Archive for February 2010

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23. February 2010 by admin.


Tuesday 2/23/10

 

Greetings Friends –

 

Well it’s been a busy time with us and Grace Mission to Haiti…..here’s the latest –

 

George was scheduled to leave Saturday, 2/20 for Haiti along with Jesse Nelms, the Missions Pastor at our church here in FL, Jim Laidlaw with Global Partnership and about 14 other men.  They all had tickets to fly SpiritAir from Ft Laud to Port au Prince.  We kept checking with Spirit because they were scheduled to begin flying to Haiti the 19th.  George spoke with someone at Spirit on Thursday and they still said the flight was a go.  Well, when we got up Friday AM, we went to the Spirit website and discovered that the flight was cancelled.  The first thing I had to do was contact our son-in-laws brother Matt, who was to fly from Syracuse to West Palm around noon as he was to be part of the team.  Thankfully, we caught him before they left for the 2 hour drive to Syracuse. 

 

George met with Jim and had a few phone conversations with Jesse and it was decided to try to fly in to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and then get to PAP.  They were able to book a flight with JetBlue from that left Ft Laud around 2:30 PM on Saturday.  There are a total of 7 men on the trip.  One of them, Ben Loyer, spent 21 years in Haiti as a missionary and is fluent in Creole which is a huge help.  Another man is fluent in French which is very good.  Jim know French and Spanish and another knows Spanish so that was a help in the DR……God always provides.

 

They arrived in the DR and were picked up in a vehicle that had 2….yes 2, tire blow-outs on the way to the hotel!!!!!  They checked into the hotel, a lovely Clarion; walked down the streets to a Wendy’s and had supper.  (It is so amazing how different the 2 countries on this one small island are)  After a good nights sleep they had breakfast and the hotel shuttled them to the bus station where they boarded a lovely air-conditioned, movie showing bus that even provided food and beverages.  After about 6 hours they arrived in PAP and Pastor Beril picked them up at the bus station to take them to the hotel they are staying at.

 

 

George said that it was very strange because there were places along the Carrefour Road that is normally steaming with people and vendors that was basically deserted.  When he asked Pastor Beril about it he said that thousands and thousands of people are moving out of the city and into the country to get away from the devastation.

 

Here is a HUGE praise – 2 weekends ago there were 40 people saved at Pastor Beril’s church and this past week-end there were 20.  He also said that he and many pastors in the area have been having evangelistic services in the evenings and MANY people are coming to the Lord.

 

When asked about the schools he said that the ‘government’ says schools will resume on March 15 but he doesn’t see how that will be possible due to the damage to the buildings.  His school in Carrefour is damaged too much to be used and that is true for some of our other schools.

 

George said that he woke up from a dead sleep at 4:30 AM yesterday morning by a strong tremor and there was another strong one (said to be about a 6) later Monday morning while they met with a group of pastors about the upcoming medical/counseling team that is going in on March 6th.  This team is primarily made up of students and staff from Palm Beach Atlantic Univerisity here in West Palm.  The counseling part of the team is very important as our Haitian brothers and sisters try to cope with all they’ve been through.  After lunch, they had an opportunity to meet with a team of our regional directors.

 

Plans are for them to continue to survey needs to be met by teams we will be forming in the coming months and, yes, years.  They hope to get out to Grace Center and also go to Kelly Fleury’s orphanage near Leogane to survey the damage there.

 

Thank you so much for your prayers and concerns -

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Report From Pastor Beril

13. February 2010 by admin.

Saturday, 2/13/10

Greetings and apologies.  I am sorry I have not sent out an update since 1/27.  Yesterday we got an e-mail from Pastor Beril with an initial update on the earthquake………..

 

GRACE BAPTIST MISSION OF HAITI

 

EARTHQUAKE JAN.12, 2010 UPDATE

 

Pastor Beril, national director of Grace Mission Haiti with a mission team of 15 men from USA was at Grand Place, Mirebalais to build a Zink roof on the church house in that place. At 4.45 p.m, the last man just came down the top roof after finishing nailed the last sheet of Zink. The roof was planed to be built in two days (Tuesday Jan 12 and Wenesday the 13) from 9 a.m to 3 p.m. But for a reason that none of the team did not know before, the work was done in one day till 4.45 p.m instead of two. At 4.50 p.m while a short thanksgiving worship service took place by a good number of the church members who were present with the team of builders, expressing joy to the Lord, the whole ground and the building started shaking and scared everyone to death. That quake was so hard; we (Haitians present) thought it was a satanic move. It was then an earthquake of such high magnitude which devastates the southern part of Haiti in 35 seconds.

 

 

GRACE MISSION FIELDS AFFECTED

1- Brochette, Carrefour: Church house remains up, but registers minor damages that can be repaired. 8 families of the church lost love ones each, total 8 dead. 11 families lost totally their homes and several tens abandoned their rented home deeply damaged. All of them are homeless.

