Hospital pictures from today

This is 2 year old Celestin who had a broken leg and her family is so thankful that she was able to get medical care and have her leg put in a cast so it can heal.

This is the hallway between the clinic and hospital

A man who has been treated, and is waiting to heal enough to be able to go home.

One of the 5 wards at the hospital.

A man sitting in the hallway of the hospital, there is no where else for him to go.

Pictures of the supplies that arrived yesterday

During the early hours of the morning, 2 large planes brought in supplies from Samaritan's Purse. They unloaded them inside the airport on the grass. These pictures give you an idea of the amount of supplies that are coming in and the huge job our men have had to trasnport all these supplies and then prepare them for distribution. Some of these supplies were much needed medical supplies for the hospital.


It was a big team effort to unload some of the supplies at the mission once they arrived.

immediate Prayer needed

Kelli shared the following just minutes ago:

Please pray right now for a lady named Alexis- she had emergency surgery last night for internal bleeding she wasn't expected to survive the surgery but she did. They found 2 bleeding ulcers and she lost so much blood. Their fear was that she would start bleeding again and we have no blood here in Haiti. This morning after a long night she was still with us. Praise the Lord.
Alexis hemoglobin count is 2 and she needs blood right now!! Pray that God would heal her if it be His will. As I was sharing this request with my mom, Cliff happened to remember unloading some stuff he thought would be helpful that came in from SP. We found a blood transfusion kit and I ran it up. It was all there but the bag to hold the blood.
Please pray we find the bag for her. Dr. Leonardo from SP has her blood type and is willing and waiting for us to find a bag! Thanks for your prayers.

Monday

Just a little update to give people an idea of what is happening today.
We had 9 more doctors arrive today with more supplies and they just arrived up here to the mission. We praise God that more help is here and we are now hoping to offer medical help to other organizations and hospitals in need.
The water filter has been working since 7am this morning. It is such a blessing to have this great filter that is taking really gross pond water and making it very clean drinking water. The people in the hospital really need this water and it is such an answer to prayer.
Another praise is a young man who attends the local church here in Fermathe came to Kyrk yesterday and volunteered to help with security. He is a police officer and was willing to do whatever he could to help. He traveled with Kyrk yesterday and it was such a blessing to have him. They had no troubles at the airport or other places since people knew who Franky was and knew he was there is help. Praise God for His continual blessings.
Right now we have a team from Fox News who is here doing various interviews around the campus and in the hospital. We believe that they are going to be airing this tonight at 10 on the Fox news channel. I will keep you updated if I hear more or if things change.
Oh, an update on the X-ray film and developer. We were able to get those supplies yesterday and we are once again able to take the much needed x-rays.

Words can not express our gratitude for your prayers. God is doing amazing things.

Hospital update

This was written by Kelli, one of the missionary's here who has been helping in the hospital for over 15 hours everyday since the quake.

Thank you for praying! We saw God's hand working here yesterday. Fuel came yesterday so we are able to continue with surgeries!!! As for hospital supplies I can't tell you how many times we ran out of something but just before we needed it someone found some in a storage room in an odd spot so we never lacked anything they needed for surgeries all day. That is the hand of God!!! Not coincident!!!
Yesterday Shirley one of the Nurses from SP said it was like the widow woman's pot every time we got to the bottom it just kept coming!! God is so faithful. Please pray we will get some more food soon for the people in the hospital. We have enough here for a few more days but we are praying that God will miraculously provide here too.

IV Fuild found and more Diesel

WOW GOD IS SO GOOD!

After searching through our medical storage rooms again, we found 1 more case of IV fluid. God is amazing and allowed us to find this and it is enough for all the surgeries today and hopefully some will arrive tomorrow along with the medical supplies that are coming.

We are also rejoicing that both trucks that we sent out came back with diesel. This means that we have received a total of over 800 gallons of fuel today. This is amazing.

The guys went down to the airport this morning again to pick up the supplies that came on the 2 planes that landed early this morning. They are hoping to be back before dark tonight and take some time to rest this evening. We all need a little bit of time to rest so we can continue to keep helping.
It was a possibility that they were going to be able to do a small distribution today also. They found an area with over 300 families in it and they were hoping to start giving them needed things.
Pastor Baker went out to visit some of the mountain churches today to see how they were and to see what the needs were there. We have heard that there are some rural villages around us that have a lot of damage. But with the lack of communication and public transportation it is difficult for people to bring us word.

