Haiti Earthquake YWAM Updates

“No more pain!” she said with a huge smile. I was with my team in a tent city in front of the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti praying with a woman and her granddaughter who had a fever. She told us about the pain in her back and right leg and as we prayed, she received healing that very moment and walked without pain for the first time in years! We asked again to be sure there was no more pain; "no more," she said and she stomped and danced around to prove it. We literally all screamed with joy, drawing the attention of every bystander, and erupted into a hug fest with her family.
We know that Jesus is the solution, but what does that really look like for a mother who has lost family, has sick and hungry children, and doesn’t know how she will provide for them? Since the earthquake much has changed in Haiti; many places are being rebuilt, relief is flooding in, most of the rubble is cleared, but many are living in tent cities. Some are receiving aid and medical attention, but those who haven’t seen help during this crisis have all but lost hope. Humanitarian efforts alone cannot and will not solve this crisis, or any other crisis. When I see the indescribable pain and anguish in the lives of these victims I am forced to turn to God and ask, “Why?” But as quickly as I turn my attention to Him, He turns my attention to the Haitian people. Their attitude is so amazing, and although shaken, they are turning to Him in worship and in prayer.  Jesus is at work in Haiti and the healing you read about was one of over a dozen that we saw during our 3 week trip. 
So, what does Jesus being the solution really look like? It looks like you. It looks like me.  It looks like the countless volunteers who have gone to share Jesus’ love and meet victims in their need. If you’ve taken the time to read this, please take the next few minutes to pray for the people of Haiti, for the government, for the families, and for the volunteers who are coming in. Haiti will never be the same, and not because the earthquake, but because of Jesus.

Haiti´s President calls for 3 days (Friday, Feb 12th - Sunday, Feb 14th) of holiday for fasting and prayer!  What a miracle!! Here is some reports on that time:

Excerpt from the YWAM leader who ministers in St. Marc, Haiti

 "We feel strongly to call the nations to pray and intercede for Haiti during these 3 days of prayer, repentance, and fasting that started this morning. We feel it will be the deciding factor for Haiti ’s future; will they choose repentance and God or go back to their old ways and not heed the call and the warnings. I would not like to think about what would happen if they did choose the latter… 

 "Everything is closed today and people are all working their way to the park!! It is so full that you can no longer get in. All the roads around it are filled... They are worshipping and praying; pastors are leading them but...could not hear what they were saying as there are so many people there. They have set up a stage to the right of the pavilion and have a worship band there.

 "... (at) the corner by the arena (is) where the witchdoctor lives. He was dragging all his voodoo stuff out; he had dug it up in this yard and collected it from around his house, and was dragging it with him to the park to get rid of it all! He was telling people who were watching that he was going to give it all up."

Excerpt from an American radio engineer who has visited Haiti many times:

 "About 3 days ago the Haitian president announced that there would be 3 days of holiday from work for the purpose of fasting and prayer.  This is absolutely historic...could you ever have imagined such a pronouncement?  ...This morning I saw a young Haitian-American woman...crying because the Americans could not understand the incredible importance of this day...

"This was not ´a minute of silence for the deceased´... As I sit here this evening, I can hear the preaching coming from a nearby church.  Services have been going on all day...   As we left the guest house about 7:30 am,  we were met by throngs of well dressed people headed to various churches.  The sounds of Christian music and worship filled the air everywhere.  The next observation was that there was NO traffic. Port-au-Prince streets are always clogged and overflowing with bumper to bumper traffic.  This morning there were only a few vehicles on the roads, a few small buses (tap taps),  some UN and military vehicles, and a few private cars.  We had clear sailing through town.  The same was true of foot traffic.  Usually the streets are clogged also with people walking.  Today there were only a few and many of them dressed for church.  The only place that there were traffic blocks was in front of several churches where the congregations had overflowed the buildings, and the yards and had moved out into the streets as well.

"The next observation was that EVERYTHING was closed!  We could not find even one business or gas station open.  There were no intercity buses running.  Whereas the sidewalks are usually overflowing with millions of street venders, we only saw a few here and there.  The huge outdoor market near the wharf where thousands work each day and spread out to cover most of the street, was EMPTY.

