PICTURES OF DUMAY FOOD DISTRIBUTION

Stephen & crew unloading trucks.
Willem helping an elderly lady who received a full bag of rice for her family. The workers carried the sack if a family member was not present to help those recieving.

Looks of anticipation as they patiently wait for their turn.

2 lines that reached down the dirt path all the way to the road leading out of the village.

Every 5 children received a full bag of rice to share.

Every 4 adults received a full sack of rice to share.

Please see post below for a description of the Dumay Food Distribution that took place above.

DUMAY FOOD DISTRIBUTION

This morning by 5:00 Willem, Stephen & a crew from the Gramothe/Thomassin area were arriving in the village of Dumay with rice. The villagers were taken by surprise that food would be distributed so early in the morning.
As the people came out of their homes & tents, shivering from the morning cold, they were asked to form 2 lines & prepare to receive a 50 lb. bag of rice, one for every 4 persons to be shared & the very elderly would receive 1 full bag.
The lines began at the school & continued down the dirt path leading all the way to the raod.
After the rice was unloaded from the trucks into the MTM school building, the distribution began in a very orderly fashion. Once the lines were completed a new line was formed with children. There was enough rice remaining that every 5 children were allowed a full bag to share. Everyone in the village that came for distribution left with food. To this we are graeful & give thanks to God for his provisions.

Our apologies, due to difficulties with Blogger, we were not able to download pictures at this time. We will do so as soon as possible.

FOOD DISTRIBUTION IN GRAMOTHE

Today a dry food distribution was done in Gramothe. There was enough for each family to get a 100 lb. bag & the crowd remained calm. Praise God! Should be doing the same in Dumay in the next day or so.

SATURDAY UPDATE

Food distributions are well under way. Willem is helping to distribute in the outer lying areas of Port Au Prince as well as here in the immediate area. People are desperate & there have been a few close calls, but God has brought them through.

The last 10 days are beginning to catch up with us. Willem has been unable to sleep & is still moving. The task at hand is so great that it's hard to rest. But praise God, supplies are getting to the people.

Our school principals report that all of our teachers are safe. Many are asking about their students. It is not physically possible for us to reach each & every family at our Gramothe & Dumay schools. We have no way to know their status until school resumes. We have good reason to believe that though houses may have been lost, the earthquake came at a time that most families would not be in their homes. This gives us hope. The good news is the president of Haiti is encouraging schools that can, to reopen. We will let sponsors know as soon as possible about the status of their students. On behalf of our students & their families, thank you for your prayers & concerns.

If you have not yet listened to the prayercast link, please do so by scrolling to the previous blog. Feel free to share this with others.

We continue to encourage you to please pray. Pray for the people of Haiti, pray for Willem, pray for success of the food distributions, pray for MTM to be prepared for the ministry work yet ahead. Thank you, from the very depths of our hearts.

THURSDAY UPDATE

This prayer was recorded last summer when we were in Chicago. It was released just before the devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Pray along with Willem...

http://www.prayercast.com/haiti

Willem is highly engaged in helping relief supplies get to the people of Haiti. Yesterday there were meetings with the Minister of Commerce, the Prime Minister and President Preval.

Please pray for flow of relief aid to be opened.

.

MONDAY UPDATE...

We did not give a Sunday update, we needed to make it a day of rest & worship to the Lord, although it was still an event filled day for all of us.
The morning air was filled with powerful worship coming from the Gramothe church as they sang, "How Great Thou Art", "Because He Lives", "I Surrender All".... Madame Stephen gave her full testimony before the congregation of how God enabled her to get up & walk out of the hospital & how she never dreamed to be in the Gramothe church again.

Today has been a very real, hard day for us. Our close friends have left for the Dominican Republic to continue onto the U.S. She was in her parents' house when it crumbled down around her. She is badly shaken & needs to go.
Stephen has heard from all of his friends but one. Everyone waits to hear from her, but the area where she lived was hard hit. All of his other classmates have already or are preparing to leave. David, too, waits to hear from all of his classmates. It's beginning to feel quite lonely here, but, God has given the people of Haiti a task & it must be accomplished...rebuild this land.

As Willem works to help others get distribution points set up, the boys & I are working hard on supplies to give. We have packaged meds, created health packs as well as organized & filled 10 large bags of medical supplies from the MTM clinic. This may not sound like much, but supplies are still in dire need.

It is so overwhelming here, but we are honored to be a part of rebuilding Haiti, one village at a time. Please, please pray for Haiti. We thank you from the depths of our hearts.

FOR THE BODY OF CHRIST...