Thank you again for joining us in prayer. God is truly answering prayers.

Food Distribution

Many of our national workers here at the mission have been affected by the earthquake. Many no longer have homes, or their homes are badly damaged. Like almost everyone they are struggling to find food. We decided to give each of them a piece of plastic and a small amount of food as an encouragement.

People Coming together to Praise God amidst the tragedy

Church was full this morning and it was so encouraging to see the people coming together to thank and praise God for what He has done. Many of them have lost homes and loved ones, but they still were so thankful for all that God has done for them and that they are still alive.

Water

Our water supply is starting to get very low. With so many people in the hospital it is critical that we have water. Samaritan's Purse was able to bring in a large water filter. We have a large fish pond and they are going to start filtering the water out of it to be used for drinking water.
Praise God for SP for sending this water filter and for sending people to set it up, and oversee it. This is going to be a huge blessing to have more clean drinking water.
Also pray for rain.

This is a picture of the filter that they are starting to put together.


This is the water that they are going to be filtering.

Deisel is here!!!!

This morning has been very busy, but God has been doing amazing things.
We sent out 2 trucks this morning to hopefully get some fuel. We are told that they should have success this time.
Also around 11 this morning we received a delivery of 300 gallons of diesel. This is a miracle!! We are praising God for how He provides at just the right time.

Hospital contact information needed

We are wanting to contact the following hospitals that we know are functioning and coordinate supplies and doctors with them. Samaritan's Purse has brought in many supplies and will be bringing in more. We would like to share with other hospitals in need, but have no way of contacting them. Also if you know of any hospitals that are not on this list, but are functioning, let us know.

Community Hospital
Lumeire Hosptial - Les Cayes
King's Hosptial - Delmas
Doctor's Without Borders
Double Harvest (we already have their contact info)

Any contact help that anyone can give would be appreciated

Report from today

Again, today has been a great day of seeing God work.
The MFI flight containing almost 6000 lbs of relief supplies was able to land and they safely off loaded the supplies and they have arrived here at the mission. We are so thankful to MFI for the donation of these supplies and for being willing to fly them in for us to distribute to the people.
Kyrk had to go back to the airport with some more of the Samaritan's Purse people for an interview with Greta VanSutern(not sure I spelled that right) from Fox news. She is interviewing them and it is supposed to air tonight around 10. At least this is what Kyrk thought This may change, but you should see this interview with them sometime on the Fox news channel.
The DC-6 that Samaritan's Purse was expecting did not arrive, but it is scheduled to arrive at 1am this morning. There is also another plane coming in at 4am. As a result 2 of our workers along with 2 SP people are going to be staying at the airport tonight to meet those planes.
Our guys will be traveling to the airport in the morning to pick up the supplies.
We still have not found any IV solution and as a result the doctors have stopped doing surgeries. We have also run out of x-ray film and developer. We have been told that someone here in country is willing to get us some and we can go pick it up tomorrow morning. Pray that this will happen. We really need to be able to do x-rays.

It is so encouraging to see how the people are coming together and thanking God for protecting them and praising Him even among all this devastation. Even now as I write this I am listening to some local people in the community singing hymns of praise.

We praise God that yesterday 5 more people gave their life to the Lord and today 3 people. It is such a blessing to have the 2 chaplains here and God is mightily using them and people are coming to the Lord through this tragedy.

Samaritan's Purse Plane unloading

One of the planes yesterday was a large DC-6 that Samaritan's Purse had flown in. There was a lot of supplies on this plane. Each of the containers were 800 lbs and all were manually offloaded onto our trucks.
Praise God for safety as the men unloaded these very heavy containers.

Oxygen and Propane have been found

Praise the Lord. The truck just came back and they were able to refill all the empty oxygen tanks and refill about 8- 100 lb propane tanks. This is a huge answer to prayer.
Thanks for praying! God is Good

Hospital urgent needs

Just a little update from our hospital. This morning they only had 1/2 a case of a inter venous fluid that they give following surgeries. This probably will not last the day. At this point we do not know where we can get more in country. Also the latest news I heard is that the earliest that we can get more flown into Haiti is Monday. Pray that God would do a miracle and we would be able to find some Ringer 9 Inter venous fluid.