"Where were all the people?  They were in churches and makeshift meeting sites.  Every church (except a JW church) had services going on, almost always overflowing into the streets.  Beside broken down churches, services were taking place outside.  In homeless camps, there were services.  Everywhere the nation was gathered to worship and pray...  This scene was repeated in every town and hamlet that we passed through.

"...What has been happening and is continuing to happen in Haiti did not happen because of the earthquake.  It has been happening because the Haitian people know how to pray.  This is a tremendous outpouring of God´s power as the result of prayer. 

"...While a nation that has long been under Satan´s domination is turning to God with total commitment, our nation, founded on Godly values has rejected God and rapidly trying to forget that his name even exists.  Let us pray for revival."

So many feelings are going through me after seeing the devastations, hearing the stories and witness the life of people without homes and fear of another quake. It is overwhelming to think of the practical clean up and build up of a city, and way worse is the tragedies of lost family members and friends. Yet I see a hope. God has opened up people´s hearts to him like no other time, and the time for the Him to transform this nation is now.

The stories are many of tragedy, but also miraculous of angels tending to people stuck, God saving and giving people second chances. A girl I talked to knew that God saved her in the earthquake, and gave her life to Jesus with several others a night they attended church.

I believe that the time for Haiti is now, and the favor of God seem to be on it. As YWAM´ers we are always praying into seeing a wave of young people crashing onto the shores – and it seems like the wave is building for Haiti. I want to be a part of seeing this nation transformed!

Today a few of us went to a town called Gonaives in Haiti. We went with Mola who runs the YWAM work there to see what the refugee situation was after the earthquake. Mola drove us around a little bit, showing us his home and some of the city and then took us to one of the hospitals in town that is caring for victims of the quake.

We saw people with leg injuries, head wounds and broken arms, but the one person that captured all our our hearts and attention was a little 20 month old boy named Evans. Evans was standing in his crib in the middle of the pediatric ward surrounded by lots of doctors, patients, mom’s and dad’s. The thing we noticed was that Evans was the only one with no one around him.

We asked Mola what he was in the hospital for. “Was he hurt in the earthquake? What about his mom and dad, where are they?” After talking with a few people we found out that Evans mom and dad had both died of AIDS and that he was alone and was infected with HIV. Our hearts broke for this little boy. What could we do? We didn’t speak any Creole and knew we couldn’t take him home, what should we do? There is nothing worse than seeing a horrible situation and feeling helpless in it even though with all your might you want to fix it.

Kody, one of the 3 of us who went to Gonaives continued to ask questions about Evans while Lindsay (Kody’s wife) and I hung out with Evans and took pictures of him with my i-Phone. He had been totally quiet and wary of us until we showed him the pictures, then he started making noise and grabbing for the phone with excitement. I am sure that Evans had never seen himself before this time, let alone seeing a picture of anything in his short 20 month lifetime. After a few moments we had to leave Evans and headed down the the pharmacy to meet Paulonne who is currently Evans caregiver.

Paulonne is a single mom with one biological child and one adopted child. She saw the need for Evans to have someone caring for him so she took it upon herself to be his caregiver. She wants to bring him into her home, but she cannot right now as she is currently housing 28 earthquake victims in her house. Here was this single mom who worked as a pharmacist at the hospital caring for 28 strangers in her home and also saving the life of Evans.

Kody told Paulonne about Pastor Niño. Pastor Niño along with his small church in Ensenada, Mexico raised $115 to give to the most needy person that Kody met in Haiti, Evans was that person. Kody told Paulonne that they had heard about the need in Haiti and wanted to give out of what they don’t have to meet the needs of Haiti. Kody then gave Paulonne the money and thanked her for caring for Evans. We prayed for Paulonne and asked that God would bless her and Evans. As we got up to leave she thanked us with tears in her eyes and Lindsay noticed a man who had been standing in the back of the room the whole time crying as he watched what had happened.

The three of us walked away not thinking that we had saved a life, but overwhelmed at the huge need in Haiti and at the generosity, love and compassion of one woman who was going way beyond her means to meet the need. We are falling in love with this country more and more every day and are seeing that regardless of why this earthquake happened that God has people here that are bringing change and hope to a wrecked and shattered nation.

