Dear Class Member
Amid the ongoing tragedy in Haiti, we hear testimonies to the power of faith in God. The news this week brought one such story to us, and we are going to use it as the basis of our next class. We will consider how faith works in the lives of those who hold it when they are in deep trouble.
If you wish to start thinking about our topic in advance, below is some introductory material.
"Peace Like a River": The Sound of Faith in Collapsed Haiti Hotel
The Wired Word for January 24, 2010
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 word earthquake."
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:
The Big Questions
Here are some of the questions we will discuss in class:
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
We will look at selected verses from these Scripture texts. You may wish to read these in advance for background:
Acts 16:16-34Psalm 116:1-19Luke 1:26-382 Corinthians 1:8-111 Peter 1:3-9
In class, we will talk about these passages and look for some insight on the big questions, as well as talk about other questions you may have about this topic. Please join us.
