Search Continues at Hotel Montana February 4, 2010

January 31, 2010 – 5:04 PM | by: Michael Sorrentino

We had a brief trip to the Hotel Montana site today.  Of all the recovery efforts I’ve seen so far, this is the most productive and well organized. There was a constant flow of trucks carrying out rubble that has been sifted through and then sent off to a landfill about six miles away.

As we walked up to the site, workers were pulling a body from the rubble, bringing the total number of recovered to 25.

It was quiet and machines were shut off.  Workers handled the remains with complete respect and dignity – this was someone’s child. Colonel Norberto Cintron said that he treats this site like a shrine to those who are now buried there.  These workers are emotionally attached to this mission – some have friends or family in there.  Major Chris Muller of the US Army told us that his friend and colleague was in there  – Air Force Major Ken Bourland. He was seen a few minutes before the quake emailing in the building and has not been found.

Also on site was Bill Hawkins, the Incident Commander of the Hotel Montana Recovery Mission for the US Army Corp of Engineers. Hawkins is a tall military man and engineer from Denver.  Bill noticed the wedding band of a Columbian man that he was working with.  A day or so later, they were pulling a woman’s body out and he noticed that the man wasn’t in the area for the recovery.  When he looked close, he saw the woman had a matching wedding band to his.  A tough guy, Hawkins held back tears in recalling the moment when he told the man it was, in fact, his wife.

Just two days ago, the body of a 4 year old Guatemalan boy was recovered, his father holding him in his arms as the building crumbled around them.  The mother and brother of that boy are alive.  Bill said to me, “I don’t know if you have a family, but I do – and no parent wants to see that.”

Amidst the devastation around them, the men and women working this mission have a sense of duty to the families of those who have been entombed in what was once a 5 story symbol of Haiti’s potential.  The hotel was capable of holding 145 people.  The day the earthquake struck it was at 95% capacity.  It is believed that only 50% of the people were in the hotel at the time of the quake since many were at work during the daytime.

A total of 17 survivors have been pulled from the rubble since Hotel collapsed, but officials say they expect no more survivors to be found.

When a victim’s body is found the process of identification is a difficult one – a contractor carefully packages up the remains for identification under the watch of the US State Department in the US Embassy in Port au Prince’s makeshift mortuary. From there, they are sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and then home to rest, while some families will come and receive their loved ones here in Haiti by means of commercial aircraft.

Safety is the biggest concern, though the demolished structure is at rest, it can shift at any time, causing serious injuries to workers. As we head away from the hotel site back to Fox’s makeshift Haiti Bureau, a body partially covered with a tarp lay on the side of the road just yards from the gates of the Hotel Montana.  Thanks to the efforts of volunteers from all over the world, the family members of those lost in the Hotel Montana will eventually be able to lay their loved ones to rest, while many Haitians are left with only questions.

Who Will They Light Their Lamp For? February 3, 2010

Whenever you really look hard enough – you can always find beauty in the midst of tragedy. As thousands and thousands of refugees make their way north (we are the 2nd largest zone to receive refugees) the churches here are swelling. People are looking for answers to this tragedy and so they’re coming to the church to find them. We have such a huge obligation and burden before us. People who might not ever step inside a church have found a pew and now is the time for us to reach them while they’re still searching.

I had 12 pastors from the churches downtown come and ask me how we can help feed their congregations. I guess word got out that I met with them because all day long I’ve had people lined outside the office – people with sick children needing medications and people with children who are hungry. They bring the children with them when they ask me for food – so I can see for myself how bad their kids look. I’ve remained teary-eyed nearly all day long. All of them have stories. Today alone – I used all my benevolent ministry money for the month.

I wouldn’t say that the northwest zone is OUT of food – but I would say that we’re really low. All those relief supplies are fixed for the PAP area. BUT  we heard they are headed our way – we just haven’t seen them yet.

