Church

HAITI DISASTER APPEAL

The challenge of providing help to those affected by the Haiti earthquake is even more severe than that faced in the aftermath of the 2004 Tsunami.

United Nations spokesman Elisabeth Brys says: “This is a historic disaster. We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the UN memory. It is like no other.”

The final death toll may be similar to that of the Tsunami, but officials with knowledge of both incidents say this disaster poses an infinitely tougher relief challenge in a number of ways. The country was barely functional even before the earthquake struck.

For this reason, the churches of East Dean, Friston and Jevington are offering the opportunity for you to help. You may already have made a donation; however, the needs are enormous. If you are able to give in response to this appeal, be assured it will make a difference.

A special flier is being produced for distribution locally, and which will also be at the back of our churches. This will enable people to give via our churches if they wish to (and for Gift Aid to be reclaimed).

Or, if you wish to give right now, you can do so via the Disasters Emergency Committee http://www.dec.org.uk/
Phone - 0370 606 0900
Text - text GIVE to 70077 to donate £5 to the appeal
Post - send cheques payable to DEC Haiti Earthquake to: PO Box 999, London EC3A 3AA

SURVIVORS' TALES (From "The Times" newspaper, 21st January)

Ena Zizi: the churchgoer

Ena Zizi, 70, had gone to Port-au-Prince’s Roman Catholic cathedral to pray when the quake shook it to the ground. After seven days trapped in the ruins, she was found alive, singing hymns in celebration.

Grey from the dust and clenching her teeth in pain, Mrs Zizi was carried out of the rubble by a Mexican rescue team but said she was convinced that a higher power had kept her alive.

“I talked only to my boss — God,” she said. “I didn’t need any more humans.” She suffered a dislocated hip, a broken leg and dehydration but insisted: “I’m all right — sort of . . . I’m OK but my leg hurts.”

A member of the team that found her told ABC News: “We kept working but we couldn’t reach the woman. Then when I felt that she had grabbed my hand and squeezed it, it felt like God was squeezing my hand. I kissed her hand and she said, ‘Son, son’.”

Her real son, Maxime Janvier, who lives in the US, told CNN that he and his family had never given up hope that his mother would be saved. “We were praying a lot for that to happen,” he said.

“She had just gone to church . . . my sister told me she could be either there or the other church that crumbled. I’ve been calling Haiti, calling my sister, calling my father in Miami to put her name out so people could look out for her.” He added: “I just called my dad and let him know — and he was very happy.”

Mrs Zizi was flown to the USS Bataan, a hospital ship anchored off Port-au-Prince. She was said to be in stable condition yesterday.

Elisabeth Joassaint: the newborn baby

For almost a week Michelene Joassaint mourned her newborn baby, believing that if she ever saw the infant again it would be to bury her broken body.

Yesterday, Elisabeth Joassaint — aged 15 days — was back at her mother’s breast after spending a week pinned alone in the debris of what was once her home in Jacmel, Haiti. No one could explain how the newborn endured for so long without hydration and nutrition — other than Mrs Joassaint. “It was the mercy of God,” she told The Wall Street Journal.

On Tuesday last week, as the earthquake struck, Mrs Joassaint, 22, tried to run to the second floor of her home to save Elisabeth but was thwarted by the collapsing walls.

As she and her family grieved at a camp on a football field, a search team set about the ruins of her house, believing that they were looking only for a corpse. But nestled in a hollow beneath the destruction, they found Elisabeth’s bed, with the baby still on it.

A messenger was dispatched to tell Mrs Joassaint the incredible news. “I just cried and ran to my baby,” she said. Her father, Michelet Joassaint, 47, said: “This wasn’t the way Jesus wanted the baby to die.”

Dan Woolley: the charity worker

Wedged in a lift shaft at the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Dan Woolley kept himself alive using a dirty shirt, a smelly sock — and his iPhone.

Speaking at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, where he was treated before flying home to Colorado yesterday, Mr Woolley, 39, told how he was left barely able to see after his glasses were knocked off and tonnes of wreckage fell around him, crushing one leg. “It was complete darkness but I realised that God had given me some tools to survive,” said Mr Woolley, who had been in Haiti working for Compassion International.

“I had my iPhone with me and I had a med app on there so I was able to look up treatment of excessive bleeding and compound fracture. So then I used my shirt to tie my leg and a sock on the back of my head.”

Pulling a bloodstained notebook from his pocket, he scrawled farewell messages to his sons Josh, 6, and Nathan, 3. “Don’t just live — change the world,” one said. Until a team found him on the third day, Mr Woolley’s wife, Christina, waited at home “knowing that wherever Dan was, God was holding him in the palm of his hand”.




For theological reflection on what has happened, there is an article on the website entitled "The earthquake and God."

David Baker (Rector)
Telephone: 423266
Email: davidbaker1966@yahoo.co.uk

This page last modified on: 01 February 2010