Please pray for the people of Haiti. Tropical storm Sandy ripped through causing massive flooding and 44 deaths and counting to date. Many tent homes have been destroyed.

To the North, Leo, who is planting a church in Cap-Haitian, made his way back to the Haiti Bible Training Center and reported a large amount of destruction in Cap-Haitian.

To the South, Renauld, who is leading a bible study in Grand Goave also made his way back to the HBTC reporting the same destruction.

Please pray for our mission teams, church planting graduates, staff and students who have daily access and provide help to the people living in the tent cities.

Psalm 9:9-10 The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

News Report:

The Caribbean death toll from Hurricane Sandy rose again sharply on Saturday, even as the storm swirled away toward the U.S. East Coast. Officials said the hurricane system has cost at least 58 lives in addition to destroying or badly damaging thousands of homes.

While Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas took direct hits from the storm, the majority of deaths and most extensive damage was in impoverished Haiti, where it has rained almost non-stop since Tuesday.

The official death toll in Haiti stood at 44 Saturday, but authorities said that could still rise. The country’s ramshackle housing and denuded hillsides are especially vulnerable to flooding when rains come.

“This is a disaster of major proportions,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press. “The whole south is under water.”

He said the death toll jumped on Saturday because it was the first day that authorities were able to go out and assess the damage, which he estimated was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the bulk of it in lost crops.

Nineteen people are reported injured and another 12 are missing, according to Haiti’s Civil Protection Office.

One of the remaining threats was a still-rising muddy river in the northern part of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

“If the river busts its banks, it’s going to create a lot of problems. It might kill a lot of people,” said 51-year-old Seroine Pierre. “If death comes, we’ll accept it. We’re suffering, we’re hungry, and we’re just going to die hungry.”