Inside the YWAM base in St. Marc, Haiti, it feels like any normal YWAM base. The staff are friendly and you can only just see the shadow of lack of sleep and being overworked, on their faces. Although being incredibly understaffed for the job at hand, they are excited about what God is saying and doing in Haiti. They are all running around with fifty different things to do, but with evident peace and joy in their hearts that can only come from the grace of God.

If you walk outside of the office, dorm and cafeteria area to the gymnasium, you find people standing and sitting everywhere in the shade. There is a long set of tables with around ten YWAM workers sitting on one side, and others filtering in people from the streets. This is where a registration process is taking place. YWAM St. Marc may be the only organization registering the victims of the earthquake. This is a huge job but incredibly important as many organizations and people are trying to get the victims aid. The people go through this process of getting registered, and then, as supplies arrive they get called via radio, to come pick up the supplies.

As you walk past the registration tables, you enter the larger part of the gymnasium which is curtained off. This is where many victims from the overflow from the hospitals are recovering from the earthquake. There is a second kitchen close by to feed the recovering victims from Port Au Prince and medical people walking around re bandaging and cleaning wounds, listening to heart beats and offering all sorts of medical care. The people recovering here are laying all around the gymnasium on straw mats and blankets.

Although there is a huge amount of things going on all over the base, it still does not feel as chaotic as it really should. If you step outside the gate, however you are bombarded with the hundreds of people lined up to enter the registration process. It is hot with a limited amount of shade. They will be lined up from six in the morning and wait for their turn. It is no wonder that fights and arguments are breaking out as people stand waiting in the hot sun for a hope of food and shelter for their families.

A YWAM outreach team of 8 went from St. Marc down into Port Au Prince. Here is a report on what they found:

Today our team went into Port Au Prince. We were not really sure what we would see or how we would feel, but we knew that if we were going to be a part of the long term work here in Haiti we needed to see not only the good, but the pain and the hardship as well. So at 7:00 we loaded into 3 vehicles and made the 2 hours trip into the city.

The closer we got to the city the more chaotic it got. The first thing that we noticed was that right outside the city there are acres and acres of concrete pieces that the city has removed from the wreckage of the earthquake. The more we drove the more we saw with our own eyes what we had been watching on the TV just day’s prior.

Massive buildings were toppled. Rubble, concrete and rebar were everywhere. There were some streets that just looked like you were in any typical 3^rd world country then you would turn down another street and it seemed like you were in a movie about the end of the world, it was intense.

The thing that we noticed though was that life kept going on in Port Au Prince, Haiti. On the news we saw pictures of broken, hurting and weeping people, but what we saw today were a people who decided to get up and move on. Now we understand that they are still broken and hurting, but they are not stopping. One of the Haitian men with us today told us that “the Haitian’s are a strong people, when we get knocked down we get back up and keep going.” This was very clear today.

At one point today we stopped at the palace, which is completely destroyed, and 6 boys walked up to us with smiles on their faces. There were excited to see us and they wanted pictures taken of them and pictures with us. For a moment it seemed like people had forgotten. People had forgotten about the death, the hurt and the pain and were just living again like God intended, with smiles on their faces and laughter in their hearts. Be strong Haiti, Jesus has not left you.

Makeshift homes set up in streets of PAP.

We have been scrambling to formulate plans and preparations to receive these victims that are left in PAP but with no leadership or structure, it has been difficult to accomplish a lot quickly. Yet, help is on the way! Currently there is a ship scheduled to arrive Monday, Feb. 1st, at the St. Marc port. This shipment brings 43,000lbs of rice, a 40´ trailer of assorted food and equipment and two 20´ trailers to assist an orphanage with food and materials to make repairs. Currently, in St. Marc, churches are being funded to feed hundreds of people daily. A once gutted and retired hospital has been re-enforced and repaired and our first medical team aided the sick just this past week.

In PAP, we have located land to develop temporary communities that we will be ministering in for many days to come until the city is rebuilt and they are back on their feet. Our YWAM medical teams are treating 300 plus a day in front of the National Palace. They are also strategizing on the lay out temporary communities and ways to further assist as they transfer from a crisis team to a relief team. By this weekend we will have 130 plus volunteers working in PAP, St. Marc, and Gonaives! 

Right now we are assembling tents, 16x14ft., to be shipped in. We have 200 ordered and a team of people coming to set them up. Each tent will cost approximately $300 USD which includes shipping. The first batch of tents could arrive as early as Feb. 10th. We plan to house people in schools and churches until then. The plan is to ship another order of tents directly following this first order.

