coffee with Tomas

I would ask you all to be praying throughout this evening as tropical storm/hurricane, 'Tomas' hits Haiti. You can read more about it HERE.

Oh, how I wish we could be there to help NOW, but the one who the winds obey is with them even now.

Please pray for the deep and painful struggles that Haiti faces. There are many things that make this storm more dangerous for a suffering country like Haiti.

For one...

This.

Not her. Though she looks vicious, she was actually quite delightful. I even got a giddy little laugh out of her.

It's the production of this, charcoal (known as "shabone" in kreyol) that makes the heavy winds and flash foods so very dangerous for the Haitian people.

They sell this at the markets and it's the only way people cook their food. But guess how they get it? By cutting down and burning up ALL of their trees. AND when I say ALL I mean it has been said that only 2% of Haiti's trees still exist. It's this lack of foliage that cause such easy mudslides. And these mudslides can destroy whole communities and easily kill people.

Pray for the prevention of these mudslides.

And then, of course, the threatening cholera epidemic.

You can imagine, with food sanitation standards such as these, the spread of cholera in ANY part of Haiti is very real. This market is just minutes from the orphanage and is their only local "grocery store."

Instead of these types of food, we are encouraging them to choose foods they can boil well before consuming.

And continually praying for protection.

Especially for this beautiful lady, who works her tail off to make a killer cup o' java.

This is Chrisman. As I have mentioned before, she is due to give birth any day now with her and Willio's 3rd child and first son.

Giving birth at any point in time in Haiti is very dangerous.

But with 'Tomas' on his way and cholera around the corner, we need to pray hard. I know they are scared.

And we know that the orphanage is a flash flood risk because only a few weeks ago, under heavy rains, they were forced evacuate with all of the children being carried on shoulders, because the orphanage took in two feet of water.

Hmmm. Much to pray about, much to pray about.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee, made in a much simpler manner, and pray for those who struggle.