Couldn't go to bed without writing a word to the Body of Christ.
God is in control in Haiti.
I questioned a local pastor at the market yesterday, "Is this God's hand of judgement on Haiti?!" I declare that his black skinned paled as he looked me in the eye intensely while removing his glasses. He proceeded to tell me how every governmental building in Port Au Prince is crushed & that hundreds of officials were in those buildings. We continued to discuss how the north of Haiti & other areas were totally unaffected & how blessed we are to have recieved mercy from God.
This morning I took time for devotions & was led to

Is 6:12-13, (NIV) "..until the Lord has sent everyone far away & the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth & he oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."

Haiti is under God's judgement. Are you listening?

CANADIAN ADOPTIONS

If you are in Canada & in process of an adoption in Haiti, we have received the following information for you:

Go to: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2010/2010-01-16.asp

Follow the instructions to register your adoption. It appears that Canada wants to fast track Sponsorship in any way possible.

Mme. Stephen...

Mme. Stephen has been the head cook at the Gramothe school since it's beginning 10 years ago. As well, she has been a part of the leadership of the church & mother to many. Most of all, she has been Willem's right arm. Recently she fell extremely ill with an irreversible condition & has been in the hospital in Port Au Prince for nearly 3 weeks receiving treatment. As the earthquake shook on Tuesday afternoon, her sister attending her tried to carry Mme. Stephen from her bed. A woman too weak to walk from her bed to the chair rose up & walked out of the hospital on her own as it tumbled down around her, knowing her sister would not be able to carry her body.

Desperate, her brother searched 2 days through the death & rubble filled streets of Port Au Prince unable to locate her. It was difficult to see him return each time, though we continued to encourage him.

Somehow Mme. Stephen & her sister walked the 4 miles to near the airport where they slept in the street & had only a small amount of water, no food. On Thursday midday, they were finally able to phone Willem as the phone service returned to local cell phones.

Yesterday I had the honor of seeing Mme. Stephen in the truck with her brother as they dropped some supplies at our gate. Though very skinny & very ill, as I cupped her face in my hands, she shone like the noonday sun, full of praise & wonder to the awesomeness of our God. Though she was fully aware that the hospital was her only chance of survival, she was happy to be going "home".

At the break of day, Willem was on his way to Gramothe. Mme. Stephen shared with him that she was so happy because she never thought she would ever get to see her home again, she loves her home! And her children, she was so happy to see them, her beautiful children that she thought she would never again be with. She commented how blessed she was to have life & to be with her children in her home again.

GRAMOTHE & DUMAY SCHOOLS...

It's so very crazy here in our lives right now. Willem is working feverishly to wisely help & move what & whoever he can in an effort to help those in need. Currently he is working with some officials to get assistance mobilized to the city where it is needed the most. Please pray for his wisdom.

He spent some time in the village today & with the caretaker at the school from Dumay yesterday. There is not much to tell, but I'm going to tell what I can to help ease the hearts & minds of our student sponsors.

Let me start by saying that God has graciously spared the mountains in this area, as well as the north of Haiti. Our areas were affected, but nothing compared to Port Au Prince. Houses & parts of them fell, but few were severely injured or died with the exception of the one little girl who was passing by a rock cliff when it slid off the mountain side. Most of the students from our school are from the mountain areas here, but some do travel in from other areas. As well, most of our teachers live locally with some traveling from Port Au Prince. We are still waiting to locate all of our staff at both of the schools. All of the student body we may not be able to confirm until school is reopened. We do not yet know when that will be. We hope to open the MTM schools as soon as possible, if for no other reason than to feed the children.

Gramothe: No structural damage. No confirmed deaths. Many damaged homes.
Dumay: No structural damage. No confirmed deaths. Many, many damaged homes.

PLEASE! We need for you to continue giving now more than ever! We ask for you to please be patient with us. This is a disaster at insurmountable proportions & everyone that can is trying to help those in need. We will do our very best to provide information as we are able.
We sincerely thank you for your continued prayers & faithfulness to your sponsorship committment.

FOR ADOPTING PARENTS....

If you are in process of adopting from Haiti, you should do as directed in the email below that was sent to us today.

Joint Council's Orphan and Family database is up and running. If your organizations has families in the process of adopting from Haiti, please request that they fill-in your adoption information. The database will allow Joint Council to advocate with the U.S. and Haitian governments, as appropriate, for for the cases currently in process. Please note: the database is temporarily housed on Joint Council's donate page, donations are not required to utilize the database. Adoptive families should choose the second option, "Register my Haiti adoption with Joint Council" to enter the necessary information. To access the database, click here<https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/JointCouncilonInternational/OnlineDonation.html>.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Right now, if you are looking for what you can do to help Haiti,

call your REPRESENTATIVES

& ask them to push

CRAIG FUGATE at FEMA
to help HAITI.

Thank you in advance.

FRIDAY UPDATE

The sun is shining & the skies are clear blue. "It is a beautiful day in Haiti!", I would normally declare. Optimistic as it is, it is clearly a difficult statement to make.

