In the News

When the 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, among the thousands of people caught inside collapsed buildings were three officers from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and three representatives from Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA) World Health, a nonprofit that works in the developing world to provide free health-care services. All six were trapped inside the lobby of Port-au-Prince’s Hotel Montana when the four stories of that structure suddenly crumpled down on top of them.

The trio from UMCOR — Rev. James Gulley, Rev. Sam Dixon and Rev. Clint Rabb — were in Haiti to improve medical services and agricultural practices in that nation. Gulley, formerly a missionary to Nigeria and Cambodia, was a specialist in sustainable agriculture. Dixon was the head of UMCOR, and Rabb was the leader of its office of voluntary mission service.

They had come to the hotel to meet with the team from IMA World Health, which included Sarla Chand, an IMA officer; Rick Santos, chief executive of IMA; and Ann Varghese, a representative from Haiti.

After meeting in the lobby, the six started toward the restaurant but never got there. Because she had stopped to send an e-mail message from her laptop, Chand was a few steps behind the other five when she heard a noise followed by a blow to her head. "My laptop bag flew off in one direction, my (hand) bag flew off," Chand said. "I’m just being propelled forward. I don’t even have time to think of the wordearthquake."

That was followed by darkness and a moment of dead silence.

Eventually, each of the six spoke out in the darkness. Chand, Gulley, Santos and Varghese were okay, but Dixon and Rabb, who were pinned side by side under a large slab of concrete, both indicated that their legs were broken. But even those who were relatively unhurt could find no way out of the rubble, not even by using the light from their cell phones.

The six remained in that state of dark entrapment for the next 55 hours, until a French search-and-rescue team finally pulled them from the pancaked building. As it turned out, Dixon died shortly before he could be extracted, and Rabb died later in a Florida hospital to which he had been transported.

Both men, however, were conscious through the long, dark hours before the rescuers arrived. Gulley said that as the time passed, "We talked about faith, prayed together and sang. We sang ‘Peace Like a River’ several times."

Gulley said Dixon and Rabb were in great pain, and the rest tried to help as much as possible. Santos had some Aleve with him, which he gave them. "Sam was at an angle that put strong pressure on his legs," Gulley said of Dixon, "so we used laptop computers to brace his back. It would help for a time, and then we would have to rearrange it."

Santos also passed around a lollipop he had with him.

Gulley credits Chand, who was the nearest to the outside, with getting the attention of rescuers. Once she was pulled out, she insisted the rescuers keep digging for her colleagues. She also told them about two other people she knew were trapped in a nearby elevator.

When help finally came, Gulley and the others started singing the doxology, "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow."

Only hours after the rescue did Chand learn that two of those whose voices had comforted and guided her with words of faith during the ordeal had succumbed to their injuries.

"I have no answer about why I was given the gift of life and Sam and Clint were not," Gulley said in an interview with United Methodist News Service. "I can’t answer that any better than Job could answer why some people suffer more than others. All I can do is continue to try to use that gift in God’s service in whatever way it is intended. I’m grateful to be alive, and I accept that gift."

On Tuesday, a week after the earthquake, Joe Knerr, leader of the Fairfax County, Virginia, urban search-and-rescue team, said workers were still searching the Hotel Montana for survivors. But, he added, "Hotel Montana will have a large number of fatalities."

As of that day, 22 people had been pulled alive from the destroyed hotel, and 10 bodies had been recovered. But more people were known to have been inside. "We’ve searched with dogs and listened if there were voices," one rescue worker said. "No positive results."

More on this story may be found at these links:

Survivor: UMCOR trio kept faith in Haiti ruins. UMC.org

Haiti survivor Chand recalls hotel rescue. UMC.org

Quake victim recounts time buried alive, rescue. NPR

James Gulley recalls 55 hours in earthquake ruins. Global Ministries

Little hope left for Canadians trapped under Haiti’s Montana Hotel. The Province

The Big Questions

1. The Christian faith tells us we are in the hands of God. What does it mean for faithful people to be in the hands of God when in life-threatening situations from which some faithful people do not survive?

2. How is it possible to have "peace like a river" when one is drowning in the flow of circumstances?

3. If serious illness, deep troubles, life-threatening circumstances or something similar cause someone to cease to trust God, does that mean that person’s faith wasn’t real to begin with? Why or why not?

4. How might times of trouble actually restore or strengthen someone’s faltering faith?

5. If your life had been spared during a tragedy when others next to you died, how might that affect your relationship with God? How might it affect how you live the rest of your life?