I have been slow to give out a lot of information about what all the mission is doing because my brother has spent the last several days laying out the mission’s response and actions we will take. I think everyone will receive the news better coming from him so I am trying to be slow to speak!! (HA – those who know me know how difficult that is!)

I will share about a few things we’ve already done as opposed to all that we WILL do. We have given money to the mayor to help house refugees and to refund any money they spent to get here. We sent a medical team to PAP immediately after the quake happened and cleared out our surgical center’s supplies so we could use it there. We have flown in two surgery teams that have been working on several crushed bones from the earthquake. We’ve done emergency c-sections as well as other life-saving operations just for people from the St. Louis area. We are waiting for several containers of food that are in PAP to arrive here. In the meantime – we have given away pallets of food to help the surrounding areas.

We have set up several collection sites all over the states. We have 2 large Shrimp boats that will be headed our way in about 10 days or so. Those collection sites will be sending their supplies to the shrimp boats. We will be bringing in 10,000 gallons of diesel as well as food, medical supplies, toiletry items, baby formula, etc. We have been receiving plane loads of supplies from Canada and Florida. Those supplies we’ve used here or have donated to other hospitals so that we can meet the demand of our growing population.

So those are things we’ve done and we’ve only just begun. There has to be a long-term goal – something sustainable – or we’ve done it all for nothing. It’s the whole story of – do you feed people fish for 3 months – or teach them how to fish so they can eat forever?  God has laid a huge burden on our shoulders and we want to glorify Him n all we do. Things we were going to do last week are not the same things we want to do this week. Haiti has a rapidly changing environment and so we are constantly re-writing our plans. So if you feel like you haven’t heard what all we’re doing – it’s simply because we are constantly meeting the demands of the ever-changing environment.

I do want to put a plea out to groups. Several are getting nervous about coming into Haiti. Just as I said that so many people are showing up at church looking for answers – we have so many new youth and children looking to be loved. We need Vacation Bible Schools so that these refugees can hear about Jesus. We need huge Youth conferences – we need revivals – we need people to  just hold and love on babies – we need someone to pray with our granmoun – we need someone to play soccer with the kids. We need to make our refugees as well as there rest of the population here who is nervous and scared – - feel like there is HOPE. We need to be the face of Jesus to all these new faces. More so now than before – THIS IS THE TIME to have hundreds of people come to Haiti and be the light.

I’m reminded of the story  Mother Theresa shared about the nuns who were cleaning the houses of elderly patients in India. A lady was going to clean an old oil lantern for an older gentleman. As she was getting ready to wipe it down the old man said – No. Just leave it.  The nun asked him why? He said to her – No one comes to visit me. Who am I going to light my lamp for?

The Haitian people sit around in darkness. Do they even know what that light represents? Do they even know that there is a way out of darkness through the light of Christ? My question to you is – Who are they going to light their lamp for?

Tragedy of individual Haitians risks overshadowing chronic health problems February 2, 2010

By Alfred Sommer

Special to The Washington Post

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

For the first two weeks, we watched the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake with a combination of horror and hope: horror over the widespread devastation and hope whenever one more living soul was retrieved from the rubble.

Captivated as we’d been by the individual rescue, we also learned that as many as 20,000 people could be dying in Haiti every day. That was an estimate, put out by a group that provides health care in Haiti; the actual figure may be lower. But what if it’s 2,000 or even just 200 people dying unnecessarily and largely unnoticed?

We care about the one in spite of — and sometimes at the expense of — the many.

Those of us in public health refer to this as the “girl in the well” phenomenon. The world will watch with baited breath through a four-day rescue ordeal, while at the same time hundreds of millions of people go to bed hungry each night, more than 6 million children die unnecessarily every year, and the Millennium Development goals go unmet in those countries that most need to achieve them.

So it goes in Haiti. After the search for survivors slowed and the humanitarian operation intensified, questions began mounting about the adequacy of our response and whether it can be sustained. Our focus on those being rescued stimulated an outpouring of aid. But now, as with past disasters at home and abroad, we are beginning to forget.