Also this week, a small medical team began to treat people out of the run down hospital that has now been restored!

At the old hospital they continue to get the outside finished as well as get the electricity and plumbing up and running on the inside. 

From Terry Snow:  All of our full time staff have been working nonstop for two weeks now. When the earthquake hit and we realized we were all safe here in St. Marc we kind of laughed and thought, wow! Then in minutes phones rang telling us of the devastation in PAP.  For the first week those of us who were on the ground were stunned, numb emotionally and simply lost. We began to rally but it was so enormous we were all lost as to how to respond and as days went by it only got bigger and worse.

By the second week we were nonstop busy implementing assistance, coordinating teams, and doing the job!  Nights were long, going to bed at 1-2am and waking up at 5am unable to sleep, needing the time to do all the work.
 As we enter the third week, I see a lot more groups coming together, plans formulating, long term and short term. I believe this coming week will be a week of transition. We want to move from crisis rescue to systems and goals based in long term recovery. Our frontline people need healing but they will still feel the need to get back out there and deal with the challenges and there still will be some. I believe things will slowly stabilize this week and routines leading to recovery will be seen and implemented. Many people will find this difficult as it will feel like jumping off a train that is moving 100 mph. 

Please pray for all our staff and the many victims that need surgery and medical attention as it will be a crucial week, a difficult week when we will all need the wisdom, mercy and grace of God.

1/23/10 - Food found! Yesterday we found 300 sacks of rice and 50 sacks of beans for sale! We are distributing some of it to an orphanage that had none left! Food is hard to find and very expensive. We have also shipped sacks of rice and other food items through the Dominican Republic on vehicles and with Agape Flights, a mission air service flying in to Port Au Prince (PAP). Yesterday we located 900+ refuges through the local church. These refuges have been sleeping in churches or with church members since the day after the earthquake. They have also depleted all their resources and they are hungry. We are beginning our program of giving funds to local pastors to hire cooks and purchase food in the market. This program will allow us to offer faster help and assist in keeping the economy cash flow moving, but we wonder if they will even find enough food at this time.  

Cash flow is a big problem as the banks of St. Marc have not yet opened but they have been able to assist Western Union where there are lines of people waiting a block to two blocks long at every location. Many people are hungry and they have no money to purchase anything. The good news is that we saw one station receive fuel yesterday.

A group of 41 from Trinidad and Tobago drove up in a large bus to our gates yesterday afternoon unannounced, ready to serve and be a blessing. They came with soup and medical personnel. Terry was shocked but sensed the spirit of God on them and quickly put them into action. They maneuvered their large bus into our campus and began cooking soup for over 150 people who were still waiting to be registered as victims of the earth quake. The medical team quickly found their way to our gym floor where laid all the broken and wounded. After connecting with the local Haitian Doctor who was on call they quickly began passing through the people giving them special attention and added medical care. They also prayed with those who desired and sang songs to lift the spirits of all. Before leaving one of them shuck Terry’s hand and placed a bundle of USA hundred dollar bills in it. “Let me give you a Pentecostal hand shake!” she said with a smile!” $5000 USD was in that handshake and with cash hard to find these days these funds will be put into action quickly. We have two young boys in need of operations and churches filled with victims hungry!

Today the YWAMers registered over 600 refugees today, making over 1200 people registered over the last 4 days.

An excerpt from Tylerpaper.com by Patrick S. Butler:  The (YWAM MercyWorks) team is daily experiencing the challenges and rewards of stretching outside of our comfort zones.  We see people in our clinic every day who have broken bones, head injuries and deep gashes into their flesh all from rubble from the earthquake falling on them, among other things.

But that is the easy part.  Nearly everyone who comes to us for medical help has lost a family member or more in the tragic quake.  One 22-year-old woman who is three months pregnant lost her mother and father and now has to be the mother to her younger siblings while preparing to have her own baby.  Another young girl lost her parents and now will raise her five younger brothers and sisters — without any house to live in as that was destroyed as well.

Dr. Jack Jorden remarked how much he has learned from the Haitians on this trip.  “They have suffered so much and go about their lives without complaining or demanding,” he said.  ”Instead they are grateful for the help they are receiving.”

