YWAM Haiti national director Terry Snow is right in the center of the cholera outbreak in St. Marc.  He reports, “Yesterday was difficult. We didn’t get in until after dark. We arrived with our 4×4 and a large truck, loaded with bottled water to bring water to remote and difficult areas that had not received any assistance. The first run went well. The second run we were blocked with trees and rocks thrown in the road.  We called for Police backup and they responded fairly well. When we got back to the point where you could go no further, as everything was under water, we distributed the life giving water. Afterwards the people said; “You’re the first that have gotten to us, thank you for not forgetting about us.”  Gervies is a heavily voodoo practicing area.  How awesome it was to be a Christian and get living giving water to them.  Two days ago the muddy road blocked us from distributing life-saving water filters in the area.  Many more are needed. We have contacted some equipment operators and believe we can mobilize to do some major repairs to the road to allow for easier access to these areas in a matter of a day.  This is a pressing and urgent need.  Can you help with a timely financial contribution to help with food, purified water, fuel and transportation and funeral expenses?”

In addition to the cholera outbreak, this past week MercyWorks sent communications director Glenn Price to Haiti to check into our long-term response to help meet the needs of those made homeless from January’s killer earthquake.  Just this week, MercyWorks sent funds to purchase 21 acres of land to begin building 100 homes for those living in tent cities.  Please continue to support Haiti with your prayers, logistics and finances.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers as well as our workers there.  If you are able to help,  click here.

Our next container shipment is scheduled to be sent to Haiti in August. There are still items needed to complete the shipment. For a list of items, click here. If you would like to give a financial gift to help with the shipment of this container, click here.

The Wyatts traveled to Haiti less than a week after the 7.0 earthquake struck the nation on Jan. 12, traveling to a place military veteran Mike had been told many times before to avoid. But after the earthquake, both he and his wife of 43 years could not ignore the call to spread God’s word. Patterson followed soon after.

“The way I got there, I was having devotions the morning after the earthquake,” Mike said. “I’m not quick to go anywhere, because I’ve had offers to go different places in the world — Africa three times and Israel and different places — and unless God tells me to go, I’m not going to go.

“So that morning it was clear. He said, ‘Mike, go to Haiti.’ And my background in the Army, I was put on alert to go to Haiti three times in the early days when they had the civil unrest and…all the fighting was going on. I would go over to special operations center at Fort Bragg and they would give us briefings and said whatever you do, don’t ever go to Haiti because it’s just a bad place. The last place on earth you ever want to go is Haiti. So my brain said don’t go to Haiti But that morning, when I got up, God said go to Haiti, and I heeded it.

“So I came out of the back room and Karen was having her devotion and I said, ‘Honey, God just told me to go to Haiti.’ She said, ‘Well, that’s kind of funny because God was putting on my heart to go too.”

Karen said she had been looking back on past devotions and words “God has given us through the years” before Mike came out and told of her revelation.

“It had been a couple of years since I’d read them and there was something in there about ministering to the poor and I was like, wow, Lord. But when you get a word, you don’t run out and do it, but yet you don’t wait for God to do it. You wait for the time and then you walk together.”

She didn’t have to wait long.

“Mike walked in a few minutes after that and when I heard him say it, I knew,” she said.

The next morning she asked God for another word. “Give me a word to stand on,” she asked him. “I want a word from the word, and so I hadn’t looked at this devotion in over a year. I’ll just look at it and it will get me focused on where I need to look in the word and start meditating. I open it up, January the 14th, and it says Isaiah 6, ‘Here my lord, send me.’ Oh my gosh. I just started crying.”

But making the decision to go and getting there were two different things. They started by going with what was familiar to them.

The Wyatts’ two daughters, Melissa and Michelle, both served with Youth With A Mission (YWAM), an international Christian organization that responds to crises. Melissa received discipleship training through the program, and Michelle served for three years on the Mercy Ship.

“YWAM has different organizations,” Mike said. “They have Mercy Works, Mercy Trucks, Mercy Ships. We didn’t know exactly how we were going to get there, so we contacted Mercy Works in Tyler, Texas.”

They were told then that the organization didn’t know then who they were sending to Haiti or even when they would go. The Wyatts were told to fill out an application.

“This was like Thursday,” he said. “Friday they called and said, can you leave on Sunday? And we hadn’t even finished our application.”

Before that call came in, the couple made their way to the health department to get vaccinations. At first they were told the department couldn’t get to them for two weeks, but Karen convinced them they needed the shots much sooner.

