The Highway to Haiti

Please pray with us as we’re currently negotiating with local landowners to buy suitable property to resettle families affected by the earthquake. We praise God for the interaction we’ve had with several owners and that funds are in place to make the purchase! In the coming months we will need upwards of $250,000 to begin building infrastructure and housing, and launch small business initiatives.

Consider making a long-term investment in Haiti? All of our work is guided by biblical principles for sustainable development. We are not a handout-based ministry—we don’t solicit funds to pay monthly operating costs for churches, schools, orphanages or clinics; rather with appropriate investment we work to help people develop solutions to provide for themselves.

This post will go online sometime in the early hours EST of February 14th—Valentine’s Day; also Pam’s due date. No baby yet! In Haiti, our midwife said 2/19 and the ultrasound showed 2/14. So, any time now. While in Miami we are assessing the long-term opportunities that have emerged from our role in the relief & recovery effort. Although Haiti has been on everyone’s heart for the past month, the devastation and onslaught of aid is only the tip of the iceberg. We are encouraged by how many people have expressed a commitment not only to the relief, but to the recovery and rebuilding as well.

Earlier this week we debriefed with the Miami crew along with the guys from New Orleans, and started reading through e-mail conversations between our team and the ministries we have been serving. From all accounts, the rapid-response “operation” was highly successful. As we compared notes, it’s tough trying to explain precisely who we are and what we did—yet that’s the beauty of it. Our non-traditional approach (no organization, no stated mission) enabled us to be quick and nimble, networked and relevant. Through this effort alone, dozens of people put their lives on hold to volunteer; thousands committed funds and prayed. In other words: those who love God are serving those who God loves. It’s bread-and-butter Gospel (Philippians 2). Since there is no organization to describe who we are, and no mission statement to detail what we did, let me defer to stories and pictures to illustrate how God is using us for such a time as this.

Within days of the earthquake we scraped up $10K and sent 2000 gallons of diesel fuel to a PAP hospital. Due to security concerns (hijacking), we lined the floors of city buses with fuel in 30-liter containers (pictured above) and made runs to PAP during the night. From the outside looking in, you would never guess this bus was carrying 800 gallons of fuel. At the peak, we were sending a convoy of three buses every other night. We worked in cooperation with the director of public transportation in Fort-Liberte. Each bus had two drivers, two mechanics, and two police officers on board. Only Haitians were allowed to ride so we wouldn’t blow our cover. On the return trip, the buses evacuated hundreds of refugees.

These folks oversee the hospital at the Baptist Haiti Mission—where we sent a lot of the fuel. Chris Lieb (pictured left) wrote us, “I just wanted to thank you for your hard work in getting us out of a fuel crisis here at Baptist Haiti Mission. You literally saved lives at our hospital and it allowed us to be able to distribute much needed relief. May God continue to bless your efforts. It is great to see the body of Christ working together.” Chris, Kyrk, and Rob told us that when they got the first shipment of fuel they split it among several other ministries including orphanages and MAF.

In 2001, Jeff Fogle and I played collegiate soccer together. Jeff was key to us winning a national championship—the man can flat out play. Now, Jeff is the chaplain for the 82nd Airborne, 173rd Cavalry. Jeff’s squadron was the first to arrive in PAP. Although the phones had been down, he found a way to get a call through. I remember it well, “We’re staying at some sort of country club. We have helicopters—a lot people are critically injured. Do you know of any hospitals?” At the time we didn’t know which hospitals had been destroyed, so we gave him a few names. It turned out that he met Chris, Kyrk and Rob (previous picture) and the army began airlifting patients there.

It didn’t take long for our supply line to earn credibility. Although ground transport was the most risky means of moving supplies into PAP, it was effective early on. We avoided bottlenecks and delivered supplies to PAP ministries quickly. Pictured are: Cameron, Francisco, Jay and Kyle.

Our Miami central command office began fielding hundreds of e-mails and calls. Requests came in for everything imaginable. One hospital asked for vinyl mattresses to handle the patient surge. Within hours, our guys in Santiago found a mattress factory (above) that could make anything we wanted overnight! From Miami, our team hunted down and delivered things like bone saws and cauterization equipment for PAP clinics.

