E-Mail from Kim Bentrott

Just a few minutes ago, Global Ministries posted this e-mail received from Kim Bentrott, medical missionary in Haiti sponsored by Week of Compassion. Although she and Patrick are safe, the news about some parts of the CONASPEH mission there is grim:

LATEST NEWS: January 14, 2010 at 9:44am - E-mail message from Kim Bentrott

Dear India and Felix,

I've been trying since the earthquake to call, but our phone networks are down. Yesterday Patrick and I snuck into our apartment--that miraculously didn't crumble when our apartment building went from three stories to two in one big crunch of the first story. The landlord got out--not sure how... but no one in our apartment complex was seriously injured or killed.

I'm sure you know by now that Patrick, Solomon and I are safe. Patrick and Francoise Villier are safe. The entire Tennessee group miraculously is safe. Had they been on time for dinner, it would have been another story.

CONASPEH building is flattened with all nursing students inside. It is in complete ruin. Francoise and Patrick lost one of their foster care kids inside. Pray for them.

Patrick and I got the Tennessee group to the American embassy yesterday. The embassy was planning on shuttling people 100 at a time to Santa Domingo, and from there AA would take them back to the states. So they all had a plan on getting out.

Veniel--the manager of the Walls guest house, has taken Patrick and I under his wing and took us up the mountain to Kenskoff last night to find a hotel to stay in. We'll be here for two nights and try to figure out where to go next.

We spent most of the day at CONASPEH helping remove bodies and rescue the last few voices inside the rubble. We haven't been able to contact the Villiers since yesterday morning. The phone system continues to either be completely down or jammed.

We'll stay in contact. We hope to head to Port au Prince today or tomorrow to find the Villier's and see what we can do to help.

Pray for us. Pray for Haiti. The horror and tragedy here is beyond description. Such huge loss of life. Such devastation.

Kim

Kim also has just uploaded a post titled "Safe" to her blog, Adventures in Life. You can read that post and access the blog by clicking here or by going to my blogroll on the right of my page. It's worth the time to read some of her earlier posts and get a sense of what their life was like before this tragedy, and what she found to be so wonderful about the people they have met and have worked with.