Friends of Haiti,
To begin, the pallets of supplies stacked at the airport in Port-au-Prince are no longer there, and at least they weren’t on June 21st. Let’s hope they found their intended destination. We never want to give the impression that nothing is going on there, but it is going on very slowly. US Senator John Kerry has been after the Haitian government to move faster in the reconstruction efforts. In the areas we travel, very little has changed since the evening of January 12th. If anything has changed, it is the number of tent cities that have sprung up all along the roads into and out of town. Some of you will remember the dumps north of Port-au-Prince. That area is now covered in makeshift tents. This is a concern because it is an area that floods easily, and with hurricane season here these are very dangerous areas to be in.
Because of the amount of time schools were closed, there won’t be any summer vacation this year. They may get the last week of September off, and then restart the first of October. By being at school, not only are they learning, but it takes their minds off the world around them for a few hours — and they can be sure of getting a meal that day.
For those of you who have been praying and asking about Marjorie, I was able to meet her again in June, obviously under much different circumstances. She is doing fairly well and has had several reconstructive surgeries and skin grafts. Some of those didn’t go so well, leaving her face disfigured. But she is very thankful to be alive and for the prayers you have offered. We are in te process of trying to get her an appointment with doctors here to see if all has been been done than can be done. Naturally, we are asking them to do this for free.
Some of the statistics coming out of Haiti are truly sobering.We know it has always been bad, but never anything like this. The Wold Food Program says that one child under the age of 5 will die every hour because of the lack of food to eat. There isn’t anything that could more dramatically underscore the importance of the feeding programs. This is not a figure you would normally associate with Haiti.
We know over the years we have said this so many times, and we have meant it every time. But the current situation is so much different than we have ever seen in our lives, and we are very grateful for what you do through us. Lives are being touched and lives are being changed because of your generosity.
Serving HIM together,
Steve and Terry
