Pastor-Passionate - Church of God of Prophecy

The Orphanage after the earthquake
A fire chief of a police and firefighter
unit from New York gave his assessment
of the scope of the Haiti quake in
graphic terms: “Katrina was bad, but this
was a magnitude 100 times worse.”
The numbers are staggering, too large
to ever be confirmed with absolute
certainty. Haitian government leaders
estimate a death toll of 200,000; 80,000
buried in mass graves; 250,000 injured;
and two million homeless out of a
population of nine million people. The
Haitian government has made plans to
relocate 400,000 of the new homeless
to the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
Despite an amazing outpouring of
generosity, the communication challenges,
bureaucratic hurdles, shortage of fuel
to run everything from generators
to trucks, outbreaks of violence, and
traumatic conditions with decomposing
bodies everywhere in the streets and
under piles of rubble, many of Haiti’s
poor have suffered without food, water,
and medical care. The scale and scope
of the devastation is almost apocalyptic,
and the need seems infinite.
20 WWM M A R C H 2 0 1 0
David Bryan
Global Outreach Director
In the middle of this ocean of
hopelessness, the Church has shone.
National Overseer Jean Claude Dorlean
lost a cousin when the earth began
shaking, but he was on the scene at the
Church of God of Prophecy Orphanage
in Leogane, the epicenter of the quake,
to bring comfort and hope to the
children and staff.
Five orphanage children and two
workers died when one of the main
buildings, a two-story structure,
pancaked in on itself and crumbled.
It crushed Oramise Dorisca, Vital, Elie
Belle Garde, Johanne Dorisca, and
Nicania when it came down. Their
bodies were recovered along with that
of Roseline, one of the orphanage
workers who also perished in the
building. Sergot, who also worked at the
orphanage, died in the quake, but at
the time of this publication, the body is
still entombed in the rubble.
Port-au-Prince suffered the most
severe damage in the quake, and our
eight churches in the city collapsed.
The news from the Sans Fil church was
particularly sad. Bishop Dorlean said,
“This is a newly rebuilt church. Almost
a whole choir (Chorale Elim) perished
during rehearsal, and also the Women’s
Ministries were having an activity inside
the church building. All perished. More
than 60 people.” An unknown number
of members died when the church at
Waney came down, and a deacon was
killed at the Mariani Church.
The National Bishop estimates,
based on current information, that
approximately 80 Church members have
died. He also notes that “Thousands of
members are homeless with no food,
no clothes, or anything. The National
Complex yard is filled with people
seeking refuge and any kind of help
they can receive.”
As I began to receive these reports
from our leadership in Haiti, I thought,
If we had one million dollars, it would
be just a drop in the bucket. But we
must do all we can.
Our people immediately began
to respond. Just a little more than 48
hours after the earthquake struck, our