Dear friends:

This will be quick because at this time we do not have web service. I had to drive somewhere and borrow a phone to send this. I know that many of you have been praying not only for us, but for everyone in south Florida who are suffering from hurricane Wilma. We usually go to a shelter during a hurricane, but this time we decided to ride out the storm in out house. We can't say that it was a smart thing to do, but it contributed to saving our house.

I have never experienced anything this scary before. During the storm I kept thinking about the situation our American brothers and sisters in Louisiana had to go through, and also what the people in Cancun, Mexico had to endure for so long. Our part of the storm only lasted about 8 hours and it felt like 10 years has been taken away from my life.

The scariest part of the storm was when I heard something banging on the roof. I kept thinking ... this roof is coming down any minute. Well, we made it through the front part of the hurricane, then there was a calm period as the eye passed through. I went out to inspect the source of the noise, and when I got to the back of the house, I could not believe my eyes! The whole patio was missing. I looked up and the aluminum part of the patio roof was still attached to the soffit and bent up over the roof, with the wind smashing it over the roof. I picked up the metal parts that would become missiles during the second part of the storm and went in.

Now came the back wall of the storm and everything that was bent one way was shaken the other direction. The back wind started raging and even with the windows boarded, they were vibrating so much that I thought they were going to break. Samathe gave me some duct tape and we taped some of the windows.

I was sitting in the living room with quite a bit of anxiety when I started hearing a strange noise coming from the garage. The garage is the space that I used as an office for GVCM, with a short storage space in front. I run to the garage and sure enough the garage door was caving in to the pressure of the wind. It so happened that I had two pieces of wood that I used to create an “X” form with the metal bar pinched between the walls to support the garage.

If the garage door had been destroyed, the roof would have probably have come off. It was with a big sigh that we welcomed the end of the storm and when I went back to the back of the house I found the rest of the patio roof laying flat on the cement structure. Our neighbor's trampoline broke away from the chain that he used to tie it down, flew away and he does not know on top of which house it might have landed, because there is no sign of it.

We have felt your prayers and the Lord has been good. We still do not have electricity and the telephone system is not working. My cell phone started to work again, but we do not have access to Email. But, we say Praise the Lord that we are alive.

I would also request your prayers for our orphan children in Fedja Haiti. I talked to Yvon and he told me that many of the children are sick. As you know, Five Oaks Community church in Minnesota is blessing the orphanage with a building, but we are far from accomplishing that goal. In the meantime, the dwelling place for the children now is not hygienically adequate and consequently they share germs. We would welcome a doctor or a nurse to go with us to Haiti now and check the children out for us.

We thank you so much for your faithful support and your prayers that have kept GVCM strong.

We love you and may God bless you.

Yves