From Marlaine on behalf of Faith and Love in Action:
It has been one week since I wrote this update but I couldn't send it because our internet system in Haiti had not been working. Daniel and I were unable to reply to email, so we apologize for the inconvenience.
We want so much to thank our friends and family for their constant prayer and financial contributions that enable us not only to provide for the kids at our homes, but for the group of kids in our waiting list and the people that we are assisting presently.
Everywhere you go, people are living in fear of the aftershocks and the rainy season. Most of the people are under sheets and tarps, nothing resistant to rain.
Children Homes
Little by little, the children are overcoming their fear from the earthquake experience. They sometimes gather inside the buildings for a meeting, to pray together or to have service. They play inside, but they don’t have the courage to sleep in the houses yet. Last week, we took 2 days to take the kids camping in a remote area on the way the Marbial. They really needed relief from the tarps and tents they have lived in for the past 2 months. On this trip, they were able to play, swim in the river ( benyen nan dlo), run around, play music and have a barbecue. I was particularly glad to see how happy Renel was during our time outside the compound. He played football, music, danced and just had fun with the others. As some of you know, he was in one of his college courses when the earthquake occurred and it is still difficult to believe that he somehow made it out alive. Only 2 other classmates made it out alive and only 8 students from the entire university survived the earthquake. Renel is working every day to help other people living in the camps in the area and he is sometimes working with Daniel in the restoration of the buildings. Very soon, he will be able to share with many his testimony. Vanessa is working with him to apply for transfer to an American university and we pray this will work out. There are also four others applying for school in the States. Since all the schools collapsed, the older kids in the Homes have been helping with relief efforts on the compound and outside. They have accompanied all the food distribution trips and head up distributing baby foods and diapers to sick children at the Jacmel hospital.
We are still camping outside. It is very windy, but thank God, it is not raining this week. At the same time, we are all happy, teasing each other and glorify the Lord.
Children Schooling
We are trying to put the middle and high school children in the homes back to school this week. We are working closely with their school representatives to make this happen. Again, we pray that some resistant temporary shelter could come to us soon that we could be some kind of help to some private schools in the community including the ones that our children attended. Vanessa is now looking for overseas school for the ones who had already started college in Haiti. All of their schools collapsed and it seems to be the most difficult thing to be back on track. We strongly believe that the Lord has His way for these young people to have again the hope of education.
Marbial
Exactly 2 months after the earthquake, most kids are still at home with nothing to do. Most schools collapsed and it is unsure when they will be able to rebuild and to reassure that children will be able to attend school again. We finally realized even the cement blocks stand at the school wall building in Marbial have to be pulled down. We will have to start all over --- but last week, we put our efforts together to reopen the school by faith. Just under tarps, 150 children showed up last week, and I really believe that they are more this week. Since tarps will not last long we are praying to get some temporary shelter soon that could help improve the situation before the school rebuilding process. Some of our young people at the homes are up at the mountain this week to help in the school. They are helping with coordination as well to compiling information on the students and their families' needs and how we could better serve the community of Marbial in their crucial needs after the earthquake. It makes Daniel and I so happy to witness the children from the homes (many of which come from the Marbial area) now giving back to the people and being so excited about it too.
We are emphasizing water purification, agriculture, and tree planting projects for Marbial at this time. As the planting season is approaching, we would like to distribute seeds as black beans, pigeon peas, corn and vegetables in the next 3 weeks to 600 families. We have 100 pounds of black beans seeds available to take up there now. Our friend Teri from Alberta ordered some vegetable for us in Florida as well but it is limited to just one package of a kind. We welcome any agriculture ideas that you might have to help in our efforts for the people to be self-sufficient. We are continuing the food distributions, but also want to give these communities the tools to cultivate their land.
Past Events
It was a blessing to have Bob Jones from Kingston Christian Fellowship in Ontario Canada with us since my last trip to purchase foods in DR. After almost 5 weeks of being a great hand in helping our children and the Haitian people, Bob flew to Canada last week and every one missed him so much. Lou Palocci is a nurse from that church who came on 2 different occasions with Bob’s team in Haiti and helped with medical care as well as providing medical supplies to our doctors in Haiti. She had deployed all her efforts to get the medical supplies on time that the Sri Lankan UN doctor needed to help us care for the people. Kim flew all the way to Florida to deliver the medical supplies. It was a great help and we appreciated that so much .
We were so blessed last week to have a quick visit from our friends in PA. Bill Moore is an engineer who has been involved in construction missions in Haiti for over 20 years. His friend Blaine also came, and he is working in construction and involved in missions in Haiti as well. They came specially to inspect the buildings at the Jeune’s ministry in Carrefour and visiting us as well to inspect our buildings in Jacmel as well. We are optimistic that the Children Homes' buildings can be used again after some restoration and repair. We are waiting for the final recommendation of the engineers. We know that many of you were so concerned about the damaged condition of the buildings, we just want you to know that there is hope that our buildings can be repaired and not be pulled down.
Trip Events
The team also included Kathy Nomides and her daughter Jennifer, who will be graduating from medical school this May! Jennifer is our adopted daughter, the love of Christ just bounded us together with her and her parents over the past years. They have organized medical teams to work in Marbial, Les Cayes, and Carrefour on many occasions. Jennifer and her parents were already planning such a trip for May before the earthquake hit. This recent trip helped them to better assess the needs and how they will better serve with the team coming in May.
Jamie Taylor and His friend Jeff will be with us from BC Canada. Jamie and his wife Marci have become such a great blessing to us and the people of Haiti. They are now coordinating a sponsorship program for the children in Haiti and Marci is our Adoption Representative for Canada. Jamie and Marci adopted 2 beautiful children from our Home over the past 8 years and they are part of the Faith and Love Family. Please keep these upcoming trips in your prayers!
