From Jeremy Scott:
Thank the LORD we found a much-needed portable autoclave (medical sterilizer) to send down to Haiti. (The team has been having to sterilize everything manually by boiling lots of water.) There are a few other things that I would like to send with it tomorrow:
1. Power bars - the 200 cal. kind. Variety would be nice. The team members have very limited food supplies and they are getting pretty hungry throughout the day.
2. Beef jerky
3. Dehydrated meat
4. Crutches and canes - (there are a lot of amputees)
This is all time-sensitive - we are sending things down tomorrow. SO! The church building will be open for drop-by donations from 5-10pm tonight (Mon.), and from 8am-noon tomorrow morning (Tues.). We know this is short notice, but any help would be appreciated.
Below is a picture from Sunday; Pastor Bixby has been learning to dress wounds in addition to his chaplaincy/French responsibilities. Please keep praying for the whole team - the needs are overwhelming, and everything is very raw and taxing emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually.
So as Susan said, we landed safely, thank God. A generous donor has not only paid for our chartered flight here but also for our stream of shipments of equipment that’s coming from Denver and from New York. AND for the coach bus that’s carrying the 5 thousand so pounds of supplies we brought with us.
We ate Spaghetti last night, had a debriefing session where everyone was introduced to my mom and dad and family and retired for the night. This building has withstood 60 + aftershocks so we stayed in it last night. After the bus arrives today though and we have our tents, we’ll probably set shop outside like everyone else here.
We’re in Leogane in the dorms of the nursing school. Everyone is busy helping out and there are a LOT of wounded, lots of fractures, amputations and our team is already working hard. They’re eating, staying hydrated and in an upbeat mood. There are teams from Minnesota, Iowa, Japan, Tennessee, Kansas, Atlanta, and contingents of UN troops all around us so we’re not alone but supplies are still few. Thank God we have more on the way.
Continue to pray for us, hopefully I’ll have some pictures in the next update. If I can today I will, if not definitely tomorrow.
Later and lots of love from everyone on the team!
Jennie added at 5pm this evening that she heard the team’s bags have arrived! They are all working hard to help the victims there. There are lots of bones to be set and surgeries to be done.
Praise the Lord that the New York traveling team just arrived safely back in Rockford around midnight, Friday night. Thank you for praying for them!
Pastor Bixby arrived with the Haitian medical team in Haiti (see updated entry below), and they were escorted to a compound outside of the city. They came to Port-au-Prince on a small plane, so the bulk of their gear has not yet arrived. The things the team was carrying are needed desperately, so please pray that their baggage and supplies will arrive safely and soon.
UPDATE: The team is very thankful for the US marines who escorted them from the airport landing to the compound. They have no bags or equipment with them at this time. He said that it is VERY primitive. As they arrived a young girl come into the clinic, dying of her wounds. He said that they are surround by thousands of people sleeping in tents, and sadly death is all around. (9:50pm CT, 1/22 - from Jennie Bixby). Keep an eye on Global Grace’s twitter updates (twitter.com/G2missions) and the Global Grace page on Facebook for more real-time updates.
Morning Star’s lead pastor, Bob Bixby, is going to be able to accompany the Haitian medical team for whom we had the 24hr medical supply/formula drive. Although the opportunity was unexpected and short-notice, Bob is uniquely equipped as a fluent French-speaker and a faithful Gospel-preacher. Today is a day of crazy last-minute preparations, packing, passport-updating; but he is slated to fly out early Friday morning, join with the medical team, and come home around February 8th. Please pray for him to be used mightily for the glory of God and the good of His people–in Haiti.
The men who drove through the night last night have safely arrived in NYC with the truck and trailer of medical supplies and surgical tools. Their trip was not without incident (including a very close call with running out of fuel, and a brief breakdown for a complicated flat tire with broken nut), but also not without providential provision and protection! It “just so happened” that at the same rest stop where they pulled off for the flat, there was a guy there who had ALL the tools and a grinder (complete with generator on back of truck to power it) and the know-how necessary to take it off and to put on the spare the team had brought! His name was Doug, and he was God’s answer to prayer. NOT a coincidence. God is in the details!
