In the path of Matthew

Update (Oct. 7): Efforts continue to get missionaries who were working in Haiti, on the peninsula of Jeremie, out of the country. Harry Hames, Chris Pressnell, Nicky Pressnell, and Andy White were in the area when the storm hit. The group, from the Flint Church of Christ in Decatur, Ala., traveled to Haiti to work with churches there. The men have been in contact with their families to let them know they survived the storm; however, right now they are not sure when or how they will get out of Haiti.

•WAAY-TV in Alabama spoke with the wife of one of the missionaries about the efforts to bring them home.

Update (Oct. 6): See new video from Port-au-Prince below.

WWW.NHC.NOAA.GOV

As Hurricane Matthew roars across the Bahamas and nears Florida, The Christian Chronicle has received early reports of the storm’s aftermath in the Caribbean nation of Haiti. 

Hope for Haiti’s Children, a ministry supported by Churches of Christ, sponsors children and assists families and congregations in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and the surrounding area. (See our report from last year on the ministry’s work.)

Following are damage reports provided by Ken Bever, the nonprofit’s president:

• In the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Cite Soleil, 17 homes of children sponsored by the ministry sustained severe damaged. The storm tore away metal roofs and washed away belongings. Up to 4 feet of water rushed through this low-lying coastal area.

Students pray at the Dubuisson Christian school in Haiti, supported by Hope for Haiti’s Children, in late 2015. (PHOTO BY ERIK TRYGGESTAD)  

 “Undoubtedly, additional sponsored children’s homes in this area have been impacted,” Bever said, “but many families who had taken refuge at the Delmas 28 Church of Christ building are just now returning home to assess their housing situation.”

• Roofs from two homes of sponsored children in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince were ripped off by powerful winds.

• Ten families of sponsored children in the mountain areas north of the ministry’s Thomazeau Hope Center need food after floods destroyed their crops.

Workers with Hope for Haiti’s Children are providing rice, protein food packets, water purification tablets, solar lanterns, bedding and shelter, Bever said. Learn more and find way to contribute to relief at the ministry’s Hurricane Matthew page.

Healing Hands International, a church-supported nonprofit that drills water wells and provides other services in Haiti, plans to send water filters, medical supplies, tents with mosquito nets, flashlights and batteries, workers said in an email. Find more information and ways to contribute here. 

A group of Christians from Decatur, Ala., including Harry Hames, a longtime mission worker in Haiti, rode out the storm in Jeremie, a town on Haiti’s southern peninsula. Church members in the U.S. are attempting to contact them.  

UPDATE: Church of Christ members Widlord and Karen Thomas, who work with Sonlight Children’s Home in Port-au-Prince, provided the following videos, in which they mention that Hames and his group are reported as safe:

Are you in the Matthew’s path? Post prayers and updates below, and check back for new information as the storm approaches the U.S.