I just returned from over 3 weeks in Haiti. I am home because there are things in my own life that need attention, but my heart is still in Haiti. The needs there are tremendous.

* Peter stayed behind to continue the work we started, Eddie and Djeune of course are there all the time. We have been feeding all the patients, families and hospital staff at Brenda hospital for over 1 week now. We will continue to do that as long as we can and as long as its needed. We have been providing as many as 200 meals a day for about $100.00 US.
* We are working feverishly to finish the girls orphanage so that have a place for the many orphans that have no where else to go.

* We have plans underway to purchase and ship more containers that will be converted into new homes for displaced families. We are cooperating with UN officials to find the most effective way to implement our “Homes for Haitians” program.
* We have several more orthopedic doctors arriving Saturday to continue follow up surgeries and care for then many victims that still need help.
* We have several more plane loads of supplies arriving over the next few days.
* We are actively collecting crutches, walkers, and canes to be shipped next week.
* Please donate all you can, as often as you can to one of our projects. All proceeds will go directly to help the people of Haiti!

Help us turn “Shipping Containers Into New Homes for Haiti’s Earthquake victims!”

Our original design for our new girls home uses shipping containers that are converted with windows, doors, a thatched roof for shade, new paint. As it turns out, this is also an excellent alternative for a new home for the thousands whose homes were destroyed in the earthquake. Our container homes are earthquake proof, hurricane proof, when finished according to our design, they are cool, comfortable, long term low maintenance homes.

Our goal is to acquire as many containers here in the US as possible, here we have a huge surplus of containers, we can purchase them here for about $1,200.00. We will offer the use of those containers for anyone shipping supplies to Haiti. Once the supplies are unloaded in Haiti, the container will then be delivered to sites where we can help local people turn their containers into homes!

A friend of mine asked me to do a follow-up email to share some of our thoughts and feelings now that we are home so here goes…

Home on American soil once again. I have had the blessing of traveling out of the country before on a few mission trips and it is always good to be home but this time it is vastly different. I was ready to come home. I was ready to leave the long days of being on my feet and working in the hot humid air. I was ready to leave the sight and smells of such despair and pain that we faced each and every day. I wanted to be home and “be normal” again. Don’t get me wrong, I was so happy and blessed to have the opportunity to go to Haiti and do the little part I could to help these dear children of God but you know the saying, “there is no place like home.” The only problem now is that since being home, all I do is think about the people in Haiti. I am always thinking about the patients that we cared for and wondering where they are now, how they are doing, are they feeling any relief from their physical pain, are they getting any relief for their emotional and spiritual pain? Bob and I find that we are drawn to the television whenever we hear the work Haiti – to catch a glimpse of what is going on there and even scanning the pictures to see if we recognize anyone from the small hospital where we worked.

I have learned many things from this trip. I have learned what it is to put your own feelings aside and be drawn by God to help even the least of these. I am not the person ANYONE would have thought to be working in a hospital on such traumatic injuries. I am the most unlikely person to be able to keep my emotions in check to be able to function at all under these circumstances, yet God chose me for such a time as this. I am humbled at His calm and peace that surrounded us as a team and me personally. I saw God more in this week than I think I have ever seen in my life. This was a Spirit-orchestrated trip from the time we said yes until we got home and even now continues.

I have a quote on my desk at work that kept coming back to me while in Haiti… “the will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you”. WOW just think about that for a few minutes. That makes me want to sing out a verse or two of the song “what a mighty God we serve”!

When we were in this small airport waiting to leave Haiti we had time to kill so I was just walking around. I wandered outside the airport to the parking lot and stood by the street just taking in the sights and sounds of the normal day living in Les Cayes, Haiti. All of a sudden I was struck that I was hearing a sound that I recognized but couldn’t put my finger on it immediately. Then it came to me, that was the sound of the theme music for Focus on the Family. A few minutes later I heard a song on the radio playing in English… “I stand, I stand in awe of You” I just stood there and sang the song softly in a moment of worship to God for the tremendous opportunity He had given to me during the week. Even that was a gift from God.

