Update from Nick Rogers in Haiti

I have been in Haiti six days. The country has changed in just three weeks since our scouting trip. A great deal of progress has been made both in PaP (Port-au-Prince) and Carrefour. When I arrived I slept in a tent at Grace Village in Carrefour. It rained all night. I slept through most of it since I had spent the night before on a bench at the Fort Lauderdale Airport. Many people sleeping in tents told me they had not slept at all. Their tents leaked and mine did not.

The next day I was impressed at the progress at Grace Village. They have been designated and a "Cluster" by the U.N. Danny Jeune, the director, gave me a tour of the site including their hospital. The hospital is new but is not currently in use, so it will be used by the U.N. as a food and shelter storage site. There were many bathroom facilities being constructed next to the refugee site for sanitation purposes. All 17,000 refugees had been organized into 12 groups and leaders appointed over them. The leaders met with Danny each day. A building to house the orphans had been built outside the main building. The building had been certified as safe to re-enter by structural engineers certified for earthquake assessment.

I then travelled to La Plain, which is Haiti's main Agriculture site, just fifteen miles from the border with the Dominican Republic. The site is beautiful, with ample water from natural springs. The next day I traveled to Jacmel where I have an apartment. On Saturday they asked me to preach in the main service. It was my second time of preaching at Restoration Ministries Church. The worship service and singing was wonderful. I will send a video if I can. It seemed like a little bit of heaven.

This week we begin constructing homes for the homeless. Our teams here will be helping with the construction. They will also be teaching children and some adults English while teaching about the Bible.