Public-health investments protect health and save lives, but as D.A. Henderson, who led the worldwide eradication of smallpox, often notes, “No one wakes up in the morning grateful that they haven’t died of smallpox.” Nor do most Americans wake up grateful that our basic sanitation has kept us from contracting cholera and typhoid fever, or that the vitamins and minerals we consume in our (sometimes bloated) diets protect us from pellagra, scurvy and going blind or dying from Vitamin A deficiency.

Haitians, like the inhabitants of most poor countries, face these problems every day, as they do malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and other preventable diseases.

We accept the problems of the masses as just so much background noise; but it is background noise that causes immense, entirely unnecessary misery the world over and contributes in our own country to spiraling health-care costs.

Haiti’s masses may seem far away and their experience distant from our own. But we have a shared interest in looking beyond the harrowing sight of a single child being pulled from Haiti’s rubble, just as we need to look beyond the girl in the well.

Having participated in delivering relief following another disaster — the cyclone that washed away nearly a quarter of a million Bengalis in 1971 — I have some sense of the chaos in attempting to provide the right kind of aid to the right people at the right time, of the need to serve the needs of both the individual and the many.

Pay me now or pay me later. Investing in public health, both here and overseas, is an investment in the future. A mountain of disease is rolling forward; it needs to be noticed, and dealt with, before an economic and human tsunami engulfs us all.

God Is The Same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow…. February 1, 2010

Today has been one of those days where you feel like there is too much going on to absorb everything. My day actually started late last night. There was wailing happening outside my house. It was so loud that it scared the children. It was coming from right inside the gate.

So I put my shoes on, went downstairs, and realized that a young pregnant lady had died. Melissa and Dr. Simon had tried to revive her but there was simply nothing that could be done. She was hypertensive, someone said that she had a seizure before she even got to our gates, and just like that  - a relatively healthy momma was gone.

There must have been 25 people or so crying out. I prayed with them and asked them if the young mother knew Jesus. They told me she did. I then had the privilege at 1am to share about Heaven and tell them that this pregnant momma is now holding her baby while she sits at the feet of Jesus. They wrapped her in a white sheet, placed her on an army cot, and carried her back to her home.

As I have said before – death is no stranger to Haiti. It was full of heartache – long before the quake ever came. It creeps into the homes of nearly everyone I know. It preys on little children and takes 50% of them captive before they ever see their 5th birthday. It haunts the malnourished babies, imprisons the mothers and fathers, and sits and waits by the sides of our granmoun. Death is real no matter where you live but it feels so close to those of us who live in Haiti. We deal with death on so many levels and is apart of our daily life. I might find it hard to function on any sort of level if it weren’t for one big thing…….Jesus Christ conquered death.

Yesterday at church I sat behind a lady who lived in Port-au-Prince. She stood up and said “I am from Port-au-Prince. I lost everything I have. My house is gone. My family is gone. I want to be baptized because Jesus is all I have left”.

My friend Bobbi spent a year in Port-au-Prince. I got this email from her today:  Remember the school I worked for…you went with me to meet the director?  It totally collapsed.  My boss has 2 crushed legs and a crushed arm.  He was buried 18 hours (he was blind to start with).  His wife was 7 months pregnant and she died.  I have another friend that has a 5 month old and they are living on the streets, they lost everything. I want to be there so bad in MY Port au Prince with MY friends.  Finally God helped me to realize that it is HIS Port au Prince and I will be there when I am needed.

I got this verse sent to me from Samantha Guilliams this morning:

Psalms 121,

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?

² My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Isn’t God’s word so comforting? He is the same God – yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is definitely watching over my coming and going.

My family has been strongly encouraged to come out of Haiti for a few days. We have yet to have a night where the girls aren’t crying about the house falling. The girls have no concept of where the earthquake hit. They think everything was destroyed – everywhere. It was really precious but kind of sad yesterday when Malaya came to me crying about Disney World. She said Mikela told her it fell with the all the houses. Now you might think she would be sad because that means she can’t ride the rides or go there to play. No – her first two questions were – - Did Cinderella make it out okay? Have you heard from her?

