PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Did God abandon Haiti?
No, say its people of faith — and there are many here in a
place without much beyond faith. The earthquake was a sign of God’s presence.
So, it should be no surprise that on a narrow street choked
by debris, outside a church with a shattered ceiling open to the morning sky,
what was left of the congregation of Haiti’s Second Baptist Church stood in a
courtyard and waved their hands in the air and shouted, “Victoire! Victoire!”
Victory.
Simeon Vilneus based his sermon on Matthew 24, when Jesus was
asked how long the temple in Jerusalem would stand. “I tell you,” Jesus
answered, “not one stone here will rest upon another. Every one will be thrown
down.”
And the men and women, dressed in suits and dresses rescued
and cleaned from the relentless dust, heard that and shouted, “Alleluia! Alleluia.”
They should be happy, they should smile, Vilneus told them.
What happened Jan. 12 was not an example of God’s absence, but rather
proof that he is coming back soon. Proof that the good people of Haiti will be
the first to welcome him because they suffered first. Vilneus reminded his
people that Jesus also said:
“There will be famine and earthquakes … and all this will
be the beginning of birth pains.”
In the Haiti after the cataclysm of the 7.0-magnitude
earthquake, hope is found in the idea that indescribable destruction and death
must be proof its people are on the threshold of salvation. God, they say, has
chosen Haiti of all places as the nation where the End Times, Armageddon, the
end of the world, will begin.
“My faith is stronger because I know God is at the door,”
Vilneus cried out. “He said he is coming soon. The End Times are here. He has come
to Haiti.”
It may be impossible to argue matters of faith, but it’s
easy to understand why what has happened to the people of Haiti should be seen as
proof of the coming end of the world. For probably more than 100,000 people,
this world already has ended.
“I think it may be true,” said Jean Charles, a member of the
church. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. It’s what the Bible says will
happen.”
RNS photo by Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger People sing and pray at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, N.J., during a prayer and thanksgiving service after the earthquake. Twenty people from this church as well as the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, and Kingdom Church in Trenton, landed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 12 several hours before a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the island. An e-mail sent Jan. 13 from a member of the group confirmed the survival of all the members. |
Not far from Vilneus’ church stands what looks like Jesus’
words made real — the ruins of the nation’s largest church, the National Cathedral.
It’s the closest thing in this country to a temple, with the importance of the
temple in Jerusalem.
Vilneus did not miss the point, mentioning that many churches,
including his own, including the largest, were damaged and destroyed.
“God,” he said, “is showing you the temple of Jerusalem
destroyed, he is showing you he is coming back and you must stay at his feet.”
When the service began, many sat stunned and lethargic. One
woman wept quietly in one of the pews. Denise Midy says she cannot find her children.
“Ma famille,” my family, she repeated again and again.
The pastor estimated that as many as half of his
3,000-member flock may have been killed in the earthquake, although it is
impossible to know. Vilneus says he lost his home and his best friend, but his
family was saved.
Because most phone service is out and many streets
impassable, trying to learn what happened to their relatives is nearly
impossible, unless they found their bodies in the morgue.
“I thought maybe I’d find some people here,” said Ruth Yvon,
an elderly woman who cannot find her daughter and grandchildren.
Outside the church, men and women, their faces covered in
masks, gathered scraps of wood and sheets to make portable shelters. They ignored
the calls of church elders who stood outside the courtyard asking them to come
in and “accept Jesus.”
“We have no home,” said one woman pushing a wheelbarrow
piled high with a barrel of water and some clothes. “Your home is here,” one of
the elders answered. She answered, “Then let me live there.”
Vilneus, in fact, has opened the church school as a shelter,
and invites both members and strangers in. He cannot open the church — a vast
structure with plenty of room — because it might yet fall.
Outside the National Cathedral, a truck pulls up and a crew
of rescue workers from Fairfax County, Va., piles out. They are there, they say,
to rescue anyone who might have been trapped inside.
“Is there anyone here who can tell us whether anyone is
inside, or who’s in charge of the church?” asked Pat Sheehan, one of the
recovery workers.
He is talking to a woman dressed in purple, a large silver
cross hanging from her neck. She appears to belong to the church.
“No, no one is here,” explained the woman, Marie Lourdes. “They
are all gone.”
Then she turns back and shows the reason she has come to the
church. She is draping her wet laundry on the high fence of the once grand temple.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Braun writes for The Star-Ledger in
Newark, N.J.)
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