Day 10 - They Found His Son

Today we began the day with great anticipation and pride that we might reach our targeted number of 50 churches visited.  However, we fell short of this goal with a gut-wrenching development.

One of the pastors we have been talking with all week, Pastor Moise, has been busy serving orphans in his community. Astonishingly, he has been doing this while his 8-year-old son has been missing since the quake six weeks ago. No one knew for sure of the boy’s location when the quake hit, and there was hope that he had gone off somewhere. Today, as we approached our goal of visiting this 50th church, Pastor Moises’ associate called to say that he regreted he would be unable to keep our appointment.  Remains of his son had been found in the rubble of his school.

Here we were, focused on “accomplishing” our target of putting the 50th church on the map, and God calls our pride up short with a stomach punch that reminds us yet again of the depth of this tragedy. Individual lives, not numbers, are what matters. 

Earlier in the day across town, Pastor Joseph had showed us a rubble pile that used to serve orphans next to his church. With tears in his eyes, he told us that one of the 75 children in their care had been interred in the pile. The church has no access to heavy equipment and cannot reach the child’s body.

Pastor Joseph shows us the house where a child in his care remains interred.

Yet another reminder that this heartache is still new and far from finished for the people of Haiti.

So, rather than focusing on numbers or our accomplishments, let us tell you about the individuals with HORT that have been doing this work for the last two weeks. Our initial deployment team represents numerous ministries. We have laid the groundwork for what will be tens of HORT partnerships this year, involving hundreds of people.  Will you be part of one? We pray you will.

Here are just some of the fine people who made HORT possible:

Aaron Bensko, volunteer photographer and videographer, documented all our progress with awesome photos.

Alan Hunt interviewed countless pastors and also found time to entertain the children.

 

Beautiful Evanson, one of our drivers, hopes to be a cardiologist one day...there are only three in all of Haiti.

Commander John Roberts has kept us on task and on mission with his amazing leadership skills.

David Leventhal had all the answers for every technical problem.

Dr. Byron Schick kept us safe and attended to our medical questions.

Jen Gash was a whiz at coordinating our logisitics.

Jodi Jackson Tucker served as information and supply officer.

Mishlay, our awesome household helper, chopped fresh coconut for us one morning.

Pastor Diula Previlon, born in Haiti, served faithfully as a translator and cultural adviser.

Pastor Theo Sandburg, the youngest member of the team, was a great spiritual leader for all of us.

Paul Myhill put the resources of his organization behind this endeavor.

Scott Vair worked day and night planning all our meetings and manuevers.

The eleven members of our initial deployment team.