The Cutting Edge of Faith

All did not go according to plan when our guys arrived at the camp with the first truckload of tarps the first afternoon. Apparently the person who was keeping the list of the families on the hill was not there to meet them, as had been the plan. Not good. So basically what we had was a truck full of tarps surrounded by scores of people desperate to make sure they got theirs. It didn't take long, the guys said, before people started pushing through the crowd toward the truck. I guess the tempers heated up as people started yelling at each other and throwing things, which, of course, made our guys nervous.

Plan A was out the window, which, in Haiti is not that much of a surprise. Survival and success in Haiti is so dependent on adaptability and flexibility. Seasoned missionaries in Haiti are not surprised when plan A fails. And plans B and C. The guys did the smart thing. They high-tailed it back to the house for the evening where they worked on contingency plans for getting the tarps out to the people who needed them.

What they ended up doing the next day was to connect with a few of the church pastors in that area. If anyone has a pulse on their community, its the Haitian pastors.

What ended up working, then, was to distribute the tarps through the existing structure and framework of tiny local churches of that area. Pretty obvious, in hindsight, that churches would be the best way to do it. To be sure, this method would not be as glamourous and sexy as handing them out one-by-one right in the middle of tent city. But the job got done and Haiti is bluer and drier as a result.

I wish I could have been there last week, frayed nerves and contingency plans notwithstanding. For three days our tarp hander-outers (Freddie, Joel, and Steve) lived large. Sweating and hearts racing, they ventured to the cutting edge of faith in God.

The cutting edge of faith... that's where I want to live.

Of Tarps and Donkeys

This first picture shows a crowd of homeless tent dwellers waiting when the tarps arrived. In the second photo they are thanking God for their couple of tarps. Thanking God.

Dear friends, I am so thankful for your many kind kudos, but please understand, God did this. It sort of reminds me of what Mother Theresa said to someone one time when they had said something nice about her. "Do you think," she said, "when Jesus rode the donkey through the cheering crowds of Jerusalem that the donkey thought it was about him?"

I'm just a donkey, carrying Jesus.

Tarps Pictures

Hey all. Sorry for the delay, but I've been waiting for pics to show you and I just got my first ones tonight. I will, over the next few days tell you how it all went down (some interesting stories), but for now just know that the tarps are there and 500 families are a bit better off.

This first pic shows the first installment arriving near the tent city on the hill. Very soon I'll write about what happened right after this picture was taken. Crazy!

Blessings on you all

Steve

The Tarps are now covering homes in Haiti

I heard from Haiti tonight: All 1,000 tarps have been distributed! Not without some ruckus here and there, but they're out, nonetheless, and I nominate "tarp blue" as the next Crayola color. I hope to get pictures to post tomorrow or Saturday at the latest.

On a Hill Far Away

My mind wandered a lot from my work yesterday, wondering how it was going on a hill far away. In my mind's eye that Haitian hillside, speckled with the faded colors of bedsheets and t-shirts, faded from a couple of months of night-time drenchings and mid-day scorchings is starting to turn tarp-blue. Not aqua. Not indigo. Tarp.

I kept my cell phone on me while seeing my patients all day yesterday, something I rarely do. I was hoping to hear from that hill, where Jesus is working today. Hoping, but not really expecting to hear. The hill is, after all, very far away.

The bluer the hill becomes, the more comfortable the people will be, the better they'll sleep, the healthier they might stay. They will never know, my friends, who gave twenty bucks to make their life more tolerable. They'll not know what you look like or what your life is like. They have no idea about blogs or Facebook or checkbooks. All they know is that they stayed dry from the rain last night and so life might just be better today.

I stopped by my church to pray for a few minutes last night after work. A friend of mine was also there, doing the same thing. When we shook hands a $20 check (memo: "Haiti tarps") found its way into my palm. "Thanks, Jim," I said. "That just made a really big difference for somebody."

