Film Jezi nan Robia

This past Sat. we showed the Jesus film at the second location we have scheduled for Pays-Pourri, Robia. this is the center section.

 We were expecting a much larger crowd than last time but a huge thunder storm came up and inhibited many people from coming. Also just before starting a lady close by got struck by lightning thus people went to console the family.

 Non the less about 120 had gathered before the rain thus our audience.

 During the film the girls again made refreshments of ginger tea

 

Passing out refreshments after the film

                                     

Despite the rain and quite a few generator problems the Lord blessed us with a safe night and a receptive crowd.

We are very blessed by the accommodations and preparations by the host churches and are blessed to have our good friend Jotas helping us organize these showing. Pray for him also that he could realize his personal need for salvation in Christ.

I also ask for your prayers as these showings have brought many requests from other more remote areas of Bel Fondten and Marozo.

Our prayer is that these showing would greater encourage and strengthen our Haitian brothers and sisters in their daily walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 



Eralus's School roof pt2

 

 

 The 9th through the 12th found us in Pays-Pourri again only this time for tin.

 The framers did a beautiful job.

 

 The tin went on fast.

 Though not without its disappointments

 

Eralus and the community of Badi wants to thank: Western Ohio Haiti benefit auction, Cornerstone Brethren Church, L&C plastic bags, Christian Aid Ministries and Hans Burkholder for their support, prayers and labor in making the roof of Lekol Salem possible.

9/11/2012 The Accident

While all the of United States of America and much of the world looked back on today and remembered the awful events that happened at the sight of those world trade centres that 9/11, the people of the town of Fond Parisien and the surrounding mountain areas will look back at 9/11 2012 as a day to never forget as well.

We had just settled to spend a relaxing evening and Michelle had just voiced that it seems that 'something was supposed to happen tonight'. [ you know when you have that feeling that you missed something you were supposed to be doing something?] It was around 8:00 pm when one of our friends came flying in on the 4- wheeler hollering, ' where is the ambulance? There's been a terrible accident at Carrefour Tchut!" This is where the main mountain road comes down to meet the main drag through our town.Tiboutson scrambled for his ambulance keys and flipped on sirens and lights and went howling out the lane. The rest of us looked at each other and wondered if we should go too. Only moments later Michelle's phone rang, we didn't have to hear much and we all flew to action. We jumped in the back of the F-150 and raced off. Someone else called Aaron to come with the F-450 as well so we had available space for hauling the injured. As we raced down the road, the sea of people that were running to the scene of the accident was unreal. You see many , many people travel up and down this road everyday and many people were waiting on family members to come home that night. Of course everyone went to see if they could identify someone, anyone!

When we got to the scene it was like a nightmare unfolding before our eyes. What appears to have happened - a big, fully loaded mountain truck was travelling down the mountain road. [When I say a fully- loaded truck, I mean a big open box truck packed full, as this one was , of big sacks of carrots, along with a few potatoes, grapefruits and charcoal. When the truck is loaded nearly heaping full and you are sure nothing could fit in then the people climb on top of these bags of produce for the ride down. Hence the term, fully- loaded really is over-loaded and this load sways to and fro as you roll around those curves and down into town. ]It appears the truck lost it's brakes and had no way of coming to stop. As it rolled into town it hit a smaller white box truck who seems to have been parked along the road and somewhere the big truck lost balance and rolled over on its side. What it left was a horrible tangled mass of scattered carrots and human bodies.

