The Lord brought together just the right individuals to form a perfect team. Pictured here (L to Right, back): Kenny, Joey, Jessi, Dr. John, Madeline, Pastor Etienne, Stephanie, Charles. (L to R, front) Rita, Jullie, Jacquetie, Ellen, Kenlley (not pictured: James and Lussade). Photography by our amazing team photographer, Charles Vernier.
“On Tuesday afternoon, nine members of the team experienced some of the more exciting aspects of Haitian weather when we took advantage of some downtime and decided to hike two miles through the mountains to visit the HCRM orphanage. When we started, the day was very hot and muggy, as usual; Jacquetie remarked how nice it would be to have a little breeze. After about a 25-minute walk/climb we arrived and spent a couple of hours playing soccer and basketball and swinging with the kids.
Kenlley, who lived at the HCRM orphanage for five years (his adoption was finalized just after the 2010 earthquake) was able to reunite with several kids he had known during his time there, which was very special. Then we passed out some candy and toys to the kids and started back to Merci de Dieu village.
Within five minutes we noticed an enormous storm blowing in across the ocean and immediately quickened our pace in a vain attempt to outrun it. The wind picked up and a huge, blinding dust cloud blew in, followed within 60 seconds by the full force of the storm. Our trail was transformed in an instant into a fast-moving river of mud, and the wind was driving the rain sideways with such force that at times we had trouble keeping to our feet. It was an absolutely unbelievable display of power (and really impossible to do justice to in words).
[photo credit: Kenlley]
We were all drenched to the skin and laughing and shouting as we ran, dodging flying debris and slipping and sliding on the muddy stones. Jullie and Manoushca (two village girls who have been helping us translate throughout the week) were wearing flip-flops and had to remove them in order to be able to run.
Then things started to get more serious. Kenlley, James, and I were running ahead and had just stopped to let the others catch up, when a big tree crashed down across the road about 30 feet ahead of us, just where we’d have been, had we not paused. At the same time, Joey, who was toward the back of the team, heard the sound of a tarp ripping in half. When he turned in the direction of the sound, he saw a 6-foot piece of corrugated metal fly off a tent and come sailing through the air toward us. It crashed into the ground, and a woman holding a tiny baby emerged from the tent and ran across to another one, which looked like it also was just about to fly apart. We detoured around the fallen tree and kept running, finally making it back to Merci de Dieu and up to HQ, much to the amusement of the villagers who laughed at us from their porches as we sprinted by. We were exhausted, laughing, and very grateful to be safe.
Although this was really a dangerous experience, it was also fun and exhilarating; we could enjoy the adventure, knowing that we had a safe place to run to. But it was also sobering, as it made even more real to us the desperate situation of thousands of people like the woman and her baby, whose only shelter is a flimsy tent, and for whom a storm brings only terror and destruction.”
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Please pray for the thousands of Haitians still living in shelters of tarps and sticks, like the woman and baby Ellen saw running in the storm. Life in the tent-cities (or anywhere in a tent) is so terrible, the families of the Merci’ de Dieu Village who have that as part of their past prefer not even to talk of it.
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