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More Southern Haiti Flooding Info

Dan is in Haiti and sent the following report:  "The palm trees are swaying in the tropical breeze but it's RAINING BUCKETS!  Again!  Southern Haiti has had almost steady rain for more than a month and a half.  Tropical Storm Noel contributed quite a bit of rain and there is more disturbed weather in the Caribbean coming this way.  All this rain has created incredible hardships on a people that are already struggling for their day to day existence.  Most crops have been lost - especially tough since the Les Cayes plain area is the "breadbasket" of Haiti.  Animals have been swept away.  Commerce in the outlaying areas has ground to a halt because supplies cannot be brought from the capital to Cayes and then trucks cannot get out to the areas they service.  Everything people own is soaking wet, water is inside their flimsy homes (some homes have actually been swept away or are covered in water), sickness is increasing and there is much hunger.  Pray for the people!"

Dan went in Wed. Oct. 31 to help prepare for a team from Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church (Chicago area) who were to go in today.  Their Sister Church, Astruc, is very remote.  It is in the mountains in the middle of the southern peninsula.  The Sister Church pastor sent word that the river they must cross to get there is completely impassable.  It's way over people's heads.  Also, the road leading to the river has been washed away in 3 places.   The trip to this church is usually pretty tough in dry conditions.  Rain turns the road to a muddy clay mixture that is truly difficult to get through. 

After consulting with Dan, the US team decided to cancel the trip.  It was clear that they wouldn't be able to get to the church.  We are all very disappointed needless to say, but it is a wise decision.  They have rescheduled their trip for January.  Things should be dried out by then!

Rob was to go in with the team too.  Of course, he is not going now, but may still go to Haiti next week to work on the bookkeeping system.  We'll keep you up to date on that once his plans are clear.

At this point, we have no word from any of the other sister churches.  They will work at that once things dry out and navigation is possible.

Here are some photos that Jenn Rogan (RMI missionary) took 2 weeks ago as they traveled back from a Sister Church.

This is a road!  They had to manually build a new section to get around the boulders!

Well, it WAS a road!

RMI staff checking to see if that part of the road was passable.

 

Jenn, Dan and some RMI staff took these pictures yesterday:

  

The river in Les Cayes, near the mission center, called La Ravine.

Notice the wet high water mark on the house!

  

A couple of missionary friends (not RMI) also sent information and photos.  Where one of them live, at the top of the mountains in the middle of Haiti's southern peninsula, they personally recorded over 19 inches of rain and 70 mph winds.  Here are the pictures they sent:

Again, pray for the people of Haiti!

Debbie

To go, or not to go, Pray for Haiti...

The flooding persists.  TS Noel has come and gone, but the rain has not.  I may or may not be going to Haiti today as planned.  A decision will be made in the next couple of hours.  So sad if I and the team from Chicago can't go!  Up to this point, the road to the village I would be visiting is impassable due to a raging river that we need to cross (there is no bridge. so the water levels must decrease, and the mud must dry out enough so that our 4 wheel drive vehicles can navigate across).

Here is a picture from 2 days ago with the kind of destruction that is so common due to the rains.  This is not the road I was to take, but it gives you an idea as to what the rains have done.  This is a very, and I mean very typical sight.

Rob

Moving forward...

Yesterday at RMI, we had the opportunity to meet with Dale Janzen.  He is not only a design and marketing expert, but he is an "alumnus" of multiple trips to Haiti to visit his sister church through RMI.  When it comes to RMI, he just gets it.

We recently had the RMI logo redone by Rich Cerrina.  He did a great job.  Thanks Rich.  Now, it is time to take the next step.

Dale is co-founder of the degaje group, a design/marketing group based in the North West suburbs of Chicago (Bartlett). 

He flew down for a few days to chat and collaborate.  We talked at great length about the development of a whole scheme to communicate/promote RMI.  We talked about brochures, displays (see below), video, web, etc.  Pretty much everything you can think of when it comes to communicating RMI.  He is obviously very talented, experienced and aware of the issues.  Very cool. Very exciting indeed.

