Latest news from Haiti Partners and John Engle

[Christine Whitney Sanchez]

From: Haiti Partners <info at haitipartners.org>
Date: January 16, 2010 11:34:46 AM GMT-07:00
To: Christine Whitney Sanchez <cwhitneysanchez at gmail.com>
Subject: Family and the Earthquake



Dear Christine,

My phone just rang at 1:00 a.m. It was one of the young men in the  
family we lived with for the first seven months when my wife and I  
first moved to Haiti. They're our adopted Haitian family (that is,  
they "adopted" us 7 years ago, and we're incredibly grateful). They  
taught us how to speak Creole and do life. The 3-year-old grand- 
daughter is our goddaughter. The other children we consider like  
nephews and nieces. Family of 12 in three generations. I see them all  
the time when I'm in Haiti. We talked for 9 minutes before their phone  
ran out of card or power last night. They're all okay, in a sense.

A number of you have been asking about them because you know them from  
my recent book. I didn't want to write about them till now because we  
hadn't heard anything. Sick with worry. It was too much to write down  
what might or might not be.

They're all unharmed. They're sleeping out on the dirt tonight,  
because the three small family homes are now piles of rubble. The  
small town of Dabon where they live is near the epicenter and is  
devastated, leveled. "Kent, you'd get lost if you tried to find your  
home here." An older woman I always visit and buy water from in town  
was killed. As the names flew by too fast over the iffy phone  
connection, I didn't recognize them all. Most of the names he said  
were alive, some dead.

Then he said, "We don't have food or water." What do you mean? "No  
food or water." Same answer.

I believe in the God who multiplied fish and loaves to feed the  
hungry. I believe in the God who says I'm always with you. And right  
now, it's achingly clear--heartbreakingly, angrily clear--isn't it,  
that we who believe also believe in the God who is hidden sometimes,  
sometimes when we are most in need, to whom the Psalmist cried out,  
"How long, oh Lord, how long?"

How long?

Too long. There's no other answer right now. People are being rescued,  
but too many aren't, and 50,000 never will be. There will be other  
answers in the weeks and months ahead, but right now the only answer  
is too long.

My Haiti Partners co-director John is making every effort to get out  
to this town of Dabon today, where we also have two elementary schools  
that have collapsed, though nobody died in the buildings as far as we  
know. John will hopefully see our family too.

So I sit here not knowing what to do--just like you. At the same time,  
like you, I'm doing everything I can. Because that's what we have to  
do, that's what the God we believe in expects of us, even as we cry  
out for miracles.

For the "everything we can do" part, first I want to thank you for the  
incredible outpouring of generosity in gifts and prayer. John (who has  
worked in Haiti for 20 years) is on the ground assessing our response  
that will include (a) responding to immediate, critical needs of food,  
water, shelter, and basic necessities and (b) the particular ways we  
will be mobilizing for the recovery and rebuilding efforts in the  
communities of Dabon (where two of our schools and other colleagues  
are), Cite Soleil (a slum in Port-au-Prince where we also have a  
school that has collapsed), and Marianman.

Haiti Partners was already committed to Haiti--and we work all over  
the country--for years and years ahead. Now the plan is coming into  
place for the work in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Finally, I've been asked often, when working in Haiti and then during  
these past few days, how do you keep any hope? My answer, which is  
burrowed deep in my bones through the privilege of living with, being  
friends with, watching the courage of, and working alongside many  
Haitians, is that if they haven't given up hope, we have no right to.  
Today I saw on CNN Haitians walking the streets of Port-au-Prince  
singing hymns and praying.

I sense that you haven't given up hope either. Thank you. We're people  
committed to be on the side of God's hope, even on seemingly hopeless  
days. We're people committed to be on the side of people in Haiti--not  
just right now, but for the longterm. Thank you for doing this  
together and for making the response of Haiti Partners possible.

And thanks for letting me share so personally--even as we're working  
hard on many organizational details. We welcome your prayers for  
everyone, as so many people I've talked with today or heard about or  
read about have lost friends, husbands or wives, children, entire  
families. We welcome your prayers too for these particular communities  
and for (if I can indulge you) this adopted family of ours.

Together grasping and working for hope,

Kent (co-director)

P.S. For regular updates or to help: http://www.haitipartners.org

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Remove my name from all future email correspondence

Address postal inquiries to:
Beyond Borders
PO Box 2132
Norristown, PA 19404-2132
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