Subject: The Latest from Pastor Henoc in Haiti
Here you go...please be praying as you read...
The earthquake happened on Tuesday evening. All communication was cut off. We did not know what was going on except
for what we were reading on the internet and on the radio.. Because of the heavy overcast, we could not watch CNN.
I wanted to go to Port au Prince, but with no telephone communication, it could get complicated.
Thursday morning, around 11, the telephone started to work slowly. Just one company. So, we could try to reach anyone
subscribed with Voila. However, people in Port au Prince cannot be reached because there is no power to charge the phone.
Some have lost their phones and it takes a lot of time to get through.
We arrived around Port au Prince at 5:00. However it took over 2 and a half hours to travel the one mile road to the airport.
People are coming in to look for their loved ones and others are leaving town. We saw many people on top of roof digging up
flattened buildings. Stock piles of dead human beings were everywhere. At the cemetery, and on open fields, they dig large holes
and fill them up. We found at one cemetery where they put a pile of dead people and burned them with gasoline. To ignite the fire,
they used old tires. The smoke was going up and I call it the Smoke of Hell.
There is no fuel. However, there are lines of people by the gas stations. They are just hoping that there will be some somehow.
There are no government ministries. Most of them have been crushed. Some senators, some deputies, a lot of high government officials
have lost their lives. There is no one in Haiti that has not lost a loved one. The schools and universities have been crushed to the ground
with students underneath. It happened at the end of the day when most people were still at work. Many banks have all their employees
and clients under the rubbles.
There is no water, no electricity, no store opened, no food. Dead people are piled by the hundreds and dump trucks come by to pick
them up. All the markets have been destroyed. The prisons have been crushed. The prisoners are on the streets and some of them have
been killed by the earthquake. There is a lot of pillage, looting, raping. There was even an exchange of fire yesterday between the police
and thieves.
People fear their homes will fall again. Everyone sleeps on the street where there is the smell of dead flesh.
Banks are closed, churches have been destroyed. There is nothing left. The people sleeping on the streets don't know for how long.
They don't even know if they will ever return to their homes and have normal lives. Port au Prince is a metropolitan center with 4 million
people coming from all corners of Haiti. Every one starts going back home. No money, no vehicles, no where to go.
I left on Thursday morning and came back in the middle of the night with 18 people in the double cab Toyota. It was mainly students
from CSS who are in Port au Prince for university education. Now their houses and apartment are destroyed and they are homeless.
On Friday morning, I went back. We spent all day looking for Sainsoir's two daughters. One of them was found and the other one was
no where to be found. We were looking for two other girls who go to nursing school in Port au Prince. On our way back, Sainsoir's
daughter called us and we'll go back on Sunday to pick her up. On that day we rescued 23 people and we were back by 11:45 PM.
Unfortunately, we had 6 flat tires.
Today, Saturday, we bought 4 brand new tires. One family from the church had a daughter who is a nurse and had gone to
Port au Prince to look for a job. Both she and her son were found dead. The same family could not locate their son. He was found alive
under the ruins of a government building. His leg is almost destroyed. We will pick him on Sunday to take him to a hospital. A man from
the Grande Riviere church has been found with multiple injuries. He will come back with us. I will finish this e-mail and head to Pignon
where I will spend the night and need to be in Port au Prince before 8 am.
My cousin's daughter was killed in school as the building collapsed and everyone inside was killed. A graduate of CSS, Sterly Manigat,
was killed. Many other friends and loved ones were destroyed.
I have seen death, but I don't understand it. I have seen people's lives destroyed and I cannot understand it. However, I trust in the
Lord and that He has a purpose for everything. Above everything His name will be praised and there will be a reason to see His glory
in the midst of chaos.
Please pray for our safety as we travel at night time and everywhere. Please pray for strength.
Henoc
