January 2010 Blog

Please visit here for daily updates from our Earthquake Relief Team in Haiti.

“The Church of the Nazarene believes that Jesus commanded his disciples to have a special relationship with the poor of this world; that Christ’s church ought, first, to keep itself simple and free from an emphasis on wealth and extravagance, and, second, to give itself to the care, feeding, clothing, and shelter of the poor. ” - from Manual 903.4

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 – Pastor Jason, Pastor Dustin, and Robert Savage headed to the Bakersfield Airport around 4:45am this morning. They were able to check their abundance of medical supply cargo, which cost $555. Pastor Jason said he felt like he “had a whole hospital” worth of medical supplies. Thank you to all who donated and made this happen, including Mercy Hospitals of Bakersfield and Dr. James Rosbrugh.  Later, when the flight crew discovered our team would be taking these supplies to Haiti, they offered to refund the cargo fees and gave Pastor Jason a number to contact in this regard. Thank you United Airlines!

8:15am (Pacific) – The team arrived safely in Denver, Colorado. They had enough time to get a bite to eat before boarding their next flight to Miami, Florida.

4:15pm (Eastern/Haiti Time) – Team arrived safely in Miami. All of the medical supply boxes and other cargo also arrived safely!

8:45pm (Eastern) – The team met up with their two colleagues from Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and drove to Fort Pierce, Florida, where they will stay for tonight. They will be flying on a Missionary Flights International flight tomorrow directly to Port-au-Prince. They were able to get all of their groceries to be entirely self-sufficient during their stay in Haiti. They also bought tents to sleep in while there. They will leave these behind in Haiti when they return. The team will be getting up early (around 5am Eastern) to head for Port-au-Prince.

Thursday, January 28, 2010 - The team of five headed to the airport at 5:45am (Eastern) and loaded the pallets with their luggage, food, tents, and medical cargo. Pastor Jason said there were many volunteers at Missionary Flights International doing an amazing job coordinating relief flights for Haiti. 250 pounds of the medical supplies will have to be put on the next flight into Port-au-Prince because of the plane’s weight limit. The team anticipated this might happen and were prepared for this contingency.

Pastor Jason reports, “The plane is small- propeller, one seat on left, two on right. Smaller than the Express Jet from Bakersfield for sure. It’s a Saab 2000.”  Robert Savage reports that the plane belongs to “Hendricks Racing” and is currently on loan to MFI for flights into Haiti. A lot of turbulence is expected during the flight and seat belts must remain on for the entire duration.

10:02 am (Eastern) – The plane has landed on the island of Exuma in the Bahamas for a brief stop. They will continue on to Port-au-Prince directly. Communication will be less frequent from here on out.

The Island of Exuma, Bahamas

11:52am (Haiti Time)- The plane landed safely in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Pastor Jason could see Frantz out the airplane window.

4pm- We received word from Robert Savage that the team has arrived safely to the Seminaire Theologique Nazareen D’Haiti in Petion-ville, just outside Port-au-Prince.

Friday, January 29, 2010 - Pastor Dustin reports: It was a long day today in Haiti. We spent the morning helping with administrative things. This afternoon I went on a shopping run with Frantz. Saw some major damage from the quake. Also got the block maker up and running. We are not quite ready to make blocks but we are close! We are well and are much appreciative for all your prayers.

Pastor Jason reports that tomorrow he and Pastor Dustin will depart from the seminary and go out into surrounding areas to make contact with Nazarene churches. They will assess the condition of the churches, both structurally and in terms of human loss. We may not hear from them as much over the next couple of days.

Saturday, January 30, 2010- Pastor Jason, Pastor Dustin, and Robert Savage all report that they had the opportunity to go out into the area and visit churches today and be among the people. All three also mentioned that they are getting a lot of opportunities to work on their Kreyol (French-based Creole, the official language of Haiti). All three seem to be in good spirits. Robert also reports that he did some computer/administrative work this morning on the campus of the seminary.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 - Pastors Jason and Dustin just returned to the seminary after visiting 19 Nazarene churches in 2 days. While they were gone, we received a letter from Robert Savage. Here is an excerpt:

“I will never be able to put into words all that has happened but I will give a you a few details.

