God says do your part and I'll do mine. (Haitian Proverb)

The Haiti Committee met to discuss ways to help our sister parish, St. Francis Xavier, in Baudin, Haiti. At this stage getting reliable information is frustrating.  Roads to Baudin are still blocked and communications from Fr. Camy, the pastor, are also sporadic. When we last heard, he reported that they are running out of food and have only food from the garden. Our heads know that helping the people of Baudin will be long term. Our hearts want to do something NOW. Prayer helps, but patience and action seem in conflict. Here is what St. Tom’s is doing now.

In Baudin we provided 150 lbs of peanut butter that was on site. John Smith, is in Haiti working to arrange food relief for Baudin. We are working to get an engineer to Baudin to check out the buildings.

Money is needed now. We are sending money to three of our partners in Haiti. Deep Springs International is our new partner in bringing clean water to Baudin. Parish Twinning helps in so many ways, but especially with Matthew 25 guesthouse. This guesthouse is now a field hospital and has so many injured under their care. Finally, we are helping some of our translators, whose lives have been turned upside down this week, including the family of Janvier who died in the quake.

In addition, our dental and medical missions scheduled for this week and early February have been postponed by the airlines. Both trips still plan to go to Haiti, even though they won’t be able to get to Baudin. The need in Port-au-Prince is great and we have the skills to help. The dental trip will go as soon as a flight can be arranged. There is a great need for dental work to restore jaws damaged in the quake. The medical mission will follow as it can. Already others with medical training have offered to go with our usual team. We will carry our own food and shelter so that we don’t add to the burden. Our part is small, we trust in God for the rest.