Sometimes, it seems we write the same things over and over, especially when it come to the political situation in Haiti. Once again we have a stalemate. The prime minister who oversees the day to day operations of the government and more importantly now, any reconstruction efforts, has resigned because those in parliament won’t work with him. He said after he had called a meeting with several of them and no one showed up, he knew he had no support. The reasons for that are many and we won’t go into all of them here. But what this does is effectively shut the government down until someone is named and approved to replace him.
This is not welcome news, especially to the estimated 515,000 people still homeless and living in 707 camps scattered across the capital. In an article that appeared in the Washington Post and written by William Booth on February 20, 2012, he states that many of those who have left the camps are now living in conditions worse than those found in the camps. And we know this to be true.
He goes on to say, “In Port Au Prince, 84,866 buildings have been marked with red paint, indicating they should be demolished. Nonetheless, more than half of the red-marked houses are inhabited, with little or no repair, as people desperate for shelter live in the ruins. Although it is not unusual for refugees fleeing conflict to be stuck in camps for years, rarely are people displaced by natural disasters for so long, and almost never in a camp in the central plaza of a capital city.”
We, as a ministry, can’t help or reach all of these people, as much as we want to but we must provide for those we can. We can do that in several ways; the feeding programs, the vitamin programs, educational programs through the schools and churches and in whatever way we can to help them get back on their feet.
Of course this takes finances as with anything we or you do. To a point we have been able to keep up with all the needs of each program, because of your giving and prayers, but the further you get away from a disaster such as this, it fades from memory. We can’t let that happen because too many lives are at stake. Many of these lives are people we have known for years and children we have watched grow up. In these areas, we are who they turn to for help and it is very hard to say we can’t.
Having said that, we also want to say we deeply appreciate all you do to help with your giving and your prayers. God knows we couldn’t do what we do without your help but it does hurt to see people in need and know you can’t do anything about it.
Please remember to pray for the country of Haiti, our friends there and the people in these camps.
Serving Him together,
Steve and Terry
By the way, $1000 has been given to buy Bibles for the school kids. Thank you to those who have given for this.