My little 8-day fundraising campaign was supposed to have ended a week ago, but there has been an inertia effect: an unexpected overflow (AFTER the deletion of the "donate" button) has come in... to the tune of $1,120 which has brought us to over $12,000. I am hoping to hear today. If I do, I'll tell them to buy as much food and supplies as the extra $1,120 will buy. If I don't hear, I'll be disappointed but not really surprised because I know it's a remote place.

Seems Jesus does amazing things on far away hills.

Tarp Project Update

As I type, two men are boarding a plane in Miami, heading to Haiti to give a couple tarps to each of 500 families who slept in the rain last night. This week they will finally have a little shelter. Ugly. Temporary. But shelter nonetheless. I hope to post updates. Hopefully they can get word out on how things are going. They will take pictures and video.

Lord, forgive me, for I am jealous.

Tarp Project Update

Tarp Project Update

Total received: $10,997

Thank you all for the amazing response to this desperate need. I have removed the "donate" button from this page. I will post pictures and updates as I get them. In the meantime, I have caught up enough to be able to write again I think. So much to say.

Thanks for the continued interest. More to follow....

Steve

Tent City

This is just one of many short video shots I took a few weeks ago. Don't send money, you've already come through in a big way in that regard. I just wanted you to know what you gave to.

Steve

Tarp Project Update

The tarps are in a holding area at the airport in Port-au-Prince, awaiting our pick up. Received so far:$10,727. I'll keep posting updates....

Tarp Project Status

Received so far: $10,487. This afternoon your 1000 tarps were loaded on a cargo plane in Fort Pierce, Florida and will be flown in to Port-au-Prince tomorrow morning. From there they will be transferred to a secure holding area where we will pick them up next Tuesday morning and move them "into position" to make a big (wet-to-dry) difference for 500 families.

Raw and Uncut

If you want to know why I'm doing what I'm doing, watch this.

[Watch video]

One Week Ago to the Minute

One week ago to the minute I shared my heart with those who might listen. I shared of a simple notion to scrounge up enough money to buy a bunch a tarps and haul them down to a little hillside in Haiti. Residing there is a settlement of people who are living in makeshift homes made of sticks and t-shirts, unable to get out of the rain when it comes.

One week ago to the minute I hit the "publish post" button on my blogger, wondering what the response might be. Hoping, yet you never know...

Today, exactly one week to the minute after I hit "publish post" I have just added up the sum total of your response and am amazed...

Received so far: $9,947. Within the span of exactly one week, we have provided for the shelter of 497 families.

Solomon was right... a cord of three strands is not easily broken. Your partnership in this little, yet significant cause has confirmed to me what I have long held to be true: that God has planted deep inside us all an ache... a yearning to make a difference, to matter. Friends, this day, you have mattered, and I praise God for you.

We have purchased 1000 tarps. They are in our possession and as I write are on a truck barreling down through Florida on their way to an awaiting cargo plane. In just over one week, the first of 500 little water-drenched homes will be dry for the first time.

Tarp Project Status

Received so far: $8657... enough for 432 families. Two days to go, then we begin the process of delivering.

You're all amazing.

Tarp Project Status

Received so far: $8067. So far, 403 families will be dry.

Tarp Project Status

Exactly $1000 came in today. Received so far... $6467 with three days to go.

Tarp Project Status

Received so far: $5467... enough so far to keep 273 families dry! I am so grateful for the overwhelming response... in just 4 days.

OK folks, here's where I am. Very quickly I must move this from the fundraising stage to implementation. If you are going to give, please do so quickly. In fact, let's make next Tuesday, March 16th the last day to collect funds.

I am humbled and amazed...

Tarp Project Status

I am gratified by the response of friends, friends-of-friends, and friends-of-friends-of-friends.

Received so far: $3601

Tarp Project Status

A quick update....

I have arranged for online donations. See upper right of this page.

Next Thursday, March 18th we will take as many tarps as our 10 day fundraising can afford down to Fort Pierce, Florida, where over the next two days they will be transported by cargo plane to a holding area at the Port-au-Prince airport. Early the next week (two weeks from right now) these tarps will be distributed and will, in their humble but effective way, improve the lives of a couple thousand displaced people, living on a hillside in Haiti. Keep giving... your gifts will translate almost immediately into dryer shelter for these people. Thanks.