Saturday

Well it has been over 3 days since the quake and things are really starting to come together in terms of the relief effort.
We are so grateful for the Samaritan's Purse people who are here right now coordinating that effort. They are so talented and skilled to know how to help and how to best coordinate all the work. They truly are an answer to prayer.
This morning Kyrk and Chris left once again to head down to the airport. Chris was planning on taking some of the SP people around to access damages and see where they can start meeting people's needs. Others of the SP people were going to contact the UN and see how they can help, hopefully with fuel and water.
We also sent out a truck to try and find Oxygen for the hospital and propane so we can continue to cook food for the hospital and the staff here. Pray that they find some. The hospital is very low on oxygen.
Kyrk is at the airport receiving the 2 plane loads of supplies that are coming in today. One is all medical supplies from SP and the other is relief supplies from MFI. MFI (Missionary Flights International) is the organization that is flying most of the SP supplies and people in right now. MFI has been a huge blessing and are using BHM as their contact here in Haiti to help distribute the supplies that they have. Again, what a huge blessing to have SP people here to help distribute all these things. We could never have done this without them.
There is going to be a huge amount of supplies coming up to the mission tonight. So far God has miraculously allowed everything to go smoothly with receiving these things and transporting them. We are amazed at how we see God working out all the little details of each day.
Let me share a few stories of how God worked.

As the guys were driving down the mountain yesterday they wanted to stop and talk with the man who is our internet provider. They didn't really know where he lived, so they were just going to go to the general area and try to find him. As they go close he pulled up right beside them on the road. WOW thank you GOd!!

This one is from Thursday when they were handing out the plastic. Kyrk had 4 pieces of plastic left and found a spot where he wanted to give them out. As soon as he stopped a man in his car asked desperately for one. Kyrk decided to give him one and as soon as people saw that, many people started coming. He quickly gave the other 3 away and was going to quickly start leaving before being mobbed. As he was just about to drive away a man came and knocked on his window. It was the first man he had given plastic to. He had parked his car, and went over to Kyrk just to say Thank YOU!
It is things like this that are so encouraging.
Thank you to all of you who have given financial support. There are too many stories to share of how appreciative the people are for the little that we are able to do right now. Please know that these thank yous are for all of you who are donating also.

Thank you so much for your prayers also. God is really doing amazing things.

Update on the lady from last night

As many of you know we had a lady come to the hospital last night who was 7 months pregnant and in labor. She had high blood pressure and went into premature labor. Since the baby was breech they really wanted to do a C-section. It was very difficult to get an IV into her and by the time they finally got the IV in she had started to push. Since she was only 4 cm the baby had great difficulties getting out. The head got stuck and they had to cut the cervix to get the head out. This took quite a bit of time and sadly the baby had died by the time it was born.
It was a beautiful little boy who is now with Jesus.
Thankfully they were able to save the mother. As of this morning she is doing fine. She had no excessive bleeding and she should recover well.
Pray for her and her family. I'm sure it is very difficult for her to have just lots her baby.

There are back

The 4 trucks just got back and all is good. Praise God that everything arrived today is safely either in storage at the MAF hanger in the airport or up here at the mission.

One immediate need. Right now Dr. Cluade is performing a C-section on a lady who is 7 months pregnant, having complications and the baby is breach. We have contacted a local orphange (God's Littlest Angels) and they are sending someone up to pick up the baby and bring it down to their place. The lady who runs the orphangage is well equiped to handle premature babies. Unfortunately they do not have any portable oxygen right now, so we are praying that everything will go well with the C-section and that the baby can safely get to the orphanage. The little life is in God's hands and we are trusting God to look after it.

Third plane here

Yet another praise today.
As of 4 pm this afternoon the third plane arrived and was unloaded successfully. Around 6 pmKyrk and Chris left the airport to start coming up the mountain with the last of the people and the supplies for this area and the hospital. They have not arrived here yet, but we are expecting them soon if all goes well.
It really is so encouraging to see what God has done today.

No Fuel

Thank you to everyone who was praying that we would receive fuel. We sent the truck down and they were able to get there safely but they were not able to receive any fuel.
So they have returned empty.
Pray that possibly in the next couple of days we can find fuel.

