HELPING IN HAITI: Local missionaries work to help survivors of earthquake

Cory Lamb knows about the despair in Haiti. He’s witnessed it for years, up close, not just on television since a the massive earthquake hit the poor island nation earlier this month, killing about 100,000 people.

Having just returned from Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic this week after helping some of the more than 3.5 million affected by the quake, the Clarksville resident says conditions are terrible. But, he adds, that’s nothing new.

“In a lot of ways, it looked like Haiti … always does: really dirty, really sad, really desperate,” he said. “It’s such a horrible situation every day of the year for people.”

He was among volunteers from around the globe who worked to restore a sense of normalcy to the capital of Port-au-Prince by transporting supplies across the border from the Dominican Republic after the disaster.

Lamb is no stranger to these Caribbean island nations. He and his wife, Laura Beth, led missionary trips to the Dominican Republic for three years before living as missionaries in the Dominican Republic for two more, providing tutoring, bible studies and outreach to children in impoverished rural communities. No strangers to the poverty of the region, the Lambs already had a sense of what awaited in Haiti when they first heard word of the earthquake.

“We were in despair and felt helpless,” Cory said. “We immediately wanted to go.”

Cory serves as youth minister at Northside Church of Christ in Jeffersonville. Laura Beth is the administrative director of Manna Global Ministries, or MGM, an international outreach organization that ministers to the poor in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and aims to expand its outreach to nations in Southern Africa in the future.

A school in Lagosette, Haiti, operated by MGM serves more than 300 children in a country where more than 40 percent of adults cannot read and only half of all school-aged children are enrolled in school.

QUICK RESPONSE

Immediately after the disaster, Laura Beth got on the phone with the directors of MGM, two of whom flew into the Dominican Republic the next day. After that, she got to work coordinating flights for volunteers, raising funds and purchasing supplies for the relief efforts.

“The past 2 1/2 weeks have been crazy,” she said.

The MGM presence in the two countries meant that the organization’s relief efforts were able to get under way almost immediately. But logistical problems soon became apparent.

While supplies were abundant, reliable drivers to get the supplies into Port-au-Prince were scarce. On Jan. 21, Cory took a flight into Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to help out.

Over the next week, Cory assisted with supply runs, transporting food, medical supplies, tents, clothing and gas pumps into Haiti, along with escorting medical professionals across the border.

On Wednesday, Cory and his fellow missionaries made the trip from their base of operations in Bobita, Dominican Republic, into Port-au-Prince, a 10-hour journey that would have taken a quarter of that time on quality roads.

They arrived at the Sonlight Children’s Home — an orphanage operated by the Church of Christ in the capital — where the building’s security wall had been knocked down by the quake, replaced temporarily by razor wire.

The fall of the wall had killed one of the home’s wards, and the lack of security made using the home as a distribution center for supplies a sketchy proposition; shortages early on in the recovery efforts caused the hungry to swarm locations distributing food, according to reports. MGM volunteers are still trying to figure out what can be done to restore security to the compound.

After delivering the truck’s cargo and assisting with some repairs to the orphanage’s plumbing, Cory played basketball with some children at the home, and then got back in the truck to tour the city and survey the damage.

“We drove in [to the earthquake’s epicenter] and saw some houses that were like stacks of pancakes,” Cory said. “We saw more that would probably be ready to fall in a few days.”

ALWAYS IN NEED

Despite the destruction, the Haiti that Cory looked upon was not dissimilar to the Haiti he had seen before. Haitian natives were already out in the streets selling fruits, vegetables and other goods, and that sense of normalcy that volunteers were working to restore was already returning. But normal in Haiti is still shockingly poor living, Cory said.

During his two-year mission in the Dominican Republic, Cory had witnessed third-world poverty first-hand. Outside of the cities, he saw villages that had no electricity, no running water. Wells had to be drilled, and the well water often gave those who drank it diseases.

“We grew up in America, and have been blessed beyond our means our whole life,” Cory said. “The first time we visited the Dominican, I was shocked.

“It’s a hard life.”

But the poverty in Haiti made the situation in the Dominican Republic seem hopeful, Cory said.

“Cap-Haitien [in Haiti] blew my mind,” Cory said. “I thought the Dominican was poor, and I felt so sorry for everyone. And then we crossed the border. The trees were gone. It was a big dust bowl.

“Cap-Haitien looked like Port-au-Prince did the other day. It looks like a natural disaster all the time.”

MORE TO BE DONE

Laura Beth fears that awareness of the situation in Haiti will fade with the passage of time.

“I feel like the news has already stopped talking about them,” Laura Beth said.

But Laura Beth added that MGM’s efforts in Haiti are for the long haul. MGM teams are going to continue transporting food and emergency supplies directly into Port-au-Prince through Feb. 10, and they will re-evaluate from there.

“We know we’re going to continue to make these supply runs until the funds run out,” Laura Beth said. “We’re committed to the long-term effort to help them. They’re going to need help for years to come.”

Several members of the Northside Christian Church congregation will make missionary trips during the summer to the Dominican Republic to continue the work to which Cory and Laura Beth have devoted years of their lives. When the flight bringing Cory back from the Dominican Republic arrived at the Louisville International Airport on Thursday, elders and deacons from the church were there to welcome him.

For Cory, it was the end of a journey. But the Lambs will continue to work toward helping the poor in developing nations.

“I think we’re all called to be that person that helps out, whether it’s in this country or another,” Laura Beth said. “I don’t think we’re doing anything special, because that’s what we’re all called to do, even in our own communities.

“We need to not be afraid to get our feet wet and need to keep helping others.”

— Matt Koesters is a freelance journalist who lives in Southern Indiana.

SO YOU KNOW

• Manna Global Ministry’s efforts to help those affected by the earthquake in Haiti are ongoing, but depend on donations to continue. To help with the efforts to feed, clothe and provide medical assistance to the needy in Haiti, visit www.mgm.mannadr.org or mail your donation to MGM, PO Box 2993, Clarksville, IN, 47131. The Web site also contains first-hand accounts of the relief efforts from MGM missionaries. One-hundred percent of donations go toward relief efforts, according to the MGM Web site.

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