What an amazing 24 hours. I got a call early yesterday,Sunday, morning from Roberta saying she was ready to try to make it to the Jimani, DR border. It was a one shot deal. The last of her supplies were getting critically low. She had drained the last of her gas and diesel from everything, and put it in two trucks and was headed there to Jimani (he-ma-knee), asking me to meet her there with a truck load of much needed supplies, including food, fuel, and household items (clorox and toilet paper are now imposible to purchase). All praying God would protect and open the doors. Problem was, we thought we were 5 hours away (Rio San Juan to Jimani), not to mention having to purchase the supplies she wanted. Only by God's grace, we pulled together a team of 3 vehicles, cash, empty fuel tanks, and reserves from this side. And within an hour were headed to Santo Domingo to purchase supplies and then meet her at the border ASAP. Our only miscalculation was the distance between here in the border, 8 hours!! Instead of the five we had anticipated. In the mean time, God had opened the door, literally. Instead of passing the supplies between the borders,
when Roberta arrived at 3:00 to the border, the DR guards agreed to let her
and her trucks and crew drive right into Haiti and stop at the first fuel
station they came to, about 1 mile in. Now waiting for us to arrive, rather than meeting her at 3:00 or so, we hooked up in a fairly dark border Jimani town around 8:00PM. A bit surreal. But our only concern was Roberta and her crew's safety. We backed our trucks up to hers, and quickly off loaded all the supplies she had requested... And within an hour she was on her way back home. And, within an hour after she left the DR border, she called from Haiti to say she was back home, safe and sound. We then traversed to the DR again, another 8 hours, and arrived back here in Rio San Juan at 4:30AM. But, all safe and sound and absolutely no problems what so ever. Our plan is to repeat the process several times a week until supplies become more readily available through other avenues. For those of you sending money, just want you to know where your money is going. This trip was around $4,000 in supplies and fuel. We will also use this method as a transportation hub for folks that are scheduled to come in to help. It's clunky and long, but it works. And, that remains to be a good thing when you can say, "It Works". Thank you all for what you've done. We will continue to honor your help and resource that you have sent. But more importantly, we're just wanting to serve as best we know how. We wake up each day not knowing how it will work out, and amazingly at the end of the day (even those that end at 4:30AM), it works out perfectly. Today, Monday, we're doing another supply run. Leaving within 2 hours to try to get a large vehicle across the border for Brad and Brian to have. Even more supplies, but more importantly getting the large truck into Haiti. Again, please ask God to open doors normally closed and we can get the vehicle across without have to wait weeks for the "normal" and "necessary" paper work. Thanks for the prayers, I sound like a broken recorded but they are working. It's not any of us, I promise; I promise. It's the prayers. I can't explain it all or even understand it all, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
God bless,
Norm