Doctors are here

Praise the Lord!!
Kyrk and Chris just came with the doctors and supplies. They immediately unloaded their personal things and went straight up to the hospital.
This is such a huge answer to prayer.

Now Kyrk and Chris have now left to return to the airport and hopefully meet the third plane and bring the people and supplies back up here.
Continue to pray that God works out the details of all this and they can get back up this evening with everyone and everything.

2 of 3 planes landed

Great news!!!
We have had confirmation that 2 of the 3 planes have landed in Port-au-Prince and they are being successfully unloaded.
The third plane has landed in Cap Haitian, which is a city in the northern coast. They do not have clearance to land that plane yet in Port-au-Prince, but we are praying that they will grant them permission soon, so that all the supplies and people can begin the trip up the mountain.

God is really answering prayers today. Thank you so much for joining us in prayer.

One Plane is here

I just got off the phone with Kyrk (Yes one of the phone services in haiti is working and we have found 2 phones and are able to communicate today. This is a huge blessing)
He told me that the first plane has landed and they were able to get the supplies and people from that flight.
The next flight was almost here and Chris was on the runway ready to start off loading all the cargo that is was carrying.
Continue to pray. God is really doing some amazing things today, which is such an encouragement to us all.

Donations

People are asking where they can send donations.
You can donate online through paypal. Just go to www.bhm.org
Donations can also be sent to either the Michigan office, Canada office or Netherlands office. The addresses are below.

BHM US
118 Courtland
Rockford, MI 49341
800-359-5174
bhmus@bhm.org

BHM Canada
Box 11
602 Wellington Ave.
Wallaceburg, ON
N8A 4L5
bhmcanada@bhm.org

Stichting BHM Nederland
p/a It Hiem 11
8502 CJ JOURE
Nederland
Rekeningnummer: 15.35.40.842
info@bhm-nederland.nl

Just as a reminder. 100% of all donations designated earthquake relief come to us here to help those in need.

Fuel

We just had contact with a company that is willing to give us diesel fuel. They have it in drums, but we have to get there by noon to pick it up.
Please join us in praying that we will be able to get this fuel. We desperately need it. Many of our vehicles are at the airport, so we only have one here, but God is already starting to work and one of our volunteers here from Michigan is willing to drive. Pray that everything works out.

Another day

We are all so exhausted and the thought of having to face another day is already overwhelming.
We didn't get much sleep last night. It is so difficult to mentally rest and get some sleep.
This morning we have confirmation that there are 2 planes in the air coming here. Pray that they are allowed to land and that we can get the desperately needed supplies and doctors up here.
Kyrk and Chris are once again going down, hoping to have more success today. Pray for their safety and the God would work a miracle today.
We need those doctors and supplies. We are currently treating between 300 and 400 people. We only have 2-3 doctors and limited supplies.
We are very grateful to the staff and supplies that we have. We are hearing of many other places that are much worse off then we are, so we are praising God for what He has given us. Our doctors are amazing people. They are diligently serving even though they are very exhausted.
Continue to pray for strength for everyone.

Dr. Duverso is ALIVE!

Just wanted to give one last update tonight.
We have confirmation that Dr. Duverso is OK!!!! He referred a patient to our hospital, so we now know that he is helping at a hospital in port-au-Prince. PRAISE GOD!!!
Continue to pray for those who are still missing. Several of our pastor's have children in Port-au-Prince and they still have not heard from them. One of our pastors was possibly in port also and we have not been able to contact him either.

We also know that the church at Zolyen and school at Grand Source have been completely destroyed. Our church in Pettionville is damaged badly and will probably have to be torn down and rebuilt.
The high school right beside the mission had it's auditorium (which is also used as classrooms) badly damaged and will probably have to be completely rebuilt.

Thank you so much for your continual prayers all throughout the day. We couldn't do what we are doing without them. You are playing a vital role in the relief efforts by praying. The other way to help is through financial donations. We need these to get food, water, fuel, relief supplies (as they are avaliable) and in the future building supplies.
Right now with all the shortages of food, water and fuel we are not able to handle any further volunteers. We are working with 2 relief organizations for the needed medical help. In the future we are going to be looking for help with the rebuilding process. First we have to get over the initial crisis.
Thanks again for all the prayers and support. It is such an encouragement to us here, that people are praying and care enough to help the people in need through their gifts.

