Dear family and friends;

Thanks for your prayers and emails as together we watch hurricane Matthew approach Camp Mahanaim. We have spent the past three days boarding up everything we can at the camp and Deb, Katie and I are now waiting for the storm to arrive. Thanks
to the kindness of the Yordy’s (Scott and Mandy) and other ACC missionaries,
we have left Camp Mahanaim and are staying up at Cite Lumiere in the ACC  quad plex.   Scott and Mandy have beautifully set up the apartment for us and and it is really nice to be together with all the other missionaries as we brace for the arrival of Matthew together.

It was a difficult decision to leave the camp, however the local Haitian neighbors were very understanding and we spent half a day getting them set up with mattresses and food at the French Canadian compound up the road. The local people should be safe there.    The problem with Camp Mahanaim is that it becomes completely cut off once flooding begins and the incoming road becomes a river and then there is no way to leave. For this reason, and the predicted “up to 40 inches of rain”, we decided to move to higher ground.    Also, even though the hurricane is still a couple hundred miles away from us, the storm surge has already raised the level of the Caribbean so that the two local rivers aren’t draining, but rather, the Caribbean is backing up into the rivers.

Even though the storm is approaching, we were able to do the Renault Sunday school this morning where we gave the kids extra rice and clothes/ shoes, blankets in preparation for the storm. The children were very happy and encouraged. Thanks so much for sending items for the very poor children.

Thanks again for your concern for us,
bye for now,
Love Rod, Deb and Katie