Heaven Reigns Over Haiti
As Haitian pastor Jean Louighins put it, “In 36 seconds, everyone was made equal.”
Despair was written on every face, defeat in the droop of shoulders. Signs, written both in Spanish and English pleaded, “Necesitamos Ayuda. We Need Help.” As each passing kilometer revealed the extent of devastation, BCM missionary Tommy Gambrill questioned, Where to begin?
The small Caribbean nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, situated between Puerto Rico and Cuba. On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, at 16:53 local Haitian time, a catastrophic earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck Haiti’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, in western Hispaniola. The quake and its aftershocks left more than 200,000 people dead, 300,000 injured, 1.3 million displaced. Much of Port-Au-Prince was leveled, thousands more buildings destroyed or damaged across southern Haiti. Mass graves became the final resting place for tens of thousands as casualties overwhelmed local morgues.
Over subsequent days, international relief efforts began pouring into Haiti. On the eastern side of Hispaniola, Bolivar Cuevas, a BCM missionary serving in the Dominican Republic, had long been burdened for neighboring Haiti, where he traveled to minister whenever possible. Bolivar began immediately assessing what BCM could do to help and got in contact with Tommy Gambrill, who serves in disaster relief with BCM International.
Two and a half weeks after the earthquake, Tommy Gambrill flew into the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, bringing with him a suitcase of medical supplies as well as funds donated through BCM for Haiti relief. In Santo Domingo he was briefed on current conditions by Bolivar Cuevas. Since the Port-Au-Prince airport was not yet operational, he then headed overland with a hired vehicle and driver, translator, and medical student Kidmon Jerome across the Haitian border to Port-au-Prince.
“The devastation was sobering,” Gambrill describes. All electricity had been knocked out, so once the sun went down it was pitch black. Piles of rubble were everywhere. Tarp and tent communities had replaced homes, schools, and churches. People walked around with a bag or whatever they could carry, but there was no place for them to go. No one slept inside, even if building structures were still standing, for fear of collapse and aftershocks.
In Port-Au-Prince, Bolivar Cuevas had arranged for Gambrill and his team to stay with Dr. Jean Dorlus, president of the Seminary of Theology and Evangelism (STEP), whose home was still intact, though a possibility of further aftershocks necessitated everyone sleeping outside on the ground and in tents. A high perimeter wall and iron gate, standard home security in Haiti, offered protection against looters.
Dorlus was already sheltering a number of pastors and their families. When the pastors found out Gambrill was in Haiti to assess the disaster for BCM International as well as provide immediate help, they eagerly invited him to see their communities and the damage wreaked upon them by the earthquake.
At Pastor Joshua’s church, the team met Immacularoque, a woman who despite a broken leg, had managed to dig herself and her children out of the debris when her home collapsed on top of them. When the team visited the five-by-five tin shack on a steep hillside that housed the woman and her children, Immacularoque was sitting on a dirt floor, a soiled rag covering a severely infected cut on her foot. A broken bone in the lower part of her leg had reset itself incorrectly and was pressing painfully against nerves. A medical examination showed Immacularoque was in danger of losing her leg or even her life.
“We knew God had led us to her,” Gambrill shares. “We needed to do something to get her to a hospital for proper treatment.”
Port-Au-Prince’s devastated medical infrastructure was already overflowing. So medical student Jerome, along with the hired driver and translator, drove Immacularoque back across the border to a hospital in the Dominican Republic while Gambrill remained behind with Pastor Joshua. The funds BCM donors had sent along provided for her hospital stay. Gambrill learned later that both Pastor Joshua and Immacularoque had been praying for God to send help for her. The BCM team’s arrival had been a miracle sent from God!
Arranging for a new rental car to replace the hired vehicle that had returned to the Dominican Republic, STEP president Dorlus cleared his schedule to travel with Gambrill, visiting pastors and church plants throughout Haiti.
“All of the pastors I met had lost their homes, churches, and schools in the earthquake,” Gambrill discloses. “And the surrounding communities they minister in were all completely demolished.”
And yet amidst undeniable human suffering, a palpable sense of hope is evident these days in Haiti as well as a strong working of the Holy Spirit in calling Haitians to repentance. One month after the earthquake, on February 12, 2010, Haitian President Préval cancelled the annual Mardi Gras celebration and called his nation to three days of fasting and prayer. As he called upon God to heal his nation, one million-plus Haitians praised God, read Scripture, sang songs of worship, prayed for forgiveness, were baptized, and publicly renounced voodoo.
“Many people are coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as a result of this disaster,” Gambrill said.
If the earthquake was a stunning blow to an already impoverished and desperate Haitian people, the aftermath has been cause for wonder. Wonder at the amazing grace and compassion of God who sent relief workers to minister to their physical and spiritual needs. Wonder at the outpouring of love from God’s people around the world. Wonder at plans for new churches, schools, and hospitals to be built according to modern engineering codes for disaster zones. It was with a sense of both wonder and hope that Haitians proclaimed God as sovereign over their nation on February 12th.
The ongoing needs in Haiti are large. Rebuilding will take years. Secondary effects of the earthquake are already being felt as earthquake victims face the future with nowhere to live, nothing to eat, and few opportunities for employment. BCM International plans a continued partnership with Haitian ministry leaders, including STEP president Dr. Dorlus, in recovery efforts.
Since many remain without shelter against the upcoming monsoon and hurricane season, one project already underway is the collecting of family tents and tarps by several local churches with which Tommy Gambrill is associated. The first pallet of these shelters has already been flown to Haiti through Mission Flight International, an aviation ministry that flies from Ft. Pierce, FL, to Haiti three times a week. STEP graduates, now pastors in the earthquake zone, are distributing the collected shelters to needy families in their communities.
“These are people with nowhere to go,” Gambrill elucidates. “Meeting their needs for shelter is also opening the doors to share the gospel with these families.”
More tents will be sent as they are collected. BCM is also organizing short-term ministry teams of six to twelve people each. Openings range from the fields of medicine to construction, meal preparation to teaching, public health to logistics, and counseling.
Long-term needs and opportunities include building orphanages and community centers, evangelistic outreaches, drilling wells for water, health and medical clinics for displaced Haitians, sponsoring seminary students, and helping rebuild churches, pastors’ homes, and schools.
Please contact Gambrill via email at
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to discuss short-term mission opportunities in Haiti or long-term partnership. Support for Haiti can be sent to BCM International, 201 Granite Run Drive, Suite 260, Lancaster, PA 17601, or through the BCM website http://www.bcmintl.org.
Tommy Gambrill serves in disaster relief with BCM International wherever natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions occur. He has assisted in the Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and India as well as Haiti. Seventeen years of responding to disaster situations has given him the experience and knowledge to serve in his current ministry position. Gambrill is married to Kelly and they have six children.
