GP Director Says Haiti Recovery “Opportunity for Us to be Jesus”
Jan. 22, 2010
Dan Irvine, director of Caribe-Atlantic area for Global Partners, has sent a report and video to update Wesleyans on the recovery efforts and emergency relief in Haiti:
As the world now knows, on Tuesday, January 12, at approximately 4:53 p.m., our lives and the course of the entire nation of Haiti were changed dramatically. An earthquake, measuring more than 7.0 on the Richter Scale and lasting for nearly a minute followed by frequent and powerful aftershocks, has decimated the capital city of Port-au-Prince and several other communities. As you have been seeing on your television screens, the loss of life is unprecedented. The devastation is reminiscent of scenes in European cities after World War II.
The near complete destruction of government offices and archives has made an internal response virtually impossible. Fortunately the international response has been timely and significant, how be it, fraught with the normal problems of communication and coordination.
While the destruction of buildings and loss of life were mostly concentrated in PAP and other cities like Leogane, Petit Goave, and Jacmel, the entire nation is anguished over this event. Because Port-au-Prince was the center of government, educational services, and commerce, every community and nearly every family are grieving the loss of loved ones who resided, worked, studied, or transacted business in the capital or other effected cities.
Historic Tragedy
A week later the capital city continues to be a desperate place. Tens of thousands of people are living in the streets, afraid to enter the shattered buildings that were once their homes. Gravely injured people are unable to find treatment for their injuries or transportation to places of comfort.
In the sprawling city there is no remnant of the public transportation system on which the residents were completely dependent. Even those with cars are finding few streets open for travel, and fuel is virtually unattainable. The telephone infrastructure is functioning sporadically. The city reeks with the stench of thousands of decomposing bodies.
Multitudes of people are fleeing the city for their communities of origin, penniless, injured, and broken in spirit and body. These refugees are becoming burdens to rural communities barely able to sustain existing populations. If there has ever been an opportunity for the church to respond in a redemptive way, it is now. (1 John 3:17)
Churches Destroyed
The Wesleyan Church family has not been spared from this devastation. At the time of this writing, at least three Wesleyan churches are reported to be completely destroyed and several others badly damaged. One of the churches demolished in the neighborhood of Carrefour Feuilles, was the largest Wesleyan Church in Haiti. This church was well-known for its 4:30 daily prayer meeting attended by over 1000 people. Hundreds of members are dead or missing, thousands have suffered the loss of homes and possessions. Accurate statistics are not yet available and may never be given the circumstances.
Missionaries Safe
None of the Wesleyan missionaries suffered bodily harm. However, there are deaths reported among the North American and international missionary communities. Within hours as the extent of the devastation became apparent, the Wesleyan missionaries and national church leaders began to find ways to respond redemptively to this hurting nation.
Search Team and Medical Units Deployed
Since Tuesday’s disaster Wesleyan missionaries have deployed two relief teams to Port-au-Prince. The first team, a search team initiated by and made up of Haitians, took off last Thursday to recover the bodies of loved ones missing in the capital. Our second team, a medical unit made up of one Haitian nurse, a visiting doctor, and five Wesleyan missionaries (including P.A. Diane Busch, Dr. Kris Thede, Pastor Carl Gilles, WISH Co-director Tricia Alexander, and Go-Net volunteer Joel Currie) headed to ground zero Saturday afternoon. They treated more than 100 injured people in the area of Carrefour Feuilles on Sunday and were able to link up with a North American medical team headed up by Dr. Steve Edmonson which landed in-country this week. This team is presently evaluating the possibility of setting up a M.A.S.H. (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) hospital in Petit Goave.
Exit Plan for Short-term Missionaries
In addition, we have also created and executed emergency exit plans for three short-term mission teams, two missionaries, and a missionary kid. Last Friday, the Wesleyan Mission sent the Breezy Sea a new lobster boat to pick up one of these teams (a World Hope group of college students) stranded in Petit Goave. After providing them with food and housing for two days, the mission sent them along with our own short-term team from Hyde Wesleyan Church (Clearfield, Penn.), 12 individuals with the United Methodist Church, and a missionary couple from Celebrate Jesus Mission, to catch planes in Cap Haitien and Port-au-Prince. These 35 individuals are now back safely in the States.
La Gonave Hospital Treats Victims
Within minutes of the earthquake the Wesleyan Hospital began to receive and treat injured individuals. At first, the patients were locals who sustained injuries from panicked flight or building collapses, but a few hours after daylight the following morning, the hospital began to receive casualties from the earthquake-devastated areas. A week later, the hospital is still receiving new cases of earthquake-related injuries. Because of aftershocks and minor structural damage to the hospital building, the patients and staff are afraid to stay under the concrete-roofed hospital building. The hospital is functioning in the tin-roofed clinic buildings and under tarps in the yard.
The “Breezy Sea” Becomes Supply Ship
Today, Monday is the first day since the earthquake that the mission has been able to give its new boat and crew a little rest. The boat has been hauling food, supplies, refugees, and short-term team members. The boat was scheduled this week to haul fuel, if it can be purchased, back to La Gonave. In the next few weeks, the boat will be ferrying relief supplies from cargo ships too large to enter into the wharf at La Gonave.
Short-term Strategy
At present, we are manning a command post on La Gonave, coordinating the arrival of relief workers and the logistics of delivery of relief supplies as well as communicating with mission HQ, friends, and supporters. We are in the process of establishing a front-line relief center and emergency medical clinic. We are maintaining a guesthouse/safe zone for our mission personnel and visiting relief workers in Port-au-Prince.
Over the next few weeks, we intend to find and facilitate the distribution of as much relief material as possible in ministry to devastated communities. We intend to repair the structural damage to the hospital and restore normal functioning. We intend to host and mobilize visiting medical and relief personnel as long as resources and need permit. We will make our transportation resources available to appropriate agencies to facilitate the transport of material and human resources to points of need. We intend to use this time of increased awareness of the needs in Haiti to expand our network especially to those contacts outside our normal Wesleyan support base. We intend to call to prayer the faithful of the Wesleyan Church specifically that The Wesleyan Church will experience a spiritual renewal and a permanent return to the passion for evangelism and social action for which characterized our Wesleyan heritage.
In the next year, we hope to break ground on the new La Gonave Hospital building, a project even more urgently needed after damage sustained in last week’s earthquake. We hope to write and fund an intentional recovery plan for The Wesleyan Church of Haiti, incorporating help for individual families, churches, schools, districts, and institutions. We hope to also write and fund additional projects for enterprise development and sustainable agriculture. We hope to facilitate a new level of administrative, financial, and strategic function in the Wesleyan Church of Haiti. In the next three years, we will search for God’s direction regarding the launch of a Wesleyan university in Haiti.
Video of Dan Irvine, Global Partners’ Caribe-Atlantic Area Director, reporting from Haiti.
