We returned late Thursday afternoon from Jeremie, south Haiti, exhausted and emotionally drained. Mayor Yvrose and her team are still giving out meals all over in their section of the country. They will continue probably for two more weeks at least. Out where Jesse Ostrander and his team were in south Haiti, Hubert and his team are still giving out food. He left this morning for the interior with another big load of rice, beans, and cooking oil. Sherry and I cannot thank everyone who has helped and continues to help. Your hearts have been so full of love.

When Sherry and I left south Haiti on Thursday, seeing the children and their parents who have lost their houses broke our hearts. Everyone, by the hundreds, has been asking for tents to live in. The Lord has put a heavy burden on our hearts to help. I could barely sleep last night thinking about them, especially the children. Please pray…

We have a friend, she and her husband told us they will match two tents with every tent bought! If you purchase one tent, they will match by providing two more tents. So, one tent will end up being three tents!! PTL!

Sherry and I, along with the families of Haiti, are so thankful. Please let the office know in Fort Myers of every tent you will bless a poor family with. Love A Child phone number: 239-210-6107

12411 Commerce Lakes Drive, Fort Myers, Florida 33913

We are praying!

Missionaries Bobby and Sherry Burnette

Dear friends, this sweet little boy has been fighting for his life. For those of you who don’t know his story, we found Jasson (we call him Jackson) during a Mobile Clinic in Savaan Pite. He had Kwashiorkor Malnutrition in the worst case. He had carried so much water in his body that it has affected his kidneys. He has had a special doctor who had been preparing him for Dialysis. But he also needs blood from time to time, like today. In Haiti when someone needs blood, they have to send three relatives to the Red Cross to give blood before they will give you blood for surgery, dialysis, etc.

This morning, we have to find three workers to give blood so Jackson can get his. You have no idea how hard this is in Haiti where we travel through dangerous areas to get this done. Many times, our workers are afraid to give blood. Here is the latest report from Dr. Barthelemy which came in this morning:

“Hello Madamn Sherry. Good morning!! We did not think they would keep him. He has created the fistula to grow from the inside last time, his appointment this weekend is to exteriorize the fistula in case he needs dialysis, this is the last step of the process. You know Jasson has mild anemia. The Doctor will ask for a blood pouch in case. Barthélémy Assonic.”

We pray that somehow we will be able to get a kidney transplant for Jackson. Please pray for him. Thank you, Sherry

Each day in Haiti, looking for food is like looking for gold. Food is becoming more “rare” each day in Haiti, especially with the recent earthquake and problems of insecurity. Mothers who try to sell their tiny items in the markets are abused by bandits, who take their little bit of money, or their items to sell. This makes these mothers afraid to go out and work, and as a result, more children have malnutrition.

This little baby boy is Cime Andrid, and he is 18 months old. His mother, Edna Ealus, has three children and is a street vendor, or “machann” in Creole. When she “does” go out, her husband Fritz takes care of the children. When the mother is with the children, her poor husband does a job called “pote” (pronounced potey). He carries heavy burdens for people everywhere on the streets for a small amount of money. When he leaves his area, he comes in late at 6:00 or 7:00 pm, and then Cime’s mother goes to buy a little bread to make a soup for the children.

They come from an area near Fond Parisien called “Nakou.” In Nakou there is a drought, and even if they make a garden, it will be difficult to harvest because the land cannot produce anything. Before they get water, they have to walk several miles. They live in a house made of rocks, and when it rains, they sleep “sitting up” because the house leaks.

Madamn Edna came to our Clinic to find out what caused her child to be vomiting for 15 days, and the baby could not stand and became very thin. When Dr. Barhtelemy did the test, it showed that Cime had severe malnutrition and was seriously ill at 7.3 kilos. He was also dehydrated. This frightened his mother and she became so sad and had tears in her eyes. She agreed to let Cime go into our Malnutrition Clinic for treatment. The nurses told her that they would start with the treatment, medicine, and a “special food,” so that he would get well. The nurses explained that with this “special food” and milk he will gain weight, and when he reaches a good weight, he can go home and come back each week.

Madamn Edna realizes that her child won’t have to suffer anymore because he is in the hands of “Love A Child,” and he is also in the hands of God! She realizes that he will have the best of 24-hour care, and good nourishing food and special milk. He will have other children to play with and plenty of toys! He will get several warm baths each day, and nice clean clothes, and the best thing is that the Lord is watching over him! Soon, he will be a normal, playful child, getting into mischief! We serve a great big God, who watches over His children! We so appreciate every little Grandma, and every person who gives large or small to help keep this Malnutrition Clinic operating! These little lives are “in your hands!” Thank you so much. Sherry

This is a story of God’s Divine Wisdom in the midst of a catastrophe!

For hungry people, food is like gold in Haiti!

The boat on which we rented to carry 6,000 bags of rice, several hundred “5-gallon cans of cooking oil” and hundreds of cans of condensed milk for the children left the Port-au-Prince dock at 6:00 pm on Monday evening.

The Rice Company told me it would take around 15 hours for it to arrive at the Port of Jeremie. There, we would meet with a devout Christian woman, Madamn Yvrose, the Mayor of Jeremie!

