A South Florida Report on Haiti

January 17, 2010

No matter where you are in the United States, you can’t turn on your television without hearing about the tragedy in Haiti.

Over the weekend, we’ve heard some encouraging things amid the heartbreak, and I thought I’d share those.

Living in South Florida, we are about an hour’s flight from the earthquake-ravaged country. Consequently, a lot of aid has been going from here to there. We read in the paper about one of our local hospitals that is sending doctors and nurses to work 20 hour shifts in Haiti. They board the plane, fly an hour, work an hour straight, and fly back here. It works well since there’s really no place to put them up over there for any length of time.

Today there was a prayer meeting for Haiti at our church and members of about 67 Haitian churches were there. Many have had no word from friends and relatives. A call went out for yachts and large boats. Missionaries have received word from the town of Jacmel, a port town that is inaccessible by land. After hearing of numbers of schoolchildren trapped there and the town’s lack of supplies, these missionaries decided to ask for help by sea. The plan is for these vessels to pick up supplies at the distribution point and deliver them to Jacmel by sea.

My heart goes out to so many, but lately I’ve felt the biggest tug for those American adoptive parents who await word of their children in Haiti. Some have heard the children are safe but supplies are dwindling, and others have heard nothing.

Let’s continue to lift up these people and this little nation in our prayers.

Laura