THOUSANDS CRYING OUT IN DESPERATE DESPAIR, “PLEASE COME HELP US!”
For weeks, pastors and leaders have been making the long trip to and from the remote mountains in Haiti. They return to NEW LIFE in tears, telling the stories of the victims of the severe drought that has hit the villages of Pestel, Verette and beyond. These areas have not had rain for five to seven months. Crops are dead, and children are dying. There are over 150,000 people in desperate need of help!
One Pastor spoke of a mother who walked many kilometers over dry mountainous terrain because she was desperate for water for her children. After finding that the water hole had dried up, she walked back to her village with a heavy heart, only to find that her two children had died while she was away.
GOD WAS INDEED LEADING, AND HE WOULD BREAK OUR HEARTS WITH WHAT WAS BREAKING HIS.
We organized a trip with our board members and a few specific ministry friends who were determined to define a strategy to save thousands of lives in this region. This group would be gathering all of the facts with Dr. Philip Seignue , the Mayor, an engineer, and key leaders from the village of 115,000 people. Dr. Philip is the only doctor in this area. He continues to see more needless death, suffering and heartache than could ever be told. Most conditions could be preventable if adequate medical care was available, but IT IS NOT! We can only imagine how many people in the village are sitting in mud huts holding their dying children as we read this today. They have no clean water or food due to this horrible drought.
Before leaving, GOD TOLD US THAT THIS TRIP WOULD BE DIFFERENT. NONE OF US WERE READY FOR HOW IT WOULD AFFECT US AS GOD SHOWED US WHAT HE SEES EVERY DAY. WE WERE TO BE HIS VOICE FOR THE THOUSANDS. IT WOULD BE THE DEFINING TRIP IN WHICH WE WOULD BEGIN TO CHEAR HIS GOD’S VOICE CLEARLY DIRECTING US TOWARD THE JOURNEY OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THESE VILLAGES.
Others and myself have worked in these remote areas for years, climbing mountains, bringing work teams, caring for thousands in clinics and dragging the lifeless bodies of dying children on boats and trucks for the 18-hour journey to Port-Au-Prince. This is how New Life started and we continue to receive many children with dreadful conditions.
WHY WAS IT DIFFERENT THIS TIME? IN THIS CRISIS, GOD ALLOWED US TO INTERNALLY FEEL A PORTION OF HIS OWN COMPASSION AND PAIN. WE FELT THE DESPERATE THIRST, HUNGER AND TOTAL DESPAIR OF HAVING NO HOPE. IT WAS SUCH A DEEP COMPASSION, AS IF EVERY CHILD DYING OF THIRST AND HUNGER WAS YOUR OWN! IT WAS AS IF EVERY ELDERLY PERSON WAS YOUR MOTHER OR FATHER! WE BEGAN TO UNDERSTAND GOD’S COMPASSION AND WHAT HE MEANT WHEN HE SAID, "I WAS HUNGRY, AND YOU FED ME. I WAS THIRSTY AND YOU GAVE ME DRINK”, (There is no water and little food due to the drought). “I WAS NAKED AND YOU CLOTHED ME”, (They have very little clothes or shoes and the temperatures are cold in the mountains,) “I WAS SICK AND YOU CARED FOR ME”, (They are dying of malnutrition, disease, worms and Typhoid.) GOD HEARS THEM!
Eric, the videographer from Brazil, could hardly work through his tears.