The guys are back

Yes it is an answer to prayer that everyone we sent down to the airport is back. Unfortunately no one was able to fly into Haiti today. They stopped all private planes and only allowed military planes.
It is very discouraging for our guys.
Pray for wisdom. They are very frustrated and not sure what to do now. The UN has taken over the airport so who knows what will happen now.
Pray!! We desperately need those doctors!!!

Pictures from the hosptial today

Here are some pictures of what the hospital is like today. People keep coming and we are running out of places to put them. They have started using every hallway in the hosptial and the clinic now. We have just opened up another building for people to be on the floor of. We only have mats for them, but at least it is better then cardborad, which some were using in the hospital.

God is doing great things

In the middle of a tragedy it is easy to loose site of what God is doing. I am so thankful for the little words of encouragement that different people have shared. God is bringing His truth to mind at just the needed time to keep us going.
Yesterday 2 of the people that arrived from Samaritan's Purse are chaplains. They have spent the day today up in the hospital talking with the injured with the help of translators. God is using these 2 people and already at noon they had led 5 people to the Lord. We praise God that through this tragedy God is at work and bringing people to saving faith in Him. We also praise God for Rebecca and Jack who God is using to share the gospel with many hurting people.
Another blessing is that one of the people who came on Tuesday brought along 50 French New Testaments. When she brought them she had no idea that we would have an earthquake and people would be coming to the Lord and be hungry for His word. Praise God for the ways that he is working so many things together for good in the midst of this terrible tragedy.
Here are some pictures of them in the hospital.

Prayer Requests

Many of you are asking what the big prayer items are so that you can share these with your churches this upcoming Sunday.

- That God would work in the hearts of the people and that many would come to know Him through this tragedy.
- wisdom to know how to start helping the many who are hurt, without food and water or without shelter.
- safety as we receive supplies and start to distribute them. There is always a concern that we could be the target of mobbing if they know we have lots of supplies.
- That God would miraculously supply the needed diesel, water and food that we need. Our hospital needs the generator to keep it running, so diesel is a huge need.
- that the medical team scheduled to arrive on Tuesday would be able to arrive without any troubles with all their supplies
- For strength for the hospital staff, missionaries, and all those involved in the relief efforts to continue day by day.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We are continually seeing God at work and we know that He is answering prayers.

Things are getting bad

I just talked with a friend who just came from Port-au-Prince. He said that things are getting really bad. People have started looting and any store that is still standing they are mobbing, trying to get food.
As you all know Kyrk and Chris are right in the middle of Port-au-Prince right now. Please continue to pray for their safety and the safety of those traveling with them. Also with all this rioting and mobbing pray that the trucks can come up the mountain safely with all the much needed supplies without having them stolen.

Doctors

I wanted to give a quick update of our doctors.
Last night we heard that our community health doctor was killed. Pray for Dr. Agenor's family. We also have not been able to hear any news of our Orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Duverso. He was downtown in his clinic during the quake, so people are fearing the worst.
We are in desperate need of an orthopedic surgeon. We have heard that one of the doctors arriving today is an orthopedic surgeon so that is a huge answer to prayer. Hopefully God sends another one also since there are sooooo many cases in the hospital waiting for an orthopedic surgeon.
Continue to pray for strength for Dr. Claude, and Dr. Bernard. They have been diligently working since the earthquake happened and they are very exhausted. It will be a huge relief when the 4 doctors arrive on today's flight to help out.

What Kyrk and Chris' day is going to be like (we think)

I wanted to pass along what Kyrk and Chris' day looks like, to give you an idea of how to pray for them today.
They left at 8:30 this morning to go to the airport along with a driver and one man from Samaritan's Purse who arrived yesterday. As I mentioned earlier they are going to be distributing large pieces of plastic for people to use as temporary shelter. The first plane is planning to arrive around 10:45 with some people and some supplies. There will be 4 other flights coming in throughout the day also, with more people and supplies. Kyrk took some of our workers with him to help unload these planes and thanks to the generosity of MAF we are able to store the relief supplies in their hanger. This way we only have to bring the medical supplies up here and the relief supplies are closer to where they are going to be needed.
There are many press and communications people coming and the first and second flights. Kyrk and possibly Chris are going to take them around Port-au-Prince to see the devastation. Franklin Graham will be one of the people coming along with Greta van Sustren from Fox news. The doctor who arrived last night is really hoping that he can get Franklin Graham to come up to our hospital and see it first hand. He thinks that it is something that he needs to see, to really understand the huge impact of this and the work that we are trying to do with the limited supplies and staff that we have.

