Haiti Trip

Well, it seems the Lord worked everything out. My friend (Shane) and I will leave tomorrow for a layover in New Jersey. Wednesday morning we will leave for the Dominican Republic. We are truly excited to be sent off by true and godly praying churches. Oh what a joy it is to go forth in God's service with praying warriors behind us!
Sorry if I didn't get a chance to talk with some of you, but it has been a crazy hectic couple of days. I am very tired, so I won't go into any details. Just to give you a taste of what is going on I copied an email below. In my heart and mind I can hear the cries of my brothers and sisters in Christ and I am eager to go help them. Please pray for their safety. Pray their physical, psychological, and spiritual needs will be met. Indeed please pray the same for Shane and me.


Dear Friends,



Felix and I are on our way to the border town of Jimaní. There is chaos in Haiti, so we have heard that the airport now was taken over by the Americans to control it. They are not allowing commercial flights.



Yuniel, the Cuban Pastor who was in Haiti during the earthquake, decided to come across the border illegally because of the unstable condition in the country. Thousands of dead bodies, aftershocks every 20 minutes, etc.



I heard the first assessment report from the team that arrived from Port Au Prince, Haiti, and they have inform us that what we see in the news is 10% of the reality of Haiti. Two team members were inside Port Prince two days trying to contact the Pastors and churches and sadly this is the report: Around 70 Baptist Pastors died when their buildings collapsed. They were working with Guillomettre Herode from Missions Door and the Haitian Baptist Convention.



Also the biggest Baptist Church in Haiti who had around 500 people in the moment of the Earthquake, has around 400 dead.



We just got a phone call from our friend Victor Hugo Arias, who works with World Vision and spent the day there has informed us that the situation is bad, 75% of the important buildings are destroyed and there are dead bodies lying everywhere.



Please Pray that we get permission to enter the country because they are only allowing relief organizations.



Blessings,



Joaquin Vargas