It is still heartbreaking to see families who have lost everything, now huddled under a tarp. People are desperate for water, for food, for medical treatment, for help of any kind.  Within spitting distance of the National Palace tent cities have sprung up. People who have nowhere to go sometimes just take a place on the ground as they wait for help. The tent cities are all throughout the capital. People do their cooking, their laundry and everything all out in the open.

The team is daily experiencing the challenges and rewards of stretching outside of our comfort zones.  We see people in our clinic every day that have broken bones, head injuries and deep gashes into their flesh all from rubble from the earthquake falling on them, among other things.

But that is the easy part.  Nearly everyone who comes to us for medical help has lost a family member or more in the tragic quake.  One 22-year-old woman who is three months pregnant lost her mother and father and now has to be the mother to her younger siblings while preparing to have her own baby.  Another young girl lost her parents and now will raise her five younger brothers and sisters — without any house to live in as that was destroyed as well.

Dr. Jack Jorden remarked how much he has learned from the Haitians on this trip.  “They have suffered so much and go about their lives without complaining or demanding,” he said.  ”Instead they are grateful for the help they are receiving.”

It is still heartbreaking to see families who have lost everything, now huddled under a tarp. People are desperate for water, for food, for medical treatment, for help of any kind.  Within spitting distance of the National Palace tent cities have sprung up. People who have nowhere to go sometimes just take a place on the ground as they wait for help. The tent cities are all throughout the capital. People do their cooking, their laundry and everything all out in the open.

The MercyWorks medical team served hundreds of people daily and took time to listen and to pray with those who came for help

A crowd gathers on the street near where a young man had been discovered alive, trapped beneath his house.  Some Haitians ran to the nearby YWAM MercyWorks clinic to get help. At the scene, two YWAMers call for the equipment needed to get the trapped young man out, once it becomes apparent that professional hydraulic equipment will be needed to free him. We administered IV and water and did a lot of digging before the Israeli force team arrives.  They immediately begins to take the final steps that will lead to freedom for the trapped man. At 3:00 p.m. local time, Emmannuel Buso is carried to an ambulance and then taken to an Israeli field hospital.  Earlier in the day, another stunning rescue happened when an 84-year-old woman was pulled alive from the rubble. Truly, it was a ‘Haitian celebration’ day for people desperate for good news.

Today, 500 refugees were registered and placed in temporary “homes”. 
The old hospital they are fixing up is really coming together.  All the interior painting if finished and electricity is being hooked up.  The whole community is standing and working together to make sure this project gets done.

Child Healed! A young boy with serious head and leg injuries began to cry as he lay on a straw mat at our YWAM arena gym floor. He is just one of 76 others trying to find medical assistance. As our YWAM volunteers tried to comfort and understand what was wrong they became worried. You see, this young boy had not cried since the earthquake hit, even from his injuries or while getting treated. Now he was holding his stomach and crying very hard. The medical people began preparations to send him back to the main hospital but a group of YWAM volunteers began to pray for him. They refused to give up as they cried out to God for the fourth time! Suddenly the boy stopped crying and proclaimed he had no more pain and soon after fell asleep peacefully. He continues to be doing well in his recovery today.

The YWAMers along with help from the community have been working to fix up an old run down hospital.  They have been cleaning it, adding walls, painting, fixing cracks, door, & windows. It is coming together and will soon be used as a clinic for people have been hurt in the earthquake. 

Victim Registration Begins in St. Marc! We have been asked by the local Haitian Administration to operate the Earthquake Victim Registration program for all earthquake victims currently living in or coming to St. Marc as refuges. We are systematically registering people by zones/neighborhoods. Currently there is an estimated 3000 refugees in the city with hundreds still in PAP calling relatives seeking food and shelter. With this registration program we will be able to locate, track, and distribute aid as it arrives or is made available. Our list will be passed to the Haitian Administration, UN and NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) to assist their efforts to offer assistance as they can.  In churches alone, we have located 900+ earthquake victims that have no resources. Our assistance to these churches begins today. This is just one project that YWAM relief funds are contribution too.

Monday and Tuesday many Christians did a march through the streets of the city of St. Marc declaring their thankfulness to God for keeping St. Marc safe through this terrible season in Haiti.