Steve

Received so far: $2,210

Dry Would be Good

[Video added March 10th]

Tonight's post is different. I desperately do not want to lose my reader, therefore tonight I will not wax philosophical. I'll get right to my point.

I have just returned from the most heart-wrenching visit to Haiti I've ever had (including my visit in the immediate post-quake days). On the top and side of a hill, across the valley from the Haitian home where I stayed these past few days, was a small "tent city," a refugee camp of hundreds of families whose homes were destroyed in Haiti's earthquake. Now, most of you know I returned to Haiti mainly to follow up on the field hospital we had started right after the quake. But I could not take my eyes off that group of people, herded like sheep up on the side of that hill.

Neither could I physically stay away. So this past Wednesday I made my way down and then up the side of that hill to find myself among the most pitiful scene I have ever seen... and friends, I've seen a lot over my years of work down there. Perched atop that hill were (and are) the most pitiful, rickety make-shift dwellings you can think of: scraps of whatever people can find (mostly cloth and cardboard) draped over frail stick frames. Not one had a floor covering of plastic or sheet metal or anything; all floors were dirt and rocks. The people were gracious to me, most inviting me right into their "home."

Please indulge me here, for I MUST describe this to you, realizing full well you have may have seen the footage on the nightly news.

Friends, I saw NO food in any of the homes, and I went through a lot of them. "Inside" these tiny homes the ground was soggy from the all-night rain we'd had the night before. Seems bedsheets, lace tablecloths, and cotton dresses don't hold back pouring rain.

I found babies lying on the wet dirt. I do not remember seeing any buckets of drinking water, although there must have been some somewhere. I saw lots of kids, mostly just wandering around, nothing much to do.

I could go on but you get the idea. [ADDENDUM: March 10th at 6:30AM]... I have just posted a video clip on YouTube. Watch it now, then return to finish reading this...

Friends this is detestable to me. This is unacceptable for the human race and, personally, I cannot not respond with with whatever resource God has given me.

The problem of Haiti is way over my head. Her issues are too complex and difficult for my cauliflower of a brain to grasp. What is the answer to getting a million homeless people into permanent shelters, much less homes? I don't know. That's for much smarter people than me to figure out.

What I do know is that the really rainy season is just weeks away. That if these people cannot stay dry, many of them will die, and that it is wrong to die all because you can't stay dry.

What I do know is that I must do my part to help these few precious Haitians, loved and valued by God. And that there are longer-term solutions than what I have, and I'll make my mistakes along the way, but I'll go down in flames trying...

To my point....

Prefab tents will not work in this particular encampment. Most of it is on un-level ground, parts of it right on the side of the hill. After much consideration, research, and planning, I have a plan to provide two tarps to each family on that hill. I know tarps are not glamourous. They are ugly. But they are adaptable and configurable to the uneven terrain and irregular dimensions of their living space. They can cover the ground and keep food dry. Tarps are NOT a long term solution, but friends they are cheap and will keep people dry and I can get them there quickly.

I have set the gears into motion to purchase and deliver tarps, thousands of them, to this hillside. We have been quoted good prices on tarps, and our delivery and distribution methods are set. And we can pull it off within a couple of weeks.

It will cost us 20 dollars to keep a tent-home dry. This covers the costs of purchasing two tarps, shipping and distribution right to that hillside.

Please help me. Part of what I'll do is establish an online payment set-up, but it will be several days to get the banking stuff all approved and lined up. But the clock is ticking on these people. So in the meantime, and if you'll trust me with the money, you can send it to me in the mail or even deliver it to my office. Now I am fully aware that most of you reading this don't know who the Sam Hill I am and I won't blame you if you wanted to go other directions with your charity. But if it would help you can read back through my blog, or you can even visit my practice website to check out that I'm not a wacko or a shyster. All I ask is that if you give, do so quickly.

Send to:

Steve Edmondson

107 North Bridge Street

Saranac, Michigan 48881

[March 10 addendum: or DONATE ONLINE (see upper right)

Finally, if you wouldn't mind, would you send links to this blog and to the Youtube video to people you think might respond? Its the best way I know of of pulling this off quickly.

