Anse-a-Galets End of Day Report 27Jan10

http://www.haitiwish.org/default.asp

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_earthquake_459

Please Read these two links to get a picture of what's going on in Haiti. Another day closer to getting the first shipment of food and fuel to La Gonave! If you want to see a power point presentation of our work so far, let me know and I'll send it along.

I was hoping I was wrong about the food need. I actually thought that maybe the roads would be clear enough to get food out. Unfortunately, there's not enough distribution to meet the need on the mainland. So, people are leaving population centers to the thugs strong enough to violently steal food and re-sell it, sometimes to those they stole it from. They are leaving for places like La Gonave Island, where we are sending our aid.

Our team is doing pretty well overall with security in Palm Beach as we get the first two shipping containers of food loaded, but I wonder about our destination. The latest update from Butch and Trisha (first link above) at the Hospital doesn't paint a great picture. I think the general plan has been to call on the YWAM team to provide help at St. Marc, so the goods can be offloaded onto the mission's small boat network. Now we may need help and some security when we land on the island too. Based on Butch's report, the need for food is pushing the swelling refugee population closer to unrest every day. We definitely need to consider the security situation as we move on.

It's hard to quantify for certain, but the Wesleyan Mission and Hospital have enough food and fuel to last until about 6 Feb without our shipment. They now have a reliable source of fuel now, and the banks have supposedly opened again. It's a fluid thing down there. They are providing food for uncounted thousands, receiving 750 refugees daily, treating 150 of these as new injury cases daily, and keeping the generators for the water system and hospital going all the time. I'm not sure anyone there knows for certain when they will run out of food, but emails we get tell us that our shipment is encouraging them greatly - they believe they can hang on until then.
Based on what we know today, our shipment of 88,000 lbs. should leave Sunday 31 Jan and arrive Wednesday 4 Feb. The food will take about a day or so to transfer to the island from St. Marc. The 750 gal. of diesel we purchased will be offloaded into drums and brought in the mix. The food can feed about 30,000 people for 8 days. The next Monarch ship sails about a week later, and we will pre-purchase fuel and hopefully have funds to put another CONEX box or two on it. We have decided to use the balance of recently donated funds to purchase medical supplies that can be squeezed into the two containers - the Hospital is (probably) completely out of stock and some people may die without antibiotics. The Lord will provide more funds for food in His timing.

We are confident the Lord is in this - so much prayer answered and so many needs met just in time. Thank you for your help and prayer.

Today's events:

Ship delayed!!! Got to put CONEX 2 together just in time!

CONEX 1 at shipyard

CONEX 2 funded just in time, being loaded w/goods

Med Bundle 1 funded, purchased, being delivered to shipyard

Med Bundle 2 funded, seeking wholesalers and delivery

Tomorrow:

CONEX 2 to shipyard

Med Bundle 1 load in CONEX 1

Med Bundle 2 purchase and delivery, load in CONEX 2 if able

Seeking funding for Fuel, CONEX 3

Seeking other aid sources

Prayer:

People of Haiti and servants in their midst

The Gospel to be told and lived by the Lord's servants

The sick and injured and mourning

Clarity of mission for all of us, God's purposes in these opportunities

The staff at the Mission and Hospital

Security for the missionaries, food shipment

Caleb and Andy down in FL, working to get it all aboard

Med bundle 2 and purchasing, loading issues

Funding for more food, medical supplies, fuel

Getting the word out to those who can help fund more food

PT for Chris, Caleb, Andy