Urgent prayers are needed for the Reinhard (Apostolic missionary family (NOT RMI missionaries) living at Cite Lumiere in Cayes (where we lived for 25 years). The dad, Tim, 16 year old Sarah and 5 year old Gabriel were in a serious motorcycle accident on the way to church yesterday morning. Another motorcycle pulled out in front of them, causing them to collide and wreck. Details are sketchy but it seems that Tim has a concussion and was fairly battered up (the US hospital report was no broken bones, but lots of soft tissue damage). Sarah has a badly hurt knee. Gabriel suffered severe head trauma and a punctured lung. They were taken to the mission hospital a short distance away where doctors worked on Gabriel for a couple of hours. His injuries were too extensive and they were not able to save him. He died yesterday morning.
The US embassy expedited the paperwork during the afternoon to take Gabriel back to the US with the family immediately and a local funeral home in Cayes was able to properly prepare him for transportation. One of the missionary men made a simple wood coffin for Gabriel. In the afternoon, a charter plane came and got the family in Cayes and took them to Port-au-Prince where they were evacuated by Missionary Flights International. MFI took them to West Palm Beach where Tim and Sarah were taken to the hospital. A sister of either Tim or Joan (not sure) met them there as well a friend to help them get to the hospital.
This is quite a blow to the missionary body as you can imagine. Pray for Tim & Joan and the 4 girls, Sarah, Bethany, Hannah & Faith. RMI missionary, Gary McLaughlin, as well as the entire missionary body gathered around them and were right there with them at the mission hospital, helping them make decisions and arrangements, then helping them get on the plane in Cayes. It was reported that a large crowd of Haitians from the local community gathered outside the hospital to show their love and concern for the family as well.
As of this morning, Tim has been released from the hospital and they are hoping Sarah will be released soon (They both may need operations on their knees at a later date.) so they can return to their home area of Peoria, IL today.
