While we were on our Encounter trip in Haiti, we were able to see some of aftermath from the 2010 Earthquake. As we drove out of Port-au-Prince, we witnessed some of the tent cities. When we arrived in Merger (where we stayed for the week), some participants were able to hear from one family how they witnessed a miracle in the rubble. Denise Heesch, one of our participants, describes the experience in her own words below:
The beautiful hot Haitian sun overhead, the steep rocky road before us and Madame Pastor leading the way. I had no idea this would be the setting God would choose to give us an encounter with the Divine.
Our morning was to be spent meeting with, and praying for whomever Madame Pastor felt we should visit. Not five yards from the locked corrugated metal gate of the church was our first stop. The gracious elderly Haitian woman we met and prayed with said that she would pray to receive Jesus later…when her daughter said it was ok, maybe. Could we pray for a new home for her, to replace the one damaged by the earthquake? We prayed with her for God’s provision…that He would become very real to her, that she would desire a relationship with Him.
We turn and go further up this steep road, not far. As we are following single file behind our translator and Madame Pastor, she is explaining we are going to meet a special young girl.
We scramble up and around rebar and rocky, dusty, cinder blocks to walk across what looks to be a concrete slab. Around the back of the attached cinder block “home” we approach the door on the side and call out “Bonjour Madame”. We can hear a woman respond something in Creole, and the sound of shuffling feet.
Our translator says that the girl’s mother has told us that the girl has just woken up, she will be right out with her.
As we wait at the doorway, our eyes wander around the small enclosed room. It is sparse, well lit from the high window and doorway. The dirt floor is swept clean…the small child’s wheelchair, and the small walker are the only things in there except the small bench like seat against the one wall.
The mother calls through the sheet hanging in the doorway leading into the house. “Please enter, we will be right out”. There is six of us plus the translator. Two of us stand in the doorway, the rest come in to wait. A couple of minutes later, through the sheet, down the one step comes the little girl and the mother.
The atmosphere is…hesitant at first. Then we introduce ourselves, and we get to meet Meloonda, and her mother Clarice. Meloonda is 8 years old. She is in a beautiful white dress with large fuchsia flowers on it. Her mom helps her down into her wheel chair. She squeals with delight as we come forward to say hello to her. It is apparent she is special. She doesn’t have complete control of her hands, and she does not speak.
Clarice begins to speak: Meloonda was a typical five year old when the earthquake came. She was about to leave for school, with her hair up in ribbons when all the shaking came. By the time that the earth stood still again, Clarice was covering Meloonda’s body with her own. They were buried beneath the rubble. Her two other older children were also buried beneath the rubble, but separated by a cinder block wall. She called to them, she heard their voices. The older children had been huddled in the corner, so were saved from the falling debris.
Meloonda In Her Wheelchair (Photo Taken By Denise Heesch)
Clarice instructed them to get some rocks, to break their way through the wall to where she was trapped. Then they found something to tear through the galvanized steel roof. When they were finally through, Meloonda was not breathing and was unresponsive. They worked on her to try to restore her breathing, then her father and some other men said that she was dead.
They started to wrap her up to begin preparations for burial. Clarice was beside herself, and called out to God. She said “Oh God, I am your servant! Please give her back to me, as I have loved and served you”. She started to yell to the men to unwrap her…because she is not dead. God blessed her, and returned Meloonda to her.
Meloonda lived in hospital for two months. Her spine had been severely damaged, her brain suffered from lack of oxygen for 20 minutes or so. She will never speak or walk or anything ever again was the prognosis.
God had another plan. She has been starting to walk, and she can say “Momma and Daddy” (In Creole of course) BUT if you look into her beautiful eyes, and tell her she is “Belle, tres belle” her beautiful shrieks of joy, and the movements of her body are evidence you are in the presence of the Divine.
We had the privilege of praying for Meloonda and her mom, that God would continue to heal her and bless them. We are the ones who have been blessed. By the Godly example of a mother’s faith…and the blessing of our faithful God.
Meloonda Standing On Her Own Because of God's Healing (Photo Taken By Denise Heesch)
