Posted in
Haiti by Seth Barnes on 2/12/2010
We're here in Haiti. Earlier, our team brought hot chocolate to the families and the victims. One man, Francois, caught their attention. Next to him was a young kid and an older man, perhaps the father. They both had broken arms. Pain was everywhere.
Francois asked what our team was doing there. He expressed his thanks to the many people who had flown in from the outside out of the goodness of their hearts to love and comfort his people. One of our staff members, Steph Tyrna, asked him about his story and he shared it.*
Just two weeks earlier, Francois was in his house in Port-au-Prince. He and his wife, Elina, lived in a five-story building near the center of town. As he was working on the bottom floor, the earth began to shake and suddenly, the building collapsed. Five floors came crashing down on top of him.
Elina was nine months pregnant. She been in their home on the fifth floor and fell straight through the floor. Concrete came crumbling down in a roar that drowned out the screams of people falling. Incredibly, his wife landed just a few feet from where Francois. Instinctively, he leapt across the moving floor and covered his wife with his body. It was the only thing that he could do. Thirty seconds later, the ground stopped and chaos ensued all around them.
Francois checked himself, he saw that he could move amidst the rubble. He could hear people desperately searching for their families. He looked down at his Elina. "Are you OK?"
She seemed unhurt, but shocked. "Francois, the labor pains have started - I'm contracting."
Fortunately, after some time, the pains stopped. Francois knew they had to leave the chaos and get to a hospital. For the next five days, Elina was in great pain as they fled for the border town of Jimani. "How was she going to survive?" he thought to himself. "Who will help us?"
God's miraculous provision for Francelina, Elina and Francois will linger a long while.
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