YWAMers in PAP are working to give medical assistance. A new group from YWAM MercyWorks kicked in and increased our number of volunteers from 14 to 26. Today their goal is search and rescue!  They will send a team out to pick up some of the huge number of people lying on the sides of the road bleeding, broken and suffering from infections. This team will bring them back to the National Police station, located directly in front of the National Palace where YWAMers have claimed ground for assisting people. They will then triage them and direct them to clinics and hospitals as needed.

In St. Marc, we have prepared a city plan for receiving refuges from PAP to St. Marc. The plan has been accepted by the current Haitian Administration and UN. It involves placement in government schools, churches and private homes. The program is scheduled to be announced today and the beginning stages will be implemented this morning. It has the potential of assisting 8000 plus refuges.

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 St. Marc Gym has become a make shift recovery ward for the overflowing hospital. They have 76 beds set up and are caring for recovering victims. 

A Doctor asked one of our YWAMers, “What are they going to do with all these orphans?” He claimed that none of the children at our center had known living parents and the orphanage caretaker is not in the country. “Would YWAM take these children?” he asked.  One of our volunteers spoke with one young orphan boy who was actually thought to be dead!  While being operated on he passed out and was thought to be dead.  He had already been placed in the morgue with the dead in a box. Later, a morgue worker entered the room and heard a knocking on the closed box and was shocked to see that this young boy was still alive! He was treated and sent to join the other boys from the same orphanage who came to stay at the YWAM base.

Port Officials cleared all wrecked cars, trucks, and abandoned trailers from the port dock to make way for aid. Last night Terry Snow met with City leaders and was told, “Terry, if you have any aid trailers or ships that come into the port of St. Marc they will be released immediately and without delay.” Port Security told him the same thing the day before. There are a lot of trailers and vehicles that still fill the holding lots, but we, Youth With A Mission, have a walled property that could receive trailers for temporary holding until processed or organized for distribution.

Due to the lack of supplies and dwelling space from the devastation of the earthquake in PAP, people are quickly moving to St. Marc and Goniaves. Terry was a part of a meeting at Minustah (UN) with the Administration of St. Marc and other NGO groups. Organization to meet this new demand is underway. Schools are soon to be transformed into shelters. YWAM have been asked to be head of Logistics for these camps and also offer civil education to help people.

Today YWAM St. Marc bought 15 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. What the UN and Government people may not be taking into thought is the mass number of people that are evacuating PAP. This is devastating the supplies in the province. One of the largest wholesalers in St. Marc has empty depots tonight with no word on when he might be able to get more bulk food!   Victims of PAP are now beginning to fill churches in St. Marc and we are looking at potentially staging two additional camps here in this city as well as our staging points in PAP.  FUEL is gone, vehicles are being parked! We have to have fuel if we are going to survive, much less help the victims!

Terry Snow, YWAM St. Marc’s Director, has worked most of the day on the opening of the port of St. Marc. US Coast Guard has come and inspected the port.  He has spoken to the person in charge of security and they are close to having green lights from the customs office to open the port to allow aid supplies to pass through for little to no charge!

YWAM St. Marc has been very busy and has made great headway in developing a plan to begin assistance. Today we focused on staging points to host teams, connect with the US Embassy and develop the infrastructure needed to assist in a positive way! We have located two potential staging points and they begin to work out the details to receive other Youth With A Mission team from around the world who will begin to arrive over the weekend.  The Haitian government is not functioning and we have a team working to try and find a way to get the port of St. Marc opened for humanitarian supplies.

YWAM St. Marc sent an investigative team to Port-au-Prince (PAP) to take a firsthand look at the situation.  They returned saying, "The situation is worse than it has appeared on TV!"  They came with reports of the dead, the buildings that had collapsed and that they could not find any information on who is doing what as far as coordinated efforts for immediate response and long-term recovery.

The YWAM Leadership Team went late into the night trying to assemble all the data and strategies on how to begin with assisting the victims.

At 4:53 pm a 7.0 earthquake hit just 10 miles West of Port-au-Prince (PAP), Haiti, leaving the city total devastated.    There were approximately 3 million people living in the Port-au-Prince area.   An estimated 200,000 have died and the full death toll may never be realized. 

Our YWAM ministry in St. Marc (60 miles north of PAP) felt the earthquake but had no serious damage.