Don’t wait for the time to be right and everything to be just perfect…if God brings an opportunity to serve Him, grab it… even if you are fearful and best of all if it takes you outside of your normal confines and surroundings. Change is good and being stretched by God can bring amazing results. He can and will do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think…there is no better place to be than where God is and where He is moving powerfully.

Thank you for your prayers — they made the difference.
Charlene
May you always be overwhelmed by the Grace of God rather than by the cares of life.

Just a quick note to all who may be concerned.  There are four of us here in Haiti now from the US who are here now after the earthquake.  Thom Kelly left and Monday and is home safely.   We came down here to work on the new home for girls that IHAF (International Humanitarian Aid Foundation, Inc.) is helping to build in southern Haiti.  We are all safe and comfortable enough for the moment but we are not sure when we will be able to get home at this point.  We were supposed to go home tomorrow but that is not going to happen with the disaster conditions in Port au Prince.  We are looking for ways that we can help from here since we are here anyway,  Eduoard will be talking with his supervisor at the UN tomorrow to see what we could do.  We have welding equipment, generator, jacks, etc. and may be able to help in some way.  In the midst of all of this, Honel’s wife (a Hatian that works with us) is having her baby as we speak.  I have been to the hospital with him several times to offer food and suppport there.  I was there at midnight last night when more strong tremors shook and many panicked,.   People are all sleeping in the streets, even here, where the damage was minimal.   I need to go for now so others can use the skype connection to make calls. Its the only way we can communicate right now.  If any would like to send support, please donate through www.IHAF.us .  We were in the process of finding funding for another container of rice meals that is ready to be shipped from the US and donations would help that happen sooner than later.

You can read about 2 recent news items here:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/midland_park_pastor_stranded_i.html

http://www.northjersey.com/news/011910_Midland_Park_pastor_in_Haiti_working_despite_malaria-driven_fever.html

If anyone can find some of the supplies below please let me know. Thanks!

Dermatome with blades
Mesher with mesh plates and cards
K wires all sizes
Steinman pins
Pin cutter
Plaster saw
Bandage scissors

Thank-you.

Yours in service,
Andy

Donate to help to the Haiti Disaster Relief:

Haiti Disaster Relief Donation

It’s the second trip now to physically work at the new property for Consolation Center. This time Peter Kikot is with me so we hope to accomplish a lot! We are starting out with our first day and night in Port au Prince. We have arranged to meet with some representatives of Pure Water for the World to see their factory and to hear about their part in putting water purifying filters in every school in Haiti and in as many homes as possible. We meet with one of their US representatives and with Roman who is very involved in running the factory and training people that receive the filters that are being made here. We have a good meeting at their “mission house”. We make arrangements to have 1 or 2 of our guys come to a seminar here next week so that Consolation Center can qualify to receive one of their filters. Its impressive how much they have accomplished with this project since I first heard about it at the Rotary Water Conference that was here almost 2 years ago. They not only have a factory employing 30 people making water fliters but they have placed filters in hundreds of schools and public places, training hundreds of people in the process in clean water handling and general sanitation practices.

Tuesday- We have rented a 4×4 crew cab pickup for this trip to help with picking up supplies in PAP where they are more available and also to have transportation readily available when we need it. We meet up with Honel and Yvald, the two guys who are working (mostly volunteering since they don’t have any work otherwise) with Eddie and help out with all sorts of things. They are here to make sure we get back safely and not lost. We run around PAP a bit Tuesday morning shopping, find out that the 2 – 20′ containers that Express Logistics thought were available to purchase, are currently full of stuff and they don’t know how soon they will be unloaded. We decide we will look anywhere and everywhere to see if we can find a couple more somewhere.