To streamline the movement of supplies, we used a transshipment point just north of PAP. Since it was a remote location, drop-off and pick-up was safe and easy. Dennis and Jarod are loading sacks of rice and beans for a school and orphanage. This location also happened to be where Samaritan’s Purse set up their base.

News from the frontline was encouraging. I spoke with people from Christianville Mission as we loaded food into their truck—they were feeding 5000-6000 each day. Julie Scott from Haiti Child Sponsorship wrote, “Please extend our gratitude to all who helped Jenn-Vi (Young Life) and the Good Shepherd School receive supplies! Your ministry was really the only open door for us as we struggled to get supplies to them. Thanks for all you do and will continue to do in Haiti! May God continue to bless your efforts!” What wasn’t mentioned is that Good Shepherd School is in Cite Soleil. Google it.

Samaritan’s Purse hand delivered 1.5 million pesos (36 to the dollar) to the hotel where we were staying in Santiago. They needed helicopter fuel urgently—plus a semi-truck full of rice. No problem. Santiago immediately dispatched a truck with ten 55-gallon drums of fuel. However, the border closed at 5:00 PM and we snapped this picture…oh, 90-minutes later. Adam and Mike (pictured) and I asked officials on both sides if we could pay everyone overtime to keep the border open. The picture above was taken on the bridge over the River Massacre, the divide between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Gerald, Jacques and James are rolling the drums from a Dominican truck to a Haitian truck. The truck drove through the night to deliver the fuel by morning.

For many of the “big” loads, MINUSTAH, the peacekeeping arm of the UN, offered our trucks armed escort. The Uruguayan battalion was great, from the commanders to the soldiers! It was a pleasure serving with them.

Besides transporting supplies to PAP, we worked directly with the mayor’s office in the city where we live. At last count, Fort-Liberte took in almost 2500 refugees. Here, Luis is pumping 1500 gallons of fuel into the city’s tanks to help keep utilities and public services (like the police) operational.

For more pictures, click here.

All of us still struggle to comprehend the earthquake. I remember staring at the headlines of the DrudgeReport on January 13th: “Hell Came Up”. If that’s what happened, then this is God at work.

Soli Deo Gloria

We just got back from a three day run into Port-au-Prince. Oddly, it’s difficult to describe what we saw. On one hand, there were buildings upon buildings flattened like pancakes. Endless lines formed at food and water distribution sites. Tarps and sheets were strung together housing thousands in “tent” cities on vacant lots. It was heartbreaking. On the other hand, cars filled the streets and traffic was bad. Vendors lined the curbs selling goods as they always have. People were out and about—everywhere. The only thought that came to mind was: this is the “new normal”. Yet, I struggle to believe anything normal could emerge from such a catastrophe so quickly. I drove around PAP with a guy who has been in New Orleans since Katrina, and he said New Orleans “looked” much worse after the hurricane.

We talked with a number of PAP ministries that we have been working with and got the impression that our services are now more of a luxury item 22 days post-quake. Requests for supplies have slowed down too. We expected this.

After visiting PAP and Fort-Liberte, we decided that it’s now time to shift this initiative toward refugees in the community where we live (see “Phase 2″ in the previous post). While in Fort-Liberte, friends reiterated their needs to us. People who fled PAP shared their stories—they have nothing. All of our neighbors have taken in at least one or two displaced family members. Next door, they took five.

Funding is now around $200,000. In the next few days we will be sending between $25K and $50K in food aid to Fort-Liberte for the 3000 to 5000 refugees the mayor’s office estimates. Pray for strength and endurance as everyone is growing tired and weary—and the road ahead is still long.

Most of these posts contain a lot of “technical” information—but in a sense, that’s what we do. We’re like developing world UPS, except we operate more like a cartel—without the drugs, violence and corruption. We started up two-weeks ago, and already we’re looking for an exit strategy. For the sake of simplicity, we’ve identified three phases in this effort.

Phase 1: Urgent aid to PAP. Our usefulness in this regard is limited. Once commodities reenter the PAP marketplace; we’re done.

Phase 2: Refugees. We are starting to deliver aid to communities taking in refugees. This will become an even greater need than Phase 1. We are targeting communities that we have existing relationships with—and most importantly, the one we live in. This will rollover into Phase 3.

