This is a picture of some of the Water Mission's "Living Water Treatment Systems" being unloaded. Some of the systems are already up and running. Please continue to pray for God's strength for the team that is down there. Please also pray that all the logistical details are taken care of -- transportation, fuel, supplies, etc.
Below is the account from Elsa. She and her husband are U.S. citizens and just moved down to Haiti a few months ago to be the project coordinators for Water Missions. They were just in Charleston about 4 weeks ago for some meetings and stayed with KC and Cherie.
Elsa story:
>
> This experience was for me the most horrifying ever. As a California
> resident I should be used to earthquakes but the fact that I was in a
> strange country, alone in a solid cement house changed any quake training I
> had.
>
> On Tuesday January 12th at about 5pm I had just come out of the shower and
> was still in my under clothes when very suddenly it felt like someone had
> given the house a major kick and it started to violently shake in all
> directions. I was in our bedroom on the second floor of the house and had
> time only to crab the door handle and stay glued to the closed door in the
> bedroom. The violent shaking went on for what seemed to be an eternity and
> it really was about 25 seconds as the experts say. As the shaking started to
> calm down I ran to the bed, put on my pajama, rushed out the bedroom and
> headed down the stairs to the front door. As I came down the stairs I
> noticed the bottom floor was full of dust and smoke, I didn’t look around,
> just opened the front and got out to the front gate where my neighbors were
> screaming at me to get away from the house. They tried to open the gate so I
> could get out but it was locked and the house key was needed to unlock it.
> This key was inside the front door still in the door lock that was ripped
> from the metal door and laid on the floor. As I rushed back for the key I
> saw the house for the first time and I was petrified with what I saw but I
> got the key. My neighbors tried to open the lock but it was damaged and
> stuck. One of my neighbors who is a big man called 3 other big men and they
> ripped the iron gate open to get me out. I stayed on the street for a few
> moments just trying to compose myself and think what was next on the To Do
> list. As I came to myself I started checking on the neighbors and they were
> all ok except the house #7 where painful screams were coming from. The men
> around ran there to see what had happened and came back with three wounded
> people and started talking very frantically after which everyone was crying
> and praying. I was able to locate one of my neighbors who is the only one
> speaking English and he explained that two small children were killed under
> house #7 as it completely collapsed. They were a boy and girl between 3 and
> 6 years of age. All my neighbors were desperately using their cell phones to
> contact family members that were not at home yet and some of them were
> unable to do so. I tried also to reach Julio and after about 30 minutes of
> desperate trying I was able to connect to him and I asked him if he was well
> and he said yes. I told him that we just had a major earthquake in PaP and I
> lost contact. I was never able to reach him again until the next day at
> about 3pm when he arrived.
>
> Back in my neighborhood everyone started to calm down but there was a lot of
> crying still going on. The neighbors who’s house were damaged but not so
> dangerous, started to bring chairs, blankets, cardboard and food out to a
> wide open area in front of the houses and we all settled there in
> preparation to spend the night. I was unable to even go near the house and
> every time I got close to the gate the neighbors would yell at me “NO”. They
> gave me a chair, 2 blankets, food and water and I felt so comfortable with
> them even though inside I was in pain because I knew Julio was on the way to
> PaP and I did not know what would happen to him and our staff as they got
> into PaP because the aftershocks were constant. I spent the night on a chair
> praying and testing my cell phone for connection to anyone. I tried Julio,
> my parents and George and Pat at our organization in the US because I knew
> they would learn about this disaster immediately and be very worried about
> us. As I set outside all night without sleep I was trying to find a way to
> get into the damaged house to get my purse where I had all my documents
> including my passport. It was a horrible night. The next morning at about
> 5:30am all the neighbors started to wake-up and as we were talking and
> expressing our concerns I mentioned that my major concern was accessing my
> purse inside the house. Immediately my neighbor said he would do it so him
> and another neighbor went into the house and got not only my purse but 3
> laptop computers. I was so thankful for their willingness to endanger their
> lives to help me.
>
> All day, Wednesday I continued to stay outside with all the neighbors trying
> to contact Julio without success until about 3pm when I saw our vehicle
> drive into the gate of the village where we were. In the vehicle were Julio,
> Louis and Aristil. We ran to each other as if we had been away forever.
>
>
>
> After assessing the house conditions, we went to find a room at the only
> functioning hotel nearby and stayed there for the night. The next morning,
> Thursday, Julio and went to the house to try and get some items out and our
> driver took me to the US Embassy to try and send messages home to our
> families and to our US office. After talking to the lady at the embassy, she
> did not want me to leave the embassy anymore because they had instructions
> to evacuate every American citizen that came in immediately. She explained
> that in this country during disasters, American citizens are not safe. I
> told her I would not stay because I had to go get my husband, she tried hard
> to keep me but I said I would come back later, I filled out the necessary
> documents and left. I got back to the house and told Julio what the embassy
> was saying. Although Julio was very unhappy with the news, we packed our few
> belongs and headed to the US embassy. We spent the rest of Thursday at the
> embassy grounds and at about 2am Friday morning they loaded about 30 of us
> into black Chevy Suburbans and drove us directly to the tarmac at the
> airport where there were at least 6 very large military planes unloading
> aid. The US embassy officials started guiding the people to the waiting
> planes but due to a miss count the 7 people on our vehicle were unable to
> get on a plane so the officials told us to wait in the vehicle for a while.
> About 20 minutes later they came back and took 5 people leaving Julio and I
> back because there was no more room. We were than taken back to the US
> Embassy and were told we would be taken first to the next plane in the
> morning. This was at about 4am Friday. At about 10am they came again with
> vehicles and loaded us plus another 50 people and we again drove to the
> airport. While we were in line to get on the military plane, Julio kept
> trying to connect to Pat with his local cell phone and after many tries he
> was able to finally talk to Pat. After explaining the situation we were in,
> Pat said he was about to get on a plane to come here and we decided to stay
> and wait for Pat. Julio and I were very happy and relieved because we now
> could send a message to our family and WMI family to confirm we were alive
> and well protected by Jesus blood.
>
> As frightening as this experience was for both of us, somehow we had some
> peace in us and it could only come from God’s protection. As I stood glued
> to my bedroom door unable to move during the earthquake, my only prayer was
> that Jesus blood would cover me, Julio and our staff and keep us alive and
> well.
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