Don’t make Scott and Janet
Daughtry out to be heroes of the faith: they’re not buying it.
BR photo by Norman Jameson Janet Daughtry, who helps coordinate the N.C. Baptist Men’s disaster recovery project in Haiti, is warmly received at Victorious Kids Orphanage, built in part with recovery funds donated by North Carolina Baptists. See photo gallery. |
If they are anything more
than ordinary Christians fulfilling a God-called task, Scott says, then other
Christians will avoid taking on similar tasks.
The Daughtrys are on-site
coordinators for North Carolina Baptist disaster relief efforts in Haiti,
operating from a rented house on a 66-acre missionary compound owned by Global
Outreach. With just one break since Feb. 1 to attend the North Carolina
Missions Conference, the steady duo has hosted 37 teams: feeding, housing,
coordinating and transporting them as they conduct medical clinic and
construction projects in the area north of Port-au-Prince.
“When you’re in a place a
long time people start to think there’s something special about us, and there’s
not,” Scott said while hosting the largest team so far, 22 people who came with
Scotts Hill Baptist Church from Wilmington. “There is nothing special about us
except Jesus, and He’s what makes us all special.”
From Selma, Scott is a
retired North Carolina Parks Service ranger and area supervisor, and Janet is a
retired Wake County Schools kindergarten teacher. They’ve coordinated or been
involved in disaster response efforts in Honduras, Sri Lanka and Gulfport,
Miss., as well. They were working at the Baptist Conference Center in Hawaii
when they got the call to come to Haiti.
“When missionaries spoke at
church when I was little, I was the one on the front row drinking in every word
— dreaming of faraway places,” Janet said while grabbing a stand-up tuna fish
lunch in her kitchen. “I never thought I’d be in those faraway places.”
Scott, on the other hand,
says Janet is the motivation half of their team. “The Lord tells Janet, and
Janet tells me,” he said.
BR photo by Norman Jameson Scott Daughtry buys another supply of bread for the ministry team from Wilmington, helped by Rodney, his driver and interpreter. See photo gallery. |
Janet, 62, and Scott, 63,
celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in June. She laughed, recognizing
where they are and said, “Scott always promised to take me to the Caribbean for
our anniversary.”
Their Caribbean getaway is a
long way from her grandparents’ farmhouse on 22 acres in Selma that they
renovated for their own retirement home.
They harbor no doubts about
their role in Haiti, which is likely to extend through next August — the
current timetable for N.C. Baptist Men to remain there. It is hard, relentless
work. After they carry a departing team to the airport on Saturday, they go
immediately to two or three grocery stores to find enough food for the next
team, which arrives the following day.
“That’s the hardest part,
the 24/7 schedule with never any down time to do anything different,” said
Janet. “Not that there is anywhere to go to do anything different.”
She is a professional basket
weaver and quilter, and led classes in those arts. Scott loves to hunt and
fish. And he is a Shriner, walking in parades as a raccoon to raise money for
hospitals. But pressing priorities push aside personal pursuits. Scott would
like to go home, play with the grandkids and have a “normal life” for a while
after Haiti, Janet said, “whatever normal is.” She admits to a strain of gypsy
blood and realizes after she lists her dream vacation spots, they are all
international locations.
Scott says everything in
Haiti is “just hard.” A trip to a new hardware store to get a refrigerator took
three hours over bumpy, rutted roads, although the store was just 15 miles
away. Two clerks count the roofing screws he bought one by one. Parts for the
vans are not available and have to come in with the next volunteer team. Delays
go on for weeks for things that could be accomplished overnight back home.
“The hardest part is being
gone from home,” he said. “I miss my grandchildren, my church, Wednesday night
activities, my garden. My grandson Scott had his first piano recital and I
wasn’t there. He’ll have other piano recitals, but he’ll never have another
first one.”
“The Lord never promised in
any part of the Bible that following Him would be easy,” said Scott, turned
theologian. “He said ‘take up your cross.’ I’m pretty sure that’s symbolism for
a pretty hard walk.”
He understands why people
question the mind of God concerning the devastating earthquake and the death
and misery it wrought.
“We won’t have that answer
on this side,” Scott said. “Beyond ‘why?’ the right question is ‘what?’ What do
we do now? And we have a whole instruction book on that.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Jameson wrote about his experience while in Haiti. Follow his daily blog by reading the first entry.)
Related stories
Haiti trip will change, challenge bless volunteers
Daughtrys: ‘We’re just like anyone else’
Mission trips enliven Scotts Hill members
6 months & counting: Volunteers toil, shed tears