“I said we’re going this weekend,” Karen said.

“She didn’t meant to, like, tell a story,” her husband said. “It was a fact; she just didn’t know it was a fact yet. They took us in and they gave us the shots and we ended up going to Haiti.”

Meanwhile, Patterson had also made the decision to go.

“As soon as the earthquake happened and we heard about, I looked at (my wife) Brenda and she was like, I know you want to go, right?” Patterson said.

Two days later he saw on Facebook how the Wyatts were preparing to go down there.

“I thought, OK Lord, what’s going on here? Because I don’t know if you guys know the history I have with Mike is basically he’s mentored me for five years. Five years we trained to do things like that, so that’s exactly what God spoke to me when I heard that they were going, you are supposed to be there with them, assist them and help them and be there to work with them out in the field, out in the world. I knew right then that I was supposed to go.”

Like the Wyatts, he had to find a way to get there. Familiar with YWAM and after speaking with Mike, Patterson contacted Mercy Works and asked if they could use more help. He was told they were needing mostly medical teams. He told them he could be of assistance in aiding the Wyatts and providing help in administration and logistics.

“That’s what I did for five years, is do that with Mike, right side by side with him every day,” he said. “So to them, the usage that I could offer basically is that I could assist Mike and overlap them, staying to help after he leaves.”

Patterson wasn’t left with much hope that Mercy Works could use him, hearing again they were needing mostly medical help. He was asked to fill out an application and wait for word.

“I went to the Anna Porter library and faxed it to Tyler, Texas, and as I was leaving the library I got a phone call from Tyler, Texas,” he said. They asked him on that Wednesday if he could leave on Monday. That gave him two days to work on getting donations to help pay for the trip and collecting supplies to take to the Wyatts.

“I was excited when I heard Brandon was coming,” Mike said.

“That was a godsend,” Karen added. “He sent somebody we knew and loved to come down there.”’

Tyler, Texas | February 4, 2010  —

Debbie Lascelles, MercyWorks founder and co-director of YWAM Tyler remarked, “We have been swamped with people wanting to volunteer and help in every way imaginable.  It’s a stretching time for all of us, but we greatly appreciate all the donations and help from the east Texas community.”

For now, the East Texas based charity has been given $15,000 to ship the first of several critically needed containers to Haiti to help set up a Refugee Camp.  Pastor Dwight Lawson has volunteered Clearview Church in Mt. Sylvan (across from the Rose Park Horse Farm) to serve as the collection point for supplies for the “Container of Compassion.”

In addition to medical supplies, among the items most urgently needed for the first container are:  easy-up pop up tents, folding tables, folding chairs, foam mattresses, sheets, tarps, pots, pans, eating utensils, shoes, baby supplies such as baby bottles, diapers, pacifiers, toys, 5-gallon buckets, and hygiene kits consisting of soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and toilet paper.

To participate in East Texas’ “Container of Compassion” bring your supplies by Clearview Church on or before Wednesday, February 10, 2010 where they will be processed and shipped on to Haiti for relief.  Drop off hours are 7:00 – 9:00 a.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Sunday, February 7.  In addition to supplies, MercyWorks is looking for additional volunteers, including grief counselors, auto mechanics, medical personnel especially physical therapists, occupational therapists, and a medical coordinator.

About Youth With A Mission: Founded in 1960 by Loren and Darlene Cunningham, YWAM is celebrating their 50^th year of operation.  The international, interdenominational missions organization has 17,000 full-time volunteers serving in over 160 nations.  MercyWorks, a ministry of YWAM Tyler, is dedicated to bringing hope and lasting change to people afflicted by war, famine, extreme poverty or natural disaster.

For additional information, photos or interview opportunities please contact:

Glenn Price Rev. Dwight Lawson

Glenn.Price@ywamtyler.org clearviewfamily@aol.com

(903) 882-5591                                               (903) 882-8949

www.mercyworks.org www.clearviewchurchfamily.com

The “heartbreaking” conditions of “families who have lost everything” has been the week-long scenario Smith County medical workers have endured in Haiti since Tuesday.

The team sent from Youth With A Mission of Tyler’s MercyWorks has experienced “overwhelming conditions” during their week-long stay, a MercyWorks staffer on the scene in Haiti said.

Dr. Jack Jorden, an ER doctor with Mother Frances, treated patients this past week.

Each Monday MercyWorks will send a new team of medical volunteers to Haiti by MercyWorks, said Debbie Lascelles, director of the Garden Valley ministry. Financial donations and medical volunteers especially will be needed in the weeks to come, she added.