If all goes well Kyrk and the guys will return to the mission tonight around 7, since the last flight arrives around 5pm. They will be coming up with about 20 more people, so there are many things to pray for today.

1 - pray for safety
2 - pray that God would once again allow everything to come straight from the plane to our trucks without any trouble
3 - Pray for wisdom as they begin to distribute the plastic tarps
4 - Pray for wisdom and safety as they drive around Port-au-Prince and see the damage. I know this is going to be very hard to see all the destruction and hurting people.
5 - Pray that everyone and all the medical supplies will return to the mission tonight without any problems.

Thanks again for your prayers. God is answering and doing great things.

Another day

Praise the Lord, we were all able to sleep fairly well last night and we are ready to face another day, relying on the Lord's strength.
As I was laying in bed last night I was really overwhelmed with all the devastation around us. I think that these next few days are going to be tough. The people are starting to get desperate and are starting to do anything to get food and water.
Pray that God will provide food and water to those in need. We are hearing of a few different aid organizations on the ground in Haiti now, so hopefully people start to get their basic needs met.
We are unsure of how we are going to get things like food, diesel, propane, water etc. We are conserving as much as we can, not knowing when the next time will be that we can get any of these things.
Our diesel fuel was ordered before the earthquake, so now we are at the mercy of the delivery truck. We know that God is in control and knows our needs. Without diesel we can not run the generator to run our hospital. We have about 2000 gallons right now, but having to run many vehicles different places to get supplies that are being flown in, distribute those supplies and running our generator for about 14 hours a day, that supply will only last about 2 weeks.

This morning we sent 4 trucks to go to the airport to meet the planes that are flying in with more people and supplies from Samaritan's purse. They loaded up the plastic that was cut yesterday to distribute to people needing shelter, along the way to the airport. Pray for safety as they distribute this. There is always danger involved when you are distributing things to desperate people.

A few pictures

Here are a few pictures that Kyrk took as he was driving to the airport.

Arrival of Samaritan's Purse people

We are praising the Lord that the group of 4 people from Samaritan's Purse arrived safely. When the plane landed Kyrk and all the vehicles were able to go right out on the runway and unload the cargo. No one questioned them and there was no customs at all. God is Good and knew that we really needed the supplies that they brought.
Below are pictures of the plane arriving and unloading the cargo.




There will be 4 more flights tomorrow with more people and supplies. Please join us in praying that everyone will have safety once again as they travel and that we will once again be able to take everything out of the airport without any troubles.

Another video

Here is another video of some of the damage in the Pettionville area.

Another video

Plastic

Thankfully we had some leftover plastic from Samaritan's Purse that was sent for last year's hurricane relief last fall. Today our workers along with some visiting volunteers from Michigan helped to cut this into pieces to be given to families as temporary shelters.
It is cloudy right now and looks like it might rain. Pray that the rain will hold off until we are able to get this plastic out to people for shelter.

Another video

Here is another video. Again I'm not sure if it worked, but hopefully.
Chris took this footage as he went down to Pettionville this morning.


new videos

Heading to the airport

Right now Chris, Kyrk and a driver (Wilson) are heading down to the airport to pick up the 4 people and supplies that are coming in with Samaritan's Purse. The plane is supposed to arrive a 5:15 but they want to give themselves plenty of time to get there. They have no idea what they will be encountering on the way.
Pray
1 - that they get there safely
2 - that the Samaritan's Purse people arrive safely (that the plane is able to land on the run way)
3 - that they are able to get back to the mission safely with all the needed supplies, without having a hassle from customs and any trouble on the road.

Thanks for your continued prayers. We continue to hear of people's houses completely destroyed and other injured.

Rescue attempts

Chris, one of the missionaries here, has went down to Carrfour (very close to the epicenter) to see how we can help.
We have also sent a truck and 2 of our workers to a school in Port-au-Prince which collapsed. One of the workers son is possibly buried in the school. It was a university.
Pray that those who are out will be used in the ways that God wants them and that people will be rescued.

