Sharon E. Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), reflects on her experiences during a recent trip to Haiti.
A memorial service for people who died. An anointing for some who were injured yet live. Visits to House of Hope children now meeting under tarps - and to a local church that has become the center of a village of makeshift tents. Highlights of our post-Earthquake trip to Haiti.
We were Global Ministries executives, Cally Rogers-Witte and David Vargas; Latin America and the Caribbean Executive, Felix Ortiz; the GMP (General Minister and President) of the United Church of Christ, Geoffrey Black; and me, Sharon Watkins, Disciples GMP.
At first glance, Haiti is pretty much exactly what you'd think. So much destruction of buildings - random almost - one still standing, another just beside it in ruins. The scope of the overall damage - like it was in New Orleans - is beyond what the camera can convey.
But a second look shows Haitians standing proud. Commerce continues - even in front of rubble and collapsed buildings, merchants set up shop on the sidewalks of Port au Prince as they did before the earthquake. Cars by law must be clean. Work crews are everywhere with shovels, wheel barrows, pick axes, cement trowels, brooms. Rebuilding has begun.
It's going to take a long time.
But our partner, Jerode Guillomettre of the SKDE (Christian Center for Integrated Development) says Haitians are up to the task. He said he, in shock, couldn't pray for three days after the quake. But when the prayer finally came, it was "Thank you." Thanks to God that not everyone died. Thanks for the faithfulness of the Haitian people to be revealed singing, praying, praising God even in the aftermath of disaster. Thanks for the opportunity to build a new Haiti.
That same faithfulness was apparent at a memorial service for those lost at the Port au Prince headquarters of CONASPEH (National Spiritual Council of Churches of Haiti) our Global Ministries partner which is an umbrella organization of 6700 local churches - most of them very poor. We sensed their faith as survivors told their stories, as we prayed together and anointed them, praising God for the gift of life and hope in Jesus Christ.
After the service we met children who are the child sponsorship children that Disciples and UCC can support. We met more children at the two House of Hope locations now operating under tarps. House of Hope, set up to bring a future for child domestic laborers, is now reaching out to all who come from the neighborhoods around the tarps. The goal is to give normalcy and joy to children traumatized by the earthquake, to get them ready to start back to school.
It's good to partner with these fine teachers and administrators who so obviously care for the children. My heart soared as I heard the children sing, saw them laugh, inspected their handiwork: embroidery and wood carving out under the tarp. And listened to the beautiful melody of the Haitian National anthem sung by a young soprano who could have a future in music - accompanied with energy by all those sweet children's voices. Those children are part of our child sponsorship program as well.
At one of our CONASPEH churches we visited a kind of "shanty town" made up of tents that can hardly bear the name: hand cut tree branches stuck in to the earth, with whatever kind of fabric or sheet or blanket that could be scrounged up to stretch in between. The congregation itself is now meeting under a large tarp. Surrounding that tarp are about 400 makeshift tents - the daytime homes of some 1000 of Haiti's poorest people following the quake. I say daytime home, because at night - for security in numbers and safety in the arms of the church - they come under the church tarp to sleep.
We met the pastor - looking tired but smiling - as he moved among his expanded congregation there on the church grounds.
We marveled at the faithfulness of the church - on the ground and around the world - joining hands to be the good news that God loves the world and God wants God's children to live in abundance, to be a movement for wholeness, a sign of God's inbreaking reign into the world.
We joined in Guillomettre's prayer: "Thank you." Thank you, God, for the work of the churches of Haiti. Thank you for the partnership of churches around the world, for our own Week of Compassion, first responder in times of disaster and partner in longer term development assistance. And thanks for the long-term church-to-church relationships cultivated and nurtured through our Global Ministries partnerships, supported through Disciples Mission Fund (DMF) as we walk with partners, offering critical presence over the long haul.
It will be a long haul in Haiti, but we will be there through our prayers, through our gifts, through our advocacy, for a strong, prosperous Haiti. Following the lead of the Haitian people themselves, we will walk together as partners, in the name of Christ.
May it be so.
Read more about the trip to Haiti from the Disciples News Service.