Weathering the Storm

We have been promising to get some posts up once we have some internet, so since the internet is working for the moment, I will see if I can get a post up about our experience :)

First of all, we decided that the waiting for a hurricane’s arrival is as exhausting and stressful as experiencing it... it felt like we prepared and waited for a very long time before the Hurricane actually arrived.

On the evening of Monday, October 3, our friends and neighbors Heather Christensen and her four children; Ian, Erik, Joey, and Ellie decided to come to stay with us in our home because we have a concrete roof and they have a metal roof on their house. Heather’s husband, Sean, was half-way around the world in Thailand for some work with their missions organization. Heather had hoped to weather the storm in their own home, but with numerous people asking her to find a safer place, she decided to head our way to ease the minds of others. The following picture was taken of them as they arrived at our home that evening.

Throughout the evening the kids played board games and video games to pass the time.

We filled buckets and water jugs, just in case we needed them and we all kept a close eye on the radar of the approaching storm.

We enjoyed the luxury of electric and internet until we all headed to bed later in the evening. Before going to bed, it had started raining and we would hear bands of wind picking up, but most of us slept for the first portion of the night. Starting at about 1am, the winds and rain really started to pick up and we slept more fitfully, but there wasn’t a whole lot of movement around the house until between 4 and 5am. At that point, I (Tina) walked out of our bedroom to check on the rest of the house. We could hardly hear one another talking without yelling. The roar of the storm outside was tremendous. Heather and her children were all laying quietly in their makeshift beds in our living room, although I soon learned that they weren’t sleeping, either. I walked back into Nathan and Isaac’s room where both boys were sleeping, even though the rain was soaking their beds. I woke them and we started moving their beds away from walls and windows and moved their mattresses into our bedroom where it was drier.

When we walked into Daniel and Josiah’s room, it was obvious that these two had been up for awhile... they had towels stuffed into all of their window louvres, there was a broom sitting in the corner with a rag draped over it and their beds were pulled into the middle of the room. Both boys were in their beds, but Daniel had himself wrapped in a plastic rain poncho to try to stay dry. After they had stuffed their windows with towels, they realized that they were still getting wet, so they turned on a flashlight and realized that it was “raining” from their ceiling. At that point, they went to the hall closet to get a broom and rag which they used to “mop” the ceiling. This only solved the problem briefly. So, we moved their mattresses into our room, as well, and our night of sleep was over.

By this time, everyone in the house was up and about trying to peek out the windows to see the damage that had occurred as the sun began to peek through. We could see trees down everywhere and soon realized that the back portion of the concrete and metal wall between us and our neighbor had come crashing down along with some of the trees. The next couple of hours were passed by listening to the storm, peeking through the windows, and the kids started to play some more board games by lantern light, since there was no longer any electric, internet, or water.

There was a lot of time spent looking out the windows to watch what the wind and rain continued to do around us.

The kids even got a little creative and made a green, glowing eyeball out of an old lightbulb before the rain and wind started to subside and we ventured out to take a closer look at the damages. We will save those pictures for the next post.

Prayers Needed, please…

The end of this week brought us a number of things to pray for and we are asking for you to join us in prayer for some very precious peope in our lives...

On Thursday morning, Vonel, one of RMI’s mechanics was in a motorcycle accident while doing some work for RMI. From what we have been told, there was a man carrying a plank on the road ahead of Vonel and when he heard Vonel’s motorcycle approaching, he turned to see what was coming behind him. As he did this, it did not occur to him that the plank would follow his turn. Although, Vonel was able to swerve and miss hitting the plank completely, it caught and broke his upper arm. Amazingly, in spite of the pain in his arm, Vonel was able to steer his cycle with his one good arm and come to a safe stop without hurting himself or anyone else. That is a praise. Last that we heard, Vonel was at the hospital and was likely waiting for surgery on Monday when American orthopedic surgeons will be available. In addition to this crisis in Vonel’s life, his home was badly damaged, or destroyed in the hurricane and requires a lot of work. His father has also been sick and fell down the hill by his house the night before Vonel’s accident and had moved to Vonel's house for more help.

Then, Thursday afternoon, our housekeeper, Emilye, shared that her mother’s health is declining in addition to the loss of her home which is in an area that was much harder hit by the hurricane than we were here in Les Cayes. Emilye had planned to leave Friday morning to visit her mother, however, while she was at church Thursday evening her seven year old daughter, Mikensia, was playing with a small kerosene lamp at home. Unfortunately, Mikensia’s clothes caught fire and she was rushed to the hospital with second degree burns to her left arm, side, abdomen, pelvic area, and upper left leg. Needless to say, Emilye’s trip to see her mother has been put on hold until Mikensia is doing better. It appears that she will be hospitalized for a while.