The school house building of the major school of the field at Carrefour is severely damaged in the first floor. We do not think it will be used again unless important structures are operated in.

2- Riviere Froide: All installations remain stable, one family lost a daughter 18 years old, 5 families lost their homes, among them the associate pastor and several others are homeless.

 

3- Palmiste-A-Vin: Church house in the rear and the two parsonage rooms in the back of the church are all destroyed. The school building has the walls in the back side felt down half way.

 

4- Bereau: The church building at Bereau is totally destroyed. The walls are felt and the roof hang one side up and the other side down. It represents a read danger to those who keep using the space. It is urgent to do something there to avoid the worst.

 

5- Flon:  All the installations at Flon are deeply damaged. School, Church house and pastor’s home. One floor of the pastor’s home is totally destroyed. Pastor Rosemond and other residents of his home are deeply injured. They are still following medical treatment.

 

6-Laval: The temple at Laval, just built after it was destroyed in August 2008 by hurricane Gustave is again destroyed by the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

 

7-Cotes de Fer: A town located on the sea shore of the south eastern cost is 85% destroyed by the earthquake. The church house is not skipping, it is totally down and the people there are homeless and lost all belongings.

 

8- Davis: The temple at Davis was under construction, the four walls of the building were up, waiting for the next team to build its roof. By the earthquake, all those walls are down and need to start over again.

 

9-Montoban: All homes at Montoban have suffered damages. The church was destroyed in 2008 by hurricane Gustave. It was under reconstruction while the earthquake eliminates what was already built. It requires pretty good efforts to put those walls back up again.

 

10- Among all those strugles, the lost of Pastor Ernst Laine hits us deeply. He was one of the staff administrators of Grace Bible Institute. He left behind his wife and his daughter of 3 ½ year old. Peace to his soul.

 

11-Urgent and Priority needs

A- Food (rice, beans, cooking oil) Tents, plastic tops, sheets, trash bags, toilet articles, flash lights, clothes etc….

 

B- A good four wheel drive vehicle is necessary in order to get quicker access to some of the remote areas of the field.

 

C- Revision and reconstruction of the churches and homes, Schools and Clinics.

 

As you have read things are very bad at some of our fields BUT there is also so much to praise the Lord for because the loss of life and damage could have been so much worse.  There is much work that needs to be done and George is beginning to work on those details.  (For those of you interested in going down to help to rebuild or go on medical teams, PLEASE be patient as we need time to get things organized.  Many details have to be put in place so we are sure of safe housing and also the availability of materials we will need for the teams.)

 

Since returning from Haiti Jan 25th George has been extremely busy fielding calls and having meetings with people about Haiti and the needs there….much networking has come about from this tragedy.  George will be going to Haiti, Lord willing, next Saturday for 1 week.  The team consists of 17 people going with Global Partnerships Initiative, as well as Pastor Jesse Nelms and Pastor Saintil Farilus from our church here in Florida.  (Pastor Saintil is the pastor of a Haitian congregation in Belle Glade, FL whose wife and children were in the Port au Prince airport waiting to FINALLY get to the United States after 4 years of paperwork and red tape at the time of the earthquake and made it on the last American Airlines flight out.)  The trip has several objectives. 

1.     To meet with a large group of Pastors in the Carrefour area to begin the process of establishing training centers for evangelism and church planting and also to meet with these Pastors in preparation for the medical and counseling team from Palm Beach Atlantic University going down March 6. In addition to doing medical work this team will also be training the pastors in grief counseling and post traumatic issues.

2.    A possible food distribution in cooperation with World Harvest. (Pray for the details to come together)

3.    Set-up of a ‘camp ground’ at the Grace Center property until we can be sure the building is safe to use.  

4.    There is an architect going on the team who will be assessing Pastor Beril’s home and church to try to determine the amount of damage and if the buildings are safe to be used.

 

The following link is a very interesting article George read on the internet in regards to Haiti, voodoo and the earthquake - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100213/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake

 

We are so very thankful to so many of you who have been praying and have responded with donations to help.  I must be honest with you.  The needs in Haiti are so great and we would greatly appreciate any and all the help you can give.  

 Click on the link below to donate online, or you may send a donation directly to Grace Mission at: Grace Mission to Haiti, PO Box 211025, Royal Palm Beach, FL  33421

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Religion in Haiti

13. February 2010 by admin.

Check out the link below.  We have an opportunity as God brings good out of the disaster in Haiti.  Our primary goal in Haiti is evangelism and church planting.  We are seeing a turning to the Lord as people evaluate their commitment to Voodoo.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100213/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake

Posted in Earthquake | Print | 1 Comment »

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