"Hands on Haiti" Response Effort (2/15/10 - 2/19/10)
POSTED ON Feb 17, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
Read HAITI CHILDREN'S STORIES from the field here.
FRIDAY - February 19, 2010 (2:00pm)
* * TOP THREE MOST URGENT NEEDS * *
(List will be updated accordingly or as needs are met. Please check back often.)
- "To reach into Haiti we desperately need a 4x4 double cab truck ($35K), and a Ambulance" pleads COTN founder, Chris Clark, currently on the ground in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. To donate to this urgently needed fund CLICK HERE.
- "Let's Eat" SmilePacks™ and other urgently needed supplies posted to our Haiti Needs List.
- On going finances to fund our “DR Churches helping Haiti Churches’ D4H program, which puts USA raised resources in the hands of Dominican Churches who are reaching out to Haiti Churches and their communities.
FRIDAY - February 19, 2010 (2:00pm)
Joy in the Midst of Tragedy
More than 30 Dominican pastors who have agreed to partner with Children of the Nations (COTN) piled into a bus in the early hours of Tuesday morning to make their way into Haiti. There, they met up for a conference with about 500 Haitians—half of them pastors in Haiti and half of them church leaders and members. The goal was to not only encourage the Haitian pastors as they continue to minister to their suffering and desperate church and community members, but also to form a plan on how the Dominican Church and COTN can continue to unite with them and help in this crisis. Because Dominicans and Haitians have a long history of not working together or getting along, this step for both sides was a significant one.
“It was great to see the harmony that came in between the Haitians and the Dominicans,” said Ryan Nichols, who is currently working in the Dominican Republic (DR) as a COTN team host. “To have the Dominicans come in and be welcomed so warmly and to have so many Haitians be part of this movement was amazing. They talked about trying to strive to pay less attention to the divide and pay more attention to the fact that they are all united in Christ.”
COTN-DR staff member Angel Samboy agreed. “It was so touching to see our [Dominican] pastors and the pastors from Haiti together praising God, giving words of hope and praying with the people of Haiti,” Angel wrote in an email on Wednesday. “The Lord allowed us to minister to our brothers and sisters in different ways. We spent time praying, singing, consoling, encouraging and talking to the people. There is hope for the people of Haiti; there is a hope for the Church in Haiti; there is a great hope to see a new Haiti that knows about Jesus.”
The first part of the conference addressed the group as a whole, after which everyone broke into smaller groups to discuss what they had heard and pray. “We divided the 500 Haitians into groups and it went well all over the church building,” said Malou Faublas, COTN-DR staff member. “Every group had one counselor, one translator and one Dominican pastor. It was very organized.”
The group of Dominican pastors, COTN staff and volunteers also brought about 700 packages of food gathered by the pastors, along with water and 600 boxes of rice from COTN’s supply. This was then given to the pastors at the conference so they could pass it out to the people in their communities and congregations.
After the small groups met, COTN volunteers Ryan Nichols and Jessica Wise asked each of the Haitian pastors to line up and share the individual needs of the people in their church congregations and communities. Ryan and Jessica recorded each list to take back for COTN so that we can begin discussing how to continue to help meet the desperate needs of these Haitians through the local churches.
“We found out how many people are in each congregation, how many need to see doctors, how many need houses, and the statuses of their churches and schools to discover whether they still stood,” said Jessica, who is volunteering with COTN to help with logistics and teams during the Haiti relief. “Almost all of the pastors that we talked to don’t have church [buildings] anymore and their schools are [gone]. They all had needs for tents for their congregation. One of them who had a school told us that the Haitian government has mandated that schools start soon, but he has no idea how they are going to start because the school is still in rubble—the school records are buried. He said they have 300 kids who really need school and all of them need psychological help.”
Malou said, “Overall the day was a blessing. We found out that the Haitian believers are strong in their relationship with Christ our Lord. The greatest needs they have are medical and construction, because all of them are sleeping in the street, most of their houses have collapsed, some churches also are collapsed and, so far, no one has helped the Haitian people and the believers to repair or rebuild their housing.”
As COTN discusses possible methods for helping meet these needs, the Dominican pastors will continue to meet with the Haitian pastors every couple of weeks to continue to support, encourage and help. “It is really cool because you see all these Dominicans who have never really stepped out of the Dominican box wanting to help all of these Haitians,” Jessica said. “I’ve been coming here to the Dominican Republic for three summers and I’ve never seen that before.”
As the Haitian pastors left the conference at the end of the day, Jessica says the peace was evident. “You could see that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were so happy,” she said. “To see the joy that they had in the midst of this tragedy was amazing.”
Please donate to COTN's "Hands on Haiti" Response Effort TODAY! Your help is still needed for immediate relief and long-term support.
Click here to read previous posts (2/12/10 and earlier).