Compassion International ~ Haiti

November 4th, 2010

Today we spent with Compassion International here in Haiti. It was an incredibly encouraging day as we saw the work they are doing…but as we visited one of the Compassion Projects we also found it to be one of the hardest days we have encountered yet. Once again we were up front and with the people of the project. The faces of the children and families who have hope is in stark contrast to the families and faces which keep distance from the people of the project. No matter where we go we are quick to draw attention because not many white Americans venture into these communities. The great thing with a few of the organizations we have been with is they empower the local people and local church to do the ministry in their own community. This allows for the most effective and sustainable ministry. The volunteers and aid organizations come along side and support the project work.

One of the places we went today was to visit a school which has over 200 sponsored children in it. We were greeted by over half of these students who came in on their day off to meet us. School has been cancelled both today and tomorrow for Hurricane Tomas which is to make landfall early tomorrow morning (Friday). While visiting this community project we also visited two micro-financed businesses which are foundational in the community. One is a fresh-purified water store and the other is a small retail street vendor. This family has seven children, 3 of which are in the program.

Today we saw more of the evidence of the utter devastation which occurred January 12th, 2010. But today in seeing these things it became evident that there are many many places which still have not been searched for bodies. The pancaking which happened to so many buildings during those minutes the earth shook here…a picture just can’t manifest itself in enough words to describe the site. Looking at a few of these buildings there is no way anyone could search the rubble for bodies, without heavy equipment and there is no evidence that the site has been disturbed since the day it happened. This home/business actually looks as if there may have been an initial search done.

From the children of this project….they say Thank You for your sponsorship of so many of them.