Wednesday, February 3, 2010

At the DR Border and into Haiti!

Today was another amazing day. We arrived in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic at 1:30pm today. We then waited for our ride. Tate Williams who has been in the DR since last week has been coordinating relief efforts for The Global Orphan Project from the DR. Last Sunday Tate was on his way to PaP and his vehicle broke down. Tate ended up purchasing a vehicle for TGOP today, closed the deal and was to the airport by 3pm. Because of a miscommunication, we got in a taxi to go find Tate at a rendevous point and were preparing to pay the driver $40. Chris Tran that moment looks out the taxi window and says, "Look! A Silver Toyota Tundra with a tall white guy!" (this was the description we had of Tate). Gene Summerlin jumps out of the taxi and knocks on the window of the Toyota and sure enough, it's Tate! We get out of the taxi and give the driver a tip for his troubles. We've now been in the Toyota since 3pm. We just crossed the DR border and are in Haiti! It's 10pm. Unbelievable. Many relief groups have been holed up at the border after 5pm. We spent 20min at the border, passed four checkpoints with armed guards and now we are thru. Pray for us! Haitian roads are crazy and now it's night. Is God awesome or what?

3 comments:

DenningA said...

Hi,
I don't know you but I know Chris Tran pretty well and heard he was heading to Haiti to help out. I have been trying to find away to get down there to volunteer in anyway. If you are looking for any more volunteers please let me know, I am a soccer coach and with it being off season I have a good amount of free time. You can reach me at Denninga@obu.edu
Thanks,
Alex Denning

bret welstead said...

I'm praying for you guys. Great to read the updates. And I'd love to go help in Haiti, too, if you're looking for volunteers.

Mike Hsu said...

Hi Alex and Bret,

I'm so glad you want to come down and help in Haiti. Believe it or not, much of the first responder work is already done in Port au Prince. At this point, it is now rebuilding, loving on orphan children and finding ways to empower the Haitian people to minister to one another. I can't help you right now with getting you down on this trip. We'll probably be at another location by the end of this weekend, but go ahead and check with: 1) theglobalorphanproject.org website and they are having people to sign up for teams for Croix or 2) connect with some Grace Chapel people (including Chris Tran and Ben Welstead), and we will help you and your church take future trips to Haiti. We've been going to Haiti since 2004 and we are committed to exposing as many people as possible to the incredible work of God here in Haiti.