Okay, so our little “earthquake” as it was didn’t count. Haiti’s did. In an already extremely volatile and fragile country this major catastrophe has undoubtedly caused the loss of lives that we cannot even begin to imagine. The chaos has got to be beyond belief.
A photo Adam's Dad took
A country that has been unstable for as long as I have heard of it is even more so now. And, I mean unstable in many ways, of course. For example, I just read that it’s main jail in Port-au-Prince collapsed this morning and all of the inmates are now running free. Haiti has long been known for it’s voodoosim, creating frightening and dangerous rituals. These dangers were real before yesterday’s catastrophe and now today an entire new set of dangers are present.
Many do not know but Haiti holds a very special place in our heart because it is very special to Adam’s parents. They started doing missionary work in Haiti when Adam was merely a small child. His father continues to go to this day. Adam’s Dad goes down to Haiti for a week at a time quite often and preaches. It is dangerous. It frightens Adam’s Mom but it is his calling and we all know it. I won’t share the story where his Father once got his days mixed up and therefore didn’t get on his flight and his mother went to the airport and he didn’t get off of the plane. I hope you never experience what she and our family went through the next three hours thinking we had lost him (boy, was he in trouble!!!).
He has five churches and one orphanage there. One church is in Carrefour which is basically where the epicenter was. This is also where the orphanage is. Two churches are in Croix-des-Bouquets which unfortunately is also very close to Port-au-Prince and the final two churches are in the mountains.
This is one of the churches. It was a voodoo church that Adam's Dad bought.
So, a few things…the three churches and orphanage in Carrefour and Croix-des-Bouquets are all cement structure type buildings which is not good. This is more dangerous and the risk for loss of life increases of course because of this. The people living in these communities also live in cement structures…ditto for the same concern. The two churches and residents in the mountains undoubtedly were affected but hopefully not as bad as they live in more of hut-like structures that would not be as deadly.
A very big concern as of present is that one of the pastor’s house was on a hillside and all we are hearing about is how houses have just “fallen” down the hills. I ask of you two things. First, please say a prayer for the people of Haiti. He has been trying but Adam’s Dad cannot get through to any of his people (he has 7 pastors that he works with for his churches). This is not completely surprising as their phone lines are sketchy to say the least and are even worse now.
Here they were praying for Adam's Dad...we need to pray for them now more than ever
Second, take a moment and go to our parents’ website. Click on photos and then Haiti. We haven’t gotten anything new uploaded in awhile but still, take a peak into their lives. Take a peak into Dad’s Haitian family.