Where were you when…

despair in HaitiOn January 12, 2010 there are 40 seconds that every single person in Port au Prince remembers, and will remember, for the rest of their lives.

We can get caught up in the food distribution and relief efforts and teams that are coming, and it would be wrong to gloss over what was experienced and what was felt personally by each person.

The personal stories are incredible in their power, unforgettable for the victims, and will forever mark the lives of those who just happened to be in Haiti at around 5 p.m. on January 12, 2010.

Roger’s story

Roger had taken a TapTap (Haitian form of a bus/taxi/van/rickshaw) the 10 kilometers to afternoon classes at seminary and he was downstairs studying theology. Upstairs were about 40 students with another 30 or so in Roger’s classroom on the first floor. At 5 p.m. there was some initial movement. Most realized what was happening, but before anyone could react an entire wall fell on the class, killing several. Roger wanted to run but fell before he could stand. Rocks were hitting his head, he couldn’t see amidst the cloud of concrete dust filling the classroom. The girl next to him was screaming and he held out his hand to her, willing her to run with him to cover. At that moment, Roger looked up and saw the professor, a local pastor, crushed by a second wall coming down. With tears in his eyes, Roger shares how he felt “led” through the dust and rubble outside, but not before having a hand grasp his leg from a fallen student pleading for help. He led the first girl outside, and yelled for others to go back in and save those perishing. A friend told him that he was crazy, and in the next instant the whole building pancaked before his very eyes…none of the students in class on the second floor survived…not one.

Everywhere there were screams and panic, houses and walls and buildings continuing to fall. When the shock of the moment passed, Roger thought of his family. With no transportation available, he walked, ran and walked for over 3 hours to get home. He was bruised and bloodied, but all he could think about was “my family…my family.” Roger tells of running by buildings still falling, devastation everywhere. "That day I saw death…I saw death come to me.”

Late that night, Roger arrived home to find his entire family safe. He couldn’t sleep that night…but then who could? And he, like many, still find sleep difficult. Roger shares how he still senses the ground shaking every day, even when he knows it isn’t.

Roger is a pastor…a theology student, and he can’t get over the question “Why?” Why was he spared? Why were the others not? Why did this happen? But, Roger knows there are no answers. He spends a good part of every day just listening, listening in the village, listening on the hill, listening to the kids at the orphanage as they tell their stories. For they all have one, and they all need to be heard.

We asked Roger, “What do you tell the people when they ask why?” He responded, “I tell them I don’t know … I tell them I don’t know.” And then Roger paused for a moment and added these words, “I also tell them to not give up.”

Please pray for Roger and all those in Haiti who are suffering.

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