February 1 at 9:35am
Hi all,
Just an update to our meeting yesterday. I did say to you at the restaurant that things have changed in Haiti because of the earthquake. I didn’t realize when I spoke that yesterday that things were continuing to change in Haiti. Terry and Susan may want to think up another name other then Gonaives Children’s Orphans.
Ross called me at 6 this morning. He had been on the phone with St. Clair for over an hour. It seems St. Clair was asked by the owner of the orphanage house to see him this weekend up in Gonaives.
When he arrived at the orphanage the owner told him that the orphans had to leave the house immediately as he was moving in because his house was destroyed in Port-au-Prince by the earthquake and he & his family needed a place to live. St. Clair gathered up the 30 orphans and asked them to carry what they could and brought them back down to his 5-bedroom home in the northern part of Port-au-Prince. The children are now sharing the home with St. Clair and his 5 own children. On Google Earth this house is located in a town called Santos - (If this were Vancouver, it would probably be a few minutes ride from the Richmond airport.) If you took the length of the airport runway, and swung it in an arc, the outer point of that arc would touch the town of Santos, just north east of the airport.
So, here is the situation:
1) St. Clair is now looking for a new house for the orphans
2) This house may be in the Santos or Bon Repos area
3) The 3 women who took care of the children did not want to travel down to Port-au-Prince, as they were afraid of the continued aftershocks, so the Pastor is looking for 3 women in his church to provide the same care.
4) All the beds, and extra furniture & and things at the home that was not brought down by the children, including a gas powered generator, have been locked up in our church in Gonaives. These goods will be brought down to the new home once a location has been determined.
5) The schoolbooks have also been locked up. It is questionable that the schoolteacher will travel to Santos. So we may be looking for a new schoolteacher.
6) There may be a positive spin to the current scenario: a) Supplies, food, and humanitarian help would be closer at hand. One wouldn’t have pay the transportation fees to get the food up to Gonaives and money saved could provide extra food b) It’s a short ride from the airport c) American and Canadian Armed Forces and UN Guards are much closer for protection, if needed d) The newer home might just offer better accommodations for the orphans, staff

i went to jail last week... to visit, it just sounds cooler if i lead in that way. i took my son ben to see someone and on the way home he asked a good question, a hard question. he reminded me of when i was a full time pastor and would speak, seemingly ad nauseam, about unconditional love. he reminded me of how, as a church, we had valued loving the unlovely, the lowly, the unwashed. then he turned to me in the car and asked, in his quiet self-effacing way, "why does no one else ever visit; where is the unconditional love now?

unconditional love is messy. after the first visit i made to this particular person someone spread the rumor that i condoned this person's behavior, that i didn't care about the victim(s), that i was choosing sides. i have never addressed the accusations before because the people who would believe that are idiots to the extreme. if by visiting someone who had a problem i was condoning their actions i would make a very poor addictions counselor, not to mention the fact that i could have no friends. i remember talking to church leaders who were secretly cheating on their wives, struggling with addictions, battling anger problems, addicted to porn, dealing with arrogance and pride and ever manner of evil under the sun. we are all scum. we are all sinners looking for a bit of grace.

it's easy to paint people who commit heinous crimes as animals undeserving. it's easier still, like several of my past friends, to avoid people like that so that their stink doesn't pollute you. it's easy to talk about love and forgiveness and grace and jesus and then only apply that grace to people who are clean enough to make you look good (or addicts and bums you can condescend to help). it's another thing to get truly messy when to do so will potentially hurt your reputation or compromise your lifestyle...

lots of people have asked how and why we have an orphanage in Haiti...

a couple of years ago, long before the earthquake, Ross and Mary Robbins were eating at the Bad Dog Grill and we happened to overhear what they were talking about. An orphanage on the brink of starvation had been dropped in their laps and they had no idea what to do about it... time being of the essence. Right then and there a few of us made a decision to help out and get involved. Since that time the little group known as club365 has given every dime it could find to feed the kids, though only on a subsistence level. People signed over their paychecks, we raised every dime we could find. 
It's been two years and finally people are noticing the tragedy that is Haiti. It's cool to give to the efforts, and we fully support every dime that gets to Haiti. But the fact remains that we have a little unknown orphanage that isn't on the radar for the big organizations and if we do not feed them, they do not eat.
We aren't the red cross, we aren't the salvation army or oxfam or the united way. We are 20 people or so trying to keep 30 kids alive. There are no paid employees, no administrative costs. We simply take the money and Fedex it to the kids, every dime of it. We know where the money is going, we know who is buying what. This isn't a scam, it's a life and death struggle to make a difference in the lives of a few kids we have come to love and care about.

we have heard from the orphanage - they are alive but hadn't eaten in days. we were able to get supplies to them eventually.

we will be sending down a couple in a month to stabilize the situation and if you would like to help them out with money or supplies all gifts are tax deductible. email me for pertinent information.

we have heard that our contact in haiti - Sinclair, survived the earthquake, as did his children though they apparently lost everything. He has no idea as to the state of our orphanage in Gonavies yet and is endeavoring to get information. i'll post updates as they come available.

several people know that we have an orphanage just north of port a prince in haiti. it's a 4 room hovel with 15 kids sleeping in each room, a bathroom and a kitchen/front room. i have worked with some other orphanages and nothing even comes close to the poverty we're dealing with. the club church tries to raise enough money to feed and cloth the kids, but there's only a few of us and its a monthly struggle to keep the kids from starving and clothed. there are no other denominations, churches or big ministries sponsoring the thing so it's basically the passion of my life and the passion of 8 or ten other youngish people. i have written about it in the past and it's impossible to describe accurately how destitude the situation is. my wife annette has taken it upon herself to raie aother 150 bucks a month cuz we can't adequately feed the kids anymore because of inflation and it's literally a matter of life and death.

we have tried to get through for info all day from our guy down there but one of the churches he works with was at the epicenter of the quake and is on stilts so it's no wonder we can't contact him. several have asked for an update so here it is. i'll let you know if we get through tomorrow.

if you're a spiritual person we would appreciate your prayers. donations to the kids go 100% to the kids, there are no admin costs because there is no admin. we can issue tax receipts if you make cheques out to "light of the world ministries", they do the tax thing for us cuz no one else will.

it's the best thing in my life. maybe for someone out there too.

it's christmas. we have fewer presents this year because we bought a dog, so the pickings are slimmer. i actually felt guilty - a cheap christmas for the kids. fewer toys. then i remembered.

it's christmas in haiti. this year like others my son ben has opted for fewer presents with the money sent to haiti for their toys and dinner instead. last year it was spaghetti and one toy. this year, because of the peeps from club and ben they will have their second present ever. people like josh and delea and lori and terry and nate and caddy and mat and others gave hundreds and hundreds, thousands actually, so that 30 orphans could have food and a bit of an education this year. as we always tell them, if we don't feed them they don't eat. they live in a horrific situation.

so this year when you eat your gorgeous turkey and get your second ipod, when we wonder why we didn't get a better present, when we are tempted to whine, remember my kids in haiti. tomorrow they will line up for a meager bowl of spaghetti and get a single tiny present each, to share with friends but no parents.

merry christmas to us. merry christmas kids. we love you.