Reports came this morning that patients are making their way to Port-de-Paix and they are completely  at capacity. We just gave 50 mattresses and other supplies to help with their hospital as all our crew is in Port-au-Prince helping. The hospital in LaPointe is also taking patients and more than likely we will start seeing them here in St. Louis.

Grant and RJ are on their way back from dropping off a group in Cap Haitian. Curtis and Wisley should be following shortly after that.  We had to charter a group of Americans out of there. However the road in Gonaives is covered in people. People are walking out of the broken city walls and trying to find refuge. You can barely make your way through the city and there are no trucks or taxis able to take to the streets there.

The Administrator of Health came by to talk to me today and I conferenced called Janeil. We are looking at opening up our facility as a surgical center for patients within the upcoming weeks if not sooner. We have many things we must work out first. We have to find a dock or an airport that can actually take in supplies. We need lots of  supplies to pull that off. We also have to be able to get food. As people move up north – they’re going to start consuming most of the food that’s available up here and there aren’t trucks bringing anymore right now. Diesel is already 20 USD a gallon. Trucks and tap-tap services will soon have problems moving just from village to village. The prices will rise and again the people will suffer.

I will NOT be buying tickets for anyone until February 1st. If you’ve sent in an application for a february trip or afterwards – I can tell you I will not be able to even look at them for at least another 10 days (our days over here are filling with other distractions). As the displaced population from Port-au-Prince reaches the Northwest, we realize this may bring some complications in transportation and security.  We have not had any issues yet, but we would rather wait and see the effect before bringing more people into this rapidly changing situation.

If we are able to get this facility up and running and can find a way to get in supplies – we will make a call for medical personnel. I promise that call will be placed right on this blog and right on the mission website the moment we are ready. I do not expect for it to be within this next week but when it does happen we will be very specific about what we’re looking for – surgeons, pediatricians, anesthetists, etc. so that we are organized and can run it correctly.

As I’ve said before – this is not a quake that only effects PAP. This effects all of us. We want to be prepared. We have already cut back on our generator hours. We sent the last group home early to not use up our supplies. We have set up command central in my home. It’s actually nice to have all the missionaries here in the living room together trying to encourage each other and fellowship as we go through this difficult time. We are 100% not afraid. We know who we are and we know who we serve and everything else will take care of itself.