Hospital overflowing

Kyrk just went up to the hospital and took some pictures. Things are pretty bad up there. We have 3 doctors and 2 nurses who have all been working all night. They are exhausted, but there are more patients today then there were last night. The team of visiting medical people are NOT here today so the workload in overwhelming.
Pray that the team of doctors from Samaritains Purse will make it in this afternoon. They are hoping to fly in with Missionary Flights so hopefully the airport is open since we desperately need them.

Here are some pictures of what the hospital is like today.
The line of people waiting to get in to see the doctors.


These are patients being treated in the Emergency room



This is the hallway of the hospital. All the rooms are full and they are resorting to having people in the hallway on the floor.

Conference center

Here are a few pictures of the conference center that has been badly damaged. We are praising God that we did not have anyone in it at the time. Next week we are supposed to have 100 people staying there, so praise God is was not this week. The man who lives in the building was out at the time. God is good!

The outside wall and roof are going to have to be replaced.

The wall that slide down onto the greenhouse below.


Inside the damaged greenhouse

We are fine, but things are terrible here

As I'm sure many of you know we were hit with a large 7+ earthquake yesterday at 5pm. It was probably one of the most scary things I have every lived through. I have never seen buildings and vehicle move that much. Kyrk and I were actually outside talking with some people when it hit. I immediately ran home while it was still shacking to make sure that our youngest, Robert, was okay. He was sleeping in bed when I went outside. When I arrived home he was peacefully laying in his bed as if nothing happened.
I quickly grabbed him and we all spent the next 2 hours outside.
The aftershocks were quite strong and the kids were very shock up. The last aftershock that we felt was early this morning, so hopefully they are over.

Here at the mission, part of our conference center collapsed. Thankfully there was not much other large damage to buildings. Our hospital quickly became extremely busy.
We are praising the Lord that there was a visiting medical team from the US that was about 15 minutes down the road when the quake happened. They were here working with Mountain Top Ministries. They immediately decided to come up here. They were a huge blessing. We only had 1 doctor at the hospital at the time until Doctor Bernard (our head doctor) and another doctor that lives close by, were able to come up. There is no way that we would have been able to treat the many people that came without the visiting medical people.
Finally around 1:15 am they had the last person stabilized and people were able to get some rest. If that was possible amidst the aftershocks.

This morning the hospital is seeing a huge number of people coming. Sadly they waited until this morning to come and the doctors are saying that they are not able to stitch the wounds this morning since they are afraid that it would possibly lead to an internal infection.
Thankfully we have a team of doctors and other from Samaratain's Purse who are hoping to arrive this afternoon to help out. This will be a huge help. Right now we are just treating the injured that are coming to us. With other hospitals collapsed, many are coming here.
The reports this morning are that the mountain side right across from us has huge amounts of damage. Many have lot houses and everything. We are trying to send plastic and clothes over to them.
We have confirmed that one of our drivers along with his brother have been killed. They were inside a house during the earthquake and the house collapsed on them. Pray for Rogene's family.

The damage is huge around us and it is hard to know where to start. Port-au-Prince is a disaster. I'm sure as the day goes on we will have more reports.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We need wisdom to know where to start.

Earthquake video

I hope that this works. It is a video from last night as they were treating people at the hospital.
Many thanks to Mountain Top Ministries for sending much needed medical personal to help out in a huge time of need.

Christmas and pump update

We have been having a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Saviour. A few of the things that we try to do each year with our children, is giving small Christmas gifts to all the people that work at the mission and on Christmas day go through the hospital, greeting all the people and giving them small pieces of candy.
As the children get older they get more involved in each of these activities.
Naomi, Jonathan and Rebekah enjoyed giving the gifts to the workers. Robert "helped" a little, but mainly just said "bonswa" (good afternoon or evening) to people as they came in.
The picture below is Annes and Jonathan. Annes asked to have his picture taken with his friend Jonathan. Annes is one of our drivers.

Taking our children through the hospital is something that we always do before we open our gifts on Christmas morning. It was so neat to see the smiles on people's faces as they see the children and interact with them. It is one small way that we can share God's love with people who are sick at Christmas.