These men (Jon, Jeremy, and Rick) are currently driving through the night toward New York City (they’re in our prayers, especially considering they’ve been working all day and are driving through ice storm conditions).
All in all, from 3:30pm Tuesday up till 7pm Wednesday–Rockford and neighboring communities helped Morning Star gather 118 boxes full of medical supplies and formula (approx. $250,000 worth!). The plan now is to drive the donations to NYC to be taken with a team of Haitian medical personnel to three clinics in Haiti. Delta Airlines has approved the medical team to carry for free as many supplies as they can gather by the time their flight departs Friday morning.
So “Team Haiti” has hit the road to NYC…and it seems it will be icy and long. But while we pray for their safety, we are also overwhelmed by the blessing that they were able to carry so much out with them. Morning Star people, local hospitals and clinics, local media stations, classmates, neighbors, coffee houses, retirement communities of Rockford—THANK YOU for your proactive generosity. Several people faraway sent unexpected financial donations online, totalling about $400, which will be very helpful toward financing this road trip and toward future Global Grace endeavors. THANK YOU.
If you’re part of the Rockford/Chicagoland area and have an opportunity to donate supplies, please consider this immediate opportunity to send medical supplies on a free trip to Haiti:
from Bob Bixby to the Morning Star Church family (3:24pm, 1/19/2010)
We have 24 hours. We found a small medical team comprised of Haitians leaving for Haiti this coming Friday and they have just received the right to take as many medical supplies and material as they can WITHOUT fee on Delta Airlines! The needs are desperate and there is a very practical way we can help: we can get as much stuff as we can collect to their depot in New York City by Thursday afternoon. That means tomorrow night a crew of volunteers start driving, and I really think we ought to step up to the plate and make it happen. So, starting tonight (Tues.1/19) at 6pm we will have the church doors open until 10pm, and then all day tomorrow (Weds.1/20, from 7:30am, until 7:00pm) for people to bring in supplies that fall into one or both of the following categories: baby formula and medical supplies (as per the list we have below).
Babies are dehydrating and dying. One very real, very practical, very instantaneous way we can help is to make it possible for these babies to have a fighting chance at life. We cannot go there ourselves, make the bottles, and feed them. How I would love to do it if I could. I know many of you would as well. But we can — most of us — buy at least one can of formula. Many can buy more. Maybe you can buy some of the medical supplies or you know a doctor who would give to our project.
Already, Wesley Willows is providing boxes for us to take! We’ve asked other places. If a donor understandably wants more information about who they are donating to, please contact Jeremy Scott (jeremy@wordcentered.org|815.721.6412) for more details. Jeremy and I will drive through the night unless we get replaced by enthusiastic volunteers!
Folks, this is just a neighborly gesture. It’s a small thing. The organization that we are helping is Christian. It’s a cup of cold water. Let’s do something. As I’ve said before, we are going to do some long term relief work in the near future, but this is something we should be able to do immediately with immediate impact.
I can’t believe I’m saying this: Go shopping!
Pastor Bob Bixby
In addition to baby formula, please scan this list of medical supplies to see if you can provide any of these items:
A lot of masks
Gauze Sterile
betadine
Elastic Bandages
All kinds of bandages
Tents
Many have asked whether it is possible to contribute financially to Global Grace’s continuing plans for Gospel-driven, enduring help for Haiti. If that is what you would like to do, the original PayPal donation venue is still active. See yellow button in sidebar. –>
How can any compassionate person ignore the cry that comes from Haiti? Humanity is imprisoned on an island of desperation and death as the news outlets continue to overwhelm us with pictures of destruction and despair. Christians are hardwired to respond to calamity with compassionate action because they are like their Father who is benevolent even to His enemies. Catastrophic events like the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, though thousands of miles away, invade our neat and tidy schedules and ram their way to the forefront of our thoughts. We have to do something. We just have to! Even the more calloused residents of this small world dig just a little deeper into their wallets to help in the alleviation of pain. Worldlings cannot help but react to screaming. But Christians respond wisely.
