Heartache, Miracles Mark Relief Efforts in Haiti

At 4:53 p.m.—the moment when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake turned Haiti upside down a week ago Tuesday—hundreds of Christians spent a minute praying for survivors, churches and relief teams on the ground in Port-au-Prince.

The weekly One Minute for Haiti prayer campaign, sponsored by World Relief, launched Tuesday and is one of dozens of ways Christians are providing spiritual as well as humanitarian support in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake that officials say has left at least 70,000 dead.

Like other aid organizations working in Port-au-Prince near the epicenter of the earthquake, World Relief is helping to provide food, medical care and clean water to survivors.

Love a Child, which also runs an orphange, church and Jesus Healing Center at its base in Fond Parisien, roughly 55 miles from Port-au-Prince, will become the site of a U.N. medical base staffed by doctors from around the world. Twenty physicians are expected to arrive Wednesday.

“The Dominican Republic is stuck with thousands and thousands of homeless, critically wounded Haitians,” Sherry Burnette, who founded the outreach with her husband, Bobby, wrote on the ministry’s Web site Tuesday. “There are not enough doctors to do the surgeries, and there are not enough secure locations. We have it all right here. We will have such a huge opportunity to help the Haitian people-more than ever.”

Terry W. Snow, national director for Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Haiti, said earthquake survivors from Port-au-Prince were seeking refuge at churches 50 miles away in St. Marc, giving Christians there an opportunity to “demonstrate the power of the love of God.”

“There is a deep stirring within many Haitians, especially amongst our staff,” Snow said last week. “Our Haitian staff are proclaiming it is time for change.”

Convoy of Hope, a humanitarian organization affiliated with the Assemblies of God, provided 100,000 meals Sunday in six separate locations. But the ministry said food supplies being used to serve earthquake survivors as well as Convoy of Hope’s ongoing feeding initiative in Haiti are running low.

“The situation regarding food and water remains dire,” said Kevin Rose, Haiti director for Convoy of Hope, in an update on the ministry’s Web site. “The lack of fuel and security issues has made it very difficult to move food around the city. But through our network of partners we are getting food into some of the most desperate places.”

Some 400,000 pounds of food, water and supplies were to be sent to Haiti this week, Assemblies of God News reported, with another 200,000 meals scheduled to be flown in Wednesday afternoon.

As relief and recovery efforts went into the eighth day, Haitian survivors became more anxious for food and water, scrambling for supplies dropped by military planes. Security forces were working Tuesday to control looters and gangs that had been swarming through the streets, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

Reporter Kirk Noonan, who is on the ground with Convoy of Hope, said that on Delmas, one of the main roads near the worst-hit areas of Port-au-Prince, the team had to slow their truck because a throng of people was gathered around the bodies of two young men lying in the street. “Both have their hands tied behind their backs and have been executed for reasons unknown,” he wrote.

David Darg, who is working in Haiti with Operation Blessing International, said Port-au-Prince’s narrow streets are strewn with the wreckage of crushed cars and collapsed buildings. Desperate crowds flocked around their vehicle, though the team was transporting only medical supplies.

“When we did stop, crowds gathered around us,” Darg wrote in a blog posting Monday. “Some were banging on the window and gesturing they were hungry. A few tried to grab at the doctors’ clothing through the window.”

Survivors live amid the stench of death in makeshift camps. A soccer stadium has become the temporary home to 2,000 quake victims and the site of a makeshift clinic run by Operation Blessing in partnership with a medical team from Israel called IsraAid.

“It seems like every time we exit the airport there are more and more people gathered outside the gates desperate for help,” Darg wrote.

Survivor Gina Jean, who was pulled from the rubble of her home shortly after the quake hit, has been living with her two young children on a patch of ground, with strung-up bed sheets and a washing line hung with clothes their only protection from the sun, according to a report from World Vision. “It is shameful for my children to have to live like this,” she said.

Amid the tragic conditions are Christians working in the nation who say they have been witnessing miracles. Snow of YWAM Haiti said on Sunday a YWAM team rescued a woman and her 4-month-old baby who were pinned beneath a building. The two are in stable condition at a medical facility.

In another instance, a teenage girl was pulled from the rubble and brought to Operation Blessing’s medical team. Her body was limp, and she was thought to be dead.

“She reeked of death, having been buried next to other bodies that were killed instantly in the quake,” Darg wrote. “We rushed her to the Israeli hospital where she underwent surgery, and now, five days after the earthquake, she is in stable condition.

“Seeing this miraculous recovery and life saved before my eyes was one of the most profound moments of my life,” he continued. “Just this one life saved has made all the lost sleep, the sweat, the struggle to get here and any other adversity seem more than worthwhile.”

The devastation in Haiti has prompted a huge global response. The U.N. reported that more than $1.2 billion in aid funding had been pledged as of Tuesday, according to AFP.

For a list of ministries assisting with disaster relief in Haiti, click here.