Late Friday afternoon, we then recieved a call from one of our teammates, Laura Sutton, to let us know that she had just received word that her 91 year old mother was admitted to ICU following two heart events that day. Therefore, Laura and her husband, Joel, will be leaving to spend time with her family in PA on Monday morning.

Please lift all of these individuals in prayer. Pray for complete healing for Vonel and for wisdom for the doctors as they care for his arm. Pray against infection for little Mikensia as she has a long road of recovery ahead of her and her family. Pray for strength for Emilye and her five other children as they care for her. Pray, as well, for Joel and Laura as they prepare and travel this weekend to spend time with her Mom. Pray for wisdom for her mother's doctors as they continue to care for her. In addition to all of this, continue to pray for the needs of the Haitian communities around us.

No words can begin to express our appreciation of each and every one of you as you pray for us, support us, and support the community in which we live.

We also realize that you are all anxious to see some of the pictures and stories that we have from our experiences over the last month. We plan to get them out to you as soon as we have a reliable enough connection to the internet. Thank you for your patience and support as we try to keep you updated.

Nou La! (We’re Here!)

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for your prayers over these past two weeks. It has been an exhausting time in our lives, for sure, but we are so thankful for God’s provision of strength, protection, and fellowship. It is because of the incredible people that God has surrounded us with that we are able to keep smiles on our faces and are reminded that God has this difficult situation.

We weathered the storm well, in light of the circumstances. Another missionary family joined us in our home for the storm, since their roof was made of metal and not concrete. This proved to be a good decision for them because most of their roof was ripped away during the storm; they are still assessing the damages to their belongings. Fortunately, there is another home on the center that was empty, so they have moved in there for the time being, until repairs can be made to their home. There are several missionary families in our community that are experiencing the same types of damages to their homes in differing degrees.

It took four to five days to get running water operating at the mission center, but now we all have water in our homes again, which is a huge help to all of us. Yesterday (Saturday, October 15), crews were able to get electric back up and running for the center, as well. Although we lost our inverter during the hurricane, so we will not have power all the time, some is better than none. The boys said last night that they feel like we are now living like kings and queens. Since electric is back up now, work can resume on repairing the internet.

Wednesday was the first day back to school for the children of Cite Lumiere Christian school. We felt it was necessary to try to get some routine and normalcy back into our lives, whether we all felt ready for it, or not. That proved to be a good decision for us all, and we were overjoyed to see that all of our students; Haitian, American, and German were able to return.

Everyone has been very busy with different aspects of the clean up here on the mission center and the surrounding communities over the past two weeks.

We have had anywhere from 2-4 young men (our cook and housekeeper’s sons), along with Lee, the boys, and some of our teammates working on our yard almost everyday since the storm, to try to get some of the mess cleaned up there. Yes, there was that much damage and that much mess. We lost about a dozen trees and that doesn’t count the trees that came over the wall from the neighbors’ yards. Our house help and their families have been an incredible help to get life back together here at the house. We feel like we are finally able to enjoy our yard again. It looks a world different than it did the day after the storm. There are still some trees that need to be tended to, but the worst of the clean-up is complete.

This week, RMI staff also started to evaluate the needs in the communities and churches in which we work. Our partnership facilitators have been traveling out to churches and meeting with pastors all week to see where the greatest needs are. As I have seen a few of the reports, it looks like the situation is extremely difficult in many of the areas in which we serve. Most crops are completely lost and many have lost their livestock, as well. Many homes are at least damaged, if not completely destroyed. You can imagine that with the condition of homes and the loss of crops and livestock, the issue of hunger is huge here. Everywhere we go, people are asking for food and water. The needs are great, and continue to get worse the further west that you go.

Since the storm, Lee and the boys did a tremendous amount of tree trimming and cutting, burning brush, repairing water lines, assessing the needs with the internet system, and numerous other projects. One project that Daniel and our team member, Joel Sutton, had was to construct a cage for a four to five foot pet iguana whose cage was destroyed during the hurricane. After the hurricane, he was moved into a bathroom for about a week, so that he wouldn’t escape into the community and cause more fear and commotion. He is now happily enjoying a new temporary home.

Throughout the days immediately following the hurricane, we were feeding between 11 and 25 people at our home everyday. With limited supplies and food resources, it proved to be a challenge some days, but God provided tremendously for all of us over that time. They may not have been categorized as gourmet meals, but there was food to nourish hungry and exhausted bodies. There was also a tremendous amount of clean-up from water and leaves that blew through the windows during the storm, as well as the constant stream of mud and debris that we were dragging in and out all day, every day. Now, we feel like we have a handle on many of those things, and it is a matter of sorting through and getting life back together.

