Rice Aid

Everyone knows of the hurricanes and tropical storms that have passed through and brought damage and destruction to the Dominican Republic and Haiti which make up the island of Hispaniola. We see on the news that there is major flooding and people walking for miles looking for dry land. Indeed it is semi-reminiscent of Noah the way things, especially in Haiti, have flooded. I have worked with two pastors in the two hardest hit areas of Haiti, Les Cayes and Goniaeves. They are the St. Germain brothers, Lewis and Dony. Together they and their families and their ministry, El Shadai Ministry International (ESMI) work with almost 700 orphans.

It is a great task of faith to keep those kids fed, educated, bathed and learning about God each and every day. While there is a lesson plan to educate the kids on faith, the St. Germain’s lives reflect their profound faith everyday seemingly without really blinking an eye.

Perhaps the biggest test of their faith came recently with hurricane Ike. The flooding has caused major physical problems but to understand why this was more than just not having food we have to go back to nearly three years ago and hurricane ??????? that caused major flooding and landslides in Goniaves. In total, there are an estimated three thousand people who lost their lives just in that city alone. Many of the children were left parent-less, literally swimming alone in the waters of the flood or stuck in the mud of the landslide. Dony, Lewis and their ministry collected most of the orphans who populate their orphanages after this hurricane. It was then that a vision was initiated to serve the orphan population and to grow a new Haiti from there. What a “dream.” That is exactly what is happening though through. ESMI. So the children of ESMI are growing into this new family provided by the orphanage. Yet they are going through storms that are similar to the ones where many lost parents, friends, classmates and others in their daily lives. So the children still struggle with this first massive loss and now must cope with the possibility of losing other loved ones in their lives. Again, Gonieve was hit very hard and caused major flooding. Again the loss of life is estimated into the hundreds.

The psychological damage brought on by the storms is obviously a type of mental anguish. There is little to no help for this in Haiti. Really this type of aid is left in the hands of God or voodoo even in the major metropolitan city of Port-au-Prince. That is why it is so important to pray for these little folks and the leadership there. These little ones continue to suffer from the past and now they must work through that current storm in their lives.

The waters have subsided but that does not mean that things are much easier, in fact much worse because now that the pictures of flooded fields and overflowed bridges and the dirt lanes called roads are washed away from the tv screen many will be forgotten. Recent estimates of crop loss due to Ike on a national level are at fifty percent or more. In the areas of the orphanages these men of strong faith simply use the word “devastated.” There is little that they will be able to harvest from the crops they plant for each orphanage.

There is another “D” word that the pastor does not use but is very clearly portrayed in his actions, that is dependence. The orphanage, the ministry or the churches would not have been built had it not been for a complete dependence on God. In my time knowing these pastors their faith is simple - pray and depend. They live on the fact that God supplies to the faithful. And indeed God does.

I believe it was because of so many prayers, especially those of the orphans that God began an innocent conversation last Wednesday eve to bring about five hundred pounds of donated rice to the orphans. That conversation happened between a guy from Florida and a missionary in the Dominican Republic. That conversation led to action. The action led to the discovery that there was actually probably only about two hundred pounds of rice could be brought for the orphans and it would cost about six-hundred dollars. In attempting to work out the flight information to bring that two hundred pounds of rice in, money was sent from a woman in Kentucky for the service. Before the money even arrived though that attempted flight was canceled.

That “scrubbing” caused a brainstorm session which led to changing the plan a little and depending on another avenue to bring in the rice with the same plane. That was also negated by people in charge of the plane. In seeking more information about the rice we discovered that there was another plane available with the rice in the Bahamas. The orphans would eat, we thought.

The plan was good except that God had not supplied gasoline money. We needed at least one thousand dollars to have the plane take off. The money originally sent from Kentucky seemed to be tied up. But alas the pilot Dave, was able to have someone lend him money for gas and to put up $1,500 cash donation. When the plane finally left the ground on Thursday it was loaded with 800 lbs of rice and beans, 150 lbs of drinking water, 150 lbs of clothing and the cash. What was originally planned as a delivery of 500 pounds of rice dropped to 200 pounds of rice. What we were told was not “efficient” turned out to be nearly ½ a ton of goods brought into Haiti plus cash for the local economy. God can do more than we can ever dream exceedingly more abundantly that we can dream of.

I have no doubts that there were six hundred or so orphans and so many of you praying to God and God had to answer. The bible says that we are to take care of the widows and orphans and I think God wants to more than anyone. He is indeed faithful.

Attached are some photos of Dave and my friends at the orphanage. Dou Dou is the guy waving in the photo. He is an incredible God follower working with those orphans day and night. I have to admit though the photo of the rainbow taken on the way back from Haiti made me cry as we serve our promise keeping God.