Below, I have included some excerpts from reports submitted by Jean Robert St. Hilaire. (The bolding and underlining are mine. dr)
Jean Robert reports 1-13-2010 - I hope you are fine by the grace of God. We'd like to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and concern on what's happening here in Haiti yesterday. It is a quite bad experience that I’ve never made in my life. Yesterday around 4:00p.m, the earthquake trapped me in my house I was just coming, preparing to go back to the School of Preaching. The quake last about 60 second, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Right after the brake I run out with my family, but the house was moving all over the place. One of the students call to tell me how bad they were down at the church building, and I've asked them to leave. I took my family as we couldn't go back inside; instead we go to the church building at Delmas. finally, everything like church furniture were broken a part, our new sound system that church members recently purchase in December was totally lost, several part of the building are destroyed. Church members are homeless, many are injured, one of our elders, Brother Carlo Mardy has his daughter died under concrete (she is around 25 years old). We've lost several church members in that disaster, we cannot do any estimate yet because we have no firefighters, most of the official buildings are cracking down, the presidential palace is broken, etc...We are still in the street, because the land is trembling every 15 to 30 minutes all night. And also you know we are searching church members who are injured at the same time. No hospitals, no rescuers, almost nothing... The Haitian government is asking for help from the International Community to rescue people under the debris.
Haiti is almost totally lost, specially in the west department including Port-au-Prince, Delmas and Petion-Ville.
We are asking for your prayers and material supports of all kind at this crucial time. Please, please, do something for our brothers and sisters. We will have to bury many people... that is really sad.
My phone lines are still not working, but you can email me as I have a wireless laptop with me.
Jean Robert reports 1-14-2010 - Hope you are all fine by the grace of God. Thank you very much for your prayers, commitment and concern toward the Haitian Christians. In Haiti, we continue to sleep in the streets. My house and my family are not hurt, but we sleep in the car because the population was alerted by Geologist that the earthquake will last until Friday at midnight so every body needs to stay away from their houses. There is no electricity, no water, no food for sale, no communication, no hospital, and no technicians to save the victims. According to the last estimate from the officials: 2 million victims, half million injured, 100.000 dead most are under concrete. We've already count 20 people died at the Delmas Church...One of our preacher graduates Brother Michelet Baptiste lost his wife which is member of my wife's ladies group and their first baby 6 months old. Brother Luc Nadal and his family disappear, sister Kathleen Cesias lost her son. Too many things drive me crazy for now, I'll send you a complete list of our members died and injured. Sister Marie France Elysee member of our congregation which usually stay in my home cooking with my wife for our missionaries went to visit her mother Tuesday afternoon doesn't comeback yet, we went to her mother's place the whole area is crashed you can only see dead bodies installed everywhere in that area Delmas 60. Our church building at Delmas is seriously damaged and several congregations of the Church of Christ in the West and South Departments are damaged. We have too much to do for now!
Jean Robert reports 1-15-2010 - The death toll for Delmas 43b is up to 28 with at least 30 missing. They are feeding about 1,000 daily, and providing tarp housing for many in 2-3 locations. About 700 were injured. Some funds are being used to send some folks to the provinces out of PAP so they can be cared for by family. Tomorrow JR plans to go to Cabaret and then to Carrefour and Leogane on Tuesday to take supplies to the churches. He is spending about $10,000 per week at this point. He reports that there are several orphans in the Delmas church now who will need to be cared for.
He also reported that 15 people requested baptism today, and that his young son Nahum is also talking with him about being baptized into Christ. I believe we are going to see many souls won to Jesus through this. People are noticing how the Delmas church is responding to the needs of the people there.
Haiti is devastated in the aftermath of a 7.0 earthquake that struck last Tuesday and destroys 70% of the West Department. Over three million Haitians are in dire need – thousands have lost their homes, many have lost loved ones. The massive quake left the area in ruins with hundreds of collapsed homes, schools, hospitals and churches.
The Church of Christ at Delmas 43 is asking for emergency support of all kind so that church leaders would be able to distribute within hours of the quake to survivors and churches in desperate need. The Delmas Church of Christ now has more than 700 members are victim as well as 15 others died in that disaster.
We have one of our future graduates Emmanuel Rony, very powerful preacher from St. Marc (North of Port-au-Prince) he was on his way to come to the school of preaching a building falls on him, we cannot get him from the concrete till right now. Our Board of Trustees Treasurer, Brother Jeancil Caze, one of the oldest members and one of the founders of that congregation has his house collapsed and is homeless now with his wife and 3 children, one of our deacons Brother Paul Lifrene lost his daughter, Sister Marceline Mathieu and 5 children died under the concrete. We lost 2 church buildings at Leogane (that city is totally destroyed). The city of Jacmel is 70% crashed, we don’t know yet how many Churches members are victim there. The Delmas 32 Church building collapsed. The Delmas Church at Delmas 43 Damages in that catastrophe has saved souls in Haiti for almost 22 years but the country's infrastructure has been devastated, and the magnitude of this catastrophe is enormous.