I will post daily updates (below) on the response to this plea.

Thanks everybody.

Steve

PS Not to be presumptuous... but if response is great, and we get enough tarps, we'll stay on focus at this encampment, getting them other basic stuff, like buckets and mosquito nets. And food... food would be good.

Project Diary / Total Funds Received

March 8 Blog posted

March 9 Total received $40

March 10 YouTube video posted

March 10 Total received $2,210

March 10 ONLINE DONATION now available (upper right)

March 11 Total received $3601

March 12 Total received $5467 (273 families)

March 13 Total received $6467 (323 families)

Refugee Desperation

Click on the picture and study it. In the distance you can see a small refugee camp built on the side of a hill. Their homes are made of cloth scraps composed of curtains, tablecloths, and clothes... all draped over bush and tree branches. Dirt and rock floors. About 10 ft by 10 ft or so.

I hope tomorrow to have posted a video of my time in this makeshift village. It is heartwrenching and once it's up I am going to ask you to do me a favor and get as many people as you can contact to view it as soon as possible. These people need our help and they need it yesterday.

Jesus Knows...

My entry today will be brief, as I am battling a bug I must have picked up in Haiti. In Mexico they refer to it as "Montezuma's Revenge." Down here it is called "Haitian Happiness". What a misnomer! For I am none too happy about this.

A few days ago (exactly seven weeks post-earthquake) I walked up on the disturbing sight and stench of a newly-discovered body dug from the rubble. I know this picture is disturbing, but I felt it was discrete enough to show here. [SEE ADDENDUM BELOW]. Dear friends, this mound of rotting flesh was once a living, breathing human being... with a spouse and children, perhaps. And for sure precious in the sight of God. The way I look at it, pictures like this might keep our hearts tender toward the (continued) repulsiveness of what is going on here.

Writing this just now has reminded me of an old hymn sung in the church I grew up in. It went like this:

Jesus knows all about our sorrow.

He will guide 'til the day is done.

There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus

No not one. No not one!

Health permitting, tomorrow sometime I hope to post a significant blog and video link regarding a refugee camp I spent some time in this week.

Keep praying for Haiti. (And you can throw one in for me if you want).

Steve

March 9 ADDENDUM

I have decided to remove the picture I initially posted with this blog. I guess it is really unnecessary that I show it. In a way, my posting it just prolongs the anguish. May this precious person rest in peace.

Jonas

I am currently in Fort Lauderdale, enroute home from Haiti and itching to start posting again. Not surprisingly, I have not had phone nor internet access so I'm anxious to pick up where I left off. My time in Haiti this time was very productive, but in different ways than when we were here at the field hospital. The pictures here were taken when we arrived on the island of LaGonave. Every time I come to LaGonave, Jonas is there with his broad smile, Haitian flag, and a hug. I was only on LaGonave for about 18 hours, having meetings with the schoolmaster of a primary/secondary school as well as the hospital administrator of the hospital in the same village of Anse-a-Galet. I was also able to swing by an orphanage not too far from there. The next day I returned to Port-au-Prince where I was given a tour of the parts of the city that were particularly hard-hit by the earthquake. The next day I traveled to Petit Goave to visit the field hospital that we had recently set up. Yesterday I was able to spend some time in a refugee camp that was visible from the Haitian home where I stayed while there.

I noticed a big difference in Haiti this trip (as compared to right after the quake). The media is gone. And, although there are a lot of relief agencies and work teams here right now, I just know that world attention shifting away to other things. Problem is, Haiti's humanitarian crisis is far from over. Hunger and lack of shelter will claim many lives over the next half year.

I will be sharing with you very soon about some ideas I have about helping the refugee camp I visited (around 200 families, I estimate). There are probably thousands of similar camps in Haiti right now ("tent cities" they are called here). And, of course, I can't do anything about that... but I figure I can help this one. Stay tuned... I think we just might be able to do something very cool.

It will be good to get home.

Steve