The Reality of the Orphan situation

Moise’s Prayer (1/18/2010 7:30 am CST)

Moise runs one of the Global Orphan orphanages and lost his young son in the school that collapsed.

From the rubble at Jean-Marc’s school, here are the verses Moise shared;

Psalm 34:1-7 ‘I will praise the Lord at all times; his praise is always on my lips. My whole being praises the Lord. The poor will hear and be glad. Glorify the Lord with me, and let us praise his name together. I asked the Lord for help, and he answered me. He saved me from all that I feared. Those who go to him for help are happy, and they are never disgraced. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord camps around those who fear God, and he saves them.’

A Note from Joe (Joe is the director of Global Orphan)(1/17/2010 10:00 pm CST)

Last night we distributed food in PAP until 3:00 am this morning. We went to an orphanage that was destroyed, but all the children survived. They were under a tarp with no food and water. When we arrived late at night, their caretaker was praying for food. Imagine his excitement when an old beater pulled up in the middle of the night with provisions.

I had the blessing of staying with Moise at his church in a rough area of Port Au Prince. Hard hit. The church building didn’t make it. The church body sure did. The group went thru the area waking up mothers (most of whom who were sleeping amidst sewage with their children) and giving them food. Some praised God saying, “manna!” Then we all laid on the ground at the church watching choppers fly, and slept a couple hours.

This morning at 6 am, we went with Moise to Jean-Marc’s school. We know that JM’s little brother, Moise Jr., narrowly made it out. He got his belt stuck in the door. He ripped it off and escaped by a whisper. JM would never leave in front of his responsibility. And he didn’t on Tuesday. This morning Moise honored JM and the Lord. He climbed atop the rubble, and read Psalm 34: 1-7

praising the Lord always.

And the day just started…

Andrew, Paul and Pete continued their amazing work keeping the DR pipeline moving. Mike and Adrien readied for a medical team and supplies. I got to go to church with Moise. Really, we just picked up the blankets and worshipped. This group – who has lost so much – praised Jesus to a fevered pitch. They then took to the streets singing and dancing. And hundreds more joined the procession. They are so certain that Jesus is who He said, that nothing – not even the pain and stench of death – can move them.

The rest of the day was almost too much to handle.

We set up a medical clinic at Moise’s church. Instantly, we got jammed with need. Infections. Gangrene. Too much.

The climax of the day was that we launched the transition site for hurting PAP children at our base camp at Croix de Bouquet. We brought in the first truckload of 38 children tonight.

As we refine the process, we’ll likely bring in hundreds more in the coming days, and, God willing, take care of many more than that in damaged and ravaged orphanages. If resources allowed, we could take into permanent care many thousands of orphans.

The process of getting the children is brutal. There are probably hundreds of thousands of parents sleeping in urine soaked trash who’d give their left arms for someone to take their children – because the kids are fading and getting sick. We have to select the orphans and highly vulnerable children in our path, and turn away from so many. Such are the decisions to be made minute by minute. Not heroic; just tough reality right now.

Tomorrow we’ll let you know more detail on need. Here’s a foreshadow:

1. keep spreading the word and raising funds – that dictates speed and scope.

2. we’ll start planning for teams to go – needing your service here (particularly at the transition site).

3. we’ll likely need 10-15 churches, businesses, families to sponsor a village to take care of the orphans we’ll need to permanently place.

You all amaze us. You continue to move the chains. There are too many of you to thank, individually. Please, keep it up. You are making a huge difference!

Let me close with this. Praise God. We started the transition village and fed so many orphans and hurting children just today. A special day. Today is Jean-Marc’s 9th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Jean-Marc Vaval. The Lord is using you to keep us strong so that many children may live.

Joe