In light of the recent circumstances in Haiti, I will postpone my personal blog post to give you the opportunity to read a letter from one of the missionaries in Haiti. She is thankful, broken, tired and ill, yet she still gives the Lord praise. Below is her letter which I have cut and pasted as I received it:
I am in Jacksonville but not feeling very well. I’m exhausted. The concrete dust has taken a toll on my breathing and I am running a fever. I have a cough, total laryngitis and cannot talk at all.
Some structures are OK. Many houses fell down. Many more are standing but were damaged and are unsafe. Thousands of people have died. Many are hurt.
By the grace of God and a miracle, I am alive. I was walking in my room when the earthquake hit. I tried to run but fell down into the hall and couldn’t get up. I crawled into the bathroom, put a little plastic table over my head, and watched my room fall off the building. Had I been sitting in my room, I would not have gotten out. The noise was terrible and concrete was falling all around me. I praise the Lord that I got out with just a few little bumps & bruises. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!! The house is totally destroyed. The back third of the house fell off. It is a miracle anyone got out.
The children all ran outside. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!! They are OK except for Peterson who died instantly when the house fell on him.
We had about 150 people sleeping in the yard Tuesday evening. Pastor Cenor came by Tuesday evening and I asked him to sing & pray with the people in the yard. They thanked the Lord that they were alive. 9 people accepted Jesus. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!! The children have a praise time every evening. They thank the Lord for everything they have.Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!
There were many injured people in the yard Tuesday evening. One little girl had a big gash in her leg and was losing a lot of blood. Karen Bultje was able to take them to the Sisters of Charity who still had a building and medicines & bandages. Then the little girl was brought back because everyone slept outside because there were frequent aftershocks, some pretty strong. Karen gave us some Ibuprophen to give the injured.
The children are eating. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!! We found boxes of Feed my Starving Children rice mix. Then someone gave us cases of Poptarts. They like Poptarts. They are sleeping in the yard of the construction site. Tuesday night they slept on the ground, but by Wednesday we had started to find some mattresses. It is cold at night. By Friday we were finding blankets and sheets. It is very cold at night – especially sleeping outside on the ground. The wind blows fine concrete dust all the time. We have worked very hard scavenging whatever we could from the rubble. We are all exhausted.
We got our medicines out. Sometimes there were aftershocks and the building was shaking as we were working. A doctor with the Restavek Assoc. came by and asked for medicines. She went off Thursday and Friday with a laundry basket full of medicines and bandages to help people.
We have taken in more children. I don’t know how many because we had no paper to make a list. Some school children are staying there while the family stays with relatives in the countryside. I expect to get multitudes of children. Please pray that we can help the children who lost parents in the earthquake.
It is very important that we try to keep going. We need to continue the feeding program and medical program. The children in 4th – 7th grades still have classrooms. They need to continue. They need some sort of a normal life. Please pray that we can continue feeding and caring for children.
We got some stuff out of the house. Most of the clothing is ripped & covered with concrete. The children need shoes.
Please help us. The wall around the construction site fell down and needs to be rebuilt. We need to finish the 2nd floor of the construction site to make space. Right now, we are very crowded. We will have about 20 boys in 1 bedroom. We need to build a school kitchen and an orphanage. We need clothing, shoes, and everything for daily living. For right now, cash will be better than people collecting things. You can donate on line at http://www.christianlightfoundation.com (Please be sure to designate your contribution “Sherrie Fausey-Haiti”)
Thank you for your prayers. The Lord took care of us.
God bless you,
Sherrie Fausey
Christian Light Foundation
PO Box 23881
Jacksonville, FL 32241-3881
A Follow-up letter on some efforts that are taking place through Christian Light Foundation to help minister the love of Jesus in this time of crisis. Again, I have cut and pasted it below:
Today we leave with a small medical and construction team for Port au Prince, Haiti. We will be taking a flight with MAF (missionary flight). The guest house we usually stay in was destroyed so we will be sleeping outside in the courtyard of Sherrie Fausey’s orphanage. We will set up a base medical camp at Karen Bultje’s compound as the walls are partially up there.We will also be doing a mobile medical cllinic to the refugee area. The construction team will be replacing the walls as this is needed for security. Please pray for our team, for emotional, spiritual and physical strength and that we can bring comfort to as many Haitians and missionaries as the Lord sends our way.
In His Grace
Dr. Karen