Before I left, many of you asked what I would be doing in Haiti. My answer was always “I don’t know, I just want to help.” I thought that help might be in the form of my construction experience but as it turns out I am using much more of my business experience. Much of my time so far has been spent in helping to set up the offices for Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. I have been doing lots of computer work including setting up multiple computers and computer networks, cleaning up the debris in earthquake damaged offices, and doing field research to try to locate potential aid storage and distribution sites. I have also had the opportunity to meet with several local pastors and bring food and water for them to distribute to their communities.”

Monday, February 1, 2010 - Our team says that today they will be working on getting concrete blocks made, working on the wall, and Pastor Jason says he will be  “digging today… a lot! No seriously… a whole lot.”

When the day was done, Pastor Jason emailed, saying, “Mwen tre fatigue. Mwen fouye ak voye blok anpil jodi a.” Translation: I am very tired. I dug and threw blocks the entire day.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010- Pastor Dustin left before daylight this morning to head out to visit more churches. Robert was coordinating the receiving of thousands of pounds of aid that came in today. Pastor Jason was going into PAP to find cement to buy for the Concrete Block Machine. All in all, an exciting day.

By now, many of you may have heard that all commercial and military flights out of Haiti have been suspended for the time being. Because of this complication, our team’s flights home on Thursday were canceled. Thankfully, we were able to find some creative solutions to this dilemma and we have secured new flights for them. They will be returning on Friday now, only a day later than originally anticipated. They will be making the flight into the US out of the neighboring, Spanish-speaking, Dominican Republic rather than directly out of Haiti.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - Pastor Jason called early this morning saying they bought cement and were able to lay some new blocks on the walls of the seminary today. He also said that he would get to see parts of PAP that he had not yet visited since the quake like the Cathedral and the Palace this afternoon. Pastor Jason’s Facebook status from yesterday reports he, “stayed on campus in Port-au-Prince today, but participated in some of the most incredible stories yet to be told.”

Robert spent the day cleaning and dressing wounds at the Port-au-Prince Stadium today. Pastor Dustin and his group are out visiting churches and are expected back this evening.

Thursday, February 4, 2010 - Our team was on the small charter plane preparing for take-off from PAP to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic this morning at 9am (Eastern). They will spend the night there and fly into the US tomorrow. It was difficult for everyone to say goodbye…

10am (Eastern) – They just landed in Santo Domingo.  Pastor Jason reports that the plane only had 19 seats (their team is 5, 3 from California, 2 from NCM in Miami).  Now they can shower and work on their Spanish.

11pm- Our team had a good day in the Dominican Republic. Robert enjoyed hanging out on the Caribbean beaches while Jason and Dustin explored Santo Domingo. Jason said it was good to spend the day reflecting on all that had happened and to  decompress. They fly to Fort Lauderdale in the morning, have a long layover, then head for LAX tomorrow evening.

Friday, February 5, 2010- 9am (Dominican Rep. time- an hour later than Haiti/Eastern, we’ve learned) – The team is all checked in and ready to go at the Santo Domingo Airport.  Apparently they have strict security and all got a full pat-down.  Pastor Jason reports that he seems to have lost his American cell phone somewhere in Santo Domingo yesterday.

Next stop, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

12:30pm (Eastern) – They have landed in Fort Lauderdale and are taking the city bus to get around the town while they wait for their next flight, which is about 7 1/2 hours from now.

4pm (Pacific) - The team has boarded the plane for LAX. They are expected to land around 10:45pm.
Meanwhile, we got a brief report today from Dr. James Rosbrugh, who arrived in Haiti on Wednesday night. He is working with Heart to Heart International in conjunction with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. He reports:

Hello from Haiti. I have been here 3 days, and have seen a lot. The devastation is overwhelming. But the people are amazingly strong. They still sleep outside, even if their house is still standing. Somehow they find a way to go on. I am impressed.