It was with great joy that we were able to welcome home Karen, Maia, Kim, John and Jim this morning at Toronto International Airport.   It was nice to have all the families there and we were all on pins and needles as we waited for them to come of the plane.  We pray that the Lord will give these individuals the rest they need over the next few days so that they can again take up their appointed tasks.

At the same time we want to remember Randy who had to let his family go.  Randy has the guys who worked at the school with him and they are staying together and trying to help the best they can. 

We wanted to provide an update to our sponsors, at this time it is going to take us a while to find out about all our 200 or so students that we worked with.  We will not publish any names of lost or missing individuals but will inform you directly if something has happened to the child you are sponsoring.  We ask that you be patient as we sort through the devesation in this regard as well.

Below I have posted some pictures that John brought home with him.

Hi Everyone,

We have received an update from John in Haiti.  The team was at the Canadian embassy and they had about 30 seconds to give us a quick update.

First of all, in consultation with the Canadian authorities in Haiti, John Kottelenberg, Jim Kamstra, Kim Gringhuis, Karen Lodder and Maia Lodder have been placed on standby to be evacuated by military transport.  They have made this decision with heavy hearts but concerns over security have had to rule out.  This decision is welcomed by the board as the next few weeks will bring much uncertainty and unrest in the city.  We do not know exactly when this will happen, but are thankful they are on the list.   We want everyone to know that we are not abandoning our people in Haiti, we are working on details to provide ongoing and long term support.

Secondly, Randy has decided to stay in Haiti, he will be around to protect what is worth protecting from our assets, as well as provide support to our staff, teachers and students and the Adoration community.

Thirdly, it is with great sadness that we have found out that 1 of our teacher's has been confirmed as dead, at this time we do not know who.   There are several staff that have not been heard of it and we know that Randy is doing everything in his power to find out about them all.  As we get more information we will pass it along.

Regards,
Grant

Hi Everyone,

We have had many question around the safety of Dr. Ed, the medical practitioner, who ran medical clinics at Adoration Christian Center.  We are happy to say that CDIA has heard that Dr. Ed was not in Port-au-Prince at the time of the earthquake and is alright.

We have not heard anything further today from the field team, reports in the news continue to show the devastation that has occured.  We continue to ask for your prayers.

Regards,
Grant Kottelenberg

Hi Everyone,

 For those of you in the Hamilton, Ancaster, Burlington area: 

Worldwide Christian Schools - Canada invites you to pray with us for Haiti. We will have a special prayer time from 2:30-3pm today at our office (70 Lancing Drive, Hamilton). Join us in person if you live in the area or in spirit if you can't make it. We will pray for the people of Haiti,international relief efforts, a...s well as for friends & partners w...orking there: Adoration Christian School (photo is of the collapsed school building) and those involved with the CRECH Curriculum (http://www.wwcs.ca/Regions/LatinAmerica/Haiti/CRECH.html).

Updates from Kim & the Lodders:

From Randy, Karen & Maia: We are still ok. We slept the night in the driveway with some of our Haitian workers, Kim, John and Jim and our neighbours. We were sleeping inside but the tremors were to strong still and so we evacuated the house and slept on the driveway. We probably got about 2 hours of sleep or so. And now we are trying to figure out an action plan. , What to do, how can we help, how do we be safe? Food? Water? it's devastating, full buildings collapsed to nothing, so many lives lost... we cannot begin to comprehend...we still haven't heard from some people....
please keep praying... we'll stay in touch as we can.
Love,
Randy, Karen & Maia Joy