Please pray with me

Lord, thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your protection. Thank you for your strength. Thank you for loving us enough to cover us with the blood of your son, Jesus. I know I am only here today because of your grace. I am only alive today because of your mercy. I am sorry that it took this earthquake for me to realize that. As the ground shakes underneath us it is impossible not to know & feel your power. You created this earth and everything on it. You can destroy it. You can preserve it. You can rebuild it. I beg you Lord to have mercy on us still. There is too much death. There is too much destruction. We are buckling under the pressure. We beg you Lord, stop the ground from shaking. It has gone on for long enough. Sometimes it seems like the after shocks are getting worse. Give us strength to care for one another. Give us wisdom to care for the children. Give us compassion to care for our neighbors. Stop the rains from falling on us as we sleep under the stars. Give us the resources to feed our bodies. Give us in abundance so we can share with others. We already know of people in our community that have starved to death. We are in your hands, Lord. There is no one else who can help us. Please Lord, continue to protect us. Have mercy on our souls & strengthen our bodies. Keep the fear of tomorrow away. Help us to stay focused on today as tomorrow is too overwhelming. As the grounds continue to shake we continue to call out to you. Help us not to grow weary with our present lifestyle. May we have courage. Above all Lord I pray that you touch our hearts with the reality that we are your creation. You are our Creator. You are our Father. You are our Lord. You are our Everything. I pray that this reality spreads across the oceans. That people praying with me now will get down on their knees and thank you for the breath they have in their lungs. Realize they can't live without you. Confess that they are sinners. Repent with sincerity. Accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Commit to serving the Lord despite their circumstances. Don't let them wait for something like this to open their hearts.

Here are some pictures of our compound:

Noel's (one of our H2H teachers) house has been crushed completely. He was in the garden behind it when it fell.



The top floor of our new school has almost completely fallen & the bottom floor has been cracked:



A view of the H2H school from outside the compound:



Our kids & community members gather on the "soccer pad" in the front of the H2H yard. Most external walls have fallen so our compound is now open into the community:



The H2H compound has become a place of refuge for many:



The wall of the church that was connection with the guesthouse:



The guesthouse fell on the kids dinning room while they were eating dinner:



Another view of the guesthouse/dinning room. 7 kids were in the guesthouse (2nd floor), cleaning it for a team that was to arrive the next day. All fell as the building fell. All are alive, praise the Lord!



This is a close up of the guesthouse/dinning room. A girl was trapped under the fallen roof (right in front of the door) and we had to cut the iron bars to remove her. My heart still aches when I remember her cries for help. I was one of the first people to reach her. I tried to pull her out as the ground continued to shake underneath us. The men saw my failing efforts and came to help... I am apparently too brave for a white girl :)



The yard of H2H:



The front of the H2H compound (wall colapsed):



The computer room has fallen on the kitchen, it was full of kids and they were showered with blocks as it fell:



Side view of the kitchen underneath the computer room... this is where the door was that the kids used to escape:



The depot has been flattened completely but the upper floor, along with all our food:



We desperately need your prayers & your help. H2H Canada is working on sending us containers of food - go to their website to see how you can help - www.hearttohearthaiti.com. Unfortunately these containers may take several months to reach us... that will be too late. Food prices have already sky-rocketed and many people are not willing to sell non-perishable food. We need help from the UN. We need help now. If anyone reading this has connections with the UN we need food relief soon. I know there are other places in Haiti that need it more than us and it pains me to cry out for help like this when I know the devastation in Port-au-Prince is so much more severe but when I see several H2H kids sharing a bowl of rice my heart aches. These are my kids. These are our kids. They are our responsibility. All of our kids in Grand Goave are alive - praise the Lord!! We had 4 kids in PauP (going to college) and we have only been able to find 3. We have searched PauP twice. We can only assume Kaka (my brother-in-law) was in our rented house when it collapsed. It was a multi-level building and he room was in the basement. We have tried to remove the blocks to reach him but it is impossible. Everything has fallen through to the basement. My only peace is that I know Kaka is with his Father today.

Please continue to pray for us. Pray for all of Haiti. Pray the grounds will become calm again. Pray the ciaos will cease. Pray the thieves will stop. Pray the dead can be buried without causing illness. Pray for those without food. Pray for those in leadership. Pray the aid will be distributed properly when it arrives in Haiti. The list goes on & on...