Good Samaritans, helped by other good Samaritans

By Bill Dedman, msnbc.com

NEW YORK — Ramon Crespo isn’t leaving Port-au-Prince. Though the dozen children from the Rescue Children orphanage are safe in the countryside, he and six other men from his Pennsylvania church remain behind, helping their neighbors with food, water, medicine and shelter.

The small group plans to stay for at least another two weeks, said Randy Landis, the senior pastor of Lifechurch in Allentown, Pa. The church volunteers went down after the earthquake to safeguard the children they were responsible for. Most of the group is now back in the States.

But no help has arrived for their neighbors in the Santo neighborhood, one mile northeast of the airport in Port-au-Prince. So the intense Crespo, director of missions for the church, has stayed behind, setting up a distribution system for families living under tents.

“We’re building little shelters,” Landis said. “The U.N. gave us tarps, and we found a store with 2-by-4s. You can see blue tarps up all around the neighborhood.”

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