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Today was the day for us to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and post our annual Christmas card. We are indeed posting it and we do wish you all a Very Merry Christmas. But, it certainly is not the day, nor week we were all hoping to have. This was going to be a week of fun, relaxation and Christmas parties for the HOH family & friends. But…
You’ve heard me mention the unusual amount of rainfall the HOH already had this year, this has left our ground fully soaked and not able to take more rain. But more has come. The rain in our area has been constant for days now and this morning our town and surrounding area flooded.
We received a call for help from our Pediatrician early this morning. She has a work down by the ocean front with our town’s most vulnerable who live down there. The school she has built for them (and where one of our adult girls is a Kindergarten teacher) is flooded out, numerous families have lost everything, most have had their homes flooded. We have been told that there has been some loss of life as well. One of our staff members and her family lost everything in her home and for the moment will be staying in one of our rooms. We are prepared to give shelter to others who need it as well.
And still the rain comes. The older boys went down to try and help those they could, but it is raining so hard, there really isn’t a lot they can do by way of helping, other than to get people to a safer place. In places, the water is rushing so hard it isn’t safe to move about.
And then came more troubling news from the HOH. Somewhere, our electrical system is messed up. Now, there seems to be electrical current running through some of the metal polls around our buildings and the tin roofs. One of the boys got a really bad shock this morning reaching for something off of the roof. Because of all the rain and standing water, we cannot get an electrician to come see what is wrong, but we have been able to have the electricity coming from the hospital generator turned off. So, now they will be without power until the rain stops and things dry out somewhat.
I realize this is quite a bit of bad news all at once. You can imagine the difficulties for the HOH and those in our community living through it. But we are not without hope! We have this moment to be a light and hope to our neighbors and community. Other than the electricity problem, we do have a safe, dry place and can provide some food for those in need. At this time when we celebrate the great gift that God gave to us in His Son, Jesus; we have the opportunity to be an extension of His hands and feet to those in need around us.
You might be aware that our resources have been very limited as of late, and so we cannot do this alone. We are asking all of you who so faithfully partner with us in ministry to consider helping us turn all this bad news into some good for our community. Would you be able to help us share the light and good news of Jesus at this tough time in our corner of Haiti by helping us with a financial gift? The fastest and easiest way to get funds to us is through Extreme Response International.
US donations can be given online here (select “Other designations: ministry partners” then select “House of Hope”).
Canadian donations can be given online here (select House of Hope Haiti).
For checks, please make them out to: ER International or ER Canada and send to:
Extreme Response International
PO Box 345
Snellville, GA
30078-0345 USA
Extreme Response Canada
PO Box 1013
Simcoe, ON N3Y 5B3 Canada
Thank you for considering helping us out in this way, and if you can’t help out financially, please pray for our Haitian brothers and sisters going through such difficult times – on top of the difficult times they were already facing!
Thank you and we do wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
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