We finally head off to Les Cayes around 1 PM, arriving there about 6 PM. Not too bad really considering the several detours we have to take because of washed out roads and bridges! What a ride, you can tell its Peter’s first time across this country by looking at his photos! He has tons of pictures of people carrying evey imaginable thing on their head! Pictures of people and conditions of extreme poverty, huge mountains of garbage right next to the “open air” market, cooking on the street, “open air” bathroom, “playground”, etc. The mixture of sights, sounds, smells, levels of poverty and struggle are hard to describe or even begin to fathom for anyone, unless you have been there.

Wednesday - Everything here is going along typical Haitian style which means its incredibly difficult! Hope to have 2 more containers delivered tomorrow and the well finished being drilled, but it will be months before we can move

girls to the new property without more support and that is becoming a problem. ask for prayers for more support so we can make the new property liveable sooner than later. Peter cut his other thumb today but still went back to work in spite of the blood and pain. long hot days here, had a bit of heat exhaustion my self today but after a break, lots of water and some time in the AC from the truck we rented , I recovered and worked the rest of the day. Now I just have a bunch of little burns from welding all day, the gloves only cover a foot or so of the arms.

Had a good meeting with Eddie tonight and are meeting with the people from his board here tomorrow night. Hope to agree on a mission statement and some basic goals and guidelines for moving forward.

Thursday- We did a lot of cutting and welding today. Onel finally finished all the arrangements to purchase and have delivered 2 twenty foot containers late today. They are supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Lord willing the crane will be there on time and working and we will set the containers up level on blocks that we had delivered today. Tonight we met with Eddie and 3 of the people that are on his board here to discuss plans, ongoing maintenance, goals, fundraising, etc. It was a good meeting. We finally got back to the Hotel about 11 pm. A long hot day but we are getting a lot accomplished. We did have one big holdup today, the “mayor and his counsel” came out to the property and told us we had to stop working until we got authorization. Of course it is just a question of money, Eddie met with them, straightened things out and paid 1,000.00 gourdes, about 25 dollars. So the well drilling continues tomorrow along with the rest of the work!

Friday- No containers today! Typical Haitian style, Honel says they will leave PAP today but doesn’t know exactly when, doesn’t finally leave until late afternoon. They arrive at night, after dark so we arrange to meet them early in the morning. Only problem now is that the good crane we had reserved is not available on Saturday, we end up working out a deal with the guy we tried to use last time. Its not ideal, but it works. We make sure everything is marked out where we want the containers to go, finish welding security bars and the door hinges and latches. Now we can store stuff on the property.

A friend of Eddie’s, Petual, asks us to come visit a poor child with deformed legs. We go

into a ghetto area of Les Cayes to a make shift house where the 9 month old child is sleeping. We take some photos, arrange for xrays, we will submit to doctors here once home to see if surgery is a possibility. On the way out, Petual mentions this is probably not a safe place for white people, good thing its night time so not many saw us come and go!

Saturday morning comes early, another hot one! Oh yeah, we’re in Haiti, its always hot here! It takes all day, but we unload the 2 new containers, go to Espwa to get the one 40′ that is there, eventually get all 5 containers placed where they belong up on cement blocks so that we can dig the footings. Next trip down, the guys will have the footing poured, we will do a final jacking into level and then build block and concrete piers and a set of step for each.

One of the nicest things this trip has been the interaction with the local neighbors. Not only have many of them come by to watch but they have often been helpful with chairs, water, and even a mat for Peter to sleep on when he was really tired and waiting for the truckers to finish their work!

Peter and I feel like we have 14 new girl friends at the house where the girls are living now. Every time we stop by there they greet us with hugs and kisses all around! Peter ordered a “Sawyer” water filter to install in their house, it will filter out 99.99% of all impurities. Peter has been using one all week for his own drinking water, taking water from the local faucets! It must work pretty well, he doesn’t get sick from the water at all this trip, too bad it doesn’t keep mosquitoes away! He does come down with Dengue fever right after getting home. Spends a week in the hospital and a week at home recovering! The price we pay for helping others! True service above self.

