I wanted to email all of you and give an update on my trip to Haiti.
I traveled there with four other men and we returned late on Friday. I am physically and emotionally exhausted from everything I experienced there.
The death, destruction and chaos were overwhelming. Although I have been many times to poverty stricken countries and have responded to other natural disasters, I have never experienced anything that can compare to what I saw last week in Haiti. The smell of death was everywhere. I saw bodies being loaded into a dumpster and others loaded into a dump truck. Everywhere I looked there was death and destruction. It was like a war zone. I was prepared for it to be bad, but not that bad.
I witnessed so many children who are now orphaned, many of them badly injured. Other children were wandering the streets in search of food and water. Before the earthquake, Haiti had 380,000 orphans and now there are over one million.
There are currently over 1 ½ million Haitians who are homeless. They are packed into tent cities that stretch for blocks. The living conditions are horrible because of lack of clean water and adequate sanitation. Some people estimate that more lives will be lost through disease than from the earthquake.
I talked to several people who are grieving the loss of family and friends. One man told me that he lost his wife, sister, and a 20 year old son. The man wept uncontrollably as he shared his loss. I immediately thought of Patty and Josh and was able to identify with this grieving man.
There were no places to stay in Port-au-Prince. We camped out in tents under a mango tree in the backyard of our translator’s father. The next morning they experienced an aftershock quake. The ground was rolling beneath us. This was a very frightening experience for us as well as the Haitian people.
The overall situation in Port-au-Prince is terrible but aid is finally getting to the people. World Help 
has already delivered and distributed over $3 million in supplies but we need to send out more. We have $20 million in aid ready to send. We just need the funds to send and distribute.
While in the country, I was able to identify a group of 400 orphans that World Help can help. I am working in the office now developing a plan to raise funds for these children.
I was also made aware of a rebuilding project that World Help can assist with. We can help 300 work crews rebuild several neighborhoods by supplying them with much needed equipment like wheelbarrows, sledgehammers, shovels, boots, hard-hats etc. These tools will allow the Haitians to rebuild more quickly and work with dignity.
All of this, as you can imagine, can be very stressful for me and World Help’s staff. Everyone is busy working on fundraising plans as well as how to best help “on the ground” in Haiti.
I need your prayers for myself, the staff and our fundraising efforts. And most of all, please pray for the Haitian people who desperately need our help. Pray that we are sensitive to God’s leading as we move forward to work through the many details.
Vernon