I have received these comments since returning from the trip last week. Our construction supervisor, Ricky Baines said that..."I have been unable to adjust to life back in the U.S., constantly thinking about the people in the mountains suffering from no food or water. We can't wait, not even a month, we must act now to avoid more deaths. With God’s help, we can make a change in the lives of so many people in the mountains."Dr. Steve Schroering, our medical director stated "How do you describe unimaginable human suffering? It is incomprehensible! You have to witness it yourself so that the magnet of uncontained suffering draws on every ounce of every feeling that lives in you and your heart. Suffering of the degree that we just witnessed on our recent trip is not just visual but is deeply painful to witness. Can I adequately describe the face of a dying child that is starving? NO! Can I explain the emotional drain of your own compassion that occurs when you look suffering in the face and feel sick and nauseous and you begin to weep? This is a gut wrenching compassion. Through this little innocent painful hopeless face you see a human being and ask how can this be? How can I fix this? Then comes another wave of emotion ....overwhelming fear when you realize that this is just one child in thousands dying from a lack of food and water and healthcare. We can save a few lives but what about the next day and the day after and next week and next month. The suffering continues as does the unnecessary deaths. You realize we need a permanent presence. We need to be constantly bringing food and providing clean water and a health care system that can constantly care for the 115,000 in these mountains. None of us wanted to leave! None of us wanted to return to our great country where our cups overflow with blessings beyond measure. Since our last trip, I get nauseous when I eat, not because I am sick, but because I feel I should eat less so there will be more for others. It sounds silly, but these are feelings and thoughts that are not escapable, then after all of this comes a feeling of powerlessness. On the surface, all these problems seem to have a remedy. We need to build more water cisterns, we need to provide more healthcare workers. We need more medication and educational workers , more churches and schools, medical centers and distributional centers. We need to build a hospital that would provide sustainable healthcare for the population for years to come. All these seem like simple solutions but all has one root cause that keeps them unachievable, MONEY! These are all reduced to the lack of enough financial support and funding. There in comes the gloom and sadness. A child dies for the lack of dollars. Children suffer unimaginable due to money. A slow suffering death is condensed to a few dollars. How can this be? NO CHILD DESERVES TO DIE! They can be fed adequately everyday for 30 cents. Painful to dwell on. More sadly there is plenty of money to fix this unresolved tragedy. We have to find the big hearts that can make a difference and then break their heart with this calamity. We must all become heartbreakers. This trip made me realize how fast I want my retirement to come so that I can spend more time in the mountains with the forgotten and broken hearted. Until then my heart will remain forever broken. Until then, I will be there as often as possible. God has commissioned us as a team to call everyone that reads these words to come aboard to help us provide clean water and health care. We have a plan in place even to build a hospital on ten donated acres, strategically placed clinics, feeding centers, and cisterns, schools, and to search out water sources. It can be done. We need you in our team, we need finances desperately, lots of finances that will bring this change. We must not delay as lives are at risk each day. Please give us your help. We are available to answer your questions. Together we can make a difference."
Ellen Coleman said "My life will NEVER be the same again." Click here to see the short video that Ellen narrated showing the contaminated water that the people are drinking in desperation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX-081QUS-Y
John Clark, Associate Project Director," I'm so crushed for the people of the Pestel mountain
region, including the island of Cymete, of 20,000. Their need for water food and medical haunts me day and night. The most compelling moment was to see the hysteria of the people in Joligebert for food with Moms pushing their children for us to take back to New Life to give their child a chance to survive. They know their child may die soon without water and food, the basics of life. The village of Gorgette suffered the same without food and water for months. Yet, they have a calm Spirit praying and knowing that God is with them. I returned to New Life where we have food and clean water, but who can rest and eat when those in the mountains are dying from thirst, hunger and disease. My heart is heavy for them, thinking of them constantly and pray to God to allow us the means to help them survive."
PRESENTLY, we are feeding children in eight locations and have a small clinic in operation and a nurse visiting several locations. This has literally knocked out malnutrition in those areas. We have two feeding centers built with beautiful cisterns and plans to build several more. We continue to partner with IFJ to bring in water filter buckets per family one village at a time. It is making such a difference to be able to filter filthy water due to no sanitation. With the drought, dirty water holes are drying up. We will be updating you as we trust God to move forward in creating the second arm of New Life, New Life Health and development program, allowing us to address these desperate situations. We are trusting God to give us His direction to raise the necessary funding that will be used only toward these sustainable solutions. We can’t do this alone and we are asking for any amount in order to begin immediately.
The FIRST thing that we must do before much needed sustainable solutions is to put the fires out. People are dying now for lack of water and food.
Our plan with your immediate help is as follows: We must get clean water to some of the worst areas immediately, beginning this week.
In Pestel, for example, we have located the very worst area with large populations. Most are so isolated and in horrible shape. In Gorgette, hundreds of men, women and children came when we sent food ahead. They had walked miles without water to drink. The brush church with a couple of pieces of tin dangling on top and an earth ground brought little hope. We immediately sent tin and PVC pipe to cover the top and a 1,000 gallon fiberglass cistern to be prepared for the day that rain comes. We hired a huge truck to haul water from the only river, which is hours away. This we would do each few days and then hire the same truck to empty water into the cistern after it is built in about a week. There is no choice but to save lives. The cost of the entire project is $2,200.
Several villages need this same project immediately until rain comes. As God provides and
rain comes, we will still be adding water filter buckets one village at a time as most people walk two hours to a dirty water hole. We will also continue to build feeding centers with a 10x10x10 cistern. The cost for this project is $12,000 and we can start as soon as funds and food are available. These are temporary solutions but they offer clean water in the shortest amount of time. Next would be for us to take engineers by helicopter to the two water springs miles up the mountain to check out the possibility of piping it down into a variety of stations. This, of course, will take time and finances. As Dr. Schroering said, it all can be done with money. We believe God has it and will send the people to help us.
