit. They were able to get their people safely out of Haiti on a MFI flight. Support staff and families were evacuated; four people (pilots) were left in Haiti to carry on their important work. When these MAF personnel arrived in Florida on Saturday night (with Brother Vaughn), HIM was able to host them on campus.

More photos:

Frank Vaughn and John Dykes are leaving Thursday, January 21, for Haiti. They will be helping to move the orphans from Port-au-Prince to their new location approximately 50 miles from the city. They will be assessing the needs at the new orphanage and preparing the HIM school for misplaced families.

Please join us in prayer regarding the huge financial needs resulting from the Haiti disaster. We are dependent upon God’s moving people to give, and then those people responding. Thank you for helping to carry this load!