The following emails were written by Jean Robert St. Hilaire, a Haitian preacher, and sent by Sam Ross, elder of the Northeast church in Kingsport, Tenn., which is sending aid directly to Haiti churches of Christ.
From Sam Ross: I know all of us are concerned about the situation in Haiti. I have copied the only two messages I have received from Jean Robert and followed them with information on how people can wire funds to NE to get to Haiti. You may want to forward this to some people you know in other locations.
Brethren, Good afternoon.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A strong earthquake hit the impoverished country of Haiti on Tuesday afternoon as you all know, where most hospitals collapsed and people were screaming for help. 60% of buildings also were damaged.
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 14 miles (22 kilometers) west from the capital of Port-au-Prince, according to the Geological Survey.
We are deeply touched by Haiti’s worst earthquake. Please, show solidarity with the Haitian people by thinking how you can help one way or another. Most key official and public buildings in the Capital, including the white house have been severely damaged; thousands of people are still under heavy rubbles.
There is no way to evaluate the church building damages right now the streets, the buildings are still dangerous. There is no electricity, I am using a small power inverter that Sam brought for me years ago in my car. There is no fuel, all gas stations are closed. The biggest grocery stores are collapsed there is no food. You can see only dead bodies everywhere, all over the streets. The house that we are on the way to purchase is safe there is nothing wrong with it.
We need help right now to give health care to some of our members, we need food to feed the homeless, we need financial support to bury our members who are dead, most of them are still under concrete.
The situation is urgent. We’ve already counted 9 of our members died, we’re still looking for dead bodies. We have almost 50 members who need medical care, almost 290 homeless. That’s sad. there is not even bread to eat right now.
I’ve tried to spread the event update to many congregations in the united States, then few of them are already read the update that I’ve sent.
Please once I forward a correspondance to you, take contact as soon as you can, because We are busy in many ways for the sake of many lives.
My family and myself are safe but we are in the street, we do not go to our house because everytime the land is still trembling for a few second. There is no bank open, but if you guys make any deposit on the BOA account, friends can cash our checks.
We’ll keep you posted. Until then may God bless you all.
A very small servant of the King of kings,
Jean Robert.
From:JeanRobertSt.Hilaire
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 11:58 AM
Brethren Good morning.
hope you are fine by the grace of God.
We’d like to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and concern on what’s happening here in Haiti yesterday. It is a quite bad experience that I’ve never made in my life.
Yesterday around 4:00p.m, the earthquake trapped me in my house I was just coming, preparing to go back to the School of Preaching. The quake last about 60 second, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. right after the brake I run out with my family, but the house was moving all over the place.
One of the students call to tell me how bad they were down at the church building, and I’ve asked them to leave. I took my family as we couldn’t go back inside; instead we go to the church building at Delmas. finally, everything like church furniture were broken a part, our new sound system that church members recently purchase in December was totally lost, several part of the building are destroyed.
Church members are homeless, many are injured, the Chairman Elder Brother Carlo Mardy has his daughter died under concrete (she is around 25 years old). We’ve lost several church members in that disaster, we cannot do any estimate yet because we have no firefighters, most of the official building are cracking down, the presidential palace is broken, etc…
We are still in the street, because the land is trembling every 15 to 30 minutes all night. And also you know we are searching church members who are injured at the same time. No hospitals, no rescuers, almost nothing… The Haitian government is asking for help from the International Community to rescue people under the debris.
Haiti is almost totally lost, specially in the west department including Port-au-Prince, Delmas and Petion-Ville.
We are asking for your prayers and material supports of all kind at this crucial time. Please, please, do something for our brothers and sisters. we will have to bury many people… that is really sad.
My phone lines are still not working, but you can email me as I have a wireless laptop with me.
From: Jean Robert St. Hilaire
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:17 AM
Brothers & Sisters,
Good morning.
Hope you are all fine by the grace of God.
Thank you very much for your prayers, commitment and concern toward the Haitian Christians.
In Haiti, we continue to sleep in the streets. My house and my family are not hurt, but we sleep in the car because the population was alerted by Geologist that the earthquake will last until Friday at midnight so every body needs to stay away from their houses. There is no electricity, no water, no food for sale, no communication, no hospital, no technicians to save the victims.
According to the last estimate from the officials: 2 million victims, half million injured, 100.000 dead most are under concrete. We’ve already count 20 people died at the Delmas Church…
The Chairman Elder, Brother Carlo Mardy lost his 25 year old daughter, one of our preacher graduates Brother Michelet Baptiste lost his wife which is member of my wife’s ladies group and their first baby 6 months old. brother Luc Nadal and his family disappeared, sister Kathleen Cesias lost her son. Too many things drive me crazy for now, I’ll send you a complete list of our members died and injured. Sister Marie France Elysee member of our congregation which usually stay in my home cooking with my wife for our missionaries went to visit her mother Tuesday afternoon doesn’t comeback yet, we went to her mother’s place the whole area is crashed you can only see dead bodies installed everywhere in that area Delmas 60. Our church building at Delmas is seriously damaged and several congregations of the Church of Christ in the West and South Departments are damaged. we have too much to do for now!
Ouf! i have a very bad headache for now, I’ll get back to you later for more info, 40% of Port-au-Prince is crashed.
Please, continue to pray and think about Haiti. God is the answer!
We love you all, this the best family allover the world.
A very small servant of the King of kings, Jean Robert.
Funds can be wired to the following address:
First Tennessee Bank – Memphis, TN, Routing #084000026
Further credit: First Tennessee Bank – Kingsport, TN
Final credit: Northeast Church of Christ – Haiti Fund, acct. #100619415
We can then forward the funds to a bank we use in Florida and Jean Robert can access it.
Of course, funds can be mailed to:
Northeast Church of Christ
Haiti Fund
2217 Beechnut Drive
Kingsport, TN 37660
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