On the ground for the Tyler Courier-Times–Telegraph sending photographs and updates as conditions warrant is Glenn Price, communications director for MercyWorks. Price has been working “16 hours a day” with the team, which includes emergency room doctor Jack Jorden of Trinity Mother Frances Health System in Tyler.

The stressful conditions the team has been working under, and the sheer volume of help yet needed, has taken its toll on the team, who nonetheless continue to do their utmost.

DISPATCH

A “Dispatch From Haiti” by Price sent early Saturday morning describes the woeful scene, some joyful moments and some perspectives gained by MercyWorks team members:

“We were involved in a dramatic rescue today. A young man who had been trapped in the rubble of a vegetable shop for 11 days was discovered. MercyWorks volunteers were the first ones Haitians called upon when they found him. We administered IV and water and did a lot of digging before the Israeli force arrived and got him out. There was also an 89-year-old woman rescued today from the rubble. Truly, it was a ‘Haitian celebration’ day for people desperate for good news.

Our team of 12, consisting mainly of medical personnel, has been working out of the National Police headquarters just one block from the National Palace. The police station was ruined in the earthquake, but there are five rooms still standing in the building. This central location is ideal for helping the injured as many people are brought here for treatment.

The 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.

The medical team is still processing a number of feelings and thoughts about our time in Haiti this past week.  Some express feelings that what we are doing is so insignificant, just a “drop in the ocean of need.”

Others say they have tried not to be overwhelmed by the suffering so as to make them inadequate to serve.  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.”

Emergency Medical Technician Sam Jorden, Jack’s son, had a similar response to what he was seeing.

“This had made me look at life differently,” he said. “I will never see things from the same perspective. I had a ‘bad day’ recently when my dog ate my passport the week before I was to leave for Haiti.  Never again will I complain as much about things that really are so minor.  This trip has redefined for me what a bad day truly looks like.”

People are walking around with surgical masks to keep from smelling the decaying bodies. The stench is particularly bad under collapsed buildings, indicating some or several people were dead beneath the rubble. Many of the streets are still uncleared and not usable.

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.

The National Palace is still a shock to see one week after the earthquake. The flag of Haiti waves sadly as onlookers come by to stare at their once-prized jewel. For Americans, the closest thing to comprehending how the Haitian people are taking this, is to imagine the White House lying in ruins.

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.  Working with us was Registered Nurse Naomi Jean-Baptiste, a third year Duke medical student originally from Haiti and interested in pursuing International Health.

“I always thought I would visit other countries before ever returning to Haiti,” she said. “But when the earthquake struck, I knew I must go back and do something.  After my trip with MercyWorks, I know I will go back to Haiti again and do something long-term to make a lasting difference.

In the foreseeable future, Mercy Works teams will be helping in Haiti, sending in waves of teams each week. The next team consists of 20 medical staff and will arrive in Haiti on Jan. 27.”

Debbie Lascelles reports on the situation in Haiti and MercyWorks’ initial response to the disaster.

Debbie serves as director of Mercy Works at Youth With A Mission.She has traveled to countries ravished by war, demolished by earthquakes and impoverished by famine. She organizes worldwide relief efforts to help those in need.It is through Christ’s love that she ministers to everyone she meets.Debbie is a member of Marvin UMC and is married to Chris, who also serves as a missionary.

A crowd gathers on Friday, January 22, 2010 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..

MercyWorks Communications Director Glenn Price stands on top of the roof of a nearby house to get the best angle for taking pictures, as well as to keep out of the way of the rescuers.

An Israeli team arrives and 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.  YWAM MercyWorks team member Joel Kennedy, an EMT from Alberta, Canada, touches Buso with reassurance he is going to make it.

Buso is so pale that his mother thinks her 21-year-old son is a corpse.  Earlier in the day, another stunning rescue happened when an 84-year-old woman was pulled alive from the rubble.

Our team is fine as well as the children and staff at the orphanage we are staying at.  Even though our medical team will not be working at the orphanage or directly with the orphans, because we are staying at the orphanage, we will have time to interact with them all week long by befriending them and playing games with them.  I am also grateful that the orphanage has electricity and internet access!Many people in Port-au-Prince are highly fearful and extremely nervous about the future.  It is a great climate to share with them there is a God who created them and loves them personally.  Tonight and for the rest of the week, we sleep outdoors under a tree.

