Help with Food
Star of Hope's Pastor Reginald Celestim tells how it look in Les Cayes near the epicenter.
Pastor, please tell me how you are you and your family?
We are safe. No one here in my team or family had any personal damage. You know Mark, we were in Les Cayes very close to the earthquake's epicenter of (St Louis). Now we're okay we moved over to Cavaillon, a small district of Les Cayes, the photographs I took were from here and Cavaillon.
You know I have one Church in Las Cayes and we have a large crack in the wall and it's too dangerous to go inside, it cannot be used and almost all the houses are destroyed there. It is total destruction.
You know Mark I was actually in Les Cayes when this happened. We were doing a Christian crusade with 26 members of the team. My family was there too. When the earthquake hit I was standing on the stage, talking to my sound guys doing changes and getting ready for the evening event. Then, things started to shake, it was very violent about 20 seconds. After that, we knew what was happening and I thought my family is about three hundred yards away and the building where all the team members were staying was 200 yards away.
When the trembling stopped, I was still shaking and I was panicking. Then I realized I was safe I had to quickly run to 200 yards to get to the church building to see if the team was okay. Those two hundred yards felt like 200 miles! When I got there I found out that everyone was okay. No reports of personal injury.
Then my life turned upside down I had to go to another hundred yards to get to my house to check on my family, my wife, and my children, were they alive? It seemed like it took an hour to run those hundred yards, my world changed during that run, the thoughts in my head were a storm. Thank God when I got there I found my family was unharmed.
Please tell me more about the situation right now?
Right now, I see total destruction everywhere, people do not know what to do. They do not know what is in the future and they don't have any home to go into. It is too dangerous to go inside, materials might fall on them, everyone is just wandering about in a daze, still today right now!
The children are so scared and it is so sad to see.
A while back we built a brand new basketball court here in Les Cayes, now many of the villagers come to the basketball court at night to sleep knowing they will hopefully be safe and there's no roof to fall on them.
However big new problems are emerging, the food stores are all empty or damaged so there is no production. People are making bread in their homes and selling it on the street yet there's just not enough to go around. I'm very worried about food insecurity.
Mark, now we've learned that there is a tropical storm perhaps even a hurricane coming and the people are so concerned about this because there's nowhere to take shelter. There is no shelter and no food. It's a very bad situation, no planning or actions can fix this presently, it's a very sad situation. Please pray for us.
Have any organizations other than Star of Hope reached out to you?
There's one Doctor who called from the USA, he wants to bring two more doctors, of course, I'll have to fly from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes because the roads are all closed, the gang violence is a situation you know about.
Anything else you want to say since our time is up what do you want people to know?
Yes please ask for Prayers and help, and Bless all the Star of Hope donors.
Please visit www,starofhope/give to help with a donation
