Haiti Update #1-Greetings From Haiti

As I type this update we are all in the back of a cattle truck, it’s about midnight, we just crossed the border into Haiti about 30 min ago and are on our way to Port-a-Prince.

We all met at Calvary Chapel West Grove Sunday night at 7 and headed to LAX. Since then we have seen God’s hand all over our team. We arrived at LAX after some car keys mix-up (one of the cars took off with the other cars keys and had to turn around) and got into the group line. We noticed that the American Airlines agents were being really strict with the weights and sizes of all the bags so we all stepped aside to say a quick prayer that we would be able to get through quickly without having to pay. We all had 3 bins each packed to the brim with various medical supplies and most of them were overweight and about 6 of them were over sized. We walked up to the counter with our Haiti relief shirts on and our name badges (looking all official) and the lady instantly started giving us grace upon grace and didn’t charge us anything for the extra bags, weights, and sizes. From there the employees helped us take all the bins over to the X-ray machines… where we put our biggest bag on the belt and about half way through it broke a few of the censers in the machine and shut down the whole terminal until they could get another machine up and running. After about an hour of waiting we finally got all our bags through with no other problems. The staff was overjoyed to help us out. And so many people at the airport asked us what we were doing and even a few people prayed with us.

From LAX we flew to Puerto Rico and had a much needed lunch/breakfast. While we were in the airport we ran into a group of Fire Fighters for Christ who were just returning from Haiti. We sat down with them as they downloaded all their Intel to us and gave us a ton of contacts for us once we got to Haiti.
From Puerto Rico we flew over to the Dominican Republic. We had a quick time of prayer before we started the customs process. When we got to baggage claim they had all our bins stacked and ready to go. Four employees helped us cart them over to the security checkout and allowed us to bypass the line. They quickly stamped all our passports without charging us any visa fees or searching any of our bags. And they even helped us get all the bins over to our bus that was waiting to take us to Haiti.

Once on the bus we stated the (what turned to be) a 6 and a half hour bus ride to the border. (The ongoing joke was that it was only supposed to take us about 3 hours… and the bus driver kept saying, “About another 30 min.”) All the way to the border everyone kept telling us that the Haitian border wasn’t letting anyone across and that they closed down at 7. In fact a New York Times reporter stopped us in the airport to give us his “Intel.” We told him that we have a bigger God then the Haitian border and started our long trip to the border. Once we got to the border it was like the parting of the red seas! They had turned some buses around before us, coming from the opposite direction. But when we got there they let us pass right through without a single problem. We were able to transfer all our bins and luggage onto the truck and passed through the Haitian side of the border… where we had to simply sign some papers and drive off.

It is clear that God has some big things in store for this trip. It is such an honor and blessing to be here. I want to thank you for your faithful prayers and support. Please pray that the internet works so that I can get out updates faithfully (which I suppose if you are reading this… I was able to send it out). Pray for safety for the team, Pray for a good night’s rest tonight as we haven’t been able to sleep (except for on the plane and the bus… which wasn’t very restful sleeping) since Sunday. Once we get to the compound we are “setting up camp” (literally… tents, etc…).Pray for unity and wisdom for our team. Pray that God will use us mightily for His glory.

God Bless,
Mike