A Morning Call

My phone rang at 7:00 this morning. It was my former student, Jean Robert Joseph, on the right in the photo at the left. He is now attending university in Limbe, near Cap Haitien in the north of Haiti with a partial scholarship from HAFF. He was calling to let me know that he and our other former students at the university in Limbe are all well and hadn't felt the earthquake that hit Cap Haitien last night.

I have only been able to find one small story on the internet about the supposed earthquake that brought down a house in Cap Haitian overnight. Apparently geophysicists did not register any quake, but might not have if it was less than 4.5 on the Richter Scale. I was not 100% clear if the building that came down in Cap had people from our area living in it. I think, from what Jean Robert said, that it might have, but it wasn't clear. The story on the Washington Post website said that 2 were killed, and that they were still looking for survivors.

This morning in church Jean Jean Mompremier, the pastor, spoke about the earthquake and said that the only people who survived were those on the top floor of the 3 story building. He also warned that the people need to be ready to receive more refugees, this time fleeing the perceived threat of buildings collapsing in Cap Haitien. Please pray for this country. People all over the nation are living in fear of buildings falling on them. And the rainy season is getting ready to start and many many people still do not even have the shelter of a tent. There is still a great need in this country.

I talked on the phone to a woman yesterday in Port-au-Prince who just recently got a tarp to cover them since their house collapsed in the 12 January quake. When I asked why her family didn't just come back to this area to their family that wants them to come home, she answered that they would lose everything if they left. She said if they want to be able to hold on to their property so they can rebuild later, they have to stay there or someone else will just move in and start building.

And yet this morning, in the midst of all the questions of how much more these folks can handle, there was great encouragement in church. A woman got up to speak about her experience in the earthquake in Port. She shared a story we have heard many other share. She said she cried out, "Jesus save me" as the building started to shake, and the next thing she knew, she was outside in the street and the house was collapsed behind her. She was thanking and praising the Lord that she had kept her life clean and that her family was all saved from the quake and they were all back home in the area where she had been raised and back at the church where she first learned to know Jesus. She encouraged all the young people to guard their reputations and to be proud of the place they were raised. And above all, to trust in Christ.