Haiti in Crisis: FFTP Hosts Prayer Service for Haiti at Parkridge Church

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (April 24, 2024) – Hundreds of people will gather this Friday, April 26, to pray for Haiti during a special service organized by Food For The Poor (FFTP) at Parkridge Church, 5600 Coral Ridge Drive, Coral Springs, Fla.

The event, which will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Building 3 of the church’s campus, will bring together clergy, parishioners, and dignitaries who will collectively lift their voices in an expression of hope for peace in the troubled nation.

“We know that it’s really bad in Haiti right now – beyond bad – and there are many people in our community who want to do something, but they feel helpless,” said Michael Chin Quee, Executive Vice President of Church Alliances at FFTP. “They want to help, but they’re unable to, and when you feel that way, the one thing we know we can do is pray – and that’s what we aim to do in this service.”

The event will include updates from Mario Nicoleau, CEO of Food For The Poor-Haiti, and from the Bitar brothers, physicians at Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince, who prefer not to use their first names. Nicoleau and the Bitar brothers are among the many Haitians now stranded in the United States because they are unable to secure a flight back home.

“I’ve never seen Haiti in this situation – no one that I have spoken to has ever known of a time when it has been this bad,” Nicoleau said. “We need everyone to come together in one focus, one prayer for Haiti.”

The Bitar brothers describe conditions in Haiti as dire, with patients in desperate need of care.

“It’s an emergency for Haiti right now,” Dr. Bitar said. “The general hospital is closed.”

With the State University of Haiti Hospital in Port-au-Prince, known as the general hospital, now closed, Bernard Mevs Hospital is now overwhelmed with patients. Doctors and nurses are working 24-hour shifts and spending nights in the hospital’s on-campus housing. Medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, such as insulin, antibiotics, and IV fluids, are dwindling and putting patients’ lives at risk.

“The situation is chaotic,” Dr. Bitar said. “Haiti is the number one emergency in the world, now.”

In addition to updates from the Bitar brothers and Nicoleau, Friday’s event will include brief words of encouragement from Pastor Eddie Bevill, of Parkridge Church, and Pastor Dr. Keny Felix, President of the Southern Baptist Convention National Haitian Fellowship, as well as a performance by the Redemption Baptist Church Choir, of Pompano Beach, Fla. Dr. Jackson Voltaire, President of the Florida Baptist Haitian Fellowship, also will be in attendance.

“This night of prayer is so special,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said. “We are hoping that people come together and lift their prayers up to the Lord for Haiti. It is imperative to get our work done in Haiti, and it begins and ends with prayer. We hope people will join us.”

Pastor Bevill agreed. His church has supported FFTP in the past, most recently by hosting distributions of aid from the charity to local families struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and he’s happy to make the church available to pray for Haiti.

“The collective voice of the community of God in prayer is powerful,” Pastor Bevil said. “Events like this help galvanize that spirit so that people will continue to pray and, as they go back to their respective churches, they take that heart with them and share it with their friends.”

The prayers are appreciated, Dr. Bitar said.

“We pray every day,” they said. “We need a miracle in Haiti.”

Since Feb. 29, the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince has faced an unprecedented surge in violence, triggered by the Haitian Prime Minister’s trip to Kenya to settle an agreement for sending Kenyan forces to Haiti. It led to gangs releasing more than 4,000 prisoners, including violent gang leaders.

Human rights groups estimate some 90 percent of the capital is now under gang control. More than 95,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in one month alone, the vast majority to escape the unrelenting gang violence, according to the Associated Press.

In addition, more than 2,500 people have been reported killed or injured in Haiti from January to March, and some 160,000 have been left homeless according to the International Organization for Migration, the Associated Press reported.

The United Nations estimates that over 360,000 people are internally displaced, according to Reuters.

The violence escalated in the early weeks of the crisis, with the closure of roads preventing FFTP-Haiti and other aid groups from delivering critical supplies. After four weeks of being shuttered due to gang violence in Haiti, the FFTP-Haiti office in Port-au-Prince initiated a soft reopening in late March to safely distribute critically needed food, hygiene items, and medical supplies. Recent developments include:

•So far in April, FFTP-Haiti successfully retrieved 32 containers of aid from the Caribbean Port Service in Boulevard La Saline, with 17 additional containers received at the Central Office as part of a door-to-door contract with CMA-CGM. FFTP-Haiti’s Central Office in Port-au-Prince also provided aid to about 528 organizations, among which 75 received aid from the Caracol office.

•On April 17, FFTP-Haiti dispatched eight trucks of food donations to the Distribution Centers to the South-East and the South (Jacmel and Les Cayes), utilizing a barge service provided by the World Food Programme.

•On April 9 and 16, FFTP-Haiti provided 80 bags of rice, 20 bags of red kidney beans, 50 cases of mackerel, 28 cases of MannaPack rice meals, and 35 cases of bedding to displaced families through Sant Karl Lévêque

•On April 10 and 12, FFTP-Haiti provided 20 cases of MannaPack rice and soy protein meals, provided by Feed My Starving Children, 24 bags of Taiwanese rice, six cases of red kidney beans, and 20 cases of mackerel to displaced families through Réseau National de Défense des Droits de l’Homme.

In response to the unfolding crisis, FFTP volunteers at the charity’s Coconut Creek, Fla., headquarters began packing 10,000 disaster hygiene kits in mid-March for eventual shipment to Haiti in response to the ongoing crisis.

As of Friday, April 19, volunteers have packed almost 7,700 disaster hygiene kits, 2,010 women’s care kits and 5,860 packs of Liquid I.V. Volunteers will continue to pack kits as FFTP amasses more supplies and resources to help Haiti.

Organizers look to Friday’s prayer service to ensure that Haiti is not forgotten and to put their faith into action for positive change.

“We know God has not forgotten Haiti, and we are going to do what He has set for us to do,” Chin Quee said. “We are going to stand in the gap for Haiti. Giving up is not an option.”

The prayer service also will be broadcast live via YouTube at foodforthepoor.org/haitiprayerservice.

The prayer service will also provide an opportunity to for the public to contribute toward relief efforts in Haiti. Donors can visit foodforthepoor.org/prayersforhaiti to support Haiti.

Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit foodforthepoor.org.

Ernestine Williams

Communications
305-321-7342
[email protected]