OC Bereans

Gentlemen,

Most of you know that Deb and I have dear friends who have invested most of their adult life ministering in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti, located in the far southwest area of the country.  We served together with Jean and Joy Thomas in a ministry in Mississippi in the late 1970s; in fact, we watched them fall in love and get married … Jean, who is Haitian, and Joy, originally from Oregon.  I took a team of college students there on a short-term mission trip in 1984, and would love to do the same thing with our Bible study group in the future.  Their website is <http://hcdf.haitifund.org/>, although many of the pages are not loading properly.  An email from Joy is included below.

Well, the future may be sooner than I thought … I am asking you to pray about God’s leading … should a group of us go now?  Frankly, I don’t know how this works, being currently unemployed, but unemployment doesn’t really exist in God’s economy.  Just pray about it … then communicate anything that God may be telling you.  You can post comments on this blog for all of us to read.

Earlier today, Rick P. emailed a list of relief options … in case you didn’t get his email, check it out <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/haiti-earthquake-relief-h_n_421014.html>.

Finally, the group that Nate works with, Uncharted Waters Sports Ministry, had already scheduled two trips for 2010 to work with Mission of Hope orphanage in Port-au-Prince <http://www.unchartedwaters.org/opportunities.php?page=62>.  They have been unable to contact the orphanage.

~ tr

Here is Joy’s update:

January 13, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you all for your many phone calls and messages via email and Facebook.  We will do our best to respond to each of you personally.

As we were preparing to settle down for the night at midnight, there was another major aftershock so we decided to sleep in our car.  Almost everyone slept outside and many went to the church to sleep in the yard there.  There is some structural damage in our area including our larger house, but there are no personal injuries or casualties.

All of us have family and friends in Port-au-Prince and are still waiting on news of them.  We have received some good news about Jean’s family, but at this writing we are still waiting for news of his brother and nephew.  The schools in the city just opened after Christmas break so there are many many young people from our area who just went back to the city.  We and their parents are waiting for news of them.

Our personal tragedy so far is our driver Bebe.  Most of you who have been to Haiti have met him. He was at his home in Port and had been ill.  He was trying to move to what he thought would be a safer place, but during one of the aftershocks he fell and was killed.

We are wanting to send our bulldozer to the city.  We are trying to reach World Vision where Jean’s brother works to offer it to them, but the information between us and the city is not easy and we have not been able to reach either Paul or World Vision.

I went to the school to send the kids home, but it was a unanimous decision by all parents of students of all schools not to send the children.  Everyone is holding on to loved ones nearby while waiting for news of loved ones in the city.  It has always been ironic that it is easier to communicate with the US than with people in Haiti.  Now it is even harder than before.

I have felt three tremors or aftershocks since I began writing this.  The last one was large, but I did not run outside.  I must be tired.

Our two sons in college are available to come with aid groups as translators if any of you know of any group that wants to come or any organization that need expert translators.

I will try to write a daily update.  Thank you for your prayers and concerns.  The known needs of this tragedy are just becoming known.

Joy