Following is the story I wrote for The Star Press following the earthquake. I'm so blessed that they allowed me to publish it.
At 4:53 p.m. Tuesday things got worse. That’s when the 7.0 earthquake struck 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince. It’s hard to imagine how they’ll recover. Seeing the pictures and videos coming in from there brings tears to my eyes and an ache to my heart.
I was on my way home from the grocery store when I heard the first report that a massive earthquake had hit the country. Tears stung my eyes and I reached for the phone to call Max Wright, the man who’d lead our team of six with World Renewal International, on a mission trip there in October. He didn’t answer, so I began to pray for the people there.
My mind was racing, wondering if Pastor Luc Joseph and his family, along with the 27 orphans were OK. They’d stolen our hearts. So much so that I’ve said many times since my return that I left my heart in Haiti. I wondered if the neighbors were OK, especially the children we played with under the giant mango tree and at the well. I wondered about Ben, the woman who’d met us at the airport in Port-au-Prince.
“Oh no,” I thought. “She lives in the capital city.”
Max called me back before I got home and told me that he hadn’t been able to reach anyone yet. While that’s unsettling it’s not unnerving. We’re talking about an impoverished country a with delicate infrastructure. He said that he didn’t believe Luc and the children would be affected but was concerned about Ben.
Without cable at home I waited anxiously for the evening news to come on, but it didn’t tell us much. I felt helpless; I wanted to do something. I wanted to go there and help the wounded. I wanted to document what was going on and get the stories back to the states. I didn’t want to sit in my home and wait for someone to tell me the news, but that’s all I could do. My husband and I prayed and sent out prayer requests on Facebook.
After dinner I e-mailed with a young man who contacted me after my Haiti series ran a few weeks ago. The high school junior lives in Miami and hadn’t been able to reach his family in Jacmel. We went back and forth for a little while; he was pretty scared. I felt even more helpless. I prayed some more and went to bed.
Wednesday I left my usual beat, Yorktown, and have been consumed with stories about Haiti.
We’ve heard through many of the news organizations and social networking sites that cell communication is out in much of the nation. Cell phones are the major source of communication there but have only been prevalent there for the past three years. It’s a five-year wait for a landline, and say you want electricity, be prepared to wait one year. Well, that was in the old Haiti anyway.
Don’t panic
Max Wright has gotten word that his friend Ben Barrow who lives in Port-au-Prince is safe. Barrow is an American NGO (non-government worker) who’s been in Haiti for nearly 30 years. She runs a transition house for orphans being adopted from Haiti. In her care they learn some English or French depending on where they’re going, and learn about the modern lifestyle they’ll experience when they leave the impoverished nation.
Max stressed that we don’t need to panic if we haven’t heard from our loved ones.
He hopes to travel there soon to help the people he’s met during his more than 30 visits to Haiti. He’ll either help them rebuild or find new places to live. WRI will also be raising money to benefit those in need.
On her way
Just this past Sunday I met Alexa Tarter, a young woman with a heart for Haiti. She was visiting my church with her friend who invited my husband and me to have breakfast with them following the service. Her home church is The Mercy House, a church plant of the Muncie Alliance Church. Alexa has been to Haiti five times and loves the people there. The young teacher hoped to return there during spring break and again during summer break this year. Since the quake, her plans have changed. She’ll be leaving from Michigan in the next couple of days with a group called Haiti Foundation Against Poverty.
The foundation spoke with Haitian Fraentz Neptune who was in Port-au-Prince yesterday. He said that people thought it was the end of the world, that they thought the earthquake was happening everywhere.
“There’s no education or procedures for earthquake awareness,” Alexa said. “People were reacting like it was a hurricane, going into buildings and some basements.”
Mallery Thurlow who runs the foundation could hear loud screams the whole time she was on the phone with Fraentz. He told her that he’d traveled along the road of Delmas, a major thoroughfare and that everything was flattened. He saw many people crushed and others who were stuck. Since the electricity was out, rescue efforts were held off until morning.
Once Alexa gets there her group will aid in the search and rescue efforts; they’ll also search for the people they support there. They’ll try to set up a plan for bringing more missionaries to Haiti to help with emergency medical shelters.
“I hope that people will consider giving their time to go on a medical mission; a lot of help is needed,” Alexa said.
Alexa and her group will be laden down with donations. Hancock Regional Hospital in Greenfield has esentially opened up their supply closet to the group. Tracey Roberts, McCordsville, went to the hospital and they filled her van with emergent care items. Everything from masks to diapers from steri strips to sponges.
"I can't believe this," Tracey said. "God is so good."
Still planning to go
Gene Pollic, Winchester, has traveled to Japan, Spain, Russia, Germany, the Dominican Republic and Mexico with OMS International over the years. But when he and his wife, Shelba, visited Haiti in 1979 they fell in love with it.
“We just love the people and country,” Gene said.
They’ve been to Haiti nearly 40 times. He told me that a group of about 20 people have had a mission trip planned for Jan. 31 to the area near Jeremie. They were planning to put in an industrial washing machine at the orphanage that serves 120 children with a staff of six. They also support three churches there; one was to get a new roof, another a roof repair and the third is still under construction.
So far the trip is still a go and they’ll head to the orphanage and churches as planned. “But we may be redirected, we just don’t know,” Pollic said.
In the mean time I’ll continue to pray for the safety and recovery of the people of Haiti and those going to help them. How will they ever recover from this? God only knows.
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