Haiti Updates

We have posted below the top critical updates directly from the church in Caneille, so you can see for yourself the hand of the Lord in the lives of our missionaries, Betty and Huguener Bastia, and what He is doing in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. If you feel led to support the Bastias as they undertake the monumental task of relocating refugees to Caneille, we would ask first of all for prayer, for nothing is impossible with God. If you wish to support financially, you can send a check to Calvary Chapel of Appleton, please put in the memo “Quake Relief”.  We also accept Visa and Mastercard over the phone. All funds go directly from our bank to theirs for food, water, fuel, and various daily supplies and needs.

You can send support to:

Calvary Chapel/ 2136 E. Newberry St / Appleton, WI   54915

For further information on Calvary Chapel Caneille, Haiti, follow them on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cccaneille

Update for March 10, 2010

We palletized a cargo shipment in Fremont, WI on Saturday of large, outdoor “party” tents: 22 pallets (20 x 60 tents, 40 x 100 (2), 20 x 20 (4), 20 x 30 (5), 20 x 40), and a couple crates of hardware, 4 generators. Not all of this will end up in Caneille. There are other ministries we are sharing these blessings with. They should arrive in PAP on or about March 20th. This is an enormous blessing.

In our last update we communicated that we are suggesting to those who come alongside us to help consider financial assistance aimed at the many basics needs that we are meeting daily. Financial giving should be directed to Calvary Chapel of Appleton (CCA). Contact the office of CCA @ 920-735-1242 for further information.

Trips to Caneille will be helpful in the near future as we are also being blessed with some permanent structures in the form of pre-fab ready-to-assemble buildings, which will require construction teams. We will keep you updated as these resources appear and needs shift.

Praise the Lord!

Pastor Lane

Orphan Update: The Rest of the Story

This morning we sent out in our current update the story of a family of 5 orphans. Well, here is, as Paul Harvey would say, “The Rest of the Story” — and a wonderful ending that we just found out about this afternoon:
“Three girls and two boys, all siblings, were cared for by their mother in PAP. The mother had a regular business of selling at the market, and had left in the morning as usual the day of the quake. When the quake hit, the three youngest were outside while the two oldest girls were inside. The house collapsed upon them and they both sustained leg injuries as they were hit by falling cement blocks. They spent the next four days without food and water. Everyone assumed that they were dead. On the fourth day after the quake the two tried to make a loud noise to be heard. Others outside did hear the noise and a neighbor began to chip through the rubble and concrete using only a hammer. They were extracted and rejoined their three siblings, but did not know the status of their mother.

The children waited, and heard the news that the market where their mother was planning on selling had collapsed. Many people were killed there. Their PAP neighbor eventually took them out to their grandmother’s house in Hinche, having had no word from the mother, but she is old and does not have the resources to care for them. A friend knew of the Caneille relief and and suggested they would be welcome and cared for seeing that they were now orphaned. The five arrived on Feb 7th with only the clothes on their backs. They have their own tent, while housing is in the works, and they need some basics.

On Sunday we had a chance to sit down with them at Bastia & Betty’s house and hear their story, introduce ourselves, and let them know how much we were sorry for their loss, and reassure them of our love and concern for them. It was a sad day for them though, and it was their lost mother’s birthday. They responded with sincere thanks, but said that they didn’t believe their mother was dead, but that they had faith that God and protected her life and that they would find her somehow.

On Tuesday, Bastia took the oldest girl into Hinche to get shoes for the rest of them, amidst other shopping needs. As she was in Hinche her phone rang. IT WAS HER MOTHER!!!!

As it turns out, their mother had suffered very serious injuries to her legs, and in the rush of getting people cared for, she was whisked off to the Dominican Republic without any notice, and without her having any means of contacting her children. At the first available moment to call, she did. They all have a wonderful and miraculous story of how God had provided for them in a time of great need.
PRAISE THE LORD!”

Lane Gibson

Current Update from Feb 17 – from Dwight

My stay in Haiti was longer than anticipated. I was supposed to be back on Monday but it is almost impossible to get out of Port Au Prince these days even with reserved seats with MFI.

Anyway, here it is Wednesday afternoon, and I am just getting back to the office. We spent a good afternoon in Port Au Prince assessing the damage from the quake – and words fall far short in trying to describe the destruction and devastation we saw.

It was heart-wrenching to see the devastation. USA’s cover story talked about 1.2 million left homeless as a result of this. The thing that struck me being in PAP was the tent cities, consisting of basically a tarp here, a bedsheet there, and whatever building material they can find. They find themselves being crowded together, one on top of the other, scattered at many different locations around PAP.

I am very happy with the progress in Caneille, and just got a phone call from my assistant, Lane Gibson, who I left there for another week. We have established a base camp with 71 people; there are many stories I could tell but I will just tell you one.

A family of 5, with 15 being the age of the oldest one, she and her siblings were trapped 4 days in the rubble before being rescued, all with leg injuries. She is now the leader of her family. Mom went to the store and they never saw her again. They are just so happy to have shelter and food. I met with them for an hour on Sunday, it was her mom’s birthday on the 14th,  and they were happy to just talk and told me the whole story.

We also rigged up a security system for the camp from solar batteries, and this week we purchased a pump to draw from the river into a 400 gallon container that we will be able to transport back to the camp city that the people have named “Jerusalem”.

We already have a cistern previously built to catch rainwater. With the pump we will be able to move 400 gallons at a time. Soon, thanks to a ministry that has already donated $10,000 for a water purification system, we will produce 1000 gallons a day of clean drinkable river water. Currently, the camp is using 500 gallons a day and the people receive 3 meals a day.

We are not really sure what to expect after this point, the people are in survival mode and getting the basics. We are also digging latrines Haitian style, which gets pricey as they need to be lined with stone and be deep. We are building showers also. I am sending several pictures so you can get a rough idea of what the camp looks like. We graded the purchased field with a grader and brought in many loads of stone so that when the rain comes, mud won’t be an issue.
I was able to speak to the church in Caneille on Sunday AM and basically spend quite a bit of time, as in the States, people normally go home after church, but here they stay on site, so we serve them coffee and then fellowship the rest of the day.

The word that we are getting is that the many that are fleeing PAP are going back to home cities. We have gotten reports form Hinche that the city has grown considerably as houses that used to contain maybe 5 – 6 people now house between 10 – 20.

Lane will be sending us regular updates. Please pray for Betty as she was diagnosed this week with tonsillitis. She had a bad cough while I was there and I was concerned, as tonsillitis at her age is not good. The other thing I will mention is that Bastia is resigning his position with the UN so he can be fulltime with the church and camp.

Dwight

Caneille Update live 2.15

We headed into PAP early for Dwight to catch an MFI flight out. After leaving him at the airport, we began to search for components for a water storage & distribution system for the camp. Ended up shopping in the old part of PAP where there is heavy quake damage. The old buildings, made mostly of un-reinforced brick, disintegrated or toppled or collapsed in pancake fashion. Multiple buildings on every street in all directions as far as you can see…every block in every direction. The scope is beyond comprehension. I know I’ve seen only the smallest part.

We encountered a couple rubble removal & demolition teams with heavy equipment. We saw more teams of Haitians in masks digging through piles of rubble searching for who knows what. It would be far quicker to count the buildings that show no signs of damage. They are rare. As we shopped and entered buildings, though I came in to see the contents of the store, I would enter looking up at how badly the building was damaged and if I really wanted to go in based on that.

More later…batteries on the computer and human are running low.

in Jesus,
Lane