Update on the Team

This site has been seeing a little traffic since beginning to track the number of visitors yesterday. There were 59 visitors yesterday after around 1:00 in the afternoon, and 87 page views, so I know people are interested in a status update. Hopefully one of the team on the ground there will post an update soon. In the meantime, this is general information from a "left-behind" family member.

The team communicated that they landed yesterday afternoon and arrived safely at Mission Of Hope! The hard work will start soon. Please be in continued prayer for the team, both for physical and spiritual strength.

Current weather forecast for Port Au Prince, Haiti (an hour or so away from our team) has the predicted high temperature at 97 degrees this afternoon -- a slight break from yesterday's reported 100+ temperatures. This is the stormy season in Haiti, so cloud cover may be giving some relief this week from the blazing sun.

For a little info on where the team is, here's a photo of Mission Of Hope Haiti's "campus":

(Click the image for a larger view)

This photo was taken from either the living quarters, at the top of a hill overlooking the rest of the campus (that's where the team eats, sleeps, and comes together as a group) or from the food warehouse.

At the upper left of the photo is the church building, where services are held each Sunday. They're open to the community; the mission teams, staff, children from the orphanage (not visible; behind the two story building in this photo), and people from nearby villages are meeting for worship this morning. Haiti is on the same time as the Central time zone, but they don't observe Daylight Saving Time, so wherever the sun is for those of us in the Huntsville area, that's about where it is for the team.

The two-story building in the photo is the school. Children who are able to go to school in Haiti are privileged. There is no government-run school system, and children have to pay for their schooling. As you might imagine, this means that not many are able to go. From Mission Of Hope's site, if you're a Haitian child, "You have a 60% chance of starting school, a 45% chance of making it to the 6th grade and only a 15% chance of graduating from High School."

The building in the center of the photo is the Mission's office space.

Between the office and the school in the photo is the front guard building. There's a large gate that is kept closed and guarded. The entire campus is patrolled and guarded around the clock.

I believe that the building you can see a small part of to the right is the hospital. The Mission is able to provide medical care for those in the community.

Not visible (at least, I don't think it's visible) is the food warehouse. I can't recall the exact number, but the Mission is prepared to provide many, many meals in the event of emergency, and they weekly (daily?) provide meals for many people who are not otherwise able to afford it.

Hopefully I haven't misrepresented anything about Mission Of Hope here. I'm going from memory. Regardless, this should give you some idea of the team's surroundings so you can better imagine where they are and what they're seeing every day.

Dean Lusk (a proud parent)