Jose often wakes up in cold sweats – still thinks often about his experience in PAP. One of the mission’s psychologists likened Jose’s experience to that of a war veteran.

It’s time for the girls to start thinking of other things besides death and the quake. It’s not healthy. So when I got the word we “need” to take them out for 10 days – I kept thinking – that’s easier said than done.

But My God has already started watching over my comings and goings. In order to get out of this country (since there are no commercial flights here) you have to go on a 9 hour bus ride to Cap Haitian, take a chartered flight to Turks and Caicos, and then catch up with the airlines to fly to Miami. Thinking about all of that with 7  children isn’t really appealing.

Realizing that this seemed nearly impossible I just simply laid it all at His feet. If He wants me to take the family out – everything will just line up. I don’t want to leave Haiti at all – so it will not be “my doing”  but His to make this happen.

Today we got confirmation that Go Ministries will fly my family from Port-de-Paix to Cap Haitian for free. Our surgery team chartered a flight for Friday to Turks with 10 extra seats on it – enough to fit my large family. We don’t really have the funds for this unplanned trip. However – I know as God has already provided the way to get to Turks and Caicos – He’ll get us the rest of the way. When you lay it at His feet – it’s His business to figure out the details.

When Fear Comes a Knockin’ January 30, 2010

I have one of those calendars on my desk where you flip through it each day and it gives you just a sentence or two that encourages you for the day. I’ve been so busy I haven’t been flipping through the calendar. The last day I had read was January 12th – the day of the quake.

On January 28th – Fear will always knock on your door. Just don’t invite it in for dinner and for Heaven’s sake – don’t offer it a bed for the night.

On January 29th – Proverbs 3:24 – When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down your sleep will be sweet.

On January 30th – Matthew 8:26 - Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely calm.

- – - – - -

I feel like fear has been sleeping in my home. Not the kind of fear where there are monsters in your closet – but a more subtle fear – Lord am I really being used to the full potential you had planned for me? Am I doing all I should be doing? What if  I can’t ease the fears that this quake brought on for my children? Will Jose ever be able to forget what he has seen, smelt, touched, heard, and felt in Port-au-Prince? Will the people there ever be able to understand what has happened to their country? Will I be able to bring peace and comfort to the people here? How are our friends and family here going to take care of so many family members when they are barely making it now?

The list goes on and on. So at night – I toss and turn – I allow doubt and fears to take over my mind. The hours on the clock pass by slowly and at 4am – I’m still awake. I suffer with a little chronic insomnia anyways – but it has been magnified since the quake.

I read today’s verse Matthew 8:26 and I immediately found peace. Jesus was sleeping – knowing that the storm was coming – because He knew it would be okay – and yet he was woken up. With a quick word – the chaos in the sea stopped. Just like that – it was over.

Jesus is the same Jesus today as He was in the boat. All that happens in this world is within His reach.  I am sitting at my desk right now and on the wall I have Psalms 33 – another beautiful reminder of how amazingly LARGE our God is. I  knows that our God (who breathes stars into space) can triumph over any circumstance. He is just THAT BIG.

More encouraging scripture from God’s Word:

John 16:33 – I have told you these things, so that in me you may find peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Matthew 14:27 – Take courage. I am here!

Mark 5:36 – Don’t be afraid; just believe.

Fear creates a form of spiritual amnesia. It dulls our miracle memory. It makes us forget what Jesus has done and how good God is. Fear may fill our world but it doesn’t have to fill our hearts. The promise of Christ is this – we can fear less tomorrow than we do today. Jesus takes our fears seriously. The one statement He made more than any other was – Don’t be afraid

My prayer tonight is Proverbs 3:24 – When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down your sleep will be sweet. I think all of us here in Haiti are due for a sweet sleep. That’s my prayer for everyone – all over this nation – that tonight – there will be no earthly tremors – but only sweet heavenly dreams.

