Friends of Haiti,
In a nutshell: Haiti still does not have a functioning government. Although it has a President, Parliament and Senate, its constitution calls for a Prime Minister to be in place before it is complete. Two men have been nominated by the President and both have been rejected — the second, for good reasons. The first, in our opinion and many others there, should be President. President Martelly has no connections in government and the two leading parties — one of past President Préval and one of former President Aristide — have no intention of working with him. Until one party changes its mind, nothing can be done.
Demolition has been taking place mostly in residential areas and most of that by hand. Men with sledge hammers break the concrete until they have a truck load; load it up, then do it again. From what we can see, all the multi-story buildings, such as the gleaming white Sogebank building on Delmas many of you have seen is just the way it stood after the earthquake. Some demolition has been done on the “One Stop Market” area where we did our shopping, across the street from the bank, but very little, and there is no heavy equipment that we see. Since there have been no building codes put in place since the quake, what building taking place is being done just as it was — not all, but most.
We would like to build a 3 room building in the yard area of the school in Port Au Prince. We currently have to pay $40 a day to stay where we are, sleeping in a tent. To us, this is a waste of ministry money. Although it will cost around $4000 to build what we need, a building will allow us to have a safe place (not of concrete) to stay in the likely event it happens again. There will also be two rooms others can stay in while they are there working with us, freeing them from having to pay as well. There would be one large room with a private bath for Terry and me, and two smaller rooms with a shared bath. There would also be a storage area. We don’t have the money to do this, but we feel it is what God wants us to do and that He will provide the means to build it.
School begins September 5. At least two of the schools’ attendance will grow past 150 because of the new people who have moved out of the city and into these areas. That increase means we need to hire more teachers; and because of more students we need more benches. But, these are good “problems” to have. It has been a long journey since 1994 and God has provided all we have needed in that amount of time. We are confident He will provide these as well.
Our thanks to all of you for being so faithful with your prayers and your giving. We know we say this a lot, but we are very grateful for each of you and the sacrifice you make for our friends in Haiti.
Serving HIM together,
Steve and Terry