We jumped out of the truck and tried to elbow our way through the noisy, milling crowds. There were so many people you could hardly move. We wiggled our way through, tripping over bags of carrots and trying to not slip on pools of blood as we searched for survivors. I'll not be too graphic, but those sights of twisted, grotesque bodies are not ones that you forget easily.There was 8 or 9 people who were obviously dead at the scene, all in a crumpled mass.We figured out that all the living had been removed and rushed to the local hospital. Shortly Tiboutson called for us to come to the hospital to help transport people into Port. We found one man who was hit in the head and took him with us to the Thoman hospital. There another scene of chaos was unfolding, but at least time it was organized chaos. Thank the Lord there was a team of white doctors there and they had promptly put an IV in each of the victims and were doing some sort of triage to figure out who were the worst cases. We loaded up the 4 worst ones and Tiboutson raced off to Port-au Prince to 'Sans Frontier' hospital. In the meantime 3 of the victims that were brought to Thoman died. Next we loaded up the F-450 with 5 patients and tried to find a family member to go with each of them. This was a challenge as many of these people came from up the mountain and their families had no idea at this point. It was hard to know how many people you could fit into the bed of the truck as most of them we feared for neck and back injuries so we had to keep them as flat as possible.This was caused most likely by the way they were thrown from the truck and the big bags of carrots that came falling out after everybody. Ezekiel left with the 450 and Michelle and Hannah went along to help keep everyone OK.

We loaded only 2 people on the back of the F-150 as the rest seemed to be in stable condition there at Thoman. Austin and Jimmy wired up the truck horn so it would sound non-stop and we were off! Sheila and I sat in the back with our 2 victims praying our hearts out to God who knows and sees everything , even this. We kept them conscious and sang with them as we watched their IVs and gasped as we raced over the bumps. I finally was able to contact the one victims family and tell them to meet us at the hospital. The other lady didn't know any phone numbers of people to contact and we felt so sorry for her . She kept wondering where her daughter is -she was with her and we are sure she died. We all pulled in to Medicine Sans Frontier in rapid succession. Praise the Lord this is a good emergency hospital and it was pretty well empty when we arrived so they could take our people quickly! They kept most of the patients there but did transfer a few to a partnering hospital.

We got back to Fond Parisien around midnight. The scene of the accident spoke horror as the bodies lay there and some people still were around. By this time the police were on the scene so I hope they took care of the rest. The last I heard the death number was 14 people - 9 at the scene, 3 at Thoman hospital and someone said 2 died after they arrived at Sans Frontier. We headed back to Thoman to chat with the nurses and see the 3 victims that were there with minor injuries. We counted up about 17 survivors with various degrees of injuries. As we spoke to the 3 victims we all reminded each other that it is truly only by the Grace of God that we are alive.

We crawled into our beds at 1:30 am after washing out the backs of the trucks with strong bleach and soap. We counted our blessings and we breathed a prayer for the grieving families. Would you join us in prayer as these dear people try to pick up the pieces and go on with their lives.

Because of Jesus,

Love, Julia

Eralus's school (Pays-Pourri)

 After oganizing several days for people to carry materials up to Badi all the roof materials are on site.

 100 sheets of tin, 58 1x4s, 2 cases of nails, 1 cases of screws, 250' of gutter with hangers ect..(complaments of Christian Aid Ministries), all carried 7 Kilometers acending 3500'. The unknown number of 2x4s were sawn out of the pine trees of Monn-la-selle by local men and carried down off the 8000'mountain to the 4850' mountain of the school

 Monday marked the first day of work. Three hired framers and lots of vulonteers.

 A special thank you to Hans Burkholder for comming to help with the roof.

 

Eralus calling to send off for more 2x4s.

 Pray for saftey as the work is being done this week. And we pray that we can screw the tin on starting on Monday.

Visit to Pays Pourri

 Last Wednesday, I (Aaron) had the amazing opportunity to visit the region of Pays Pourri to see some of the damage that resulted from the tropical storm Isaac. I seen many houses and churches that had lost complete roofs, some even collapsed. Also, we visited three families that had lost children in the storm.

This family lost two children in the storm. 

 This family lost one child in the storm.

 A church that lost its roof.

 Another family that lost a child in the storm.

 This church lost one half of its roof.

These mountain folks are very resilient.Already they are doing what they can to make their houses dwell-able. It was quite amazing where some of them are living now. 

Many homes were lost, most all of their field were flattened. To see more pictures, you can view the following web album: https://picasaweb.google.com/102771674354323845206/IsaacDamageInPaysPourri?authkey=Gv1sRgCPeSnKrausX_8gE

If your would like to help with the Tropical Storm Isaac Disaster, please mark your donations "Tropical Storm Isaac Relief"