We are committed now, Consolation Center is well underway. It feels great knowing how much we accomplished this week in spite of the difficulties! Until next trip, January, Lord willing, Andy

Consolation Center building begins

Journal - By A. Topp

August 17, 2009

I’m feeling like this is a new beginning. Even though this is the second trip now to work with Eddie on Consolation Center, a new home for girls, this trip we hope to actually get a few containers delivered to the property, and maybe, set into place. The containers will become homes for girls who have been abandoned in one way or another, abused or from families that have had life so difficult they simply cannot care for their own children.

Eduard and Djeune are already providing a home for 15 girls and one boy, they do not have room or money to take in any more even though there are others that stop in often asking for help. I was hoping to have a group of people going with me on this trip, but the economy being what it is, they have not been able to come up with the financing for the trip and the work at hand. I also had been hoping to come before this to get things ready for a larger work group, but have not been able to. The good thing is that I am able to come now, I have enough money to purchase another container or maybe two (if I get all three it will be something of a miracle) and hopefully have them delivered to the property. We also need to find someone capable of picking up the container the shipping company dropped off at Espwa and delivering that to the new property. If we can accomplish at least some of this, we will have what we need ready for a work group to come and help. At the moment there are some from Trinity church in Newark that are hoping to be able to come in Ocotober. I also hope that with something physically in place on the new property, we can make a new promotional video that will inspire more folks to get involved and support what we are doing.

I will be spending a little time with Father Marc at Pwoje Espwa, delivering the supplies I have purchased for them and reviewing the feeding program that is using the protein enriched dried rice meals IHAF arranged to get for them (280,000 meals). The meals are not going as far as projected, I hope that once we document it, we can project when they will need more and apply for another shipment.

The plane is full today, I am pretty sure that aside from the pilots, I am the only white guy on the plane—not sure what that means, there are usually others on business or mission projects as well! The young man sitting next to me tells me this is his first time going to Haiti. He is going by himself, doesn’t know where exactly he is going, where he is staying or what he’s going to do! He is meeting an interpreter/guide that his mother arranged for him. I told him to be prepared for a very different experience! To make sure he gets out into the country, talk to some of the local people and get to know what life is really like in a place like Haiti. I wish I could see him at the end of his stay and find out what his impressions are.

A lot of folks are praying for me and for the success of this trip and Consolation Center, I pray also, that I will be able to make progress and work out whatever is necessary to make things happen. I already know that things almost never go as planned on these trips, so I am ready to adapt. At the very least, I am going to get to know the kids better, spend some time with them, get lots of photos and get to know their stories.

The first two days will be spent in PAP (Port Au Prince) working on arranging the container delivery, and the rest of the time in Les Cayes area. I have to remember to call a man named Guy Theodore when I arrive. It is always fascinating, that the more I do this, the more connections we make. Guy comes recommended by Rob Raylman of Gift of Life International, who has been trying to set up a Gift of Life program of sorts in Haiti. Guy is supposed to be a man with some connection/contacts that can help us get some things done. We shall see!

I am sure this is enough for now, I will write more after the days events. With much anticipation, Andy

Its now towards the end of the week here. As usual we get so busy once we get started, by the end of the day, its been so hot, humid and busy, just unwinding and finally getting supper, usually around 9 pm or so, all I want to do is go to bed!

