Aftershock: A Journey of Faith to Haiti

Critics portrayed it as a disjointed, haphazard mission when 10 Americans traveled to Haiti to rescue children from the earthquake-devastated county. Their perception: Pious Christians descended on a country that was left in shambles by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. In one sweeping motion, they gathered up 33 Haitian children from the streets, loaded them in a bus, and headed for the Dominican Republic without documents and without regard for prevailing laws. Ill-conceived, hastily planned, and capricious. That’s the portrait painted by international news organizations and accepted by detractors in the days immediately after their detainment at the border on Saturday morning, January 30, 2010, and their formal arrest late that afternoon in Port-au-Prince. Quickly organized? Without a doubt. Urgent? Unquestionably. Limited resources? Unfortunately true. Ill-conceived, hastily planned, and capricious. Hardly. The earthquake that toppled buildings in Port-au-Prince also severed regular communications, crippled roads and streets, neutralized government services, and redefined normal. Nothing in the struggling nation of 9 million people, including social services and transportation, could have been considered “normal” in the aftermath of destruction. To expect that disaster relief would be well organized and well executed would have been unreasonable even for seasoned response teams. And it showed. International relief that poured into Haiti had to overcome significant logistic hurdles in the first days and weeks. Aid was coming in faster than it could be distributed and absorbed, so much of it was stockpiled at major ports. Sadly, part of those donations found their way to the black market to be sold for personal profit or wound up in the hands of government employees who converted it to their own use. Relief workers arrived in waves, yet many were left largely to their own abilities and coordination, without official direction. But for a group of well-meaning and inexperienced American volunteers unfamiliar with disaster response and singularly focused on ministering to needy children, it would have taken an extraordinary effort to provide the immediate care so desperately needed. It would require divine intervention. The same kind of intervention the nation of Israel needed when fleeing captivity in Egypt – God boldly directing their path while at the same time protecting them from ever-present threats. For their efforts to succeed, the American team would need God to bring all of the many pieces together. Unfortunately, many of those pieces were lost under growing piles of rubble, swirling suspicion, fractured bureaucracy, and mounting legal allegations. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What does desperation look like? Gaze deeply into the eyes of a Haitian child and you will see desperation. Where there should be a sparkle – an awe about the world in which he or she lives – there was anxiety and despair. The first things Steve McMullin, one of the 10 American volunteers, noticed when he held a Haitian child were hollow, empty eyes. It broke his heart. He longed to fill the void with love, to show the child a future of hope beyond the desperation of the day. A future far removed from begging on the streets. A future removed from servitude in the homes of the rich, or the pleasures of abusive adults. It was the same motive that led nine others to leave the comfort and security of their homes and travel to Haiti. Eyes begged for help, begged for hope. The mission to Haiti began with many small successes that could be attributed only to God’s intervention. Support in their community was almost instantaneous. Their efforts to secure donated supplies were productive and gratifying. Travel arrangements came together quickly. All combined to lay a solid foundation for their trip. When Laura and Charisa arrived at the Salt Lake City airport on January 20, 2010, they were prepared to ship 15 of 18 large plastic containers of orphanage supplies at a cost of about $100 each. But an airline supervisor intervened, and out of sympathy for the worthy cause, passed the extra plastic bins along at no cost, for a savings of $1,500. After a plane change in Chicago, Laura and Charisa befriended members of an independent medical group, also destined for Haiti, and discussed ways of coordinating their efforts. And upon arrival in the Dominican Republic they determined that a vacant hotel, secured for use as a temporary orphanage, was ideally suited for the purpose. Things appeared to be going well. Those early victories seemed to portend even greater success once the orphanage was operational and populated with needy children. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “In 2009, God placed a calling on my heart for the mission field and a deep burden for children who are orphaned, abused, abandoned, and enslaved,” Laura explains. “He led Charisa and me to go to the Dominican Republic and Haiti on two mission trips to share God’s love with precious children in bateys, impoverished Haitian shanty towns in the sugar cane plantations, on the streets, and in orphanages – handing out food, clothing, and small toys. He filled my heart with love and compassion for the hurting children on this island – many of whom have suffered horrific abuse and are enslaved as domestic servants or as prostitutes in the sex tourism trade. “Haitian children in the (Dominican) bateys are at high risk of being enslaved because they are not considered citizens of either country, unwanted and unvalued except by the traffickers … Prior to the earthquake, I was praying and waiting on God to provide not only the funds, but also to enable my family to go and serve together. I continue to pray and wait on God to fulfill all He has promised and called me to do.”1 Even before embarking on the 2010 trip to Haiti, Laura recognized the need to obtain proper authorization for transporting children to the temporary orphanage. Contrary to conclusions by Haitian officials, the news media, and critics, the American volunteers were committed to following established policies, even when those policies seemed obscure, shifted constantly like desert sand, or were absent altogether. On January 16, 2010 – five days before their departure from the U.S. – Laura contacted a pair of realtors had who helped locate land suitable for building a permanent orphanage in the Dominican Republic. She asked them to begin working with Dominican authorities to obtain authorization to bring Haitian children into the country. One of the realtors, Jose Hidalgo, had contacts within the Dominican government who could help obtain the necessary travel authorization. A Dominican native, he had long been concerned about the plight of abandoned children and immediately embraced the effort by his new American friends. He had been considering ways he could help the children, and plans to establish a new orphanage in his community presented an ideal opportunity.