A Country in Chaos

Once again, it's been an eventful time here on the Island of Hispaniola. This time things have escalated enough to make world news.  The people of Haiti don't like what their government is doing, so they're following the custom that has most always worked for them: revolt.  The Capitol, Port-au-Prince is in utter chaos.  The streets are filled with burning tires and riotous men filled with whiskey to loosen them up in order to be willing to do anything. Huge stores have been completely turned upside down. The airport closed off any flights coming in. Many people who had flown in when the madness was beginning were unable to leave Port-au-Prince.   They were forced to stay in hotels, which also became the targets of destruction. The Best Western in Petionville, the wealthier side of town, had all the cars in the parking lot set aflame and the street surrounding it covered with burning tires. An unknown number of lives have been lost.

The pastor of CAM was robbed at gunpoint and was unable to make it home from the city for several days.  

But the madness doesn't stop at the city limits.   There is no travel anywhere. The rioters have demanded that there is to be no work, so no progress is being made on building the wall around the church.

The other day when it all started, Barry went to the blacktop on the motorbike in order to analyze the situation. While driving down the deserted street he met a group of men demanding him to stop. Without much time to think, he decided to increase his speed and force the mob to split, allowing him through. He then approached a road block in front of the church, where many things were on fire. He started taking a video, but it was only moments before large rocks were flying his way, along with screaming and cursing. The mobsters approached him and demanded his phone. Barry could hear them talking about burning his motor bike, but he calmly told them he wanted to show some people back in America what was going on. They thought that was a good idea and let him go.

There is no market. I only wonder how long it will be before hunger drives everyone to desperation.  We've heard activity outside the mission house every night, but we can only speculate at what's happening. The whole countryside has their lights turned off at nightfall, and all is strangely quiet until some of this rustling happens.

The people are mad about the "gas crisis." They got what they wanted on that note and the prices were brought back down, but now they say they want the president removed from office. I still don't quite grasp what destroying everything that fellow Haitians have worked hard for will accomplish, but that's what they do.

Thankfully, we are still able to walk to church.  During the Sunday mornings service, gunshots were fired a short distance away at the blacktop. During the evening Bible study the toxic smell of burning tires filled the air, while more gunshots and screaming could be heard.  Even as I write this at home, the gunshots are still ringing out, much closer than they were yesterday and all around us. We see people running for their lives from our upstairs windows. Helicopters are flying overhead, and once again we feel like we are in the middle of a war.

This post is simply a request for prayer as we share a bit of what's going on. Our neighbor noticed a truck sitting outside our wall with its lights off last night, a sure sign that somebody was "scoping things out." As usual, we know the Lord is in control, but we also know that prayer makes a difference.