3 stories

Looks like I have a decent connection tonight. Rather than trying to recap the past several days I want to just tell three stories from the quake - probably more so for me as a way to process it.

Today I took an earthquake engineer to the office for World Vision in Haiti so he could inspect it to determine if it was safe to begin using again. While there we spent some time with Frank Williams, the director for Haiti, and he told us his story. I believe he was at his office during the quake and his wife and one of his kids were home at their apartment. As soon as he could get out after the quake he headed to the apartment to see if they were ok. When he arrived he found it completely collapsed. Knowing they would have been inside he instantly knew that "His life had just drastically changed". He tried looking for a while to see if he could find them in the rubble but he realized as he was losing light that it was hopeless. So, he had no choice but to go to the house of a friend that first night, knowing that his wife and child were dead.

The next morning he, his son and some others decided to go to the World Vision office to get some tools and then head to the apartment to see what they could find as they dug. They knew it was hopeless but they had to try. When they turned the corner into the parking lot - there was his wife and child! They were badly scraped up but they were alive! It turns out that they were able to get out of the house and had taken refuge at a neighbors house for the night. With the phones down there was no way to call so they had to wait until the morning. Can you imagine?

Last night I was passing by the Nazon church and decided to call my friend Emmanuel who lives nearby to see if he was ok. Within a minute or so I was able to give him a big hug in the middle of the street. Then he started to tell me his story. Him and his fiance had been driving in their car just before the quake hit. They soon became stuck in a traffic jam and they were waiting for the car in front of them to move when it hit. The car started moving back and forth and unsure what to do he decided they needed to get out of the car. The very moment they cleared the car they turned and watched a house collapse on top of it, crushing it. He says "Luke - God saved me". Indeed he did.

One more. In January 12 at 4:45 Becca and I were driving a rental car down the highway in North Carolina headed to Becca's mom's house. My phone rang. It was my best friend in Haiti, Maxime. We chatted for a couple of minutes, all was well and Maxime and I joked around a bit. We hung up at 4:50. Three minutes later the quake hit. Maxime was in his store when he made the call and not really knowing what to do he ran out of the store and headed for the street. As the quake shook the ground he tripped and flung into the street, landing on and scrapping his arm. Then he looked to where he had just been and saw the next door house collapse into the front yard of his store. Had he been there, he would have been dead. As soon as it was over he started running, pye a terre (barefoot), to his house. His house is several miles away from his store. He knew no cars were moving on the street so the quickest way to get to his family was to run. As he ran he says he called out to Jesus and asked Him to help him. He ran and ran, from Delmas 30 to the bottom of Delmas 33. Finally he saw one of his nephew's so he yelled to him "Eske m'gen fanmi?!" (Do I have a family?!) His nephew shouted "Yes!" and told him to rest for a minute. He did this and then ran the rest of the way home. His wife and kids had not been able to get out of the house during the quake, and luckily it stayed up. They later learned that if they did get out and tried to run they would have been crushed by a house that fell into the path leading to the road.

There are so many stories here. Some dramatic, some not, all miraculous. Many ask the question: "Where was God in the earthquake?" The answer: Everywhere.

The picture below is Maxime's store and what is left of the house that was next to it.