The Haiti Committee met to discuss ways to help our sister parish, St. Francis Xavier, in Baudin, Haiti. At this stage, getting reliable information is frustrating. Roads to Baudin are still blocked, and communications from Fr. Camy, the pastor, are also sporadic. When we last heard, he reported that they ran out of food and had only food from the garden. Our heads know that helping the people of Baudin will be long-term. Our hearts want to do something NOW. Prayer helps, but patience and action seem in conflict. Here is what St. Tom’s is doing now.
In Baudin, we provided 150 lbs of peanut butter that was on site. John Smith is in Haiti working to arrange food relief for Baudin. We are working on getting an engineer to Baudin to check out the buildings.
Money is needed now. We are sending money to three of our partners in Haiti. Deep Springs International is our new partner in bringing clean water to Baudin. Parish Twinning helps in many ways, especially with the Matthew 25 guesthouse. This guesthouse is now a field hospital with many injured under its care. Finally, we are helping some of our translators, whose lives have been turned upside down this week, including the family of Janvier, who died in the quake.
In addition, the airlines postponed our dental and medical missions scheduled for this week and early February. Both trips still plan to go to Haiti, even though they won’t be able to get to Baudin. The need in Port-au-Prince is great, and we have the skills to help. The dental trip will go as soon as a flight can be arranged. There is a great need for dental work to restore jaws damaged in the quake. The medical mission will follow as it can. Others with medical training have already offered to go with our usual team. We will carry our own food and shelter to not add to the burden. Our part is small, we trust in God for the rest.
Lauri Mitchell – Haiti Committee Chair
[email protected]
God says do your part, and I’ll do mine.
Haitian Proverb