We will now go to Verette, where children are dying. These are the worst situations and demand our immediate attention. Our team and Haitian pastors from this area searched out possibilities to save as many lives as possible. They identified the closest water sources, which are three hours away by truck. This plan of action involves three mountainous regions and 15,000- 20,000 people. This is where the mother returned after an endless journey searching for water only to find that her children had died while she was away.
We have all of the details and facts and are prepared to begin to take action. We just need the finances. We are ready to load our vehicles with pre-packaged food boxes. From Port-Au-Prince, we can hire as many trucks as funds will allow. One huge truck can carry over 1,000 large packages of 60 bags of fresh water to a central location where men, women and children from three different mountain areas can meet. It will take two hours of walking for some, but they are willing. Village leaders also said that the children are so cold. Later, we can concentrate on warm clothing and blankets but for now, food and water are urgent.
The cost of each truck load of water is $388. SECONDLY, there is a spring in a closer village called Soliette. We can hire a huge water tanker truck to be filled from the spring.
This cost is $340 for each truck. $1,000 will give us three trucks of choice. This is an opportunity that God is giving us. We work with local leaders and pastors. Many of you know pastor Lyonel Jeudi. He is part of our leadership. He has five pastors of his there calling desperately for help.
We want to make our first run this week. I have asked God for a minimum of $25,000 for us to get water into the little bodies of these children and adults ASAP.
WE MUST ACT NOW TO SEND IMMEDIATE HELP. WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER. WE HAVE THE KNOW HOW AND EXPERIENCE TO GET THESE WATER TRUCKS THERE.
Please help us with any amount. I'm asking you please not to use the funds you send to our children's home unless designated as we count on every dollar to sustain these children. We just received six new ones and another child with Polio is coming.
Please call our office at 561-868-5005 for donations or questions or call Ricky Baines at 407-973-2240 for more information. You may send a check to World Harvest Missions (3357 Pinehurst Drive, Lake Worth, FL 33466) designated to Water, Medical & Food Relief or give online at https://www.newlife4kids.org/donate.php
WHO WILL SPEAK FOR THEM IF WE HOLD OUR PEACE? IF WE SEE SUCH CALAMITY AND SUFFERING AND SAY NOTHING AND DO NOTHING, GOD HOLDS US ACCOUNTABLE!!!
…"INASMUCH AS YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE MY BRETHREN, YOU HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME.” -MATTHEW 25:40
We will keep you posted on our progress. We appreciate your prayers. Thank you so very much for your help!
Miriam Frederick
A team of New Life workers just returned from the mountainous areas affected by the
drought. They were led by John Clark, Pastor Seide and Pastor Lyonel. The grief stricken team arrived back at New Life, saying that the half has not been told about the horrible conditions of the drought. They did, however, bring back good news about how very thankful the people who are recipients of your prayers and support are! The drought has reached the point of panic and has taken the lives of many. Because of your support, we were able to send trucks filled with water and tons of food, clothing and supplies to Pestel, bringing relief to literally thousands in the worst areas of Fond Verrette, a village with over 50,000 people. This outpouring of help has truly been the hand of God working through the hearts of His people. The people in the drought stricken areas have been praying fervently for God to send help! Community prayer in the villages is resulting in many people giving their lives to the Lord. We are all glorifying God for this miracle! In the colder mountainous areas of Oriani and Miguel the trees and brush have dried up.
It was described to us as miles and miles of barren desert. You can imagine the scene as hundreds of desperate people brought as many buckets and containers as they could carry, hoping to fill them. We continued to pass out life giving food, water and supplies into the night and began again the next morning at 6:30 am. We distributed over 7,000 gallons of water and 14,000 more gallons will be handed out this week. These villages are still suffering from the damage done by hurricane Cindy three years ago. Homes, churches and other buildings are down because they lack the resources to rebuild.
Because of your monetary donations, we were able to build two cisterns in Oraini where they have not had a sustaining rain in almost three years! We are building more permanent cisterns in other villages in hopes that rain will come soon. Keep praying for rain! We are cleaning, repairing and filling a 7,000 gallon cistern that has not had water in it for years. We have so much work to continue to do. We are trusting God for esources while evaluating long term solutions. We will keep you posted with more details and photos and ask that your prayers and love gifts continue. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! If only each of you could be here to see the reaction of the people when the water trucks and food supplies arrive. The provisions that you are sending through our ministry are saving lives and souls!