The pump continues to be a huge matter of prayer. Yesterday the well drilling rig was able to come up again to put the new pump in. After they had the pump in the 400 feet deep well, they discovered that it was not the correct pump and this pump is only able to pump water up 200 feet instead of the needed over 400 feet. The place where we bought the pump quoted us the price for the correct pump, but then when our driver actually bought it it wasn't the right one.
Now we are not sure what we are going to do. We are hoping to have some visitors who are coming in a couple of weeks bring the correct pump with them. Then we will have to have the well rig come up once again to pull the wrong pump out and put the correct pump in.
This whole ordeal is really teaching us patience and also helping us to remember that God is in control. There are many times when we wonder why God allowed the pump to break during our dry season, but we know there are reasons and we are trusting God. We know that He is the all knowing God and He has a perfect plan in all of this.
We had to start buying water yesterday for the hospital kitchen and hospital laundry.
Continue to pray that in God's timing this pump would be repaired and we once again would be able to get the much needed water from it.
One item of praise that I can't overlook is that on the 23rd, we had a big storm pass through. We received lots of wind, but with that came over 2 inches of rain. To get this much rain during December is very rare, so this is a huge answer to prayer.
Thank you for joining us in prayer and we will keep you updated as things progress.

Water Pump and update

Just to update you on the water pump here. We are really praying that God would work the details out for someone from Blue Ridge Mission to come up soon to install the new pump. We have all the pieces here, we just need the rig to put the pump back in the deep well.
We are really starting to run low on water and it would be a huge answer to prayer to have the pump working again to put a little more water in our cisterns. This week a couple of the cisterns went dry and we still have 4 months of dry season to get through.

We as a family are doing well. Everyone is staying healthy and we are enjoying all the Christmas preparations. Grandma and Grandpa Baker are currently in the states, so that makes for a little more work for us, but we are managing. We pray that they are having a restful time, now that the board meeting is over and they have 2 weeks of "vacation."



Naomi, Jonathan and Rebekah were great helpers!


Thanks Grandma Campbell for the "HUGE" lollipops!!!

Pump and Friends

On Monday we were finally able to pull the pump, thanks to the Blue Ridge Mission's rig. We discovered that we were going to have to replace the pump. Kyrk did not think that it would be possible to find the pump here in country, but thought we would try anyway. It truly is a miracle that we were able to locate the exact pump that we need and it is only costing us a little bit more then it would if we purchased it in the states. God is good and really knew that we needed this well to work again.
We are hoping that Blue Ridge can come back up next week to put the new pump down the well and that we will once again have a water supply.


Currently we have a director's training seminar taking place at the mission. There are over 200 directors and/or teachers here for this training. It is so exciting to see what God is doing through this training and how key educators are learning what it means to have an integrated Christian education and are getting excited about implementing their newly learned knowledge in their schools.
Yesterday I was delightfully surprised to see a wonderful lady from Atrel who had worked with us while we were there. She is the preschool teacher at the Atrel school and is here for the training seminar. Along with her were 2 others, a director of a school close to Atrel and another teacher from Atrel. It was so neat to see her again. It was like seeing an old friend. God is really giving us a heart for the people in that area and it is exciting to see how he continues to bring them across our path.
It is very encouraging that these 3 teachers/ directors are here from Atrel, so that when we do start a training center in Atrel there will already be those who have had some training and can share with others how important and beneficial it is.

short update

Last week Wednesday was a sad day for us at the mission. Ken and Tina Schlorf along with their 3 children left. We really enjoyed having them here for over a year and they are greatly missed.
Ken was a huge help keeping our vehicles in working order, along with helping Kyrk keep up with the continual maintenance issues.
Ken's leaving has made Kyrk's work load much heavier now. He is now the one that has to change the oil in the generator, figure out how to repair the vehicles (with the help of the locals) and fix any other broken thing.

One large item of prayer would be the repair of our well. A few week ago Kyrk discovered that our well was not pumping water. He was hoping that it was something that could be fixed without having to pull the pump, but we have determined that the problem is the pump. We are now waiting for a mission who does well drilling to come up and pull the pump. The well is 400 feet deep, so this is not going to be an easy task.
Pray that we would be able to fix this pump quickly, as we are starting to enter dry season and we rely heavily on the water that the well provides.