The most recent team from Urbancrest that headed to Haiti was in response to the arrival of the containers of food that had finally been released by the customs officials of Haiti. Urbancrest partnered with Larry Bergeron of A Child’s Hope International to pack Kid’s Against Hunger food that was shipped to Haiti in response to the January 2010 earthquake. Our first shipment left Cincinnati on February 1st and went through Jacksonville, Fl. to Haiti.
Though we were assured that the shipment of nearly 300,000 Kids Against Hunger meals, baby formula, canvas, and many other critical supplies would arrive in Haiti within a few weeks, that one shipment was not released for a long eight and a half months. Though every effort was made at great expense by Mission Harvest and Urbancrest, the government system in Haiti and other events caused this unfortunate situation. In the interim, Larry shipped 4 more containers and three of those had arrived. With these shipments now in country and available, it was time to go distribute this great amount of food and supplies. My personal reason for making the trip was to help in the distribution as well as to also assess the situation and ministries that we support or otherwise partner with. In addition to the food and other supplies, we were able to carry in over 30,000 doses of the antibiotic doxycycline which is greatly needed to fight the cholera epidemic that has now come to Haiti. Much of that was donated by the Warren County Health Department.
This was my third trip to Haiti since the earthquake. The rest of the team included Larry Bergeron of A Child’s Hope International, and Mick & Wanda Lovely who are the directors of Urbancrest Disaster Relief. This was the sixth trip with Urbancrest members involved. We have had 2 of our interns, Matt Prichard and Sarah Bickers, serve in Haiti for 6 to 12 weeks. Urbancrest has had a strong presence in Haiti, with nearly 30 people making the journey to serve the Lord in Haiti over the last 10 months.
Larry arranged for us to lodge at the guest house at Mission Lifeline in Arcahaie, Haiti. Their US headquarters is in Clay City, Kentucky. We were hosted by Donald & Pat Curtis. Pat is a great cook and they both went out of their way to see to our every need.
The Mission Lifeline compound is huge. In addition to two guest houses, there is a church, school, medical clinic, and a very large kitchen where a crew of cooks prepare 3,500 meals every day to feed children who would otherwise go hungry. Mission Lifeline also has several storage facilities that are used to house the food and other supplies. In addition to the meals prepared and distributed to orphanages in the area, they also load dry rice or Kids Against Hunger meals onto mules and distribute the food to orphanages in the mountains. The pictures below are of the Mission Lifeline compound and one of mules bringing food to these orphanages.
Though we were assured that the shipment of nearly 300,000 Kids Against Hunger meals, baby formula, canvas, and many other critical supplies would arrive in Haiti within a few weeks, that one shipment was not released for a long eight and a half months. Though every effort was made at great expense by Mission Harvest and Urbancrest, the government system in Haiti and other events caused this unfortunate situation. In the interim, Larry shipped 4 more containers and three of those had arrived. With these shipments now in country and available, it was time to go distribute this great amount of food and supplies. My personal reason for making the trip was to help in the distribution as well as to also assess the situation and ministries that we support or otherwise partner with. In addition to the food and other supplies, we were able to carry in over 30,000 doses of the antibiotic doxycycline which is greatly needed to fight the cholera epidemic that has now come to Haiti. Much of that was donated by the Warren County Health Department.
This was my third trip to Haiti since the earthquake. The rest of the team included Larry Bergeron of A Child’s Hope International, and Mick & Wanda Lovely who are the directors of Urbancrest Disaster Relief. This was the sixth trip with Urbancrest members involved. We have had 2 of our interns, Matt Prichard and Sarah Bickers, serve in Haiti for 6 to 12 weeks. Urbancrest has had a strong presence in Haiti, with nearly 30 people making the journey to serve the Lord in Haiti over the last 10 months.
Larry arranged for us to lodge at the guest house at Mission Lifeline in Arcahaie, Haiti. Their US headquarters is in Clay City, Kentucky. We were hosted by Donald & Pat Curtis. Pat is a great cook and they both went out of their way to see to our every need.
The Mission Lifeline compound is huge. In addition to two guest houses, there is a church, school, medical clinic, and a very large kitchen where a crew of cooks prepare 3,500 meals every day to feed children who would otherwise go hungry. Mission Lifeline also has several storage facilities that are used to house the food and other supplies. In addition to the meals prepared and distributed to orphanages in the area, they also load dry rice or Kids Against Hunger meals onto mules and distribute the food to orphanages in the mountains. The pictures below are of the Mission Lifeline compound and one of mules bringing food to these orphanages.
Much of our time at Mission Lifeline was spent loading the vehicles of various mission organizations as they came to pick up the food that Larry had allocated to them. Despite the lie that was propagated on Facebook, I really did do manual labor every day! We actually moved a full container load by hand into dump trucks, box trucks, tap taps, and whatever else was brought to haul the food to the ministry locations.
It is my intention to write several more blog posts about Haiti. In the meantime, please continue to keep the Haitian people in your prayers. We have returned home to the United States, but they are still there. This has been a traumatic year for them, as reflected in this Haitian artist's rendering of the earthquake.
It is my intention to write several more blog posts about Haiti. In the meantime, please continue to keep the Haitian people in your prayers. We have returned home to the United States, but they are still there. This has been a traumatic year for them, as reflected in this Haitian artist's rendering of the earthquake.
great work!!!!!!! glad to see all that was done here finally got delivered to those in need God bless all that helped
ReplyDeleteAmen to the release of all the aid sent! It was certainly a long wait. All in God's perfect timing.
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