"A Spirit of Despair...the Power of the Love of God"
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| Scene from the devastation in Port au Prince. Photo: Jude Eugene |
“Today, we bought fifteen 25lb bags of rice in St. Marc. To our knowledge it was the last available rice in all of St. Marc city and province! This is getting serious, friends.”
YWAM Haiti national director, Terry Snow, opens his latest report with these words. As masses of people flee the devastation in Port au Prince, food and fuel supplies around the city are also diminishing. YWAM St.Marc is scrambling to prepare for the influx of refugees and has already secured venues to set up camps and store aid supplies.
Crucially, aid supplies have still not arrived where they are needed. Terry is negotiating with the authorities to open the port in St.Marc and allow aid supplies to pass through for little or no fee. YWAM associates are assembling containers of food in Florida – contact relief@ywamhaiti.org if you can help by donating containers of food or building supplies. A list of urgent needs will be provided.
And another article taken from YWAM's website:
Hope Emerges From Haiti's Rubble
Infant and mother found alive!
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| Alive! Appeal for prayer for Haiti's orphans! Photo : Kristian Snow |
On Monday, January 18, hope was slim for finding survivors underneath the collapsed buildings in Port au Prince, 6 days after a 7.0 earthquake devastated the city.
But YWAM rescue teams have an unending supply of hope, and when they came upon a group of survivors seeking help, they sprang into action. A four-month old baby girl was discovered pinned under a building. She was removed from the rubble and rushed to a makeshift hospital with a large cut on her head. Local people said that the infant's mother was still under the building, but presumed dead. Undeterred, the YWAM team began digging to find her. To everyone's surprise, she was found alive - extremely dehydrated and in need of hospital care, but alive and expected to recover!
YWAM National director, Terry Snow, pleads for prayer for the children of Haiti as teams of church and agency leaders form strategies to cope with the crisis around them. "One of our volunteers spoke with one young boy that was actually thought to be dead!" reports Terry. "He had already been placed in the morgue in a closed room...morgue workers heard knocking on the door and were shocked to see that this young boy was still alive!"
A doctor at a makeshift hospital in the province of St.Marc, where YWAM is setting up refugee camps, asked YWAM to take charge of a group of orphans left without family or caretakers. Terry goes on to say that their biggest need right now is financial aid and prayer. YWAM International has raised over US $50 000 through our global online donations, for YWAM Haiti relief efforts, with more generous giving and donations of supplies through local centres around the world.
YWAM teams from around the world are responding to the crisis as YWAM Haiti appealed for help. MercyWorks from Tyler, Texas has already arrived with supplies and will be assisting with the coordination of medical relief and hosting teams. RescueNet has also launched a disaster response team, and other YWAM centres are serving Haiti’s victims by collecting supplies, sending funds, sending volunteers and praying.
Prayer seems to be in the breath of YWAM volunteers in Haiti as they work tirelessly against overwhelming odds, fueling that most essential need – hope – in the tragedy around them. YWAM Haiti staff are responding with hope for the future, even as the full extent of the damage to their nation unfolds. Terry declares that, “This is our time to demonstrate the power of the love of God,” as the rest of the team agrees that this is an opportunity to rebuild the foundations of Haiti and see positive change for the future of this devastated nation.
Donations can be made to YWAM Haiti's relief efforts by clicking here.
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