*My calendar is Fearless by Max Lucado

Last Notes…. January 29, 2010

There is a part of me
That’s only visiting
Torn from eternity
A stranger here

The awkward mingling of
The loveless and beloved
So far from things above
While I am here

So when the last notes of my soul’s summer symphony
Go stealing through this old world’s cold garden gates
I will hold no fear as You close my book of hours
And the hands of heaven carry me
Carry me home to stay

O Death where is your sting
Your tears and your tremblings
His peace is lingering
Even now

O Grave the battle’s fought (no graver battles fought)
Your vict’ry has been lost
To Christ who gave it all
To take me now

(Love, love, love, love)

By Shaun Groves

Magdala and I were just talking about how the gates of Heaven must have been over-run when the earth shook. I picture Jesus standing at the gates – arms wide open – welcoming all the children – giving them a Hi-5 – and placing them on His lap. I picture the embrace of the adults and their smiles when they see so many of their family who have gone before them.

Long before the quake – death was not a stranger here. Most have family that have died from starvation or disease. The reunion in Heaven that day would have been such an amazing moment of pure beauty. Nearly all would have family/friends there to greet them. I can imagine what that reunion looks like – I’ve been given a glimpse just in watching the workers here. When their PAP family shows up at the compound gates –  they scream, they hug, they cry, and they jump up and down with joy.

As the death count rises well over 170,000 people….I hold that beautiful reunion in my mind – and it gives me peace.

Haiti is NOT Alone…. January 28, 2010

I haven’t been able to sleep the last several nights. My mind just doesn’t shut down. Maybe because I use the night-time to process what has happened here. Two weeks ago I was busy buying plane tickets for groups to come to Haiti.  Jose was flying down to PAP to pick up groups and do a little shopping at Caribbean Market – getting treats for the family. The kids were talking about what Miss Beth had taught them in school. The employees were happy having just started a new year. The earthquake happened and everything changed. Haiti changed.

The women were having a prayer meeting at the church when it started to shake. They told me they thought it was God. They were praying for God’s love and power to be shown in Haiti and the building shook. They were clapping their hands, singing loudly, and  praising God – believing it was all a sign. It wasn’t until one of the Americans yelled for them to get out of the church that they realized it was an earthquake.

But maybe it was a sign? The reports you hear on CNN – they don’t talk about voodoo. They talk about the faith of the people. Janeil preached at church that what this earthquake has done is shown the world that Haiti is a Christian nation – and not a voodoo nation. Haiti has taught everyone how to love, how to give, how to sing, how to pray –  how to live a life that is pleasing to God. Do you not see them singing and praising God in the midst of rubble? Have we not all gained insight on how we should live by watching them during this tragedy?

A place that most people never heard of – a place that was never given any attention to – it’s now keeping people up at night. Our eyes and our ears are so sensitive now to the needs here. Our hearts are all drawn to the thousands of new orphans. We feel compelled to do something. We’ve never had so many trip applications and emails come into the mission before. Aid is being given to this country like never before. God’s glory is being shown on TV, in newspapers, and in the media –  by people who lost everything. Maybe the women were right….maybe it was a sign from God when the church began to shake. Maybe He is showing everyone His power and His love……and we just have a hard time seeing it…..rightfully so.

I saw this video and found encouragement. Haiti is not alone……God in His magnificent beauty is here. These are HIS sons and daughters. We will never understand – but He writes the pages and His ways will always be better than our own.

I realize that this video is for another mission. But that’s the thing here….we’re all working for ONE God. We all have that in common. I have watched several videos from other organizations, read on facebook what other missions are doing, and am so proud of what Northwest Haiti Christian Mission is doing to help all these refugees.  I find peace in knowing that all over the world people are coming together with ONE VOICE and we’re showing the people of Haiti that THEY ARE NOT ALONE.

