Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Friends in Haiti

Thursday of last week, we went to breakfast at the hotel. Brock struck up a conversation with the night manager who knew a little English. Paul was his name. He is from Haiti. His wife is the only one who was in the Dominican with him. The rest of his family including his 7 year old son was in Port Au Prince. He had not been able to reach them to find out if they were alive. He really wanted to go over there. Brock came away from that conversation wanting to go over there with him to search for his son. It was only a two hour drive. Our heart ached for the guy. Imagine not knowing if your young boy was dead or not. The magnitude of what had happened was setting in.Brock immediately got online and set up shop right there in our hotel room. I looked at my email for the first time in weeks and found that there were a few emails from my sister and parents. They were worried about us. I shot them an email back and they were so relieved. We realized that our friends, Mark and Aegis, were in Haiti at their orphanage Hands and Feet. We thought that they were okay because the orphanage is in Jacmel and not Port Au Prince. That is not the case. It hit there, too. They had a school and their hospital collapsed as well as many more places and deaths. All of the caretakers and children at Hands and Feet were sleeping outside because they were afraid that their building would collapse on all of them. Brock used his contact with Compassion to find out how to get them help or out of there. Compassion said that at the time, Haiti had closed its borders to most everyone. The only way people were getting in and out was by helicopter. They were using the airport in Santo Domingo as an entry and exit. Brock sadly had to tell Paul that they could not get into Haiti.Brock also told me something that was crazy. We had talked about going to Haiti that week a few months ago. I really wanted to visit our Compassion child in the Dominican Republic and then fly over to Hands and Feet in Haiti. We would have been flying into Port Au Prince the day of the earthquake. However, Brock was dragging his feet on the planning of the Haiti trip. I just assumed it was not working out. He informed me that it could have happened, but he did not pursue it. Why? Because he had a bad feeling about going...that was 3 months ago.

4 comments:

April said...

Wow, Aunie. It is so good to hear how God was protecting you.

Unknown said...

I am just so glad that he was listened to the Spirit! My heart aches for the people of Haiti! They are all in my prayers and especially the orphans!

Barbara said...

that's scary!

Haley said...

Praise Jesus that He gave Brock a bad feeling!!! It is so sad what's going on!