Relief

This year has started in the usual way. I helped facilitate some wonderful teams do ministry here in the Dominican Republic. That is what I do on a regular basis. Facilitate people, encourage nationals and develop relationships between the two. We are good at that here at GO Ministries.

On January 12 I was in Hato del Yaque visiting with the Montan family in thier little tin roofed, wood house. As we were visiting the whole house began to shake. It was long enough for us to realize and discuss that an earthquake was happening. There wasn't any damage to the house and we went on our way.

A few hours later I learned that the earthquake was massive, Port Au Prince was flattened and the death tole .... insurmountable.

Brook Brotzman, the president of GO heard about the quake and sprang instantly into action. Within a few days we had a fund for people to donate to Haiti, a cargo bay at the airport in Santiago to move supplies and volunteer pilots with planes to fly it all to different locations in Haiti. The church here in the DR stepped it up. The youth volunteered their time to move cargo and many people in my neighborhood donated supplies.

Many different organizations and businesses wanted to contribute, but many didn't have an avenue.

From the cargo bay we facilitated donations coming in and going out.

There were no commercial flights going into Haiti so we began flying doctors and rescue workers. We were able to make a schedule for people going in and out and even house them for a night when needed.

Most of my job consisted of taking care of the people as they went into or came out of Haiti. Many times I sat down to dinner with people coming out of Haiti and they could debrief and share of their time. The stories that I heard are heart wrenching. Stories of people under rubble for days. Of children needing amputations and then dying anyway. Of the smell of death so strong people took up smoking just to keep from vomiting.

I also heard stories of found loved ones and hope for a better Haiti.

It is amazing how God is able to use a horrific event like this to bring together so many people together for a common purpose. To help mankind. After all, that was the point of Jesus coming here, wasn't it?

Right after the earthquake I remember feeling like I wish I could do more. I wished I was better at school so I could have been a doctor. I wished I was a pilot so I could fly there or something...else.
But as people and supplies kept coming through I began to realize that our ministry was doing what it always does. Facilitate people, encourage nationals and develop relationships.

God places each one of us where we are and gives us the talents he gives us. After years of doing the same thing it can become clear in a moment when it really matters why God has placed you where he has.
One of the amazing people I met sent me this email which may shed a little more light into what I have been doing the past few months. God bless each and every one of you.

Good morning Jennifer Goodenough ~Greetings. Hope everything is well with you, Ken and the rest of GO Ministries. I know you've met a bazillion people, so let me try to refresh your memory... My name's JEFF and Go Ministries helped me and two other Wisconsin guys get home from Haiti a little over a week ago. One of your planes picked us up at Jacmel and brought us to Santiago. Ken picked us up at the airport and delivered us to you. You then took us to a little roadside cafe where we had Empanadas, talked about Go Ministries, Corvallis, fund-raising and a few other things, then you chauffeured us to your dormitory for the night. Next morning you returned, made coffee and dropped us at the airport where we caught a plane for home. Hopefully that tweaked something to help you recall us, but if not, it's OK.My purpose in emailing you is just to thank you and Ken for what you're doing. It's huge, spirit driven and very badly needed. Please convey my/our gratitude to Ken, your pilots and to everyone who's had a hand in supporting your work. Thank you so much!It's good being back in Wisconsin and reconnecting with family and friends. The air is a bit brisk and we have plenty of snow for snowshoeing, one of my favorite pastimes. My plan is to return to our Orphanage at Grand Goave Haiti sometime the first week of March. I miss the kids and my thoughts are always on the work that needs to be done there, as everywhere in Haiti. I expect American Airlines will have resumed their regular schedule by then, so shouldn't need help getting in or out of the Country. In any case, Go Ministries truly blessed us and it was a pleasure to meet you and Ken and to learn more about the good work being done in the name of our Lord and Savior. Take care of yourself and God Bless. I've attached a couple of pictures for your scrapbook...Go Beavers! On Wisconsin! JEFF

Febuary 2009

Since the Dominican has a semi tropical climate, there is plenty of rainfall to keep everything green and growing year round. The only problem with that is the flooding that happens frequently. People live in flood plains because it is cheap. Especially in the Hole where people don't pay for electricity or water because its not supposed to be inhabited. But it is home to hundreds of families.

Pastor Felix has been working in the Hole for eight years now and has seen his share of frustrations, especially when one of the children in the Nutrition center falls into drugs or gets pregnant at 13 to 14.

In addition to drugs, prostitution and all that goes along with those issues Felix battles unsanitary conditions. The Hole is an unofficial landfill and all of the runoff water from the surrounding streets runs down into it.

When the waters rise, it carries the trash into people's homes that they generally keep very clean.

Here is Pastor Felix standing where a home was just the day before.

At the end of 2007, Hurricane Olga washed away the bridge that people use to cross the contaminated river.

What was so neat about that is that in the following months the community actually built a new one themselves. Different people pitched in with mixing concrete and welding the scrap iron together to make it so people didn't have to jump on wobbly tires or wade across. I felt proud, as did they of their work

Last month there were some heavy rains which washed away the foundation of the bridge breaking it in two and carrying away a nearby home.

Now the kids walk up and down this steep walk way over the water to come to the nutrition center and to go to school.

Life can be like that can't it. Just when you've pulled together to make things right, a big storm moves in to tear down your accomplishments.

I'm Thankful that life isn't all about accomplishment, but the lives we encounter along the way.

Despite any setbacks or discouragements Felix continues to work in the Hole. More and more people are coming together to glorify God every week, who not only builds a bridge over water, but in their lives for a cleaner life and salvation. God gives the strength to resist drugs and gives the love to care for each other.

Despite the storms, God continues to rebuild lives.

"And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint."

~Galatians 6:9

The bridge in the Hole will get built again, but more importantly lives of the people who live there will continue to be touched and offered help during the storms that come in the flood plain of life.

Thank you for being part of all this, for your partnership and encouragments.