United Methodists lift up hope, prayers for Haiti quake
victims
A cross is almost the only thing left intact at this
church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following a massive Jan. 12
earthquake. Photo courtesy of Caritas.
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A UMNS Report
By Kathy Gilbert*
6:15 PM EST Jan. 14, 2010
United Methodists are giving thanks, packing boxes of supplies,
wiping away tears and, above all, praying as news comes in about the
death and destruction in Haiti.
Churches and annual (regional) conferences in the United States are
starting to get word from their mission teams who were in Haiti when the
massive earthquake hit.
Many are safe. Some are wounded. Others have not been heard from.
Officials with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries are
still holding out hope Jan. 14 that the Rev. Sam Dixon, top executive of
the United Methodist Committee on Relief; the Rev. Clinton Rabb, head
of Mission Volunteers; and Jim Gulley, an UMCOR consultant, are somehow
still alive.
The three missing United Methodist mission executives were seen
entering the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince shortly before the Jan. 12
earthquake rocked the capital, destroying the hotel. Another United
Methodist, Sarla Chand, vice president of international programs for IMA
World Health, also had a scheduled meeting at the Hotel Montana the day
of the earthquake.
Just as many churches were holding special prayer services Wednesday
evening, a special service was held at the Board of Global Ministries.
“As the names of people were lifted, there was a strong sense of
community,” said Melissa Hinnen, director of communications for UMCOR.
Haitians build concrete water
filters for the Haiti School Water
Project. 2007 UMNS file photo
courtesy of United Methodist
Michigan Area Haiti Task Force.
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Special relationship
The Rev. Charline Pierre, pastor at St. Johns Haitian United
Methodist Church in Boynton Beach, Fla., has been “talking, crying and
praying” with many members of her church as they receive word of the
death of loved ones in Haiti. The Florida Annual (regional) Conference
has a three-year-old relationship with the Methodist Church of Haiti.
Patience Nave, a member of First United Methodist Church in
Homosassa, Fla., had planned to go to Haiti on a mission trip Jan. 14.
She said she was disappointed and conflicted about the cancellation. “I
cannot tell you the mixed emotions I have that I am safe and all these
other people are not,” Nave said.
Nave, who is in her late 70s, has traveled to Haiti numerous times.
On this week’s trip, she had planned to deliver $2,000 to the Carrenage
Methodist Church to help feed the children who attend school there.
“I keep thinking about people who had nothing and now they have
less,” Nave said. “Isn’t there a bottom? If you were sleeping on the
floor, now you have no floor. You had a piece of bread, now you have no
bread.”
Injured and missing
Eight Hoosier United Methodists serving in Haiti as
volunteers-in-mission have not been heard from, reports Dan Gangler,
Indiana Conference director of communications. Four are members of the
Milroy United Methodist Church and four are members of St. Luke’s United
Methodist Church in Indianapolis. This group was led by Jamalyn
Williamson, an associate pastor at St. Luke’s.
The team was working on projects at a Catholic school and orphanage
in Fondwa, four hours south of Port-au-Prince, the quake’s epicenter.
They came to Haiti under the auspices of the Family Health Ministries, a
faith-based non-profit organization based in Durham, N.C.
Members of a Dallas mission team working at an eye-care clinic were
injured in the earthquake.
Twelve volunteers from Highland Park United Methodist Church in
Dallas were working in the village of Petit Goave when the clinic
building collapsed. Volunteers had to dig out people buried in the
rubble, the church said on its Web site. Some mission members were
injured.
Late Thursday afternoon, the church issued an update that it had a
chartered airplane en route to the Dominican Republic to pick up some of
the team members. Two other members are headed to the island of
Martinique. Three more are headed to the U.S., and the remaining five
have already arrived stateside. The update listed various injuries,
including broken ribs, a broken hand and serious internal injuries.
A member of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., was
injured and is awaiting evacuation, said the Rev. Dean Snyder. Other
members of the congregation have associates and friends in Haiti. The
church plans a prayer service Jan. 15.
Praying without ceasing
Many churches turned their usual Wednesday night activities into
prayer services. More than 400 people filled the sanctuary at Trinity
United Methodist Church to pray for all those affected by the
earthquake, including mission volunteers from the congregation at a
Haiti orphanage.
Members of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hackettstown,
N.J., clap as
they get word that the members of the church’s mission team
had all survived
the earthquake. Photo courtesy of Robert Sciarrino/The
Newark Star-Ledger.
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The prayer service was at 7 p.m. Jan. 13. At 10:30 p.m., they
received word that the team had safely evacuated from Haiti and was
staying overnight in the Bahamas. They hoped to return to the U.S. today
or tomorrow.
“We had an amazing service last night,” said Louise Spender,
assistant for the Rev. Frank Fowler, pastor of Trinity and mission team
leader. “We stood hand-in-hand and sang and prayed. It was an amazing,
spirit-filled service.”
“Usually when you tell people you are having a prayer service you
have to pay them or feed them something to get them to come,” said the
Rev. Renee L. McCleary, superintendent for the Skylands District of the
Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. McCleary gave the message during
the service.
“I am so proud of them and so grateful to God they are safe.”
Coming home
Helen Little, 77, is not happy she is being forced to leave Haiti.
“She sent us an e-mail this morning saying the Americans were being
evacuated from Haiti and she did not take the news well,” said the Rev.
Alan P. Swartz, pastor of Horne Memorial United Methodist Church,
Clayton, N.C. Little is a member of Horne Memorial and is the leader of a
group of 20 United Methodist volunteers in Haiti. This is her 47th trip
to a country she has come to love.
Swartz called Little the “conscience” of the church, and said because
of her there were 50 people at the church Thursday packing boxes of
supplies to ship to Haiti.
Swartz said when he came to Horne Memorial about seven years ago she
told him, “Preacher, I want you to know I’m in worship about every
Sunday, but I want you to know that what we do here on Sunday morning
isn’t all there is to worship. Equally important is what we do during
the week.”
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Little has brought many youth to Haiti, and they now “hold it very
dear,” Swartz said. At the Wednesday night prayer service for Haiti more
than half of the attendees were under 18.
Donations to UMCOR’s “Haiti Emergency” relief efforts can be placed
in local church offering plates or sent directly to UMCOR, P.O. Box
9068, Room 330, New York, NY 10087-9068. Designate checks for UMCOR
Advance #418325 and “Haiti.” Online donations can be made at www.umcor.org. Those
making credit-card donations can call (800) 554-8583.
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in
Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615)
742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
slideshow
Photos from team in Haiti
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Resources
UMCOR Field Office: Haiti
Haiti Emergency, UMCOR Advance
#418325
The
United Methodist Church
UMC Giving
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