Hey folks,
Here is a note from the city hall crew. The trailer is now on church property thanks to a local fisherman named Tuna. I am now in quest of the keys.
Kenny
Thank you so much for being one of the first donations to Mexico Beach! We really appreciate that you answered our call to fill our needs. We cannot show you enough gratitude.
Kenny
We are now serving much closer to home due to hurricane michael.
Heading east tomorrow to cut trees away from two homes in Callaway. Also, we’re bringing fuel and 234 LoBoy Coolers, donated by Magna Manufacturing Inc. out of Fort Walton Beach, filled with ice, donated by Dewey Destin’s. What we are in need of are tarps, to distribute to individuals in the smaller communities that aren’t getting as much help. If possible, we need them today, but we are making daily trips to help out our neighbors to the east. Please contact me if you can help put boots on the ground tomorrow or provide tarps. Together we can make a difference. Peace.
Today is a day of reflection on what we have encountered. I guess words can’t really express how cruel and beautiful nature can be. The true crime to humanity is if we don’t respond to the cards that we’ve been dealt. Only God knows why things like this happens and only God knows who will respond. All I know is that His timing is perfect.
We were one of the first foreign response teams to arrive besides the rescue workers from Guatemala and Mexico, news agencies and gawkers. I don’t know where this goes but our willingness to work under the authority of CONRED has opened a door that not many can go through. The relocation process will start soon and we have to be ready to mobilize. I think our initial goal will be to build 10 houses. At the request of CONRED we are working on an architectural drawing with house specifications. This will be presented before CONRED for approval. There will be details to work out but I am confident that we will get the green light. I think we can accomplish the construction of one house for $5000.00, possibly less. I met with the architect again this morning who is donating his talents to finalize some details for our house project. After our meeting I spent the rest of the day with Russ and Vicky. Jim took some alone time. I leave in the morning back to the states. We will start our plea for open hearts and minds to help us get this much needed project off the ground. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
We headed out at 5:00 this morning to make sure we were at the red zone by 7:00 am. On the way we stopped by a local bakery to pick up some pastries to hand out to the officials at the road block. Sometimes to reach someone’s heart you gotta go through their stomach. I’m not saying that this really helped but they were stoked to get sweet bread and they put our name on the list to enter with the rescue workers.
We were able to walk in to Los Lotes a small town that has been on the news as one of the hardest hit areas. Most of the town is covered with ash, lava and mud. Many lives were lost and there is a large number of people missing. At least 300 is a number I keep hearing. The relief workers are working from dawn to dusk digging out the homes looking for bodies. At this point I do not believe they are expecting to find survivors. The flow looks to me like it was about a quarter of a mile wide.
Once we came back down I met with CONRED to discuss our plan of shelter once the relocation process starts. We are working with a local architect to draw up a simple, indigenous permanent structure. CONRED will submit the plan for approval. We will certainly need financial gifts for this project. Our goal is 10 homes to start the project. The homes will cost between 3500.00- 5500.00 per house. These homes will have concrete footer, floor, block walls and metal roofs. We will use local labor but teams are welcome to join our efforts. Our readers can make this possible. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
After a great night of sleep, Russ and his brother in law picked us up and we headed back towards Escuintla. Today’s agenda was to hopefully get close to ground zero. We stopped by Clinicas Vida and Doctor Kenny came along to help us try and get permission to enter the red zone. Once we got our merry band of gypsies together we headed to COMRED.
COMRED is the government agency in Guatemala that oversees all relief efforts in time of crisis. We did have a fruitful talk with them and they gave us their blessings. But, it’s really up to the police. Soooo, here we go down the trail of red tape. We arrived at the road that goes up towards the volcano Fuego and sure enough the road was blocked. The military and police are present and after telling them our desire to go up the mountain they just smiled and said no. Mostly because it was raining and the rain compounds the problem. What they did say was, be here at 7:00 in the morning and they would let us in with the rescue workers. It was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to go find ice cream. Which we did. Tomorrow is another day. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
I met Jim Jennings with Conscience International in Atlanta and headed to Guatemala City to begin an assessment on the Fuego eruption. This is the first time Jim and I have worked in the field together. I am very excited about this opportunity. I’m usually solo. We met Russ and Vickie who are missionaries here at a hospital about 10 hours from the city. They will be working with us while here. Once we left the airport we headed to Escuintla a small town where there are staging areas for shelter, food, clothing and medical assistance. Russ introduced us to a doctor named Kenny who runs a social clinic for the desperate called Clinicas Vida. He took us to the distribution areas, a field clinic and a shelter of 1200 displaced people. Tomorrow we will try to approach ground zero. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
We arrived early to the drop off point to deliver metal for one extra roof. From there we took the long hike up the mountain to start our assessment on each roof installed. Wow! The goat trails never end and the deeper we go the more need we see. We are getting close to completing the roofs in Cayette and our attention will remain in Furon which is the adjoining community. After many hours of climbing and looking it was time for the walk down. Going down is easier physically but can be a little dangerous due to the steep inclines. We completed all 20 roofs on our list and we were able to do three more not on the list. Twenty three roofs in 4 days. What a blessing. Tomorrow is the day we will give out the shorts,dresses and shirts to the children of both villages. I can’t wait!
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
Today was much the same. This is good to me because that means we are making daily progress. If things continue to move in this way we will exceed our goal of twenty roofs.We were planning on handing out the dresses, shirts and shorts that the sewing team from FBCFWB made but we decided to wait till Saturday when more children will be there to hear THE GOOD NEWS and receive their new clothes. Tomorrow we will go back up the mountain and make an assessment of all the roofs that have been installed this trip. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
4/25
Up early and rested we hit the ground running. Yesterday we got the material for 8 roofs on the ground and today we brought the material for 9 more roofs. The bosses now have plenty to do. Thank goodness for a good nights sleep because we are very busy. The people in Cayette and Furon were so happy to see us and I was very happy to see them also. We did some survey work of the project and all is going as planned. By this days end we have 9 roofs completed. Wow! To me that’s amazing.
We finally meet the Casec of the area. He is a voted position and a little lower than the mayor. The Casec is the official controller of the area we are working in. He has known about us for a long time but for some reason every time we are here he is away on business. He is a very nice young man and is in total support of the project. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
4/23-24
After arriving in Port au Prince, Pastor Harry was waiting and ready to go south. We got the 4×4, threw our gear in and headed south for the coast. Our mission, to install 20 roofs God willing. So here we go again to do what some may say the impossible but we know all things are possible through Him who created us.
Conscience International and Give Me Shelter Ministries are partnered again to do the possible. Before leaving the states I was contacted by a lady from Pennsylvania who supports a school in Leogane. She asked me to stop by and take a look if we have time. This is a school that Conscience International (CI) built after the earthquake. I believe that the couple from Pennsylvania funded the building project. Once we hit the road headed south we were meet by the biggest traffic issue I’ve ever been in since coming to Haiti. I took over 3 hours to go maybe 3 miles. Almost thought I was back in FWB on July 4th.
Our first stop was going to be the school and I knew it would be very late before we got there. We did arrive very late to the Annunciation School and was greeted by the staff with a nice meal waiting on us. We stayed for a couple of hours and had a great conversation with the people. It was very late and we had to get moving. We ended up stopping in Mirageane for the night. I physically could not drive any further safely. We got up at 5:00 AM and carried on. Once we arrived in Les Ceyes we dropped our gear at the guest house and headed to the Raise The Roof Project in the village of Cayette. We made our first material run and got the work started. By days end we were all totally beat. A good nights rest was needed. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