We continue to be amazed at the resilience of the Haitian people. The faith and trust in Christ in the Christian community is amazing. We are encouraged by them every day and are constantly reminded of how difficult their lives are from day to day. If this past week has done nothing else for us, it has been a constant reminder to me (Tina) that I have nothing to complain about... those days when we had no running water and the heat was rising after the storm, I longed for a cold shower... and then I would be reminded that 90% of the people who live around us, live like that every single day of their lives... no running water, no electric, and no internet... that really puts things in perspective.

A number of you have asked how you can be of help during this time of difficulty, both to the Haitian community and to our family. If you want to help the Haitian people in this great time of need, please see RMI’s website for ways that you can help financially to provide food, clean water, and/or shelter to the Haitian people. Some of you have asked how you can bless our family with care packages. We appreciate your thoughts in this regard, as well. Some items that we have depleted are: our supplies of are paper supplies (plates, cups, plastic ware), granola bars, canned meats, drink mixes (individual or canisters, such as Gatorade, Kool-Aid, Lemonade, Tea, etc.), Ramen Noodles, seasoning packets (salad dressing, marinade mixes, etc.), and other quick and easy snacks and meal ideas. Just please keep in mind, if you are sending a care package, that we need to pay between $2.50 and $3.00 per pound for the packages that are sent to us, until the customs and flight expenses are paid. If you would prefer to help financially, that would be greatly appreciated as well. We were blessed to be able to acquire a generator for around $1,000, thanks to Agape Flights, and we will will need to purchase a new inverter (approximately $1800). In addition, we have used a tremendous amount of gas and supplies during these last few weeks.

Other items that we recently realized that we could use, are DVDs, books, and/or CDs for us to use for Bible studies/church services when we don’t get out for Sunday services. These do not need to be new, but we would be happy to use items that you have already used and found beneficial for you and your family. We often watch and or study sermons or series that are available to us online, but these last couple of weeks with no internet have made us aware that we don’t have a lot in the house that we have not already seen or studied. There are still a few things that we can use, but some other materials would be helpful in the future.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support over the past few weeks, starting even before the storm. No words can begin to express our appreciation to all of you. When we get the internet back up and working again, we will do our best to get the pictures of the last couple of weeks out to you through our blog posts.

In the Lord’s service with you,

Lee, Tina, Daniel, Josiah, Nathan, and Isaac Nunemaker

Preparations for Hurricane Matthew

As you have most likely heard already, we are bracing for Hurricane Matthew. We have spent the last two days moving things inside or to safer buildings, helping fellow missionaries board up their houses, cleaning roofs off, and storing up water so that we are prepared for whatever might happen over the coming days. We have also spent some time checking on our Haitian brothers and sisters to make sure that they have adequately prepared their homes and families for the days ahead.

It is always interesting to me, how God prepares even the animals for the weather to come. This morning, I was going out to put my hummingbird feeder away, for safe keeping, when I realized that there were five bananaquits eating from it at the same time. I have never seen that many birds at our feeders, at one time. The best picture that I could get was of three of them (yesterday was the first that I was able to get any decent pictures of a bananaquit at it, and I have been trying since we arrived here last year). Therefore, I am going to leave the feeder out front until the winds pick up to a point where the birds are no longer coming in. Apparently, they are also storing up for the coming storm.

Tobi became extremely stressed this morning when he saw us removing everything from our back porch and moving it inside. The last time we did that, we left for six weeks and he was not ready to watch us drive out the gate again . . . in fact, when we did head out the gate to help some others in the community with their preparations, he slipped out the gate, as well; trying to ensure that he wouldn’t be left behind. Now, he is keeping watch from the front porch and patroling the gate to make sure that all is well.

This morning our American team met on our back porch to go over our plan of action, in order to finish up our preparations and to pray together for the safety of everyone in our area.

When it really comes down to it, we are all in well protected homes. Yes, the winds will be picking up and the rains that are projected are like nothing that we have ever seen, but we have safeguards that our Haitian neighbors do not. We ask you to please pray for them. RMI is already prepared to help with food and other support to our neighbors and the churches that we work alongside.

School is already cancelled for tomorrow, so that we can all be protected in our homes. It is likely that other offices will also be closed. When the storm passes, we will assess the damages and let you know how you can continue to pray for us, our friends, and ministry partners.

If you don’t hear from us right away, don’t be concerned, because we will likely lose internet over the next few hours and/or days. We will do our best to let you know how we are doing, as soon as we are able. RMI will likely be in touch with us and post updates on Facebook and the website at www.rmibridge.org as soon as they are able to connect with us.

Thank you for your prayers! We feel them, already, and appreciate all of the support that we are receiving from our friends and family around the world.