John's Journey- Update

These are from John's emails.  Thought I would let him tell his story with pics.  He flew out this morning to a new area.  He arrives back in Port-Au-Prince (PAP) by Saturday.  Then we will make arrangements to bring him home! :)


On Monday the 21st and Wednesday the 23rd we went to a remote church south of Cap-Haitian which was turned into a clinic for those days. What is an hour drive and then an hour and a half hike on steep terrain was a 7 minute flight by helicopter. I had the pleasure of assisting my home church (Camano Chapel located on Camano Island, WA) with a medical team on the 21st and then a dental team the 23rd. The first day was full of excitement from locating a suitable landing zone, to flying a woman who needed immediate medical care at a hospital about 25 miles away, to two young boys who accepted Jesus and wanted to be baptized.

January 24-25:  Many gathered to say goodbye when we left. The following day(24th) I went to a small village "Pourrier" to see the work a local pastor (Volner Alexandre) is doing. He started 12years ago with nothing in a village isolated from vehicles because of a river on one side and steep mountains on the other. There is now a school with over a hundred children, a church and soon an orphanage. I was able to tell the children a little bit about helicopters and Samaritan Air.

 

January 25 - Volner and I then flew to his home town "Savanette" and landed literally in his backyard behind the house he grew up in. He wanted to show me some land he would like Samaritan Air to build on and use as a base of operations. They even took time to show me the new well with clean water they had recently completed. Very kind people.

John's Journey- Tuesday Update

Well, John is in the northern region of Haiti now.  It is a more remote area.  He does not have access to internet at all so we will have to wait for pictures of his work.  He will be returning to the capital city of Port-au-Prince on Friday. 

BUT, he was able to call tonight and give me a little update of his work from the past two days.  SOME REALLY NEAT THINGS!!! :)  First, on Sunday he was able to take several trips up the mountain to bring in all the medical supplies the teams would be using over the next few days.  Sunday also served as a great reunion with his youth pastor who is now the missions pastor of his home church in Washington State.  This same man served as our best man at our wedding almost 18 years ago!!!  Enough of memory lane for now.  Back to the NEAT stuff.  On Monday, the medical team began seeing patients.  When the team arrived, there was a lady who was extremely sick and needed to be taken to a nearby town for more extensive medical care.  Because the helicopter was there, John was able to fly her out of the moutains and to the town within 7 minutes.  Praise the Lord that God can use all things we give him.  That same day as they were sharing the gospel of Jesus with the children, two teenage boys were listening nearby.  They told the workers that they wanted Jesus to be the Lord of their lives and prayed to receive Jesus yesterday.  BUT that is not all, no that is not all.  These boys were so excited they wanted to be baptized right then and there!  Their excitement was refreshing and quite exhilerating!  However, there was no water source around to accomodate a baptism! So what did they do?  They jumped in the helicopter, and they flew to a river to be baptized.  PRAISE THE LORD for their commitment to Jesus and for wanting to obey Him IMMEDIATELY!  Because this church medical team had reserved the use of the helicopter for four days, they were able to put it to use for something other than the supplies they originally thought. 

John sounds so happy doing what he loves in Haiti.  He is having a blast being able to use his talents and gifts to serve the people of Haiti and share the love of Jesus practically by making life a little easier.

Stay tuned for more exciting work from Haiti and keep praying!   It also looks as if he will be in Haiti a little longer now.  It is so exciting to see that God has been working to open eyes of different groups in Haiti for the need of a helicopter!

JOHN'S JOURNEY Saturday, January 19, 2013

SATURDAY, January 19, 2013 (UPDATE FROM JOHN)

I went along with another group of men from California and the founder/director of New Life Children's Home (Miriam Fredrick) to visit three other orphanages in the Port-au-Prince area. The first two pictures are of a home where 10 children are living with one nanny raising them. She only knows who one of the children's parents are. Notice there is no roof on the house. We brought them some food and water. We also brought two of the younger children back to New Life to give them proper treatment for illnesses they have. The second set of photos is of the interaction between Miriam and another orphanage nanny asking us to take the two twin girls in pink in the background because they just showed up, and she is already struggling to feed the children she already has. It truly is an understatement to say the need here is great. I fly to Cap-Haitian around 1:00pm Sunday afternoon.

 

John's Journey- Friday, January 18, 2013

Friday, January 18, 2013-  Ahhh, the familiar sites of Haiti.  "The Citadel" brings backs lots of memories with his home church of Camano Chapel in Washington State.  They hiked many times to this landmark in Haiti.  AMAZING view!

Landed safely in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  This is the capital city of Haiti.  John was greeted at the airport by a dear friend of Samaritan Air.  He has arrived at New Life Children's Home in Haiti for the next two days. 

Sunday will be the beginning of his first work assisting two medical teams treating people groups in a remote area of Northern Haiti. 

Below are some pics from the flight so you can join us as we embark on this momentus occasion in Samaritan Air's history!

This is the island of "Isaac"

 These are called "The Ragged Islands"

  ... And the Coast of Haiti!

John's Journey - Haiti, January 2013

Thursday, January 17, 2013- John leaves from Pahokee, FL with the Samaritan Air helicopter.  To say that John is emotionally overwhelmed and a bit of a basketcase this morning would be an understatement.  Today is a big day for so many involved with Samaritan Air through us and all those who have been supporting Samaritan Air over these last several years.  Today Samaritan Air took its flight to begin a full-time ministry to Haiti. 

Landed in Provo just north of Haiti in the evening.  Taking off to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in the morning.

www.samair.org