I'm sure most of us who met the Turnbulls at our Missions' Celebration in 2009 have been concerned about them and the mission in Fermathe.  We received another update On February 25 from the Baptist Haiti Mission there in Fermathe.  Please click the attachment below to open, save or print the update.

A quick update from Jean Angus who is working at the hospital in Fermathe, sent to us by way of Wallace Turnbull!

Dear  Friends,

Thank God, We have addressed he needs of over 4,000 victims and we have addresed over 200 major surgeries at the OR. The first ones have been done by a large team of the Mountain Top Ministries doctors and nurses. They were in Haiti and reported to the hospital less than one hour after the quake. They had supplies and staff. They worked together with our local doctors. In no time, the next day, they were replaced by an important medical team from Samaritan Purse and also with our haytian doctors and staff we have worked non-stop. God helped us to have a non-stop response to the desaster. Human ressources, supplies, fuel, water etc. came from everywhere.We are truly thankful. Mahy other other health facilities and hospitals were hit and became out of order. We had people all over the place: all our 80  beds were taken and the coridors, the floors, the pastors dormitories, the clinic, the prches, the refectoirs and everywhere were filed with people. They wer coming by truck, by vehicle, on shoulders, on motocycles and were carried on shoulders of a friend or a member of their families. It was a real nightmare. But God was there and allowed to address their needs for several days until now. When the US troops arrived, they  started to bring victims from the General Hospital to us. We have been blessed and God gave us strenght and means.

We received plenty of help from several organisations and institutions and friends of the Mission. We have been in constant contact with the BHM Board and Staff in Michigan who have been the transmisssion belt of our needs. Our needs are being addressed miraculously and come from friends, the Mission Institutions and organisations. God has been at work at all time. HE HAS PROVIDED FOR HIS CHILDREN.

In the name of the Haitian people, in the name of the Hospital and in the name of the Mission I would like to express our most sincere gratitude TO ALL FOR THE HELP AND PRAYERS.

In His service,
Jean Angus

Dear Friends,                                                           Lynchburgh, Virginia, January 27, 2010

Many thanks for your Christmas loose change ! The past weeks were first very busy, then hard. Though numbed by Haiti’s catastrophe, we are looking to Christ who endured all. We are grateful that we were called to serve the people of Haiti. Many were quickly swept into eternity. Others remain to bravely trust and praise God.The world marveled when they sang at night as the shaking earth rumbled and all around them was destroyed.

A Haitian geologist among others had warned in September, 2008, that an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale could happen any time. We always tried to build earthquake proof structures. Our hospital held, and was a blessing to many. Hundreds of injured were brought from many directions.  Our two doctors did not sleep for three nights !

Then, Franklin Graham arrived with a medical team and supplies.  They worked very hard with our local help and dozens of patients (some dying) and relatives prayed ‘the sinner’s prayer’. Difficult conditions including lack of transportation obliged burial of a number of deceased patients there in a common grave.

The seven young Haitian students we have here on scholarships in Liberty University had not yet returned from winter vacation when the first of over fifty earthquakes hit their country.   They are now all back, but stressed and saddened by news of dead relatives, ruined church or home, loss of their fimily’s meager income, and their own helplessness. Saturday, we received nineteen Haitian students from Liberty for a meaningful time of hugging, sharing, praying, and Haitian food. Traditional pumpkin soup was the best !

Although Liberty University and our own scholarship program have underwritten costs of tuition, room, board, travel, fees, and partial cost of books (for a student nurse $1,000 per semester), students need help also for personal needs. We are praying that these needs will be met. Please inform anyone wishing to help to designate it  ‘Turnbull / Liberty Scholarship’ and send it to Baptist Haiti Mission,118 Courtland, Rockford, MI 49341. The students most needing help are from different parts of Haiti, with parents in difficulty.

We are called upon at all hours by friends and others wanting to help, for our family news (All are in the States.), news of our activities, the mission, and current efforts. Some need instructions on contacts, how to send helps, offer their skills, etc. We are humbly proud to be American Christians. Our people are caring and generous.

We had reservations before the earthquakes to fly to Haiti on February 16. But the public airlines are not yet serving Haiti, so are praying about how best to do. We still want to fly to Haiti on February 16 as planned. Pray that we’ll be useful.

Sincerely in Christ’s service,

Dear Friends,                                                                   Lynchburg, Virginia, January 16, 2010

This letter is in reply to many inquiries. In the greatest natural disaster in known history of the Americas, little Haiti which is the poorest and most heavily populated country of the hemisphere is victim. She lost in the first of 40 earthquakes over the past four days most of the public structures and national records and treasures in her capital, Port-au-Prince. She lost some 100,000 citizens killed by collapsing structures. Because children go to the cities of Haiti for schooling they cannot find at home, the loss of Haiti’s children is great in this ‘dormitory city ’.

