Dear Friends,
An aftershock of a 6.1 magnitude hit Haiti this morning I'm awaiting news from Dony on what the situation is. ESMI is so thankful to many of you who will remain committed as Haiti walks this very difficult path.
Praise God for the response that is coming in. Two 20 ft truckload of food and water were purchased and crossed into Haiti from the DR yesterday. Thank you all for making this possible. We are also partnering with other ministries to get food into Haiti. Today at noon, God's willing, a 17-seater plane from the Bahamas will fly into PAP filled with food, medical supplies, and water.
Next is the distribution of food. Louis was organizing 30 people from the south to head to PAP yesterday. ESMI needs to secure vehicles, preferably dump trucks to go into different areas to do this. We are setting up stations in Petit Goave, Carrefour, Miragaone, and Grecier for now. These are areas that have suffered substantial damage also but have received little to no aid. We will work with the pastors of these communities.
Today will also be a day of more strategic planning on distribution and coordination of those desiring to help at this crucial time. Pray for wisdom. The plan is to have two sites to host Haitians and US teams: Croix des Bouquets and Carrefour. The orphans will be removed from the latter area and the home turned into a guesthouse for now. At the moment, there are 2 medical teams desiring to go tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. Pray for the logistics to be worked out and to see if this is still possible after this 6.1 aftershock.
Suggestions for Packing Containers for Food and Clothing:
Some of you are already collecting food to send in containers once the ports in Haiti open. We'd like to offer the following suggestions as you do so.
FOOD-as you collect, please pack a number of food items for immediate consumption- biscuits, chips, sardine, tuna sandwich mix, canned sausage, lots of small bottles of water, malta drink (Haitians love this drink-Floridians check Publix), Boost or other nutritional drink, evaporated milk, cereal, etc. and of course, rice, black beans, red beans, oil, canned meat, spaghetti, enriched fine yellow cornmeal, bulgar wheat, baked beans, canned soup, tomato paste, salt, sugar, black pepper, food seasoning, spices, etc. These are just some of the items the Haitians enjoy food-wise.
CLOTHING-Please,please gently worn clothing and shoes.
TENTS- These are needed for temporary housing. Many, as you have seen, are sleeping in the streets with sheets as tents. We are also looking for large tents for churches to have their services. It rained yesterday in PAP. I leave the rest to your imagination.
To maximize the use of space in the containers, pack these items in boxes.
Again, we thank you for your prayers. We serve a sovereign God whose good purpose through all of this will one day be seen.
Blessings,
Sharon
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