Some good news for us here at MTM. Mme. Stephen, our Gramothe school cook & matron of the village, was finally able to phone Willem yesterday. The hospital she was at evacuated Tuesday evening & she found herself near the airport & had been sleeping in the street. She is now at home in Gramothe.

19 of the 23 member Chicago team that was with us have just now departed for the U.S. Embassy where they will remain as they await evacuation. The remaining 4 will be with us until the airport & airlines resume operation. The trauma that this medical team saw at the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital on Tuesday night has taken it's toll, especially on the non-medical people on the team. Continued tremors have us all on the edge of our nerves.

We have no word yet of the MTM school in the village of Dumay. We have not yet been able to go there either.

Victims that have come to our gate have gaping wounds filled with debris & broken limbs that cannot be repaired. Hospitals & clinics here, the few that are still standing, have no supplies. These victims will continue to come, one by one. We will continue to minister however we can. This is truly a time that we will depend on our Healer to do the impossible.

On a personal note, we are very proud of our sons, Stephen & David who have shown forth their gifts of help, compassion, encouagement & others during this week. Stephen has translated & assisted medical proceedures while David just keeps the air light for the all of us at the house. They were in the city yesterday helping friends to recover items from a collapsed house. They have learned about the deaths of at least 2 children at their school as well as classmates' parents that have died or are missing. They seem unaffected, but we are talking.

Tremors continued this morning, though they were heavy for us, I'm sure they were much harder in Port Au Prince. In country phone communications are still not 100%. Everyone is working together to locate loved ones that have not yet been heard from. Victims are still trying to get medical attention. People are still litterally sleeping in the streets for fear of the tremors & because their homes have already been destroyed.

We remain in conservation mode, but we are stepping it up a notch. Gas stations & markets are not yet open & the president of Haiti has not yet spoken to the people.

We really cannot express how grateful we are for all of the emails & facebook comments made this week. We know you are praying. We are encouraged to see & hear your words of encouragement & to know that you are encouraging others. Please, do not stop! We need to see you are there.
Everyone wants to know the needs. Below are the most immediate needs & how you can help. Please, do what you can & continue to encourage others.

IMMIDIATE NEEDS:

• MEDICAL ATTENTION
• FOOD
• REBUILDING

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

• PRAY that in everything that is done, that God would recieve the glory. PRAY for all of the relief workers, they need stamina, courage, wisdom & strength to endure all that is before them. PRAY for the people of Haiti as they praise God for his mercy & ask for provisions & for HIS continued grace.
• GIVE, GIVE, GIVE & encourage others to give: Donations may be made at the MTM website, go to

www.mtmhaiti.com & click on "DONATE"

or

make check payable to Mountain Top Ministries & mail to:

Mountain Top Ministries

P.O. Box 7053

Terre Haute, IN 47802

In Canada for a Canadian tax-deductable reciept, make check payable to "Christian Haitian Ministries", designate as "MTM Earthquake Relief" & mail to:

Christain Haitian Ministries

149-264th Street

Aldergrove, B.C. V4W 2K1

Canada

• COME to serve. As the airlines open up & MTM is able to provide safe working conditions & provisions, we need people to come to help us rebuild lives. Medical, construction & spiritual rebuilding is needed. If you are willing to be on standby for any such teams, please email us right away.

In closing, we are getting hundreds of emails & Face Book comments each day. Moving forward, the primary communication from MTM will be this blog post with additional comments on our Facebook page (email address mtmhaiti@gmail.com). You are welcome to join the Facebook page, but we ask that you do not email MTM at the address above, at this time, unless you are in need of a definate response. It is difficult for us to sort through all of the emails & our time is limited with the other tasks at hand.

Again, we thank GOD for each of you & your efforts to minister to the Haitian people during this time. If you need to speak with an MTM representative, you may call the MTM office at 812-870-3939 to speak with Angie, or, 812-870-5101 to speak with Deb.

With sincere gratitude,

Willem & Beth Charles & Family

Mountain Top Ministries, Haiti

THURSDAY UPDATE

Time seems to be creeping as so many are searching for loved ones & help. Lots of heoric stories of those who have given their lives to protect others from falling debri. Slowly, victims are coming to our gate for treatment after being turned away from broken down or "out of supply" hospitals. Many large, open wounds full of debri, too old to suture.

We've said it before & we'll say it again, God is in control & we will continue to be his hands extended.

No new tremors today and I think everyone slept well last night. The team patiently waits word of when the airport will be open for their flight home, it won't be today. It has been reported that the run way is in good condition but the control tower suffered heavy damage.

We have some local phone service but it's still not 100%. Gas stations are not open & markets are still closed. We are in conservation mode.

One of our Kindergarten students at the Gramothe school died after suffering injuries from fallen debris. The family is unable to find a casket for burial. A couple of men on the team will build one for them.