Because of the numbers of students, many schools run two shifts.The first quake hit at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, so there was heavy loss of children. In the Baptist seminary, by a miracle only two died though classes were in session. In similar Catholic institutions, scores were lost, and in the University of Haiti over 600 of Haiti’s future leaders. Haiti is mourning her thousands of little children. Many adults and public figures too were lost.

To prevent continued putrefaction in public of unclaimed bodies which can be recuperated, we are told that people are paid the equivalent of $12.50 for each one delivered to pickup points for mass burial in bulldozed pits. To date, the government has buried 20,000. Many others have been burned or buried privately including a number abandoned in our hospital’s morgue.

Efforts to save some of the people trapped under heavy concrete pieces of buildings without water or food in the 90 degree heat have saved some. The living are grateful that it is not rainy weather. Because the tremors continue, for fear of falling masonry they are sleeping in the open, and they thankfully sing hymns at night. The Catholic churches have been singing traditional evangelical hymns for a few years, so all join together.

Many efforts are pouring aid into Haiti, often Christian aid societies. Because the port facilities and the airport control tower collapsed, it is impractical to gather things to send. Food can be bought in bulk from a warehouse, and bales of clean clothing and bedding imported from the Salvation Army and Goodwill are sold at reasonable prices. It is better to donate to a known charity. We have been asking friends to donate funds to our very overburdened hospital with patients sleeping even on its floors at night.  

For months, we have been praying that the church of Haiti will be upright and a blessing to the nation. The opportunity of this hour to uplift Christ Jesus is the answer. A number of Voodooists have been saved. Many individuals are aware that their sole survival when others around them perished means that God has a use for them.

We are seeking to encourage Haitian students returning to Lynchburg from ‘winter break’ of a month with relatives in American cities. They are conscious that God spared them for Haiti. Pray with us that they will be able to study well for future service.

In Christ’s service,

Wallace and Eleanor Turnbull

From Wallace and Eleanor

January 13, 2010

Dear Friends,                                                                           Lynchburg, Virginia, January 13, 2010

This is a circular to contact as many friends as possible because of questions about the Haiti earthquake. Our ‘phone is quiet very little, making doing anything very difficult. People keep asking us for news which is scanty because our Haiti staff are busy. The quake was in the area of Haiti’s capital. Damage reported on our mission’s headquarters campus at Fermathe is one wall of a building down, and other buildings cracked. Our hospital is overrflowing with injured people.

Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, a city of two million people is a shambles from the strongest earthquake in history, plus many aftershocks. The national palace, Haiti’s great capitol, is smashed, as are its great cathedral, many public offices and monuments. President Preval said that the deaths must be in the thousands. We are beginning to hear of some killed in collapsing buildings - friends of staff, one of our mission drivers Rogene and his brother, two or three Baptist seminary students covered by rubble as their class was in session, foreign volunteers in the Free Methodist compound, and the Catholic archbishop, a classmate of our son Sandy.

One pilot with MAF said that he heard people in the valley below his house singing triumphant  hymns in the night as things shook. The Haitians are a noble people.

Always after such a disaster, there are epidemics. One internet picture looks like the Culligan drinking water plant is badly damaged. An aid group say that they are going to work on the city’s ruptured water mains that never deliver safe water because they are a patchwork system.

We have a source of bulk food supplies, as collecting and packing food is cumbersome and wasteful of resources. Also, one can buy inHaiti bales of clean used clothing imported by wholesalers from Goodwill or the Salvation Army in the USA.The best thing that people can do now it give money and pray. Please designate offerings for Fermathe Hospital, and send to
Baptist Haiti Mission, 118 Courtland, Rockford, MI 49341.

We already had tickets to fly to Port-au-Prince on February 16 so we can visit about, and attend the fiftieth anniversary of our national association of churches. We are praying that before we die, we’ll have Haitian administration of all of the mission’s work. We started in 1946 with barefoot, illiterate farmers, and now we are mentoring their grandchildren in various fields of study in Liberty University. Others are already doctors, pastors, teachers, and technicians !

Our Liberty students are scattered during the winter holidays. Naturally they are concerned about their people. Word so-far about their families has been positive.

We are grateful for friends who have helped and prayed for the mission’s ministries and after other disasters. May this catastrophe be overcome with the same blessings for the country.

In Our Blessed Hope,

From Baptist Haiti Mission

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
Day 45_ The Need Continues.pdf	Update after the earthquake on the continuing ministry to the refugees and survivors.	174 Kb