It is now more than ever that we must be wise. We cannot be impulsive and visceral in our donations. It is too human to respond impulsively, and mere humans have a visceral and impulsive reaction to the catastrophic. But we are more than mere humans; we are also children of the God who prescribed the earthquake for Haiti. We don’t just react; we respond to something we know God ordered. We simply didn’t know when, where, or why; we just know He designed it. Thus, when the cameras have left the island, when the media have moved onto another story, and when the earthquake of 2010 is fading from the top story in the evening news to a bad and foggy memory for armchair philanthropists, those of us who are more than mere humans will still be weeping. And serving. And giving.
It is easy to cry when it is en vogue, when shocking pictures are set before us. The whole world weeps; the whole world reacts. However, it takes a Christian with discipline and love to weep behind the scenes after life moves on. Therefore, it would be very wise of us to realize that the best relief we can offer is long after the impulse has died; it’s when conviction and compassion combine to offer tangible relief that is a fruit of spiritual love. It is more than the reaction of emotional humanity.
Clearly, the need in Haiti is pressing. Now! The first responders are there en masse. They are the professionals, the ‘big boys’ with the sophisticated systems and equipment. At this point we need to let them do their job. First response for something this huge will take days and weeks. Relief, however, will take months and years. Therefore, if we are really compassionate for the Haitians we will not abandon our sense of duty toward them when their plight is no longer on the first page of the morning newspaper. If we really believe in giving relief, a physical Gospel-motivated and Gospel-elevating relief, we will know that our opportunity to bring the cup of cold water has only just begun.
Therefore, I would encourage Christians to invest in relief for Haiti that is both physical and Gospel-oriented. Start planning now on becoming a part of a missionary team to Haiti in the coming summer. Find a specific wall to repair, a specific family to adopt, or a specific home to rebuild and do something that will last by taking the God-given opportunity of disaster and bringing to the targets of his sovereign work both a cup of cold water and a word fitly spoken. To love when others have packed their bags will set us apart from the merely human and rank us with those who are so compassionate they feel pain with the hurting when everyone else has forgotten.
Global Grace, Inc. is doing reconnaissance. In past disasters we have been to places that were on the TV screens for days after the initial crisis, but when it all died down, when insignificant disciples such as we entered into those places weeks and months later we found those places to be still in the throes of the disaster, still aching for relief. Therefore, we are doing reconnaissance now for relief later.. We want to hook up particular churches and people here with specific projects there. We are trying to find that specific wall to rebuild, that specific hungry widow, that specific orphanage now unprotected by walls, or the specific pastor’s home, etc. for our church and other churches here in this country to adopt and own for the sake of bringing both physical and spiritual relief to the needy in Haiti.
Don’t be merely human. Don’t be driven by emotion. Let us all consciously bow our knee to our Sovereign Lord and accept the fact that He has opened a door of utterance in Haiti with this earthquake. Let’s walk in calmly and deliberately and leave the fragrance of Christ. Let’s not lose it in the hubris and hubbub of a panicked world reacting to crises they cannot understand.
We understand this crisis. It is from God. Therefore, we can choose to respond with humility to the millions of still-in-shock victims when the clamoring reactionaries have moved on to the next story. The Church of Jesus Christ is now looking at Haiti with refreshed zeal; certainly God has many people in that place. Let’s plan. And let’s go!
Coming up this week (October 25-28) is Morning Star’s annual missions conference. Dan and Lyn Sehested will be with us (ministry workers we support in Romania), along with two new visiting deputee couples and their families. Dan and Angela Huffstutler (Kenya) and Joel and Shelley C. (Central Asia) will be directing the conference this year. On Wednesday evening, Dr. David Hesselgrave will return again to Morning Star. He will be participating that evening in a panel discussion.
Pastor Bixby and the other men will all be speaking on the theme of God’s glory as our preeminent priority in any and all missionary undertakings: “For the Sake of His Name.” Here is the nightly schedule:
UPDATED (7pm, 1/20) 
