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Cross Catholic Outreach
- February 11, 2010
Turning Haiti’s Mourning into Gladness
This week, Cross Catholic staff met with Haitian mission partner Gladys Mecklembourg, who runs an orphanage on the country’s west coast, to learn how her ministry is coping with the earthquake crisis. We have provided funds to help Gladys meet emergency needs as she balances her responsibility of caring for her children with efforts to reach out to suffering people throughout the community.
By God’s grace, all the children and staff at the orphanage were unharmed. But Gladys says the kids are afraid to sleep at night because of the aftershocks, and they are worried about relatives they haven’t heard from since the quake. The children will need a lot of counseling to recover emotionally from what has happened.
Gladys told us that four nurses are currently staying at the orphanage to provide post-operative care for medical patients who are being brought in from an overcrowded hospital.
Gladys Mecklembourg’s orphanage is providing space for earthquake victims to stay while receiving post-operative care.
Gladys has an on-site clinic, and she has turned the boys’ dormitory into a temporary hospital where amputees and other wounded and ill patients can recover in safety and comfort. The boys have been relocated to other facilities on the 93-acre property. Gladys said there is also possibility of setting up a tent camp on the grounds for the many refugees who have no place to go.
Despite the challenges facing Haiti and our Cross Catholic mission partners in the aftermath of the quake, Gladys expressed a positive vision for the future, applying the words of Isaiah 61:3.
“We trust in our heavenly father to raise up a new Haiti, to bestow on us a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. We will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the lord for the displaying of his splendor. This is the word the Lord had given us at Togetherness for Christ, and we believe in this, and we know there will be a change in Haiti. Not only in the structure, but in the heart – the heart of the people…. There is solidarity among us.”
For the latest news on how we are supporting our Cross Catholic mission partners in Haiti, visit crosscatholic.org/product-cat/project-catalog/disaster-relief/.
