1 year ago…

January 12th, 2010…..a day many people will never forget. It was just a few minutes before 5:00 on a Tuesday evening. I went outside to get some wash off the line. I took the wash upstairs to Em and I’s house to fold. There was no warning. Suddenly there was a loud rushing/roaring noise and everything began to shake. Things were rattling and falling. I looked up from the wash I was folding and immediately knew it was an earthquake. I ran for the door and opened it. As I started down the stairs, things were falling on my head and I clearly remember thinking “this house is going to fall”.

[the wash I was folding is on the couch]

[the stairs I went down]

I ran out onto the porch and into the yard. About that time the 1st big shake was over. The dust lifted and the screaming outside the yard began. And every few minutes, there was another tremor. We wondered if the ground would open up beneath us. We sang. We prayed. We cried out to God. We pulled out the girls’ mats and attempted to sleep. The shaking continued all throughout the night.

The sun rose the next morning and with it came many questions. Did the earthquake affect all of Haiti? Were our Haitian friends okay? What were our families hearing about the earthquake? The next several days are a blur in my memory. We were in shock. People warned us not to go in the buildings in case there would continue to be hard tremors. We didn’t know what to do to occupy our time. We couldn’t call our families. We set up a “shower”. Bucket bath is probably the more accurate term. The water we carried from the well was quite cold.

Imagine sleeping surrounded by 30 little girls. They were likely to steal your pillow or blanket. They woke up way earlier than I would’ve preferred. I would keep my eyes closed as long as possible. One morning as soon as I opened them, Janise has a question for me, “Manmi Mandie, can we have lollipops?” Lollipops were the last thing on my mind.

Thursday evening we were all able to talk with our parents on the phone. One of the shortest 10 minutes of my life. Was so good to talk to my family.

[the broken wall and the pastor’s house. the corner of our main house is to the far left.]

[the wash area]

Sunday afternoon a group of men arrived here at Leogane. The group consisted of mostly dads and board members. They got right to work.

[the girls’ collapsed shower house]

[someone found this soon after the earthquake and we thought it was quite fitting]

The days that followed were not easy. We had several meetings. It was decided to take 22 of our little girls back to their homes in the country. We didn’t know what the future held. Would there be unrest in the country? Would we able to buy gas for the generator and food? The group of men left the last day of January and that same day our first work team came. They started by tearing down what was left of the wall between us and the pastor’s house. They then rebuilt that wall and repaired and added onto the rest of the wall. We continued to have work groups come through the month of March. All of us staff took our turns going home for a few weeks.

After we started sleeping in houses again, there were several instances when there were hard tremors in the middle of the night. I still so clearly remember waking up, immediately jumping out of bed and wondering if i was going to make it outside before the house fell down.

[God has a time for everything…this was on one of the school classroom walls]

1 year ago. Impossible to forget. The reminders are everywhere…piles of rubble, people missing arms or legs, cracks in the walls, and the occasional tremor. Sometimes we laugh at the way we jump and run to the door when we hear a noise that sounds like a tremor or when it is actually a tremor, but the truth is, it makes our heart beat faster and takes us right back to January 12, 2010. People are predicting another bigger earthquake to hit Haiti. There are nights we lay in bed and imagine tremors. We feel vibrations during the day. A truck rumbles as it goes down the road and we jump.

We are continuing to learn a lot about trusting God. In everything. The big things. And the small things. Putting your trust in God is not a once and done kind of thing. It would be convenient to wrap our trust up in a box and put fancy wrapping paper and ribbon on it and give it to God and never worry or fear again. But that’s not how it works and I find myself needing to time and time again put my trust in God. I put things in God’s hands and then the next tremor or hard thing comes along and I’m worrying or lying in bed imagining tremors, and I give my fear over to God one more time and trust Him.

 

Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though it’s waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Psalm 46:1-3

 

But now, this is what the Lord says-he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the falmes will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…

Isaiah 43: 1-3