Jean Robert reports 1-24-2010 - The death toll for Delmas 43b is up to 28 with at least 30 missing. They are feeding about 1,000 daily, and providing tarp housing for many in 2-3 locations. About 700 were injured. Some funds are being used to send some folks to the provinces out of PAP so they can be cared for by family. Tomorrow JR plans to go to Cabaret and then to Carrefour and Leogane on Tuesday to take supplies to the churches. He is spending about $10,000 per week at this point. He reports that there are several orphans in the Delmas church now who will need to be cared for.
He also reported that 15 people requested baptism today, and that his young son Nahum is also talking with him about being baptized into Christ. I believe we are going to see many souls won to Jesus through this. People are noticing how the Delmas church is responding to the needs of the people there.
Jean Robert reports 1-25-2010 - …Good evening, Hope you are fine by the grace of God and continue to be really concerned and mission-minded during the tragic disaster we're living in Haiti. Thanks very much to all those who are already contributing to the relief effort put together by many congregations and individuals of the Churches of Christ. To those who cannot contribute financially we know that your prayers are on our behalf, thank you very much...
Like millions of people around the world, I've been shocked by the terrible events in Haiti. Only now is the true scale of the disaster emerging. Reports now suggest as many as 500,000 people may have died, with hundreds of thousands made homeless. At the Delmas Church of Christ, we've recorded 28 of our members died, 31 are still missing and 832 homeless. We give money to other ones for transportation to go back to their home country...
We've attached a financial report of our expenses to this email to help our supporters understand how money that they have contributed is being spent.
During the earthquake period, $33,699 U.S. was deposited to the BOA account from different sources, an amount of $23,877.08 are being spent for food, water, shelters, fuel and money for transportation. All the details are mentioned in the attachment. Now we have balance of $9,821.92. We need more funds to bring relief to our brothers and sisters in Leogane, Carrefour, Petit-Goave, Jacmel and Cabaret. The funds that we have left on the account will not be enough to help. We ask Sam and Darrell to take care of that by tomorrow or as soon as they can please...
Together as ONE we can make a difference!...
Jean Robert reports 1-26-2010 - …I am just back from Leogane and, while I was over there, I had a meeting with Lionel Abilhomme and Samson, 2 preachers of Jacmel. Only 2 church buildings are still existed in Jacmel; one is a Baptist church, the other one is the Mormon building. All our worship places are totally destroyed and the church members are homeless, they need our prayers. We’ll be going over there to help these people as soon as we have enough funds. The big building that we’ve had at Leogane where Brother Magis Merdelus is preaching since we’ve dealing the property with the voodoo priest during Brother Riley’s first trip in Haiti, that building is totally collapsed. We’ll have to go back to Leogane Thursday morning...
Jean Robert reports 2-11-2010 - …Good morning, I have just returned last night from a trip in the South following the disastrous earthquake on Jan 12. The condition of the mission in Haiti, along with the population at large, is dire beyond all imagination. While there, I visited six areas where the Lord's Church is, meeting with the members and assessing their needs.
There are so many concerns that I hardly know where to begin, but I will mention a few of the issues I believe were most pressing:
Much of the population, including many of the members of our churches, have limited or no access to food and water, or cannot afford the food and water available in the Humanitarian Organizations. Sanitation is practically non-existent throughout these places. While the medias keep repeating provisions and medical attention are in abundance in some areas, others are reported to have received so far only 10% of what is needed. Our Relief Funds greatly aid our members and a few WEI students by addressing these needs. For example, the Delmas Church Board of Trustees established food distribution networks and, especially, drinking water centers. Proper sanitation (bathrooms) also was established at locations accessible to our brothers and Sisters.
Shelter is an extreme concern that has been addressed promptly, as the general health of the population, including our own church members, will degrade drastically once the rainy season begins in a few weeks. This is especially true in Leogane, Grassier, Grand-Goave, and Petit-Goave, where the houses occupied by the Church of Christ were completely destroyed and the entire Christian Communities are living in outdoor camps. We are working with our Engineers who are prepared to spend considerable to estimate materials that we will need for reconstruction projects.
Nine Church buildings (in Delmas 43, Leogane, Grassier, Grand-Goave, Petit-Goave, Vialet, La Montagne, La Vallee, and Jacmel) were directly affected by the earthquake. In Delmas the church building is badly damaged and must be repaired before it is safe to resume services in the building, in the other areas they must be replaced. In Petit-Goave the church (a rented building) was completely destroyed.
We realize that we have raised many concerns and provided few solutions. The funds needed to properly rebuilt our building and provide for the future health is staggering, but the need is immediate.
Jean Robert reports 2-15-2010-…I hope you and everyone are fine by God's Grace. As you can see, we’ve had a very busy Sunday yesterday, I don't know how that was but I can understand what it was on the day of the Pentecost to immerse so many people on the same day. The Lord has blessed His Church with 118 precious souls added to our wonderful family, we give Him praise. Our Engineer is finally giving the estimate to repair the Delmas: The total expenses will be $286,765 Ht. or $47,794.16 U.S.