The Bride of Christ around the world seems like a big family. We may not know each other personally, but when we see pictures or read testimonies, it feels like we have a personal relationship with those believers. Our hearts rejoice with them when we see pictures of churches in faraway lands receiving Lighthouse packages, or we praise the Lord when we read about the Lord healing sicknesses. The same is true when we see one of our fellow believers suffering or in danger.

When we saw the pictures of Haiti strewn across the internet and newspapers, we went to prayer for the people of that country. Although we have never met, it was almost as if those thousands of believers were members of our immediate family. For one young sister here in Jeffersonville, that earthquake was even a little closer to home. Sister Emmanuella Ricketts was born and raised in Haiti, but now lives in Jeffersonville with her husband and young daughter. The testimony was written by her brother-in-law. Sister Emanuella is the daughter of Brother Tanis, one of the VGR reps in Haiti.

That fatal day, the terrible earthquake took us by surprise like everyone else in Haiti. On Tuesday, the 12th of January, at four o'clock and forty-three minutes in the afternoon, I stopped at the Minister of Finance (U.N. building) to pick up my wife, Martine, from her job. I was all happy and relaxed. Suddenly our car started swaying right and left, and all over the place. Panic seized us, not understand what was moving the car in this way. I picked up my head just in time to see a high-rise building seemingly coming toward our car. How was this possible? Before I could formulate my thoughts however, in a frightful noise of steel, the building crashed on top of our car, entombing us under tons of bricks and rubble made of cement and wrought iron.

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Shocked, we cried to our Lord Jesus Christ: “JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!” And waited for death. We could not breathe or move. There was not enough air in the tight space. I could see that the car was like a mass of broken pieces of tin. I tried to open the door, but the door was jammed. The car had become a trap. I called on the power of THE ALMIGHTY GOD, and shoved the glass of the side window so I could get out, while my wife was yelling my name: “Velou, Velou!” As soon as I was out of the car, I grabbed Martine's arm, and with all my strength, tried to pull her free of the pile of scrap iron that the car had become. But nothing budged. This job was too big for me. I couldn't do it, and the little bit of air in the car was diminishing by the second. We could barely breathe. I had to get Her out of there, and there was no one around to help me. We began to pray. We called on Jesus, “PLEASE, SAVE US! JESUS, USE YOUR MIGHTY STRENGTH AND THE MIGHTY POWER OF YOUR RIGHT ARM AND HELP US TO GET OUT OF THE CAR AND OUT OF THIS HOLE.”

Suddenly my wife unbuckled her seat belt and, using extraordinary strength, I pulled her free of the wreckage. That was when I felt a terrible pain in the area of my back and spine, followed by two short minutes of paralysis. Without thinking of the pain, I lifted my wife and took her out. By 6 pm we both were transported to the public park close by, where already thousands of victims, haggards and faces bathed in tears of incomprehension, had taken refuge. We spent the night with them, sitting on the ground, close to one another. We were in total darkness, the only light came from the moon over us, and every communication was difficult, if not impossible.

In all this, we want to give thanks and praise to OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST for saving our lives. We testify of His greatness and His Merci. Please, help us to say: PRAISE! PRAISE! GLORY! GLORY! TO THE ALMIGHTY GOD, “for He had dealt bountifully with us.”

May God bless you.

P.S The building that fell on us was the United Nations building.

The relief work is continuing in Haiti. For thousands of believers, it is impossible for them to go back to work, and for many, it is impossible for them to simply go back home. We will continue to post updates of the relief effort as new events develop in this devastated country.