March 5, 2010 – 6:57pm – Friday – Bon Repos (Ruuska Village), Haiti- Report submitted by Joe Hurston (Air Mobile Joe )

Cindy and I headed out to the Leogane region early this morning. Our first stop was the little village of Nepli. Cindy came to this village 25 years ago. As we drove thru Nepli, people came running yelling, “Cindy Cindy”. There were a dozen tearful reunions. Cindy met children of the “children” that she taught and ministered to 25 years ago. It was great! 

Then we worked our way to N.E.W. Missions. The beautiful compound suffered some damage. Now, the U.S. Marines have set up a full base of operations there. It was cool meeting all these young, brave Americans. 

Once in the mission, Cindy found her dearest friend, Martha. They were both young when Cindy first came and Martha taught Cindy Creole and so much about the Haitian people. It was wonderful watching these two carry on and reminisce. 

From N.E.W. Missions we headed back into Gressier to find Pastor Salnave Desarmes. We have known Pastor Salnave for 25 years also. He has built a wonderful mission with a school / Church and clinic-lab. The entire compound was completely flattened. Every building was totally destroyed. There was not one fatality! Just 2.5 hours before the earthquake, there were over 600 children / staff in the main building. The fatalities would have been tragic….hundreds would have lost their lives. PRAISE GOD for His mercy! The mission needs clean water! We donated 2 units / one for the mission and the other one for a remote region further west of the mission. These units were funded 5th Grade Students from Illinois. 

We just arrived back at the “Village” to hot, home-made pizza. The team working on the reconstruction made good progress today. Better close out for the evening.

It was a very good day!

Air Mobile Joe