October 11, 2016
“The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King forever. The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.”
— Psalm 29:10-11
Recently one of our partners David George and some of his wonderful friends provided the funds to build a big new church on the property where there was an orphanage and school run by Pastor Claude Mondesir in La Tremblay, Haiti.
David George, the Lighthouse Team, the children from Pastor Claude’s orphanage, along with many of us from Love A Child staked out where the church would be built. We all love and support Pastor Claude. His dream was to have a church in this area to bring hundreds of people to Jesus Christ. Pastor Claude started building the new church right away. We were all very excited about what God would do in this area!
Building a church in La Tremblay for Pastor Claude was incredible! Bobby, Pastor Claude, and David George looked in on the new church and how fast it was progressing. David and Angie George, along with some of their wonderful friends and his ministry, built this church for the Glory of God. This church would see hundreds of people give their hearts to the Lord. We all love this incredible man of God!!
On Sunday we all traveled to the dedication of our new church in La Tremblay, along with David George and Pastor Jay. But we were starting to get some bad news about the hurricane that was headed for Haiti, so we needed to leave early from the church service to prepare for Hurricane Matthew that was now a Category 4 hurricane.
David George, Jay, Bobby and I dedicated this new church in La Tremblay for Pastor Claude. David posted a message about the dedication:
“Praise God for an awesome dedication service today at Pastor Claude’s new church. The church was packed and people were standing outside. The presence of God was very strong today. It was a joy to know that hundreds of people in this area would come to Jesus as Lord of their lives. This is one of the most beautiful churches in Haiti. I had the privilege of preaching on how God can take something ugly and make something beautiful out of it. Just look at the beautiful people in these pictures. Jay and I are so thrilled to be connected to Bobby and Sherry and Love A Child and be here in Haiti at this time. Thank you for all your prayers.”
When we returned to the Love A Child compound, all of our Love A Child Orphanage children were working very hard making sandbags and pillowcases full of sand to block the flash flooding. Ken, Joker, and so many other Haitians also worked non-stop to set up sandbags throughout the compound. The catastrophic Hurricane Matthew was heading towards the southwestern tip of Haiti.
It was all hands on deck, as everyone pitched in to load up sandbags to be placed around the Love A Child compound. Thank you David George, our Love A Child children, and our Haitian workers for helping us to all stay safe on the property.
Our Haitian children were still making more sandbags late into the day. They were all such hard workers along with our Haitian workers and missionaries. We spent most of Sunday making sandbags and preparing for the hurricane. When we ran out of sandbags, we filled pillowcases with sand. We had received a call from the local mayor requesting “Disaster Relief” from Love A Child. We would help with anything we could, but it wouldn’t be enough for the destruction that was about to devastate Haiti. I kept thinking about the children and families who lived in the garbage dump in tents. What would happen to them? God help us!
By 7:00 AM Monday the hurricane had winds of 145 miles per hour and was 50 miles south of Haiti. There were predictions that over 100,000 people would lose their homes. We tried to obtain extra food to pass out along with other urgent items that people would need. The Haitian government was begging for our help! By 5:00 AM on Tuesday, Hurricane Matthew had made landfall in Haiti. So many people were in danger and though they tried to evacuate people, they really had no place to go. Their huts were washed away as tons of mud rushed down the mountains.
Hurricane Matthew was powerful and destructive when it made landfall on the southwestern tip of Haiti. The storm pounded the poor island with drenching rains and a flooding storm surge for many hours.
Schools, churches and homes were washed away all around the southwestern area of Haiti.
As the waters receded in some areas, we were seeing the most damage along the coast.
The worst of Hurricane Matthew had passed and we were all safe here at Love A Child. The wind and rain that pounded Haiti for hours, caused severe flooding and mudslides. As we learned more about the damage and destruction around us, we prepared for “Disaster Relief” and started gathering supplies so that we could help the Haitians as soon as possible.
On Wednesday morning, we reached out to poor villages with food and disaster relief kits. Please continue to hold Haiti in your prayers, as this could take many months for these poor people to recover. Please consider making a donation to Love A Child to help us provide disaster relief.
From joy to sorrow…
We had had a wonderful church dedication at Pastor Claude’s church in La Tremblay and yet a day later his new church had become a safe shelter for the poor people in that area whose homes were washed away. At his other orphanage in Léogâne, Haiti he wasn’t as fortunate. Pastor Claude came to our warehouse to ask for supplies.
We gave Pastor Claude pallets of food, clothing, blankets, macaroni and much more to take to his large orphanage in Léogâne, Haiti. He drove away happy, but when he got back to his orphanage, the water was high. He was missing four of his 100 orphans. Then, he saw three of them, and they were all floating on top of the water with only their eyes sticking out. The children had washed away before he could get to them. He could not find the fourth child. When he came back to tell us this, it put a knife through our hearts. I could not bear this. Please pray for Haiti.
Now, Pastor Claude also had 200 refugees in his new church in La Tremblay. It was such a blessing that so many people had someplace to go to be safe during the hurricane, though people desperately needed food. We gave him pallets of Manna Pack food, macaroni from Children’s Care Outreach, dehydrated fruit from Gleaners, a pallet of clothes, blankets, and much more.
Pastor Claude had hundreds of people come to his Ebenezer school, orphanage, and the new church in La Tremblay for food and a safe place to stay.
Pastor Claude gave all the people some disaster relief kits at both of his orphanages, the one in La Tremblay and the other one in Léogâne. This will only be temporary relief, so we are reaching out to our many donors and supporters to help us help these precious people of Haiti.
As news started to get out, we learned of the many other disasters around us. A major bridge was destroyed in Petit Goâve, cutting off the only road to the most devastated areas. The flooding and destruction were so widespread that getting to that part of the southwestern area of the country was going to be very difficult.
On Thursday, our daughter Julie, who is a nurse, and Kaeli, one of our missionaries, along with David George and his friend Jay went to Léogâne to assess the damage and see what we could do to help the most. The other little towns of Jacquet, Balan, Ti Marché, Madamn Bauje, Beauge and many others right down the road from us were all in very bad shape. People were starving.
It seemed so hard to believe, but there was a miracle! I told you about Pastor Claude seeing the water “carry away” three of his four missing children. Well, they ended up in Port-au-Prince alive. They were covered with mud, but alive! He still had one more missing orphan, but what a miracle it was to find these three “who were thought to be dead,” but are alive! I remember crying on the phone with Pastor Claude and he said, “Madamn Sherry, I have been in the church praying for two hours.” Well no telling what God did in those two hours! AMAZING GOD!
Update: Here are David George and Pastor Jay with Pastor Claude’s “four missing children.” Their orphanage was right on the ocean and the water had eaten into their orphanage yard. The children were close to the edge and dropped 30-feet into the raging current. Pastor Claude saw their “eyes above the water” but could not get to them. Three were found Wednesday in Port-au-Prince. They had survived and walked many miles, and the last one was found on Friday. God had told Pastor Claude in his “prayer closet” that “You will find them alive!” Oh, what a miracle! I am so happy!
The death toll in Haiti has risen to over a thousand people. We ask you all to please pray for Haiti. There are very tough times ahead for these poor people, it will take years to recover for many areas. If you can give an offering for Haiti, please call our office at 1-239-210-6107 and let a staff member know that you want to help. You can use your credit card, you can give online or you can give by mail, please we need your help now! Please, everyone, pray!
God bless you,
Sherry