Many of us dropped our jaws while staring at a television, some of us attended prayer services and gave abundantly, and people around the globe devoted themselves to finding ways to help.
But nearly 2,000 miles away, Rev. Don Gotham and 16 other UMC brothers and sisters from Michigan simply lived through one of the most devastating earthquakes of our time — with their faith in tact and much more perspective than what can be found in The USA Today or on CNN.com.
A mission trip that arrived to Haiti on New Year’s Day was scheduled to return home Jan. 14, but just 15 hours before the mission team was scheduled to get on a plane a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit in Port-Au-Prince, about 120 miles east of where the crew was working in Jeremie.
While all of the crewmembers were unharmed, and eventually they returned home safely on Jan. 19 through the help and persistence of many people whose names they will never know, well over 200,000 people have now been declared dead from the tragedy, and these servants’ lives will never be quite the same.
Gotham wept with a Haitian paint foreman who lost his only sister in the wreckage and the entire crew consoled people who walked in and out of the guest house they called their residence, as stories of agony and fright rolled off their lips.
But despite that, and the fact they experienced somewhat strained communications with family and friends for a few days, the team chooses to focus on the “amazing spirit” of the Haitian people and all of the good that is left to do in a reeling country.
The group also learned a worthwhile lesson about the value of mutual trust and friendship in the most dire of times.
“I think a lot of us, actually most of us, were concerned about our families at home, but we weren’t concerned about ourselves because of that camaraderie within the group,” said Mary Solterman, a member at Lexington United Methodist Church who made the trip.
Friend and fellow Lexington UMC member Genie Bank echoed those sentiments.
“I think there was a sense in the group of peace and calm, knowing that we were well cared for; still worried about those folks who were going through such tragedy, but at the same time there was a calmness in the group that I would say permeated everything we did the entire time until we left,” she said.
Even though they were several hours away from the heart of the earthquake they saw plenty of its ramifications first hand.
“I think we started to see the human side of the effects of the earthquake as these people came to the guest house for comfort. And then seeing them, just this mass of humanity as we walked down the harbor to go to church — it made you just realize this tragedy was going to spread throughout the whole island,” Bank said. “It’s not going to be about just Port-Au-Prince, it’s about how places like Jeremie are going to handle an influx of people who need food, comfort and clothing. That’s what’s going to permeate the island.”
Gotham, the pastor at St. Clair UMC, can offer a bit more introspective view on the situation since he has gone to Haiti nine times in nine years, helping develop ongoing programs that are the basis of present and future mission work for the United Methodist Church.
Gotham said it is important to remember places that are essentially becoming refugee towns like Jeremie because the outlying areas are in as much need for assistance as Port-Au-Prince and there are very few jobs to provide income for people to buy necessities.
Gotham said he has been encouraged by the response of the church in the days following the earthquake and he has been in regular contact with a pastor of the Methodist Church of Haiti.
“There is no interest from our friends of the Haitian Methodist Church to hoard supplies. They realize if they can get something that someone else needs into their hands they will undertake that and make it happen,” he said. “People need to understand that the people of that church know that what is good for myself is good for thy neighbor. And I learned that early on in Haiti, where they take that to heart — the needs of their brothers and sisters.”
Gotham, as well as Solterman and Bank, also had the opportunity to unload three planes full of medical supplies that were distributed to public hospitals and clinics in Jeremie and Petit-Goâve.
After having some time to reflect, the general consensus is the missionaries would like to focus not on the dramatic events they were a small part of, but the continual progress the efforts of Gotham and others are creating.
“Sharing the work done by the Haitians…I worked at the health clinic…the programs that they have are more than just a Band-Aid approach, more than just fixing the injury right now; let’s instead do things that in the long run change the environment and make it safer and more healthy for the people who live in that area,” Solterman said, noting the clinics were doing wonderful work with tuberculosis, eye cataracts and many different surgeries. “The trip was about more than just building. Sure we had tasks to do, but the bigger part is building relationships with the Haitians in this area that allows us to develop programs that are long lasting, much longer that the two-week trip we take.”
Bank said it is all about the people in her opinion.
“The experience that I believe will stay with me is the loving kindness of the people there,” she said. “The children especially, who were all around us; everywhere we went they showed up and gave us unconditional love. And working side by side the Haitians and seeing how proud they were of the things they accomplished, that will also stick with me.”
And Solterman likely speaks for the majority of the group when she explains how the experience has changed her everyday routine.
“I think it makes you look at things differently, a little more simply,” she said. “Sometimes I just want to sit and read, and it’s OK, rather than jumping right back into our normal busy schedules.”
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