Missionaries Kirsche Hess of Pennsylvania, and Michael and Jessie Horner and their 2 daughters, Hadassah and Eliana, of Wisconsin
Mission nurses, Julia Coleman of W. Virginia, and Careesa Horner of Wis
I had the privilege last week to write a newspaper article detailing the events of our church's mission team that was in Port au Prince, Haiti, the day the earthquake struck. I have included it in its entirety below, as it gives quite a bit of detail from team members there.
Our church sponsors the mission, Gospel To Haiti, and is hosting a fundraising auction this weekend. For anyone in the blogging world who may care to donate, the address to send money to is
Gospel to Haiti
c/o Rich McBain
E4846 Meyer Rd
Reedsburg, Wi. 53959
100% of the funds received will be used in the mountain region of Allegre around our mission complex to help Haitains rebuild their homes, and to supply work for Haitain men in making cement blocks for homes
May God bless you as you read this, pray for our missionaries, and if God leads, give to our relief fund!!
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When 6 area youth and their adult leader met up with 2 formerly Hillsboro area-now Haiti missionaries in Port au Prince on Tuesday, Jan 12, the day began much like any other. Hot weather, sunny skies, and 2 bags missing from the luggage rack at the airport after the 8am flight from Miami.
As Michael and Jessie Horner, Field Directors for Gospel to Haiti picked up their mission team from Gospel Light Christian Fellowship, the Horner’s home church in Yuba, Wi, they had no other expectations for their day, other than getting back into the mountains to their mission home and their 2 little girls. However, things did not proceed as they had planned at all for their day.
As Jessie writes in the Gospel to Haiti newsletter, “They (airport officials) told us to check back after the next flights came in which were noon and 4:15. With a little time on our hands, we headed out to grab a few items we needed for projects back at the mission…we went by the Palace and the general hospital to find a pharmacy that would have a few medicines we still needed.” She continues on with a description of anything but a typical day, as her husband Michael was stopped for running a yellow light. An irate officer ended up giving him a traffic ticket, and claiming his drivers’ license, which was to be reclaimed when the ticket was paid. After 3 hours of chasing officials around, and with still no license in hand, they headed back to the airport, collected their 2 bags, and decided to head out of Port. It was almost 5 pm.
Michael has been in Haiti since May, and knows his way around well. He planned to take one route-the major “highway” with narrow roads, many 2 and 3 story buildings, and busy traffic, but still, faster than the route around the water. “As we drove, however, we must have missed a turn, because we found ourselves going out right by Poor Man’s Market where the ships dock,” Jessie wrote.
After a quick stop at the market for some fresh vegetables, they headed out of town, and within minutes, found their vehicle violently swaying from side to side. Michael, assuming he had a broken tie-rod, stopped the vehicle, only to discover the shaking did not stop, and they realized they were in an earthquake.
Team leader, Rich McBain, from Reedsburg, looked around and saw a cement wall that literally jumped out and then fell down right next to their Land Rover.
McBain said, “It was terrible-the devastation, the buildings collapsing all around us, the cement dust rising into the air, the sound of the screams and wails that we heard.”
Jessie wrote, “It was a horrible scene as we looked around and saw collapsed buildings everywhere. There were people with cuts and bleeding wounds, and many with broken bones and severed limbs.”
She continued, “There was concrete dust rising from the high-rise housing in the distance, and we could hear things collapsing all around. The wailing was so loud, and everyone was coming out of the buildings and running down the street towards the housing.”
As the missions team started back down the road, despite continuous tremors that kept coming, traffic increased, and eventually they were at a standstill. Gas stations were exploding, fires were breaking out, people were everywhere, and the sun had gone down, leaving the town in darkness. After being stopped 2 different times due to impassably congested roads, they made a turn, and found themselves miraculously out on the road they needed to be on to head out of town, and knowing it was not very safe to stay in the city, headed out to Leogane, where there is a girls’ home run by missionary friends where they were able to spend the night.
With no contact stateside since about 2pm the day of the quake, families in Wisconsin were left waiting and wondering. It would be 19 hours before they received word that their loved ones were safe and uninjured-a very long time for those who know Haiti, and the potential for devastation if the team had made it out of town on time and headed into the mountain roads.
In looking back, McBain said, “It was starting to bother Michael when there were so many countless delays in heading out of town according to the schedule they try to keep, but I kept telling him, God has a plan for all these delays. God’s plan kept us perfectly safe in the midst of pandemonium and chaos. If we had been on the mountain road, we would not be here, it was just about destroyed, and our vehicle surely would have been thrown off the mountain, or buried in a rock slide.”
The team did make it back to the mission house, after 9 miles of traveling on foot. The sobering sights they witnessed on their trek over the mountain kept them in awe of God’s hand of protection on them, McBain said. The countless rock slides, the deep crevices, the buckled roadway, the areas where one section of road was at least 4 feet below the top section, all showed the impossibility of their having survived the trip if they had been there in their vehicle when the quake hit.
One of the young people, Nathan Sensenig, of Richland Center, son of Alvin and Dorothy Sensenig, said, ”As we drove through Port au Prince after the quake, it was obvious who knew the Lord, and who did not. Some people were crying, others had faces full of fear, but then we heard some people preaching and groups of Christians singing. I had to ask myself, “If I lost everything I owned, how would I respond? The earthquake has caused me to take a look at how I hold on to the things God has given me.”
A mission nurse, Careesa Horner, Michael’s sister, and daughter of Jon and Kirstie Horner of Hillsboro, wrote, “”As a universal cry went up all over the mountains, and people began running into the compound, carrying or supporting their loved ones, the reality of the severity of what just happened settled in. There they were, crying out frantically for me to help them somehow. Desperation and anguish was written all over their faces.”
The mission house itself sustained some structural damage, but is still livable, but most of the native homes have been destroyed. Haitians are living in huts made out of posts and tarps. It is the rainy season, and nights are cold. The after shocks that continue still shake them all up, and the first night into the next day, they would hear things crumbling down in the distance, and then more wailing would begin as more people lost loved ones in the aftershocks.
Michael and Careesa’s brother, Daniel, was also in Haiti at the time. He had been there since the middle of December, and will be forever touched by the devastation, the loss of life, and the mournful wailing that filled the mountains the day of the 7.0 quake.
He and another missionary, Michael Martin, were the only young men left at the compound when his brother and sister-in-law, Jessie went into Port au Prince to bring up the team. When the quake hit, Daniel said he knew instantly what it was, as he had been in a small quake in Washington state when he was younger. “The cries of the people, the sounds of the devastation all around us, the sights of the injured, with gaping wounds my sister was dealing with, and the thoughts of all those 1000’s of people who had just passed into eternity so quickly. It was a very humbling experience,” he said, with tears streaming down his face.
Other young people in the group included Dolan Hostetler, son of Darwin and Eunice Hostetler of Richland Center, Thea Hamann, daugthter of Mark and Kris Hamann of Viola, Jonathan and Amy Widowski, son and daughter of Richard and Kathy Widowski of Wautoma. Jessie Horner is the daughter of Chris and Kathy Tice of West Lima.
Below are sites from Port Au Prince and the surrounding area on Jan 12 and 13, 2010.
These pictures were taken by members of the missions team from our church here in Yuba, Wis.
Our little peanut-only 13 pounds-OH MY!!
We just want to get him home and LOVE him to pieces!!