“Food Pirates”

The company that sold us all the food also told us that they had put two security guards on the boat with “big guns.” I had asked the owner, “why would you do this since you are out in the ocean?” He said, “this is where the gangs and others will attack the boat on the sea to steal the food.”

“When the Roads are Gone”

There were no roads [from us] to Jeremie (one of the areas where the earthquake hit), so Sherry and I rented a small plane to fly us to Jeremie on Monday morning, while “the boat” was still en route. For a while, the boat came up “missing,” but as we were flying into Jeremie in the small plane, the owner of the boat said, “we just docked at the port.” And when we looked out the window of the plane we saw it! That was a big relief!!

“Hunger Makes the Dog Climb the Coconut Tree ” (a Creole Proverb)

But we found out that when two other boats had come in with food, about 2,000 hungry people rushed in and took all their food, which was for other areas! But the wisdom of the Lord had spoken to Mayor Yvrose, whom we worked through, and she hired a minimum of 30 security people with guns! Sure enough, when our boat came up, the hungry people broke the whole port gate down to rush through to take all our food! But they met “an army of security” which stopped them! We are just so thankful because they would have taken all our food in a matter of minutes.

You must realize that these people are hungry and they have children who are hungry! There is a Creole Proverb that says, “Hunger makes the dog climb the coconut tree.” It means, “hungry people will do anything to get food!”

“Protecting the Food for the Worst Areas”

It took almost three days to unload our food! Mayor Yvrose had hired huge trucks and more security and also hired about 100 more people to help unload the boat… This gave all those people a job, which made them happy!!! It was a big undertaking because the mass of people was not going to let our trucks out of the port (because they wanted the food themselves), and we can’t blame them. This food was targeted to go the worst and forgotten, hard-to-reach areas.

“Heart-Wrenching and Emotional”

Then, we had to go with Mayor Yrose to unload the food to the area where it would be kept until the distribution… In between all this time, Mayor Yvrose was giving away food to the locals and trying to have peace. We found out that no matter how much food she gave away to locals, they were replaced by more hungry people, un-ending. We had a big wall where our depot was, and the people were yelling and screaming at us day and night for food, and this is where Sherry and I stayed!!!  It was heart-wrenching and emotional... We do not have the words to say how this affected us.

“God’s Protection”

In three nights, Mayor Yvrose slept on a little piece of cardboard on the ground beside the food. While we were there with the mayor we distributed food to 250 Pastors from rural areas, to take the food to these people in these areas. I’m just telling you this because “distributing food to hungry people after an earthquake is not easy at all!” We just had one friend who had 1,000 bags of rice and was on the road, and they stopped him and took everything!! It takes God’s protection to deliver food to hungry people. Our hearts have been ripped out. As we were going out yesterday, we looked at children in their eyes, we saw no hope because these kids have no home and no help… As were all the people under the tarps.

“God Sent a Helicopter”

Meanwhile, while we were in Jeremie, Jesse Ostrander and his small team went on to the Nippes area, Anse a Veau, Les Cayes to distribute food. They had their hearts broken as they traveled into the worst areas. In one of these areas, people were living in a cave. As Jesse entered, he could smell “rotten flesh.” There were people in this cave area, who had broken, twisted arms and legs, and severe infections. He came out to try to find a truck, anything he could to take these people to a hospital. By a miracle, Jesse found a Marine Helicopter!

But sadly enough, only one lady offered to go… the rest stayed. They were so afraid that they would have an arm or leg amputated, so they decided to stay with the local “leaf doctor.” Jesse left that day with a heavy heart and tears in his eyes.

It will still take Mayor Yvrose and the team two to three more weeks to distribute the food. We want to thank everyone who sacrificed to give food to the victims.

Their other main need is “family tents.” If you want to donate one tent, one of our partners will donate two. You can find these tents on Amazon, and have them sent to our Love A Child Office:

Love A Child
12411 Commerce Lakes Dr
Ft Myers, Fl 33913
PH: 239-210-6107

Link to our Amazon Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/genericItemsPage/21AOGAFSX5O82

To make online donations, click here: https://loveachild.com/ways-to-give/

Thank you so much, Bobby and Sherry

We have just returned from working on disaster relief in Jeremie, Haiti. We have received some good news from Dieuferly, one of our Love A Child children. We found him in the mountains when he was about three years old, part of a family of eight children, he had severely deformed club feet. We brought him down to our orphanage and sought care for him. He received some surgeries here in Haiti that were not done properly for club feet. As a result of several major operations, he has been in a lot of pain most of his life.

Through the help of our friends, RL and Vanessa in the Dominican Republic, we were put in touch with a great surgeon. He has done one operation on Dieuferly’s worst foot. Dieuferly is still in the Dominican Republic because he cannot leave until he sees the surgeon. His appointment date is September 14^th. At that time, he may be able to come back to Haiti. And then, when the time is right, he can have the surgery on his other foot! It would be our “dream” for this young man!

Dieuferly is one of our photographers and is in the Dominican Republic studying “editing” with Watson, who is our photographer and has experience in editing. We just want to thank you for your prayers and thank those of you who helped financially with his surgery! We feel so blessed by God to have you as our partners! All glory to God!

Sherry