We sent our first MercyWorks medical team to Haiti on Monday, January 18, 2010 to partner with YWAM Haiti and many other YWAM teams and NGOs. Please pray for our people on the ground as they work in difficult circumstances to bring aid to the Haitian people. We want to keep you as up-to-date as we can with reports from the field in Haiti and will post news bulletins whenever we can.
Update from YWAM Haiti Director Terry Snow
All of our full time staff have been working nonstop for two weeks now. When the earthquake hit and we realized we were all safe here in St. Marc we kind of laughed and thought, "Wow!" Then in minutes, phones rang telling us of the devastation in Port-au-Prince. For the first week those of us who were on the ground were stunned, numb emotionally, and simply lost. We began to rally but it was so enormous we were all lost as to how to respond and as days went by it only got bigger and worse.
By the second week we were non-stop busy implementing assistance, coordinating teams, and doing the job! Nights were long, going to bed at 1:00 - 2:00 am and waking up at 5:00 am unable to sleep, needing the time to do all the work.
As we enter the third week, I see a lot more groups coming together, plans formulating, long-term and short-term. I believe this coming week will be a week of transition. We want to move from crisis rescue to systems and goals based in long-term recovery. Our frontline people need healing but they will still feel the need to get back out there and deal with the challenges and there still will be some. I believe things will slowly stabilize this week and routines leading to recovery will be seen and implemented. Many people will find this difficult as it will feel like jumping off a train that is moving at 100 mph.
Please pray for all our staff and the many victims who need surgery and medical attention as it will be a crucial week, a difficult week when we will all need the wisdom, mercy, and grace of God.
Taking the High Places!
Terry W. Snow
National Director
YWAM Haiti
East Texans to the Rescue - Area Workers Describe Scene in Haiti
Written by PATRICK S. BUTLER - Religion Editor at Tyler Morning Telegraph
The “heartbreaking” conditions of “families who have lost everything” has been the week-long scenario Smith County medical workers have endured in Haiti since Tuesday.
The team sent from Youth With A Mission of Tyler’s MercyWorks has experienced “overwhelming conditions” during their week-long stay, a MercyWorks staffer on the scene in Haiti said.
Dr. Jack Jorden, an ER doctor with Mother Frances, treated patients this past week.
Each Monday MercyWorks will send a new team of medical volunteers to Haiti by MercyWorks, said Debbie Lascelles, director of the Garden Valley ministry. Financial donations and medical volunteers especially will be needed in the weeks to come, she added.
Click here to read the rest of the article at Tylerpaper.com.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 09:53
An Interview with Debbie Lascelles
Debbie serves as director of Mercy Works at Youth With A Mission.She has traveled to countries ravished by war, demolished by earthquakes and impoverished by famine.She organizes worldwide relief efforts to help those in need.It is through Christ’s love that she ministers to everyone she meets.Debbie is a member of Marvin UMC and is married to Chris, who also serves as a missionary.
Listen as Debbie describes YWAM Tyler's response to Haitian earthquake and aid work that is going on in Haiti.
A crowd gathers on Friday, January 22, 2010 on the street near where a young man had been discovered alive, trapped beneath his house. Some Haitians ran to the nearby YWAM MercyWorks clinic to get help.
Click here to read the rest of the article at MercyWorks.org.
Last Updated on Saturday, 23 January 2010 08:40
Our Haiti Team Experiences Earthquake Firsthand!!!
This morning our team woke up at 6 a.m. and less than 5 minutes later, a very strong aftershock (measuring 6.1) hit. Team members immediately ran out of the orphanage house where we are staying. This morning’s 6.1 aftershock was pretty significant in that it was stronger than all previous aftershocks, and comes more than a week after the initial earthquake. It was strong, but short.
