Last week, Pastor Ignace’s congregation generously donated a large quantity of their own clothing in good condition to be taken to the earthquake victims. They also dedicated their time to make packages for their fellow brothers and sisters from Port-au-Prince. From 2:00 p.m. and all through the night, they worked tirelessly to divide food into family-size portions for delivery. They also put different sizes of clothes in the bags to prepare for distribution.
At 4:00 am the next morning, a team of 20 people from Pastor Ignace’s main church in Les Cayes, departed and headed to Port-au-Prince, (arriving at 9:00 a.m.) They went with two vehicles, a big yellow school bus and a pickup truck with the goal of distributing aid (shoes, clothes of all sizes – even for babies, toiletries, laundry detergent, sheets, hand soap, spaghetti, beans, rice, bread, 5,000 water bags and 20 gallons of water).
Prior to making the trip, they had contacted several pastor friends in different parts of Port-au-Prince, in hope to cover as many areas as possible. They chose churches as places of distribution because these churches are the pillars of the community. When they arrived, they divided their team in two. Pastor Ignace was with one group. His wife, Franchette, was with another.
In all, they visited seven different locations, distributing items to a total of about 4500 people. In some places they did the actual distributions and in others they gave the items to the local church leaders or distribution committee to hand out the items to those in need. They worked non-stop and didn’t even take a break for lunch or dinner. It was hard to navigate at times in Port-au-Prince because of the debris on the streets and obstacles.
On their return trip they had problems with the radiator on the bus overheating. Some of the men in the group stayed with the bus to get repairs the next day. The pickup continued on and arrived back in Les Cayes at 2:30am. It was a long day!
They were able to take some injured people with them back to Les Cayes as well.
Pastor Ignace closed by sharing a memorable story from their return trip:
“On our way back to Les Cayes, we were flagged by a woman on a motorcycle taxi. We asked her where she was going and she told us that she was trying to leave Port-au-Prince to go to Léogane. In her hands was something wrapped. When she stepped on the bus, we realized that what she was holding were twin babies of a month and a half. They were just discharged from the hospital. She told us that we were angels sent from God. We gave her clothes for her baby and her family, some food and some money and dropped her off in Léogane.”
Thank you for keeping Haiti in your prayers and hearts.
Dave