Update On The Children In Port-au-Prince…. January 27, 2010

Published Date: 27 January 2010

By Ben Fox and Vivian Sequera in Port-Au-Prince

A TEENAGER was today pulled out of rubble of the College St Gerard in Port-au-Prince 15 days after an earthquake devastated Haiti. The last previous survivor was rescued on Saturday, when a man was pulled from the ruins of a hotel grocery store.

Darlene Etienne, 17, was suffering from severe dehydration and had a leg injury when French rescuers freed her. A cousin who had joined in the rescue effort said: “We thought she was dead.”

Aid agencies last night said thousands of orphans were among those being looked after in the poverty-stricken country now facing starvation.

Many of the countless thousands of children scattered among Port-au-Prince’s makeshift camps of homeless have nobody to care for them, aid workers say, leaving them without protection against disease, child predators and other risks.

“They are extremely vulnerable,” said Kate Conradt, a spokeswoman for Save the Children. She added that United Nations experts say there may be a million youngsters who lost at least one parent in the 12 January quake, or are separated from their families.

Some young Haitians are even being released from hospitals with no-one to care for them because there are not enough beds for them. “Health workers are being advised to monitor and send separated/unaccompanied children to child-friendly spaces,” the UN humanitarian office said in its latest situation report.

The UN children’s agency, Unicef, along with Save the Children and the Red Cross, has begun registering at-risk children and has identified three interim care centres at orphanages where they can be sheltered temporarily, said Bo Viktor Nylund, a Unicef adviser for child protection.

Save the Children, meanwhile, has set up “child spaces” in 13 makeshift settlements. In addition, the three agencies are working to reunite families, by creating a database of separated family members.

“This is just the beginning of the exercise,” Mr Nylund said. “Considering the number of people who died, we are expecting children in the thousands who have lost their parents.”

The plight of the young is especially poignant, even in a country where the UN estimates one-third of the nine million people need international assistance.

At Port-au-Prince General Hospital, Haitian-born pediatrician Winston Price, a volunteer from New York, was caring for 80 children in four tents in the hospital grounds. A handful had been brought in with no clues as to the whereabouts of their families.

“Maybe some of these parents are not even looking because their house was destroyed and they might think the kid was inside,” he said. “But maybe the kid was pulled out, so they are missing each other.”

Children left alone are everywhere. At one of the 13 Save the Children sites, about 25 children have no adult relatives taking care of them, said Ms Conradt, who added the group had helped 6,000 children since the quake.

The child spaces are cordoned-off areas where children can play under supervision, “giving them a chance to return to normalcy as much as they can”, she said.

Such areas also protect children against abduction by traffickers, a chronic problem in pre-quake Haiti, said Deb Barry, an emergency protection adviser with Save the Children.

She said her organization was working to track down every rumor it heard about threats to stranded children, “but we haven’t been able to verify those thus far”.

Understanding NWHCM Website January 27, 2010

I have had several people email me and ask how to find things on the website. So I wanted to take this moment to help you understand how our homepage works.

The Mission’s Website Is: www.nwhcm.org

When you land on the Homepage:

We have rotating stories on the top. When you click any of those pictures it will take you to the story that goes with the picture.

Underneath the story (but above the WELCOME) there is a place you can click to see pictures of Andy and Jose’s trip in PAP. Beware – these photos may not be suitable for children. They are done in very good taste but show you the reality of Haiti.

UPDATES

On the left-hand side of the website you see all kinds of paragraphs. These are all updates from the mission. The first paragraph is a new notice that was just posted today about Medical Volunteers. Underneath that it talks about the IRS letting you still claim donations that you make right now on your 2009 taxes. The 3rd paragraph is where you can find updates from the field. These are little updates of what is happening here. Melissa or myself will be emailing information to our Media Director – Andy Olsen – and he will be posting those updates there.