To keep it short, the 2 containers I purchased in Port au Prince (took 3 days to work out the details of that purchase and delivery!) were eventually delivered, although a day late because one of the trucks broke down on the way. They did not get placed where we wanted them, even though we took a lot of time to carefully survey the property, layout where all the containers should go, with stakes and mason’s line, because the crane operator’s truck broke down on the way to the property. The crane operator did help get the containers off of the trailers using a dumptruck of his or someone he works with.  Of course He wanted to get paid $250. US for what he did and we told him no.  We finally paid him $150.00 and told him we would pay more once his truck was fixed and the containers were set where we wanted them.  He was going to set all 3 containers for $300.00 and now he is only setting 2 since the trailers have gone home.  We will have to wait until we purchase another container to move the one at Espwa.  I think we should only pay him a total of $200.00 once he has properly set the 2 containers that are on the property now.  At least we gave the neighbors some good entertainment for a couple days! We had an audience every time we were there. Very nice people in the house (bamboo and grass thatch sides with a corrugated metal roof). At one point they brought out some straight back chairs for us to sit on while we waited for the crane that never arrived!

Another time they brought out “fresh” drawn water from their hand dug well, the truck drivers, Onel and Yvald drank some—glad I didn’t, even though we hadn’t had breakfast or anything to drink since 6 AM and now it was noon time, Onel was sick the next 2 days!

Once 2 of the 3 containers that we own were placed on the property, we could begin cutting windows and doors, the first step to make them into new homes for the girls! Of course that meant we needed to buy some tools. So much for my budget. Tools and supplies here, when you can find what you need, are always either expensive, of extremely poor quality, or both!

I purchased a generator yesterday for  $400.00 US, from the back of a truck selling all kinds of household goods, clothes, used and new. Generator was actually a good deal, a name brand, made by “Troybuilt” for much less than anything comparable that we had seen in town for the 2 days we spent looking for one. And after a 3 day search for a grinder, with absolutely no luck, Just as we were about to give up, we were on our last stop, and we find not only a good grinder today for $110.00, we also meet Pierre! .  Also purchased a bunch of other things that Onel and Yvald can tell about, like a problem with the first grinder we bought. Just when we were about to give up looking for a grinder, we met Pierre Claude Bazelais who not only gave us a very reasonable price on the grinder but also offered to loan his truck or anything we need from time to time for no charge!  He is a good Christian man who is working with another project which we went to visit on the last night. He offered us free rooms for visiting volunteers in the old abandoned hotel his group is renovating. We used his pickup truck for three days, took all of our girls for a great Sunday afternoon at the beach!

Since we had the tools, the generator and a handful of cutting discs, Onel, Yvald and I spent 2 days laying out the windows and doors and started cutting the containers! I wanted to make sure the guys knew how to do it so they could keep working once I left. Neither of them have a job, no surprise, most people don’t. So they don’t mind helping Eddie and Djeune out with their project. Eddie loves the help and doesn’t mind helping them out when he can with some food, supplies, or even a little money when he can. Onel is actually something of an artist/craftsman, but its difficult to find anyone to buy what he makes. I bought some necklaces from him before I left.

One of the last days, while Onel and I were waiting for Yvald, at the house where the girls are now, all the girls came out on the front porch area and started singing. They sang one song after another, complete with coreography! They would finish one song, someone would start another suggestion and eveyone would chime in! It worked its way around to a game where they hide a safety pin on someone and then sing another verse over and over while they count to diez (ten), fi they haven’t found it by then, they have to go again. We had lots of fun! The girls get along with each other amazingly well, the older 2, Laura and ? do a good job of watching out for and including all the younger ones.

I cant wait until we have made enough progress with their new home to be able to move them all out there. It is so much cleaner and more open than where they are now. Our next big push is to raise money to finish the building, or at least enough of it to have these 15 and maybe a few more get started in their new home. We hope its within 6 months or so, so we can make an easy switch between schools and paying rent.

Eddie is in the US the last couple of days awaiting the birth of his new son! Djeune finally has the baby on August 25, Lenz Eduoard Constant! What a beautiful blessing! He certainly has 2 great parents that are setting a beautiful example of what it means to “love your neighbor as yourself”! Until next time, yours in service, Andy

Jacking the container using a coconut drum and car jack

We cut the windows so the cutout can be an awning!

The girls having a blast at the beach!


They love to have visitors.