Four-Years Since January 12, 2010

On Sunday, January 12, we recognized the four-year anniversary of the tragedy of January 12, 2010.  We will never forget that Tuesday afternoon at 4:52 p.m. as our family sat around the table for an early supper.  The cups and silverware started ominously vibrating at a very high frequency like a freight train was speeding by just outside our window.  By the time we realized that it was an earthquake, we were unable to get out of the house because of falling debris and furniture until the quake was nearly finished.  By God's grace, our home withstood the quake with only a dozen cracks or so; but many were not so lucky.  Seconds after the quake, a fog of dust rolled over our home just like the pictures of the twin-towers' collapse on Sept. 11 (the destruction of several large buildings in our neighborhood, along with a number of residences, were the source of the dust).  One vivid memory is the eerie scream of an entire city in unison, the sound of hundreds of thousands of voices crying out for deliverance at one time as the quake shook them to their core.
The question most people ask is what kind of progress is being made in Haiti today.  We can point out quite a bit of progress.  The International Disaster Response (IDR) team of World Renew recently wrapped up its project in Leogane (December, 2013) with over 3,000 houses built and many other interventions completed.  Many of the displaced person camps in Port-au-Prince and its environs have been disbanded (though there are many still in existence).  There is a lot of rebuilding of stores, houses and other buildings, though much of this is not to the pre-earthquake scale.  The international relief effort has left its mark in hotels by financing 4-5 large new hotels in Port-au-Prince to accommodate the visits of  future tourists and "NGO-professionals."  Many roads in Port-au-Prince have been rebuilt as well.  Please continue to pray for the rebuilding of Haiti.  What the January 12 Earthquake took in 35 seconds will take a generation to recover (not counting, of course, the over 200,000 lives that cannot be recovered).

A damaged neighborhood close to our home.