BLOGS

On the right-side of the mission website – you’ll see another slew of paragraphs. All those paragraphs are from the blogs of the missionaries. Not all the missionaries feel like each post they write needs to be on the main site. So even if you don’t see updates on the home-page – it doesn’t necessarily mean that they didn’t write something new. You can always go to the staff page of the website to find the missionary blogs. If you click About Us and then underneath that click Our Staff that will take you to all the staff. You can find their blog-links beside their pictures. Also – most of us missionaries link each other on our blogs. So if you get confused – just click on the blog (even if you’ve already read it) and you can navigate from one blog to another by clicking the links we have on the sides.

Mission Trips

Underneath the Welcome  (dead-center of the homepage) you will find information about our upcoming trips. For example: We will not be processing applications until February 1st. This is because this is a rapidly changing Haiti. Yesterday we could buy plane tickets to come into Haiti February 2nd. By the afternoon we found out the airport is closed until February 19th. It could be longer. So to be updated on how the earthquake is effecting trips – you want to check the middle of  the homepage for that information.

Now if you want to come to Haiti and see what our upcoming trips are. If you click in the upper right-hand corner (Beside the rotating pics) you will see NORTHWEST HAITI TRIPS. Simply click that link and you’ll see all the trips the mission is offering.

To find out more information about trips – the costs of trips – FAQ – download a trip booklet – you want to click on GET INVOLVED. There is information right there in the center of the webpage that talks about Trip Photos, Trip Blogs, and Trip Payments. If you want more information – Right underneath the GET INVOLVED there are some sub-categories that are GREEN. If you click MISSION TRIPS WITH NWHCM – - you are going to find so much information! That is where you find out about Trip Costs, FAQ, Mission Travel Booklet, Trip Applications, etc.

GIVING

There are several ways you can give. Whether it’s for a missionary, earthquake relief, or paying for a trip. If you click GIVE – from the homepage – it will walk you through setting up an account with the mission. You can also click GET INVOLVED and there is a place where you can enter in your trip payments. We also have a brand-new way to give by TEXTING from your phone. That explanation can be found on the left-hand side of the homepage.

I hope this has been helpful. There is so much information – so dig in! You’ll learn a lot about what NWHCM is doing!

Here is also a link from the mission website that will give you information on how to navigate around it- click here

Malaya’s and Rosie’s Birthday Party January 25, 2010

On Saturday we had the girls’ birthday party. Rosie turned 6 years old on January 8th and Malaya turned 5 years old on January 20th. I have to tell you that it took everything in me to get into the “party” spirit but it was so good for the girls. It brought some type of normalcy to our day. We invited Haylee and Hannah from the baby orphanage, Wisley’s two boys, and Ymadel’s two daughters. The kids made bracelets, watched a movie, ate sloppy joes, had cake with ice cream, and of course got a few presents. Rosie told me this was the best day all month. Malaya told me she wanted to share her dolls with the children that were under concrete. (Aww…So close. We almost had a day where we didn’t talk about it).

I posted a few party pictures on the side of this blog. My parents came to the party and I think it was just a nice break from our reality. It was a few hours where we got to pretend that everything was okay and it was just another day. Last night there was another quake. I knew our bed was shaking but Jose kept telling me it was in my head. I found out later we really did have another quake – 4.7.  To Jose’s defense – I think our bed shakes all the time. I talked to some of the Haitians and other missionaries – I think we all struggle with that.  We have yet to have a night where one of the girls isn’t scared thinking the house will fall.   I can’t imagine what it’s like for the people in Port-au-Prince who get the brunt of the shaking.

Today at our nutritional program a lady had a baby and left him in the toilet. Another lady in the program found the little boy and took him to the nurse. He was really cold – and is now in an incubator trying to warm up. We plan to put the baby in the baby orphanage. So terribly sad.

The surgery and medical teams are very busy. I am emailing updates to our webmaster and he will be posting that on the main mission website. I think it’s easier for everyone to stay updated from the main website. So if you want to know what kinds of patients they’re seeing and what the mission is doing – please check the mission website frequently- www.nwhcm.org