Our team is fine as well as the children and staff at the orphanage we are staying at. Even though our medical team will not be working at the orphanage or directly with the orphans, because we are staying at the orphanage, we will have time to interact with them all week long by befriending them and playing games with them. I am also grateful that the orphanage has electricity and internet access!Many people in Port-au-Prince are highly fearful and extremely nervous about the future. It is a great climate to share with them there is a God who created them and loves them personally. Tonight and for the rest of the week, we sleep outdoors under a tree.
One week following the killer earthquake in Port-au-Prince, in which some estimates range as high as 150,000 – 200,000 dead, the smell of death is still in the city. People are walking around with surgical masks on the faces to keep from smelling the decaying bodies. The stench was particularly bad today under this building, indicating some one or several people were dead beneath the rubble, and they haven’t been dug out yet. It is still heartbreaking to see families who have lost everything now huddled under a tarp. People are desperate for water, for food, for medical treatment, for help of any kind.
Within spitting distance of the National Palace, tent cities have sprung up. People who have been displaced and have nowhere else to go have put up tarps or tents, or sometimes just taken a place on the ground as they wait for help. The tent cities are all throughout the capital and even where there are buildings with little or no damage survivors are fearful of entering because of the risk of more earthquakes. People do their cooking, their laundry, and everything right out in the open. The need for help is enormous as the people suffer from a lack of all the basic essentials for life.
YWAM Tyler’s MercyWorks team of 12, consisting mainly of medical personnel, work out of the National Police headquarters, just one block from the National Palace. The police station was ruined in the earthquake, but there are five rooms that are still standing in the building. This central location is ideal for helping the injured as many people are brought here for treatment. wo MercyWorks volunteers, a third year medical student from Duke and an R.N. from Dallas tend to an injured woman inside the National Police headquarters.
What do you think this is? If you guessed an operating room at the National Police headquarters in Port-au-Prince, you would be right! YWAM MercyWorks teams will be working here for the foreseeable future, sending in waves of teams every week. We are so grateful for all the volunteers who have committed themselves to serve with MercyWorks in the months to come. The situation is desperate and the working conditions dangerous as we help heal lives and restore hope here in Haiti. The next team consists of 20 medical staff and they will arrive in Haiti on Wednesday, January 27. Please keep our teams in your prayers.
***This article was originally posted at MercyWorks.org***
The “heartbreaking” conditions of “families who have lost everything” has been the week-long scenario Smith County medical workers have endured in Haiti since Tuesday.
Debbie serves as director of Mercy Works at Youth With A Mission.She has traveled to countries ravished by war, demolished by earthquakes and impoverished by famine.She organizes worldwide relief efforts to help those in need.It is through Christ’s love that she ministers to everyone she meets.Debbie is a member of Marvin UMC and is married to Chris, who also serves as a missionary.
Our team is fine as well as the children and staff at the orphanage we are staying at. Even though our medical team will not be working at the orphanage or directly with the orphans, because we are staying at the orphanage, we will have time to interact with them all week long by befriending them and playing games with them. I am also grateful that the orphanage has electricity and internet access!Many people in Port-au-Prince are highly fearful and extremely nervous about the future. It is a great climate to share with them there is a God who created them and loves them personally. Tonight and for the rest of the week, we sleep outdoors under a tree.
One week following the killer earthquake in Port-au-Prince, in which some estimates range as high as 150,000 – 200,000 dead, the smell of death is still in the city. People are walking around with surgical masks on the faces to keep from smelling the decaying bodies. The stench was particularly bad today under this building, indicating some one or several people were dead beneath the rubble, and they haven’t been dug out yet. It is still heartbreaking to see families who have lost everything now huddled under a tarp. People are desperate for water, for food, for medical treatment, for help of any kind.
YWAM Tyler’s MercyWorks team of 12, consisting mainly of medical personnel, work out of the National Police headquarters, just one block from the National Palace. The police station was ruined in the earthquake, but there are five rooms that are still standing in the building. This central location is ideal for helping the injured as many people are brought here for treatment. wo MercyWorks volunteers, a third year medical student from Duke and an R.N. from Dallas tend to an injured woman inside the National Police headquarters.
