January Newsletter 2010

Homebound Missions January 2010 Newsletter

On January 12, 2010 Haiti suffered a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Within minutes, Tyler and I would be reading the tweets seen around the world, as Troy Livesay immediately let people know that he, his family and others were OK.

Nothing can describe the sickening feeling that you get when you know people you love and care about are in harms way and there is absolutely nothing you can do to protect them, rescue them, or help them. Tyler, Magnalie and I, sat speechless; all we could do is pray and be thankful for the few that we knew within moments were OK.

The next morning the news coverage was constant. Estimates of 100,000 people dead, hundreds of thousands injured, thousands buried alive in rubble was too much to even comprehend.

We began immediately shipping out medical supplies to Three Angels, as they were coordinating with other missions to get medical teams and supplies into Haiti. We made contact with all of the organizations we source and were relieved to know everyone was mostly well. But our families were a big unknown. We tried to call Haiti to no avail. On Saturday, we received our first telephone call. Mimose called to tell us she, Rebecca and Junior were all OK. What a relief especially to Magnalie. On Sunday, Matthew called to say he was well, his family had survived. We were able to le t Matthew know Tyler was coming to Haiti, and would be there soon. an>We asked him to start looking for all our families.

Our church, HighPointe Church was there for us right from the start. Our Assistant Pastor, Pastor Josh arranged for Tyler and our Haitian friend Yves to have seats on an MFI (Missionary Flights International) plane. This was the only way in and out of Haiti and not something Tyler or I had any power to get on our own. The church also arranged to pay for all the expenses which made it possible for Tyler to just go as soon as possible.

On January 20^th, Tyler and Yves were in Haiti to check on our families as well as Yves’. For three days they searched for and found all of our families. Sadly, we would learn that Job and Yvette lost their 4 year old son in the earthquake. Everyone else was safe, though many are now homeless.

Homebound Missions has been blessed with an extremely generous outpouring of financial contributions. Our first priority is to help our families find and secure shelter, assist them with food, and when or if possible make sure their children are in school. There are presently no medical needs and this is truly a blessing.

I am going to highlight all of our families, along with needs and goals for these families as I want everyone to know exactly what our plan is. I cannot tell you how difficult things are right now for these families. The simple task of finding a place to live may be near impossible right now. And there are many more trials ahead. Please pray for our families and others that they will find a way. The rainy season will begin soon in Haiti and then there will be even more problems.

Mimose Lubin’s Family (Mimose, Rebekah, & Junior)

House is good.

Goals for this family: Continue to support Mimose with rent, food, and school tuition as she continues at sewing school. We anticipate that Mimose will be self supporting in 2011 and will taper our support accordingly.

Job & Yvette Lira’s Family (Job, Yvette, Cassandra )

House unknown; son Rodlin died in earthquake.

Goals for this family: Our priority goal for this family is to provide the funds needed for Job to purchase a vehicle to use as a taptap. Job is a driver and will be able to support his own family once he is able to secure a vehicle. Until such a time we will assist his family will shelter needs, food, and tuition for Cassandra to remain in school.

Hyppolite & Rebkah Louissaint Family ( Hyppolite, Rebekah, a son, Joveny, & Danika)

House unknown

Goals for this family: Hyppolite is a vendor by trade. Homebound Missions is going to provide Hyppolite with the jewelry that was made in our WORK Haiti program in order to increase his inventory at no cost to him. We suspect that as soon as commercial flights are able to go to Haiti that he will have an increase in customers. We will assist him with shelter, food, and school tuition until he is stable again.

Stanley & Taciana’s Family (Stanley, Taciana, & Gaelle)

House unknown

Stanley has been in Argentina for the last year working to support his family that he left in Haiti. He was not in Haiti when the earthquake struck, but returned a week later. His family is well. He has asked us if we would help him to get 5 of his family members to Argentina and out of Haiti. We are looking into the cost and how many we would actually be able to send. This would be our only assistance to Stanley and his family if they are able to leave Haiti.

Obenson and Idora’s Family (Obenson, Idora, Kathy, Kathiana, and older children)

Homeless

Goals for this family: Obenson works part time for Three Angels. We hope to send funds to him through TA’s as we hope to have them provide work to him that we will pay for. Whenever possible we want our families to earn the money we send. Also, we plan to encourage Idora to apply to the sewing school.

Kathy and Kathiana have a school scholarship with Three Angels and so our assistance will provide for housing and food.

Fanfan

Housing unknown

Goals for this young man: Look into educational opportunities that might be available to him with funding, and assist with food.

Jean & Venise Prevalus Family (Jean, Venise, Sonel, Matthew, Vilia, Villan, Smith, Esterline, Wilbert, David, and baby girl)

Homeless

Goals for family: Continue to support Venise going to sewing school. Because Venise’s family is so large we anticipate that she will not be able to be self supporting until the end of 2012, and have plans to set her husband up with a used clothing business. Our plan is to provide him with used clothing that he can sell to earn a living.

Sonel, the oldest son is in need of a trade and we will look into getting him into a program.

We will assist this family with rent, school tuitions as needed and food.

These are the seven families we have prioritized to assist long term. There are many others that we will assist as needs arise.

Please pray for our families that God will miraculously provide, and that the Lord will provide creative ways for us to meet the many needs ahead. Jehovah Jirah.

I will keep updating on the blog as much as possible so that you will know what is going on.

Tyler and I would like to thank everyone for their generosity and kindness. This is going to be a long road for the Haitian people. Thank you for giving the helping hand up. Tyler and Kathy Kangas