We can hear a church singing in the distance. The death wail across the valley has come to a hush with the exception of an occasional cry. The presence of God in the singing church brings peace to the spirit of the people here.

Please continue to pray for Haiti & her people & those working to help them. Thank you in advance for your help.

UPDATE CONTINUED..

Willem spent time getting out today to see Port Au Prince. The conditions all over are very bad. Please continue to pray for Haiti.
There is much need for immediate aide here now. At present, no relief aid has come to Haiti.
The medical team working at MTM this week spent the day cleaning up the Gramothe clinic, seeing just a few patients from the village. The clinic had a lot of supplies toppled from shelves, but the building remains in tack.
Several trauma injuries were seen in our front yard this morning including a young lady that I think was sure she would die. She was a student from Port Au Prince that was in her school when a portion of it fell on her. She was brought to us lying in the bed of a truck, looking as if she had no hope, but praying & encouraged when asked if she knew Jesus. She had gone to a hospital in the city, they bandaged her chin & sent her away (it was a gash worthy of stitches but none were given). She came to us unable to move, not having passed urine since yesterday. After carefully tending to her facial wound, the nurses then turned to her next situation trying a very simple procedure, warm water! They filled a wash tub with warm water & had the young lady sit in it & walla! she peed! Praise God it was a simple fix with a happy ending.

The last tremor was felt at sometime around 12 midnight Tuesday. While having dinner at 4 today, we had another heavy tremor that sent the team out of the house. It wasn't long before there was a knock at the gate. Our little 13 yr. old family friend that is helping David with his Creole popped his head in to ask if he could stay. His aunt wasn't home & the quake had brought down a part of their house leaving him homeless. We welcomed him in. Just a few minutes after came another knock. Twelve frightened children enter our home, each greeting me with a kiss, it was the children from our very own Laboule Childrens' Home. A house near them had fallen with the last tremor & the nanny was concerned that she had not yet heard from her family. So, we welcomed them in too! Stephen & David are hosting the slumber party with peanut butter, raisin crackers, water & a movie that they all enjoyed together after we made their beds on the floor of the front room. It was quite an interesting sight :) So, tomorrow morning we will be having breakfast for 37!

I was able to get out to the store this morning to get some supplies & water. We have all that we need, are safe & at this time, steady.

As I drove to the only open store for miles around I watched people walking. Some walked with a purpose while others walked with a blank stare as if they weren't sure where they were going. Some walked by themselves & others walked with their families with their belongings on their heads or carrying their sick looking for help. The devastation I witnessed in the faces of people, the stories at the market & the rubble on the street is nothing compared to what is going on in Port Au Prince.

The team from Chicago that is here is waiting word to know when they can fly home. We have another team due in on Monday that will be working with the students, church leadership & doing construction work. Nurses will also be on the team & will be prepared to assist those in need. Again, please pray.

We are blessed with all of the phone calls, emails & face book posts that have been made . Thank you, please keep them coming. Right now, please, keep praying.
The most immediate need is medical care & shelter. It is a time that Haitians are pulling together to help each other, but it is still a time of great need.

Many have emailed & phoned to ask how they can help & where they can send money. First & far most, PRAY! If you'd like to give, you may give at our website or send a check or money order to MTM, P.O. Box 7053, Terre Haute, IN 47802. Please designate your gift as "Earthquake Relief".

We should be able to post more pictures tomorrow & we will continue to post as we are able. Our internet was down all day today. Without internet we also have no satellite phone. There is still no cell or land line phone service which also means without internet we are left with no means of communication (we are emailing our local friends in an effort to save gas).
Pray for aide to arrive, pray for the families that have lost, pray for those healing & pray for those in authority to make wise decisions. Thank you in advance for your prayers!

EARTHQUAKE UPDATE-PICTURES

These are a couple pictures from Gramothe:

The Little x Little Medical team from Chicago, hard at work in our front yard.

UPDATE

It's nearly 3:00AM Wednesday. The medical team has returned from the hospital, had something to eat, caught their breath & are now off to bed for some rest. No one knows what day light will bring. At least 100 horrifically injured patients were ministered to by this group of 23 as they came to the rescue of 2 doctors & just a few nurses left to handle the masses of wounded.
The tremors have ceased, as of about 1:00AM.
We are all exhausted, ready to trust sleep.
Words cannot express our thanks for your prayers tonight. Please continue to pray for Haiti.

HAITI EARTHQUAKE UPDATE

Tonight in Haiti many are praising God, considering things spoken of about the end times, considering the condition of their own soul.
Our family is well.
We have mobilized a visiting medical team from Chicago to work at a local hospital. They will be much needed there tonight.
Tremmors continue. There has been much destruction.
Please pray for Haiti tonight.