Display?  You know, one of those things that orgs use to put on a table to sort of draw you in?  There are all kinds of designs.  We need a redo!  Our's doesn't exactly "draw you in".  Not that long ago, I went to a missions conference at a college and got out my "display".  I sort of already knew it didn't really cut it, but it is all we had.  I didn't realize what I was up against!  A few tables down from me was a "display", that included a 50" flat widescreen TV, running this very cool/edgy/hip video that certainly drew people in and drew people away from all the other sub-par displays.  Now I am not saying we need to be wacky crazy edgy, but I am saying we can do better.  We may not have a plasma, but we sure can provide a reputable presentation.

I can't wait.

Rob

A Reciprocal Pat on the Back...

John Peterson, a member of Second Cape May Baptist, in Cape May NJ, writes...

"Just wanted to say hello and let you know that our work group from 2^nd Cape had a productive and enjoyable trip last week in Cayes, Haiti.  We got a lot done at the guest house and when we left the inverter and generator were once again fully operational and there were several new ceiling fans, outlets, toilet paper holders door knobs, screens etc.. It was truly a joy and a privilege to be able to serve in some small way in the ministry there."

He continued...

"I have been reading the web site and blogs and think that they are an excellent tool for information sharing.  Tell whoever is responsible to keep up the good work."

Thanks John, and a "Great Job" back at you and the rest of your team for the work you did at the Guest House in Haiti!

Rob

Baradere visit, wow...

This is an email we received from Gary McLaughlin in Haiti...

Good Morning,

Just a quick note to let you know that we were out of Baradères and now at the retreat center. It was a bit of a struggle but we made it with the help of God. It started raining sometime in the night and was raining hard from at least 3 am on. We left at 8:20 am with water about 1 to 2 feet on the road coming out of Baradères. It was still raining hard too. I wanted to get going before it was too high. We had to cross 2 high rivers that were running fast and hard but not too wide. We had to move large rocks from the road and build a wall on the downhill side of the road so we could get around bigger rocks that were too big to move. Wow Baby!! That was interesting. We prayed that God would help us to get past this spot before we started building. It took about 3 hours to get that situation taken care of but we all worked together to make it happen. There was singing, dancing and praises to God after we got all the vehicles through. I was told by the RMI staff that it was the first time we ever had to do what we did that morning. After the slide area and the road work we had a large truck on it's side but there was enough room on the side to get by with no problem. Praise God! We stopped by Bon Fin to drop off some things there and to pick up Jenn's new puppy. We heard that we had the road washed away at the bottom of the mountain where the dry (normally) river is with the market. We were told it was not a good situation and if we couldn't pass it we could come back and spend the night there. We decided to go take a look and if we could fix it we would. When we got there a ramp of dirt and road had already been made and so we crossed with no big problem. Just the normal yelling on the behalf of the Haitians that built the ramp. I think they wanted money to cross on their ramp. I let Jules handle that and got back in my truck and we all drove across. So, I just want to give you some information at this time to let you know we are in good shape here. It was a good trip. I think everything went pretty good. The weather here at the retreat center now is much better. The sun is out this morning and the day is looking good. Pray that the rains stop for a little while. Its been raining so hard.

Love You All,

In Christ,

Gary

Flooding hits Southern Haiti

It has been a week of storms and flooding in Southern Haiti.     Monday, Oct. 1, they experienced the most severe flooding with roads, homes and parts of downtown Cayes (Haiti's 3rd largest city) completely under water, however, the rains and thunder / lightening storms have continued all week.  As of today, Oct. 9, it has been raining for 9 straight days.  The mission center (located in the village of Simon, a suburb of Cayes) where RMI's missionaries live is located on 2 hilltops, so their homes were not flooded.  However, here are pictures of the village immediately surrounding the mission center.  That's 2 1/2 ft. of water in the local Christian high school yard!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is downtown Cayes, Haiti.

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Harvest missionary kid Christie Wray for sharing these photos with us!

At this point, due to the flooding, we have heard reports of crop and livestock loss, as well as home, business and road damage.  We have not heard from any "outback" sister churches as to how this has affected them.  When we hear news, we will post it.

 

Debbie Shoemaker