A few weeks ago, Reading, PA, where FaithCare’s headquarters are situated, experienced a bit of the earthquake that rocked New Jersey. It got us thinking back to another, far worse earthquake several years ago.
Did you know that there were FaithCare team members in Haiti on January 12, 2010, during the catastrophic earthquake?
We were scheduled to do a mission trip there in about a month and a few team members had gone to Haiti early to make some final arrangements. Although they were staying in Port-Au-Prince, one of the hardest hit areas, by God’s grace the team members had traveled to a pharmacy that was about an hour away. They were buying medications for the upcoming trip when the earthquake took place.
Everything shook, medications fell off the shelves, and everyone dropped to the ground, but, thankfully, nobody in the pharmacy was hurt. The team members thought the commotion seemed strange, but then all seemed fine, and nobody was hurt, so they got up and drove back to the guest house in Port-Au-Prince. Because it was nighttime, and they couldn’t see their surroundings, they had no idea the severity of the damage the earthquake had caused. The next morning, in the daylight, they realized the phones weren’t working and there was no power. When they ventured out of the compound, they were shocked by the devastation they saw; buildings decimated and people frantically trying to rescue victims from the rubble. Within a few days, USA officials facilitated the evacuation of our FaithCare team members, back to safety.
The worldwide response to this catastrophe was incredible, and the Haitian government eventually had to start turning away people wanting to come to Haiti to help because the medical facilities were overwhelmed with volunteers.
This is where FaithCare is quite unique: we follow a M.A.S.H. type concept on our rural medical outreach missions. This means that we don’t need an established medical facility to work out of, but instead set up makeshift treatment facilities in existing buildings like schools, churches, or vacant buildings. We even had some well-known organizations contact us saying they had received money to provide help to Haiti but didn’t know how or have the infrastructure to accomplish it and wanted FaithCare to help.
The Haitian government approved our already-planned trip to Cap-Haitian from February 13 to 21, 2010. Our team then returned, this time to Port-Au-Prince, in March of 2010, for a two-week outreach. While a USA based corporation offered to fly FaithCare into Haiti using their corporate jet, due to the size of our team, we ultimately chartered a private flight from Florida into Cap-Haitian.
The area where we were situated in Cap-Haitian wasn’t too badly affected by the earthquake and we didn’t treat many earthquake-related injuries. We did see many people who “escaped” the Port-Au-Prince area, and there were still plenty of people needing our help, as the baseline health crisis still abounded and, with the hospitals flooded with disaster victims, the chances of getting non-earthquake related medical care, especially lifesaving surgical care, was extremely unlikely.
One day, in the middle of our work, there was a loud roar, and all of the trees and plants were buffeted by a strong wind. A huge army helicopter landed in a field right next to us and out jumped 2 USA soldiers in full gear, radio headsets, armed with machine guns, dressed in fatigues bearing the USA flag, etc. Between them was a high-ranking military official (A sergeant from the US army)!
The official asked to be shown around our M.A.S.H. type of facility. He was from the USNS Comfort, a carrier which serves as a ‘floating hospital’ of sorts and had come to provide aid to Haiti after the earthquake (see more information here). He explained that his team was being approached by numerous people with serious, but not earthquake-related health issues, seeking medical attention. However, the USNS Comfort was only authorized to provide aid to those with earthquake-related injuries. He had heard about FaithCare and the work we were doing, and came to visit our setup, get more information, and ask if they could bring non-earthquake related patients to us for treatment. In return, we could divert patients with earthquake-related injuries to them.
What an incredible opportunity! Looking back today, it’s amazing to see all of the different events God orchestrated to have us prepared and ready to go at the time of the earthquake, approved by the Haitian and US government, connected to the relevant people, and able to serve people and meet needs which others weren’t able to meet!
