My heart was racing as I jumped into the back of our truck. Sarah and I were on a mission. A million thoughts flooded my mind as we set out to find babies’ milk. Stores had been raped of their supplies and it was already 10pm, hardly the hour to find a pharmacy open. I sat there in the back of the truck bouncing along the bumpy terrain just pondering…will it happen again?
I met Francois at a refugee site in Jimani, a border town on the Dominican side about five minutes from Haiti. He appeared to be a strong man with gentle speech as he approached me. We had traveled to this site bringing hot chocolate to the families and the victims of the tragic earthquake that had paralyzed this nation. Our hope is that they would feel the sense of home even though they now resided in a foreign land. Francois asked what we were doing there and I had the opportunity to share why God had led us there. He expressed his thanks to the many people who had flown in from the outside out of the goodness of their hearts to love and comfort his people. He proceeded to inform me of his current situation.
Just two weeks earlier, Francois was in his house in Port-au-Prince. He and his wife lived in a 5-story building near the center of town. As he was working on the bottom floor, the earth began to shake and suddenly, the building collapsed. Five floors came crashing down on top of him. At this time, his pregnant wife had been in their home on the fifth floor and fell straight through the floor landing a few feet from where he stood. Instinctively, Francois leapt across the moving floor to sprawl himself over his wife for protection. It was the only thing that he could do. Thirty seconds later, the ground stopped and chaos ensued all around them. People were desperately searching for their families and injuries and death increased exponentially as the Haitians began to recover from the trembling. Francois arose from being the protective blanket over his wife to find out that she had begun contracting. She was nine months pregnant.
For five days, his wife experienced tremendous pain as they fled for the Jimani border, hours away from their home. “How was she going to survive?” he would ask. “Who will help us?”
Arriving at the border, Francois began asking questions. Medical teams swarmed the mobs of people pouring through the lines and they quickly assisted Francois and his wife. She went into labor and he waited to find out whether or not he would be widowed or if he would have a new addition to his family. He sat praying and asking the Lord for his sweet mercy. Moments later, news arrived that she had given birth to a baby girl whom they would call Francelina. Overcome with joy that his family had survived this tragedy, the only thing Francois could mutter was “God saved my family”. And it’s true. Only a divine creator concerned with the intimate details of his children could provide a solution to something so seemingly impossible. When I met Francois, Francelina was a mere ten days old. The clinic was understaffed, there were language barriers, and there was a shortage of medical supplies. One of these was baby milk/formula. Three other families had newborn babies at this clinic but the milk had run out that morning and it was now 10pm. The need was great considering the babies had not eaten since that morning. His wife could not feed their child because she was unable to produce milk. It all seemed so eerily similar to the story of baby Moses. I had to act. I could not bear to see another family suffer the loss of a child like that. So I left with Sarah to find our Dominican driver.
We tore through the streets with reckless abandon as we interceded and begged God to provide an open store or pharmacy with the supplies we needed. We arrived at a local store whose supplies I’m sure were drastically decreased than what they had before hundreds of Haitians had poured in through the border. But we asked anyway. Sure enough, they had just one box of 12 bottles. This I imagine could last the three families for a little over two days. It was not enough so we continued. I had visited a pharmacy before asking for phone credit, so we headed there. As we charged up the stairs, I kept thinking about Moses and Francelina. I was overcome with anguish for both families. My Spanish rattled off of my tongue with astounding fluidity as I communicated our needs. God was definitely in that considering their dialect is strikingly different from Mexican Spanish. The woman behind the counter smiled and placed three palettes of twelve bottles each atop the counter. Praise God! We paid and made our way back to the compound in hopes of arriving before the gates closed. We made it. I ran over to Francois and informed him of the news. A strong but gentle man sank into a deep sigh of relief with tears welling up in his eyes. The only thing he could do was thank us and thank God for saving his family. We were able to capture his story on video with Steph’s camera along with many other stories. The WR marketing team is working diligently in sharing their stories.
Francois like many others probably hasn’t the slightest clue as to what his next step will be. Many are just waiting. They can’t return to what they had because it no longer exists and they cannot rebuild yet for fear of more earthquakes and aftershocks. So what are they to do? They just sit idly with blank stares across their faces. Our hope is to see pastors emerge as the fathers of this rebuilding nation. They will be the ones to look after the orphans and widows as the numbers are increasing daily. Our time down there was a success in establishing partnerships with different pastoral networks. We will be throwing full support in sending teams and supplies down to them in this time of greatest need. Many are turning to the Lord in the wake of this destruction. Please continue supporting them financially and physically by donating to the Haiti Relief Fund or by joining one of the many teams heading down there this year. EVERY skill set is needed and now is the time to act. I encourage you to do so. May God be glorified in it all!
