Earthquake Reflections 2-Trip to Port.

Immediately following the birth of a baby we loaded into the back of the big truck along with members of a couple of different teams. Eli and I ended up sitting on luggage and boxes that made up the middle of the truck. Everyone else sat on stuff on the outer edges or back. A couple folks sat up front with the driver.

By the time we neared Port a light drizzle had started and darkness was falling. A few folks needed to be dropped off at the English school compound. All expressed thankfulness by the time we safely reached Pastor Carl's. Both the Sloans and Baileys had flown down to Port earlier in the week after hosting a team from Grant Michigan.

Supper. A bit of repacking as some items would come with us in the morning as we planned to fly back North on an MAF Kodiak. Baileys and Joel [short termer] would be accompanying us. Other medical supplies would wait until Chris and Kathleen returned North in another week.

Because of the threat of another large quake no one was housed in the second story of the house. Now I had slept upstairs one night and it didn't bother me. I think because at last I had connected with the Wesleyan team and being the fifth night exhaustion made sleeping easier. Also I didn't have time to think about it.

Now after close to 4 weeks of caring for many injuries from bricks, having tried to find advice on how to best protect one's self during a earthquake in a brick building and finding nothing, having our kids along the story was different. I honestly don't know when/if I'll be able to sleep comfortably under a cement or brick roof again.

Thankfully a tent on the top of the little back house with two air mattresses fit our family just right. Climbing the ladder in the rain barefooted [seemed safer than plastic sandals] tested nerves a little. My nice personal easily accessible bathroom at home never looked so good.

The weeks in a hot or wet tent on a thin mattress with ants may not be something I'll ever ask to experience again. But at the same time we it reminded us to pray for the hundreds of thousands around us who had NO home to return to. Who slept nightly on dirt under a bit of sheet or tin. Many had no money or food and no idea where or when the next mouthful of food would come.

Eating MRE's taught us to be thankful for our food, for what our military goes though for us and again reminded us to pray for those with no food.

While we could look forward to comfortable beds, food in the cupboards, running water, a roof, a floor, electricity. Many clung to small bits of hope that help would come soon. Thankfully many clung or turned to the Lord in the midst of their troubles.

Recently a missionary in Port who held a large evangelistic crusade in Port around the holidays reported that he personally knows of 10,000 commitments to the Lord in the 4 months following the quake. The Lord has not forgotten Haiti. He is at work!!