Confronting the News with Scripture

Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Acts 16:24-25

" … he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." (For context, read 16:16-34.)

The situation of Paul and Silas, in prison at Philippi, was not unlike that of the Christians in the collapsed hotel in Haiti. They were in dire circumstances where they had absolutely no control over what would happen to them, and there was a good chance they would not even survive. Yet Paul and Silas, like the Christians in the hotel rubble, prayed and sang hymns to God.

This same phenomenon has been seen in the streets of Haiti, too, where some people who have lost everything are singing praises to God.

Question: What is it about terrible circumstances that sometimes causes people to sing to God? It that something like "whistling past a graveyard," or is there more to it?

Psalm 116:10

"I kept my faith, even when I said, ‘I am greatly afflicted … ‘" (For context, read 116:1-19.)

Psalm 116 is a song of thanksgiving for recovery from an illness, and it must have been a life-threatening one, because the psalmist described it by saying in verse 3, "The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me." (Sheol was the abode of the dead, so "the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me" was like saying, "I had one foot in the grave.") But in the verse above, the psalmist declares that even in the depths of illness, he or she "kept my faith."

Questions: Was the psalmist’s ability to keep the faith through a trying time the result of his or her own fortitude, or was it because God made that possible? In other words, is courageous faith something we dredge up from within our own being or is it a gift of God?

Luke 1:38
"Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’" (For context, read 1:26-38.)

This is Mary’s response to the angel who informed her that she was to give birth to God’s Son. Given that she was unmarried, this unexpected pregnancy would make Mary the object of gossip and scorn, and almost make her husband-to-be turn away from her (see Matthew 1:19). Yet her response is one of deep trust. She speaks the words above as a "servant of the Lord" and indicates she will cooperate with whatever God wants for her, even if it will be difficult to go through.

Questions: In what ways can Mary’s response be a model for all people when they decide to follow Jesus?

2 Corinthians 1:9

"Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." (For context, read 1:8-11.)

Without naming the specific trouble, Paul here refers to an affliction he and a least one coworker "experienced in Asia" (v. 8), which may have been an imprisonment in Ephesus, the principal city of Asia. Whatever it was, it was bad enough that it seemed at the time like a death sentence. But in that trouble, Paul and his companion relied not on themselves but "on God who raises the dead." In other words, he counted on God for deliverance — if not in this life, then in the next.

Question: To what degree does the promise of eternal life help you face the unexpected dangers and trials of this life?

1 Peter 1:6-7

"In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith — being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (For context, read 1:3-9.)

When Peter refers to suffering "various trials" and being "tested by fire," he is probably alluding to, among other things, persecution that some Christians were experiencing. But rather than advising fearfulness, he speaks of rejoicing in the troubles because they reveal the genuineness of one’s faith. Peter understands that by accepting Christ, Christians are secure in their salvation for the future; therefore, the present sufferings can be endured with hope, and those suffering can show how brightly faith shines.

Peter is not saying that God sends troubles to test Christians but that faith shows how real it is when trials nonetheless come.

Questions: Think of a time your faith has been tested by trial. What did you learn?

Questions for Further Discussion

1. What is your reaction to Rev. Gulley’s statement that "I have no answer about why I was given the gift of life and Sam and Clint were not"? What is your reaction to his conclusion: "All I can do is continue to try to use that gift in God’s service in whatever way it is intended. I’m grateful to be alive, and I accept that gift"?

2. Rev. Gulley and his companions were trapped by an earthquake and freed by humans. Paul and Silas were trapped humans and freed by an earthquake (Acts 16:26). What does this suggest about the ways of God?

3. What do you think should be the tone of the funerals for Revs. Dixon and Rabb? Why?

4. In what ways do you believe that our prayers here in America for the victims of the Haiti earthquake contribute to the faith, patience and hope that we see in the persons described in these reports?

5. What does the phrase "the fellowship of shared suffering" mean? Why might you describe it as a holy thing?

Responding to the News

The challenge here is to work at the spiritual disciplines — prayer, Bible reading, meditation, good deeds, etc. — to keep growing in faith. Right now, the discipline of giving is an important one, especially with so much human need in Haiti. 

Closing Prayer

O God, thank you for the gift of faith. Let it grow in us. Please strengthen and help all those who are working right now to save lives and tend to the needs of those who are suffering in Haiti. Enable those overseeing the work to quickly find ways to get the aid where it is needed. In the name of the compassionate Christ. Amen.