Missionary Transformed by Earthquake

March 1, 2010 -- Lesley Millar says she has never before had the range of emotions – the sheer terror and sadness as well as feelings of hope and amazing joy -- as she has experienced in the last several weeks following the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12.

In fact, the earthquake has transformed her, bringing her even closer to God.

A missionary with Christian Reformed World Missions, Millar had been in the country for less than a year when the earthquake hit, killing more than 200,000 people and leaving about 1 million people homeless.

Although she works for CRWM, much of Millar’s job in the few months that she had been on the ground in Haiti was to connect with Haitians who would try to find radio stations to run the new program, Perspectives Réformées, that Back to God Ministries International had begun to broadcast in the country. This program is hosted by Paul Mpindi, French ministry leader for BTGMI.

In addition, Millar had worked with BTGMI Haitian staff to set up a discipleship center for Haitians who hear the gospel through the radio program and want to know more about the Christian faith.

But the earthquake shifted the focus of her work and her life as well as that of her husband.

“For me, the worst part of the earthquake in Haiti was the wailing we heard shortly after the quake finished,” she writes in her February prayer letter to supporters. “It was like the whole city was screaming and crying at the top of their lungs.”

That first night, amid the wails, darkness descended “like a veil that made you think of the endtimes,” she says.

In the morning, she felt a little better, but then began the difficult process of learning what the quake had done to people and buildings in the city. “I received news from a friend that one of our colleagues and dear friends was missing,” she says. “I couldn’t process it.”

Upon seeing a landscape of rubble and devastation, she felt her heart ache. There was so much damage and suffering among the people.

“As soon as we could, we started buying food to distribute to communities where our partners worked that were hard hit,” she says of the work she and her husband did in those first days. “We gave rice, beans and spaghetti and some oil. We also had tarps shipped in from the DR to help with shelter.”

Millar, who became a Christian believer as an adult and is sponsored in part by Brampton CRC in Ontario, is fluent in Creole and French. In her job, she has been working closely with Sous Espwa (Source of Hope), the Haiti-based organization through which CRWM and the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) and their partners work from offices in Port-au-Prince. Those offices survived the quake.

Right now, she is taking part in the process of assessing how BTGMI can best continue its ministry, given that much of the infrastructure, including radio broadcasting capabilities, was destroyed by the quake.

In her letter, she asks people to pray “for the new direction our ministry will take over the next couple of months to one year.” She also asks for prayers “for the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the staff during this difficult time.”

Although her days have been long and grueling, Millar says that she has been profoundly encouraged by the faith of the Haitian people.

“After the quake, the name heard on everyone’s lips was Jesus,” she says. “Everyone was praising God for sparing their lives, even the ones who were injured. I was amazed at the people who were sitting in front of their broken homes, smiling and praising God for all that they had, their lives and their families.”

Even more moving to her was how over one million people attended a day-long worship service in downtown Port-au-Prince to mark the one-month occurrence of the earthquake. The massive worship event took place near the damaged capitol building in downtown Port-au-Prince.

It was part of a three-day time of fasting and prayer dedicated to asking God to shower his grace on everyone taking part in the reconstruction and healing that needs to occur following the earthquake.

Millar says that the entire three days were a time of offering praise and petitions to God. “When I woke up, I heard God’s name being praised and when I went to sleep, I heard God being worshipped. It was an incredible experience. I believe, too, that it brought a lot of healing to people who were distraught and suffering.”

In her own church during this time, they had a four-hour worship service that she found electrified “with God’s presence and people’s joy in worshipping him,” she says.

--Chris Meehan, CRC Communications

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