Below are the latest e-mail updates from our team on the ground in Haiti. The needs are staggering, but the YWAM team in Haiti is now receiving the first of MANY shipments of food, medicines, fuel and medical and relief supplies. Their greatest need right now is for the funds to purchase these supplies. All of these supplies are being shipped in from the Dominican Republic. You can give through Streams of Mercy to the Haiti Relief fund. Just click HERE to donate.
01/15/2010 8:50 M Update from Terry Snow
Today we 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 Port-au-Prince (PAP). This is devasting 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!
I have worked most of the day on the opening of the port of St. Marc. US Coast Guard has come and inspected the port. I have spoken to the person in charge of security and we 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!
If you have a container of food or building supplies that is ready to send, please contact us or Bill Colman at cartrans@myacc.net. Bill has done much shipping into the port of St. Marc and is assembling three small vessels that can quickly load and offload at the port of St. Marc. However we need 40 containers to fill the ship for it to be able to leave. The ships are located in the Miami / Everglades Florida area. 888-763-2999.
We need Rice, Beans, Cooking oil, Tomato paste, spagetti, soap, tarps, tents, wood, tin roofing, foam matress of sleep cots etc. Please contact us for an updated list!
We still have no communication worth mentioning with cell phones.
As I prayed today I felt God speak that a new beginning is coming to Haiti. Decisons for their future hang in the balance. Let’s pray that the Haitian people will respond to God’s love and make the right choices that will bring them healing and blessing!
Taking the High Places!
Terry W. Snow
National Director
YWAM Haiti
01/14/2010 8:46 PM Update from Terry Snow
Just a quick update,
We have been very busy and have made great headway in developing a plan to begin assistance. We would like to begin preparing food and passing out sacks of purified water very soon! Instead of doing this today we focused on staging points to host teams, connect with the US Embassy and develop the infrustructure needed to assist in a positve way! We have located two potential staging points and we are appreciative to our very large Youth With A Mission family world wide.
Saturday we will see a YWAM team from D.R. (Boardering nation) drive in with supplies. We have two other teams, one from YWAM Tyler Mercy Works and the other from Lancaster PA, New Danville Mennonite, that will be here Sunday. One team will be building a home in the St.Marc area the other will be setting up for medical relief.
We have begun to make arrangements for getting a hold of finances. Please understand that all the banking systems have collapsed due to communications and the main offices destroyed in the capital. Hopefully tomorrow we will see our Haitian bank begin to open or release some funds for our use. We are finding other ways to obtain funds as well.
The Haitian government is not funtioning and we have a team working to try and find a way to get the port of St. Marc opened for humanitarian supplies. Our YWAM base has 3 acres of land that we could make available to park containers for unloading, organizing and then shipping on to Port-au-Prince.
We have placed a call to YWAM Volunteers to come and assist in administrative ways to help in organization of the many teams that have already written ready to come. As mentioned we have currently found two staging points that could provide housing for these teams. We have a possibility of up to 10 additional places as well.
Airplanes were seen flying in and the US Embassy was still very packed with people trying to leave. The smell of dead bodies is growing stronger and there seemed to be a spirit of dispair crying out through out the city.
This is our time to demonstrate the power of the love of God. There is a deep stirring within many Haitians. Especially amongst our staff. Our Haitian staff are proclaiming it is time for change!
Taking the High Places!
Terry W. Snow
National Director
YWAM Haiti
1/14/2010 08:34 AM Update from Terry Snow
Dead lay in the streets, possibilities of mass burial sights talked about on the radio. People wandering the streets, city parks now filled with people camping out in them. The situation is more worse than dreamed!
Yesterday we sent an investigative team to Port-au-Prince (PAP) to take a first hand look at the situation. I will not easily forget what Rodney Gephart and Wayne Snow said when they had returned; “The situation is worse than it has appeared on TV!” My heart sank and instead of crying I felt a numbness come over me as they began telling me of the dead, the buildings that had colapsed and then to hear that they could not find any information on who is doing what as far as cordinated efforts for immediate response and longterm recovery.
Our Leadership Team went late into the night trying to assemble all the data and strategies on how to begin with assisting the victims of the earthquake of 1/12/10. Praying for strength and wisdom from God! We know He has a plan. We have seen him take us through many floods and other situations that were greater than we could bare in the past and by GOD’s grace, mercy and power we will see this through! How ummeasurable is His love! Nothing is impossible concerning Him!
Today’s goals are;
-Establish Communication Hub- Focus (Connect with US Embassy, cordinate with any known releief teams, communicate with volunteer teams and individuals that are emailing)
-Establish routes to recieve and send aid (Money, Supplies and Volunteers)
-Check out and establish staging points to House and feed Volunteers (Probably need portable housing)
-Immediate Response – Look for opportunities to run street soup kitchens (Use street vendors to make hot meals to give to anyone who needs them, buy purified water for distro)
-Prepare for Security concerns (Yesterday the people were stund, today they will be starving!)
The ground underneath me just trembled once more as I close this email and I am 60 miles away! Many people have asked how they can help. We need funds to kick in quickly. Until the shipments of additional releif supplies get open money is all we can work with. We have connections to food whole salers in St. Marc that can assist us, but we also need to purchase vehicles to get mobile. Many vehicles were destroyed so we need to find and purchase quickly!
Thank you!
Taking the High Places!
Terry W. Snow
National Director
YWAM Haiti
1/13/2010 07:19 AM Update from Terry Snow
Every 30 minutes to an hour the house rumbled and shook from the after shocks of the earthquake that has divested the capital, Port-au-Prince. It was hard to sleep wondering if you should run, wait or ignore it. All I could think about was the thousands that had no where to sleep in Port-au-Prince 60 miles away from our city, St. Marc.
We were up early to see the video footage and pictures of the Presidential Palace destroyed and so many other buildings we once knew. We feel in some ways as helpless as the victims in Port-au-Prince in the since of shock and not knowing what to do or where to start. Communications are still down, airport is closed for today so we have decided to send in a observation team to see what connections they could make.
Haiti has no infrastructure much less a crisis management team. I suspect that PAP is crying even louder this morning as the reality of their situation tumbles on them.
We are thinking through how this impact will affect St. Marc and the population here. Fuel, electric communications, food and construction supplies all route through Port-au-Prince. Today we are ok, but what about in a few days or week. Where are the refugees going to be going since there is little living space in PAP?
Pray for us and our observation team!
Terry W. Snow
National Director
YWAM Haiti
1/13/2010 5:10 PM Update from Terry Snow
At 5:05pm I was sitting with our leadership team when the room began to tremble. EARTHQUAKE! We quickly realized that this was an abnormal rumbling. We have experienced minor trembles in times past but not like this one. We all bolted to the exit. Soon we saw everyone out in the center of our campus field as the earth continued to tremble. One of our walls had some plaster begin to shack loose, but then it stopped. Thank God!
The city erupted with screams and shouts! Most of our cell companies were down, electric went off, but then one of our new DTS student’s cell phone rings. People are telling him that many buildings have fallen. There is much destruction in the capital Port-au-Prince!
Due to phone communication we are unable to reach our YWAM Center in Gonaives north of us, but we feel they are most likely ok as the earthquake’s center was 10 miles south south west of Port-au-Prince.
Our survey teams we sent through St. Marc have reported back in with the good report that all looks safe in our city, St. Marc!
Let’s pray for the many people in the capital. We have received word that many housing units have collapsed and government buildings as well, but still no clear reports. Everyone only had 45 minutes before the sun set and now they are pretty well in the darkness.
Terry W. Snow
National Director
YWAM Haiti
