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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.

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.
 

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.

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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.

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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