HAITI IN SHOCK continues
“The fuel we buy for our generators and other products that we need always come from Port-au-Prince, so in
the days ahead we will experience shortages in fuel and other items and this will cause a big problem for the
running of the university.”
Baptists Suffer
Baptists suffered badly in the aftermath of the quake, with several pastors perishing. One of the pastors who
died was Bienne L’Amerique, pastor of the 600-member Shiloh Baptist Church in Port-au-Prince. His children
recounted the tragedy of what happened that day. “I was reading on the first floor when the earth moved as if
a great chasm opened up and our house fell into it,” said Bioutelle, the 11-year-old daughter. “My mother and
father were talking in the living room; my father was just standing up to leave the house. A piece of the ceiling
fell down, hit his head and he fell on the ground. My mother also fell down on the ground and rolled under the
table. As for me, I don't know what happened to me. All I remember is my older brother pulling me out from
under the rubble. My leg was hurting very badly but it only had scratches on it.”
“I was watching TV on the second floor and I heard a screeching, exploding noise as the house collapsed,”
recounted Bethill, age 16. “I was not hurt and I was able to pull my little sister out from under the ruins. My
younger brother was not at home, he was at [our] grandmother’s place. We heard the screaming of our mother
and we found her under the concrete rubble. She could not move. My sister and I tried to rescue her and pull
her out. I don't know how we managed it. I'm only 16 and not very strong; Bioutelle’s just a little girl,” said the
eldest of the three children. “Our dad was too deep under, we could not move him. He did not speak a word
and he did not move. My mother is saying that it is possible that he died immediately when the ceiling fell on
his head.”
A number of other Baptists died in the quake, while many more were displaced. “A lot of church members
are now homeless,” wrote Eugene Gedeon, a vice president of the Baptist Convention of Haiti. “They spend
nights in the streets. They are starving,” said Gedeon.
Baptists Respond
Baptists in the country mobilized relief efforts, while Baptists from around the world began to send in aid.
The Baptist Convention of Haiti and Haiti Baptist Mission received initial grants totaling $20,000 from BWAid
shortly after the disaster. “We must make a generous response to this massive catastrophe,” Paul Montacute,
BWAid director, said in his appeal to Baptists around the world.
The Haiti Baptist conventions provided food, water, and medical care in the early days after the seismic
event. “You can imagine their urgent need. They cannot cook, they are thirsty, they are injured. The children
and old persons are more fragile,” Eugene told the BWA.
The Baptist Convention of Haiti has been providing meals for approximately 500 families that were housed
in 10 Baptist churches in the disaster zone, including 80 families at Shiloh Baptist Church and 70 families at El
Shaddai Baptist Church.
At the time of reporting, more than US$600,000 was either pledged or received by BWAid for Haiti relief. In
true Macedonian fashion, less financially endowed Baptists have been making their own contributions. Otniel
Bunaciu, president of the Baptist Union of Romania, reported that “churches in Romania are responding well
to the appeal” that was launched to assist victims of the Haitian earthquake. His union raised and sent almost
US$50,000 to the BWA for Haitian relief.
“I am quite amazed but enthused at the same time as Romania is not a very rich country,” Bunaciu told the
BWA.
PHOTO: The children of Bienne L’Amerique, pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Port-au-Prince who died in
the earthquake on January 12. From left to right: Berlau George, 13, Bioutelle, 11, and Bethill, 16

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