Dear Friends and Partners of St. Andre, Trianon, Haiti,

We have heard via a forwarded message that Trianon was also attacked by the gangs coming through to MIrebalais and Saut-d’eau (the waterfall near Ville Bonheur which many of you have visited.)  Trianon is closee to the overland route from Rt. 3 (the main highway) to Saut-d’eau.  I do not know any particulars yet, but I will certainly share them if and when I hear anything concrete.  The communication took the form of a text: O sekou pou Trianon, bandi kontinye ap touye, boule, kraze brize Peyizan yo lage sanzabri.   (Oh, help for Trianon, bandits [gangs] continue to kill, burn, and vandalize peasants, leaving them homeless) and a picture showing numbers of people carrying their belongings on a path in the nearby mountains. 

St. Mark’s has been catching up with teacher salaries at St Andre and sent a wire about two weeks ago which would have paid the teachers through March.  I have not yet heard whether that was able to happen before the assault on Mirebalais.  We are ready to send salaries for April, May, June, but cannot do so until the city has been completely secured and repopulated to the degree possible, and Mirebalais banks are able to reopen.

MIrebalais is important to Trianon in many ways — as the location of the nearest (and best) hospital; because of the high school at St. Pierre which some of our students at Trianon have been able to attend; as the location of the “mother church,” St. Pierre where Pere Alphonse leads all of the services and outreach you would expect of a church and more, including services for the many missions like St Andre under his purview; and the location of the largest public market in the area, even more important as Port-au-Prince is too dangerous for travel.  

Both St Andre and St Pierre will need our prayers, love, and support in the upcoming months.  Your prayers are especially asked for Pere Alphonse, who escaped into the mountains with his 95 year old mother, for Head of School Louis Fleuristal and his family, and for all of the teachers and students at St Andre and their families.  I know most of you have visited and love both of these places.  This is far from a complete list of travelers from Genesis and St. Mark’s — please feel free to forward to others from our communities, especially those who have visited.  I’m assembling messages hastily.  If you or others you know aren’t on the Haiti mailing list and would like to be, I will add you — just let me know.

Thank you for caring about St. Andre —