One week following the killer earthquake in Port-au-Prince, in which some estimates range as high as 150,000 – 200,000 dead, the smell of death is still in the city.  People are walking around with surgical masks on the faces to keep from smelling the decaying bodies.  The stench was particularly bad today under this building, indicating some one or several people were dead beneath the rubble, and they haven’t been dug out yet. 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 been displaced and have nowhere else to go have put up tarps or tents, or sometimes just taken a place on the ground as they wait for help. The tent cities are all throughout the capital and even where there are buildings with little or no damage survivors are fearful of entering because of the risk of more earthquakes.  People do their cooking, their laundry, and everything right out in the open. The need for help is enormous as the people suffer from a lack of all the basic essentials for life.

YWAM Tyler’s MercyWorks team of 12, consisting mainly of medical personnel, work out of the National Police headquarters, just one block from the National Palace.  The police station was ruined in the earthquake, but there are five rooms that are still standing in the building.  This central location is ideal for helping the injured as many people are brought here for treatment. wo MercyWorks volunteers, a third year medical student from Duke and an R.N. from Dallas tend to an injured woman inside the National Police headquarters.

What do you think this is?  If you guessed an operating room at the National Police headquarters in Port-au-Prince, you would be right!  YWAM MercyWorks teams will be working here for the foreseeable future, sending in waves of teams every week.  We are so grateful for all the volunteers who have committed themselves to serve with MercyWorks in the months to come. The situation is desperate and the working conditions dangerous as we help heal lives and restore hope here in Haiti.  The next team consists of 20 medical staff and they will arrive in Haiti on Wednesday, January 27. Please keep our teams in your prayers.

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The response effort will be immensely challenging.  The earthquake occurred 45 minutes before the sun set and due to the loss of electricity, people were in total darkness.  Phone service was lost, keeping people from getting in touch with family and friends.  Dozens of aftershocks measuring up to 5.9 kept people awake throughout the night.  Even before the earthquake, there was little to no emergency services in Haiti.  Most of the people survive on less than $2 per day.  Haiti’s envoy to the US described the earthquake as a “catastrophe” and says the damage from the earthquake could run into billions of dollars.

Henry Bahn, a visiting official from the US Department of Agriculture reported just minutes after the earthquake of seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.  He went on to say “Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken” and described the sky as “just grey with dust.”

We have heard from Terry Snow, our YWAM Haiti national director several times since Tuesday evening’s earthquake.  All the YWAMers in St. Marc and Gonaives are accounted for and buildings received only relatively minor damage so the YWAMers are in a good position to assist in short-term relief as well as long-term response efforts.

Earlier this morning, Snow reported “We were up early to see the video footage and pictures of the Presidential Palace destroyed and so many other buildings.  Communications are still down so we have sent our own assessment team into Port-au-Prince to see the true nature of the devastation and how we can respond.  Haiti has no infrastructure, much less a crisis management team.”

Haiti’s President Rene Preval told the media “Parliament has collapsed.  The tax office has collapsed.  Schools have collapsed.  Hospitals have collapsed.  There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.”

The international Red Cross estimates a third of Haiti’s nine million people may need emergency aid and said Haiti’s disaster relief teams are “completely overwhelmed.”  Many people are still trapped in the rubble from the killer quake.  The United Nations reports Port-au-Prince’s main airport is “fully operational”, however roads are filled with rubble and debris and the artery connecting the airport to the city is blocked.  If aid cannot travel over the airport road to Port-au-Prince, it may be rerouted through the Dominican Republic.

Governments and global companies are responding with pledges of financial aid as well as human resources such as rubble-clearing specialists, rescue units of engineers and medics, firefighters, etc.

After hurricane Katrina, which so devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, the people most impacted came to realize it was not government or corporate aid that made the biggest difference, but rather the body of Christ responding in a multi-year commitment long after the cameras and world’s attention shifted elsewhere.

I invite you to be a part of the YWAM MercyWorks response to this devastating loss of life and property by joining a response team and/or by making a generous financial donation.  Your gift will help with the procurement of medicines, food and assisting in the reconstruction and rebuilding efforts.

We will also be needing medical personnel to assist with this effort as well as other volunteers.  We will need grief counselors and construction crews in the days and weeks ahead.  Please contact us if you can go.  Lastly please keep these precious people in your prayers.

MercyWorks brings hope and lasting change to people afflicted by war, famine, extreme poverty and natural disaster.  Now is the time for the body of Christ to rise up and demonstrate our commitment to the suffering poor.