Phase 3: Long-term relief/development/discipleship. More to come

We have delivered supplies (or will be delivering supplies in the next 3-5 days) to the following ministries:

Baptist Haiti Mission
Christian Horizons Global
Christian Light Foundation
Christian Veterinary Mission
Christianville Mission
CrossWorld / UEBH
Global Outreach
God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage
Fellowship International Mission
Heartline Ministries
Haiti Health Ministries
Haiti Home of Hope
Haitian American Friendship Foundation
Haitian Baptist Convention
House of Bread
HIS Home for Children
Kids Alive
Many Hands of Haiti
Master’s Hands
Mission Aviation Fellowship
New Mission Systems International
OMS
Open Door Baptist Mission
Samaritan’s Purse
World Wide Village

Thank you everyone who has taken part in the immediate response to aid the millions affected by the earthquake! Our efforts have now processed over $120,000 in donations and have sent over 10 trucks full of supplies from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. Our shipments have included nearly 50 tons of food and supplies—and will jump to 100 tons this weekend. We have delivered fuel to PAP five times, including a midnight shipment of helicopter fuel to Samaritan’s Purse last night. We have also transported hundreds of refugees out of PAP. Interestingly, this in not really the effort of a single organization (FIM, InnerCHANGE, Kids Alive, and Samaritan’s Purse are all sort-of working together to make this possible). There is basically no bureaucracy or red-tape. Our entire front-line speaks either Creole, Spanish or French. We have a distribution team of 3 in Port-au-Prince, a logistics team of 10 in Santiago, D.R., and an interface team of over 10 in Miami and elsewhere in the US, along with hundreds of Dominicans and Haitians working together to move aid items quickly—most of us met for the first time last week. Our donor base includes scores of people and churches we’ve never met before. Our supply line is an organic, grassroots effort that has gained momentum and become strong because of our relationships on the ground. Our ”task force” is not comprised of foreign professionals that have come to fix things and help, rather, we have become a network of people like: Jose, our fuel supplier; Jean-Baptist and Luis, truck drivers; Claude, at our transshipment warehouse—the list goes on and on and on. Most of us live here on the island; we’re invested. In years to come, these relationships will be key to healing and recovery. In the last few days God has exponentially increased our capacity to help and we ask that you continue to pray for us to be diligent and faithful to the opportunity to serve others. I got an e-mail from Tim Nelson—working in Honduras, now 10 years after Hurricane Mitch; and he, along with some guys here who live in post-Katrina New Orleans, have been a steady reminder of how such calamity can swing doors wide open to Gospel ministry for years to come.

Many have asked about flying in to help. Depending on how long our supply line services are needed, we will need several waves of helpers. The skills most needed on our end are: native Spanish and Creole speakers, accountants, computer “geeks”, scroungers and couriers—most importantly, flexible people who work well in extreme and unusual circumstances. E-mail Elaina Vazquez at urez.haiti@gmail.com for more details. If you, or your church, is interested in being involved in long-term discipleship and sustainable development, please contact us so we can dialog further when the time becomes appropriate. This will be a critical aspect of Haiti’s future.

As alluded to above, one of the many ripple-effects is refugees leaving PAP by the tens-of-thousands. This past week, while at my house in Fort-Liberte, I met with the mayor and city council on several occasions. The mayor told me that the town has taken in 1400 refugees, and this is expected to surge to possibly 5000. Fort-Liberte needs help. Neighbors have told me that family and friends are showing up at their doors with nowhere else to go. I feel this is a critical juncture in which how we respond now will open up opportunities for the rest of our life in Haiti. Our mayor, Ing. Moise Charles-Pierre, came to my house and gave me a list of food that is needed immediately. The list includes staple items: flour, rice, beans, oil, spaghetti, dried fish, oatmeal, sugar, milk, bedding and soap. Based on our estimates, his request will cost around US$50,000. We would love to provide a significant amount of assistance (we don’t have to provide all of it) by next week if possible. Consider giving toward this second-wave of need at www.fim.org. For donations of over $5000, please contact Dick Albright at dalbright@fim.org and he can assist you in wiring money directly to our ECCU account and notate it correctly.

Thanks again! It’s far from over.