Two Missionary Families Return to U.S.
The wives and children of two Christian Reformed World Missions (CRWM) missionary families serving in earthquake-ravaged, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, have arrived in the United States. They will be staying with members of their families until the situation in Haiti stabilizes.
Meanwhile, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) international disaster response personnel are traveling throughout the Port-au-Prince area evaluating opportunities to provide emergency relief and developing a network with other relief organizations.
And officials from Back to God Hour Ministries International were relieved to learn that Sem Hypolite and Marguelita Petion, two of their employees in Haiti, and their immediate families survived the disaster.
The two missionary families, Ruth Van Dam and her children and Sharon Segaar-King and her children, arrived safely in Florida on Sunday before traveling on to join their extended families Grand Rapids, Mich., and New York.
Their husbands, Howard Van Dam and Zachary Segaar-King, together with other CRWM and CRWRC staff who were in Haiti at the time of the earthquake, stayed to help in the relief effort.
“Let's thank God for safe arrival and pray for the rest for the travelers and safety for those who remain behind. Let us continue to pray for the many, many people in Haiti who have lost everything dear to them, or fear that they have,” says Steve Van Zanen, director of the CRC’s Event Response Team, which meets regularly to monitor the situation in Haiti.
Priorities and Challenges
News coming out of Haiti today was mixed. Troops, doctors and aid workers flowed into Haiti on Monday, even while victims of the quake that killed an estimated 200,000 people struggled to obtain water and food and as looting spread to more parts of Port-au-Prince.
The epicenter of the quake, which registered 7.0 on the Richter scale, occurred west/southwest of Port-au-Prince. Only now are rescue and relief teams making it into those areas to assess the damage.
Due to the devastated infrastructure in Haiti, CRWRC is looking into setting up a logistics center in the Dominican Republic as a base for procuring and distributing aid.
“Haiti doesn’t have large reserves of food and other supplies at the best of times so the existing supplies are expected to be exhausted very soon after which all supplies will have to come in from abroad, which makes logistics a challenge” said Jacob Kramer, CRWRC’s Disaster Response director.
CRWRC’s first priorities are to get water, food, and medical aid to all those who need it.
“We are also working with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank to see what food aid we can provide and with Medical Teams International to provide medical support. The first surgical team arrived last week and a specialized orthopaedic team was expected to arrive later today,” said Kramer
Once these immediate needs are met, CRWRC’s next priority will be temporary and more permanent shelter.
“The images of destruction are difficult to comprehend,” said Ken Little, CRWRC’s senior Disaster Response Project manager, after visiting various communities in Haiti this weekend.
“The earthquake turned to rubble a multi-story structure and left the one beside it standing. Homes made of concrete were often piles of rubble beneath a sharply tipping concrete slab that used to be the roof.”
Testimonies of Faith, Grace
Little and CRWRC-Haiti country consultant Ad deBlaiej traveled on Sunday to visit project sites, assess needs, and prepare plans for CRWRC’s longer-term response. One such project site is in Bolosse, a community within Port-au-Prince where CRWRC’s partner, the Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Haiti has a Bible college and pastoral-training campus.
Upon arriving, they discovered that one of the key teaching centers on the campus is partially destroyed and that two students were killed during the quake.
“When we arrived, an open air church service was underway,” said Little. “We heard passionate prayers pleading for courage and help. We then stood and sang hallelujahs to Jesus.”
On Friday, Rev. Jerry Dykstra, executive director of the CRCNA sent out a letter to CRC congregations. “I invite you to join me in lifting up prayers across the Christian Reformed Church for those people who have personally been impacted by loss of life, health, and property,” he wrote.
“Obviously, the situation is extremely challenging—so many dead and injured, so much trauma.”
In response to Dykstra’s letter, a CRC congregation informed the CRCNA that one of its members had lost an aunt, her husband and their three children.
But in the midst of tragedy, stories of God’s grace abound. Pastor Elihu Metellus, the president of the CRC of Haiti (a partner of CRWRC and CRWM), was helping to pour a new concrete roof for a church construction project in the town of Belladere some distance away from his home in Jacmel, Haiti. When the quake struck, the last bucket of wet concrete was being poured onto the Belladere church roof.
At that same moment, a hundred miles away, Pastor Elihu’s own church in Jacmel buckled under the force of the quake and was completely destroyed. No one was in the Jacmel church when it fell. In what can only be described as a miracle of God, the freshly poured cement of the Belladere church withstood the quake and did not fall down on Pastor Elihu and the other volunteer laborers standing on and under the Belladere church roof.
“The Haitian people are a resilient people. A people who in the midst of their greatest need are focusing on their Lord trusting in His faithful provision,” says CRWRC’s Kramer.
“Never before have I heard so many testimonies by survivors about their trust in the Lord who will carry them and lead them through this indescribable trial.”
Getting Involved
A CRWM missionary school teacher in the Dominican Republic says she and her husband went to the large grocery store in Santiago, where they discovered that the store had a special section set up with supplies for Haiti.
“Customers could pick out items from this section, pay for them at the checkout counter, and then place them in an area near the exit door where they were tallied and prepared for delivery to Haiti. Packs of bottled water and boxes of milk were some of the items that could be purchased. Almost everyone in the checkout lanes seemed to be buying supplies for Haiti,” writes the missionary.
BTGMI said it has received word that its ministry building is still standing, and generally structurally sound. The discipleship center is located in the offices of the Christian Reformed Church in Haiti. But BTGMI still does not know the status of its 37 Haitian volunteers nor that of the 900 Bible study correspondence students.
“Continue to pray for the people of Haiti, as they experience a crisis that defies description. Pray for great grace,” says Rev. Robert Heerspink, director of BTGMI.
For continuing updates on the situation in Haiti, see our Help Haiti website at www.crcna.org/Haiti
Financial contributions for CRWRC's response are urgently needed. Every dollar makes a difference and now if Canadians give a donation to the Haiti Earthquake victims through CRWRC by February 12th, it will double in impact due to a generous contribution from the Canadian Government.
Checks, marked “Haiti Earthquake 2010” can also be sent to:
CRWRC-US
2850 Kalamazoo Ave SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49560.
Ph: 1-800-55-CRWRC
CRWRC-Canada
3475 Mainway
P.O. Box 5070 STN LCD 1
Burlington, Ontario, L7R 3Y8
Ph: 1-800-730-3490
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