The Vine News

As an earthquake struck Haiti, leaving millions paralyzed with terror, DC area Christian ministries mobilized several efforts to help rescue, serve and deliver needed goods to minister to the horrified Haitians who were left without food, clothing, shelter and -- for so many -- their families.

From the already impoverished Haitians who now have even less, to the middle class and well-to-do countrymen who have also suffered the losses of their homes and family members, millions of Haitians are still struggling through the rippling effects of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck near its capital of Port-au-Prince in mid-January.

Recent reports estimate the death toll at 100,000 lives, created an unwanted thread of commonality among the nationals – a wave of grief and loss the likes of which are rare in any nation.

But Washington area ministries have surged along with the rest of the nation to come to the aid of the Haitian people, digging deep into their pockets to provide real and necessary support on the ground.
Around the area, ministries have collected donations of their congregants and others to funnel their support to local ministries in Haiti. Others have sponsored benefit concerts or sent missionaries directly to Haiti to help feed the hungry and soothe the wounded.

“After seeing the devastation in Haiti, being a Christian, I just believe we could make a difference some kind of way,” said Trenillo Walters of the gospel group Outreach 24/7, who organized and sponsored a benefit concert at Jericho City of Praise in Landover, MD last month that raised $18,000 for the victims of the quake.

Walters said he was just impacted by the suffering and felt called to action. He asked his assistant pastor, Joel R. Peebles, Sr., if they could use the church and just started calling artists to see who would participate.

” I couldn’t fathom it would be 100,000 people dead,” he said. “I just knew when you see situations  like this believers can’t just sit back and do nothing and hope that others will take care of it, when the responsibility have been given to us.”

About 5,000 people came out to hear Stellar Award winners Stephen Hurd and Isaiah Thomas, national recording artists Kevin LeVar, 7 Sons of Soul, Kendall King, Jericho’s youth and mass choirs also performed, along with Walter’s own group Outreach. All the proceeds were donated to Feed the Children, Walters said.

“I’m not the Red Cross but if I have the faith to believe a little bit and I can get a couple other people t o believe with me, we can make and impact,” he said.

Elsewhere donations have been pouring in, according to Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention Executive Secretary and Treasurer Dr. David Goatley. The Washington DC-based African American organization has missionary workers in countries around the globe, including Haiti.

Goatley said Washington area ministries have been “generous” in their donations to Lott Carey, which has 22 churches serving in the country, four of which were destroyed in the quake. Donations from various ministries have ranged from $1,000 to $25,000 he said, and the churches there are using those funds to serve their fellow countrymen who have been dispersed and are distraught.

“Our churches are receiving and trying to provide care to internally dispersed persons -- people who tried to flee,” Goatley said. “Our churches in the area of St. Marc are trying to provide some ministry support at the hospital there that is overrun with illness and injury.  We’re ramping up to provide daily meals, and snack at least for family members.”

Goatley said many churches are collaborating with others and collecting monies together. The Missionary Minister’s Baptist Conference for DC and Vicinity, for example, has collected approximately $45,000 to donate to the Lott Carey fund so far, according to group president Rev. Henry Gaskins.
Goatley said those collaborations have even greater impact when they funnel through an organization that already has relationships in place on the ground.

‘If you don’t have experience working in an international setting and especially with disaster response, even well-intentioned efforts can be ill-advised activities,” he said, noting the missionaries who were arrested late January trying to take Haitian children across the border. “The benefits of collaborating with someone who already has networks on the ground is … we can be more effective in responding to the needs.”

Already, Lott Carey has sent a shipment of clothing and other goods through its partners who are permitted to bring goods into the country. Another shipment is scheduled for the end of the month Goatley said.

And the help can’t come soon enough, according to Myriam LeGer, a Haitian-American Washington DC resident who flew to neighboring Dominican Republic late January to bring her aunt and uncle, whose house was uninhabitable after the quake back to the US for safety and relief.

LeGer lost two family members – one during the initial quake and another during an aftershock because the septuagenarian refused to sleep outside in a tent.

LeGer said her aunt and uncle, who live in a suburb of Port-au-Prince described the relief efforts as “unorganized chaos.” Residents guard their homes around the clock, lest it be raided. They also fear that a food delivery would make them a neighborhood target.

“I have heard there are people who are celebrating God and praising God” she said her relatives reported. “At night people are singing hymns and praying. They could hear them”
“But there are people who have lost their faith,” she said – noting those who lost their entire families.
“Every day you’re finding out who made it and who didn’t,” she said of her family’s ordeal, noting one family member who died and had the “luxury” of a funeral. Another family member who was trapped in a building was dug out by a student after several other people had passed by, ignoring her cries for help, LeGer said.

“There’s a lot of closure people will never have,” she said. “Search and rescue is a wrap now. If you’re down there [buried under rubble] you’re staying.”
Still, LeGer sees hope in the cross – like the steel one elevated above the remains of what once was the Sacred Heart Church.

“The most important thing is we’ve got to look to our Word,” LeGer said. “Poor Lot, what did he do? Did he hurt anybody? God wiped out his whole family to see if he would continue to trust the Lord. The issue is not what happened. The issue is, in spite of everything, God works everything for good, and in all things praise Him.”