Today is the 10 year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. In a minute's time, 200,000 people were dead, half a million injured, and millions of people were homeless.

As memories come back, so do emotions. Please pray for all the people who were in Haiti ten years ago.

Agape Missionary Affiliate, Sherrie Fausey teacher and President of Christian Light School in Port au Prince, Hait tells us her story:

"Ten years ago, I had no time to grieve. There was too much to do. People were dependent on us. I had to be strong. Now, it is hitting me. I weep when I think back to January, 2010. But when I look at what has been accomplished since the disaster, I praise God. Praise the LORD!!!!!!!!!!!

On the afternoon of January 12 th , 2010, I was finishing at my desk, pushing back, and ready to go fix supper. As I stood up, the house began to shake. I knew what it was and tried to run. I fell in the hallway outside my room and could not stand up. Things were falling on me. I tried to crawl into a doorway and put a little, plastic table from the bathroom over my head. The back of the building, including my room which was about 3 feet away, fell off the building. A cloud of white dust came up in my face, a total white out.

When the shaking stopped, I ran out the front of the building. It was badly damaged, but still standing. Where were the orphanage children who lived on the first floor? I looked in the girl’s bedroom. The beds were smashed but no one was there. My bedroom had fallen on the Pre-K classroom. I looked in the boy’s room The boy’s room was OK but empty. Where were the children?

The children came running in from the street. About 300 Haitians came in with them. Everyone seemed to think I knew what to do. I just wanted to know if we had all the children. We had to line the children up to count them because of the crowd. We were missing one. About that time, I heard Madame Jacqueline scream. Her room was buried under the rubble. Her son, 7 year old Peterson, was missing. He had died instantly.

The house we had lived in was badly damaged and leaning. We needed to get away in case it fell. Mr. Edmond came over from our construction site ½ block away. He said it was a mess, but no damage. We moved to the construction site. The wall had fallen down into the street, but the gate stood. No one wanted to try to go inside the few rooms we had started construction on. We slept "under the stars."

We only had about 15 minutes before total darkness. I told the nannies to get blankets or mattresses or whatever they could find and put the children to bed on the sand piles & gravel piles. The 300 Haitians had followed us and they also went for bedding supplies and set up camp around us.

About half an hour later, a Haitian pastor came in trembling and shaking. He had been on the roof of the Church on the Roof waiting for the congregation to arrive when the earthquake occurred. Houses full of people tumbled down the mountainside on both sides of him with the people inside screaming. The pastor was very upset. I asked him if he was a pastor? He indignantly said, “Yes!” I pointed to all the people in the yard and said , “Here are sheep.” Pastor Cenor gathered up the people. They sang. They thanked God they were alive. They prayed for missing family members. 9 people accepted Jesus.

They started bringing the burned and wounded to me. My neighbor, Karen, came over. She said her truck was usable and about a block away and the Sisters of Charity were using their clinic which was 7 blocks away. The men would carry the wounded to the pickup truck and carry the bandaged back in. The Sisters could not do broken bones. The small boy with an obvious break between his knee and ankle was given Ibuprophen and told to go to sleep. That was tough.

My phone was smashed on my desk by the concrete roof. About 11:00 at night, Karen told me she talked with Dorothy by phone. Dorothy and I were under the same organization so I assumed everyone would know I was OK. But they didn’t.

It was hard to sleep. There were tremors about every 20 minutes. Everyone would wake up and pray. About the time they settled down, the next tremor occurred.

In the morning, I went over to the house looking for food. The children had not had any supper the night before. The teenagers followed me. We found boxes of Manna Packs, a stove that wasn’t broken, and a gas tank that worked. By mid-morning, the nannies had fed the children and the 300 Haitians who had camped with us. We were thankful for food.
Pastor Cenor and Mr. Jonas, a teacher, helped me get stuff out of the house - food, furniture, and medicine. The children were not allowed in the house but carried things from the yard to the construction site.

I did not see them arrive, but Poptarts showed up from Operation Blessing – a truckload of Poptarts. Papa provided. We all ate Poptarts for a couple days. Thank You, Lord .

A translator and doctor from the Restavek Freedom Foundation came asking for medicine. We gave them a laundry basket and let them fill it with medicine and bandaging. We found out 6 months later that the Restavek Freedom Foundation had no doctor or translator. Who were they? Angels? I don’t know but we have a great partnership with the Restavek Freedom Foundation as a result of these ladies.

Pastor Karl Olsson came to see if I was alive. He said stories were going around that I was dead. I assured him I was not dead and asked him to contact people.

As days went by, I became very weak. I tried to get help at a medical clinic but got worse. I could not breathe. I had inhaled concrete dust in the earthquake. On Monday after the earthquake, a friend took me to the airport and asked them to get me out. They put me on the next plane. That was hard. I did not want to go but knew I would die if I stayed. By the time I arrived in the USA, I had a high fever and was too weak to walk by myself.

When I arrived in Jacksonville, my son showed me the newspaper. The headline was “Jacksonville Missionary Missing and Presumed Dead.” He said, “Mom, that’s you.” After about 4 days, when I could talk, I did interviews on TV and newspapers. I told them I had 27 children in an orphanage before the earthquake and 55 children when I was evacuated. I had 42 homeless employees and over 200 homeless students. In 8 days, I was back in Haiti.

I had flown to the USA in ripped clothing because it was all I had. When I arrived, there were 5 new skirts from the sweet ladies at Parkwood Baptist Church and 5 new shirts from my daughter-in law on my bed. Praise the LORD!!!!!

Medical teams began arriving. Of course, Dr. Karen's group was first. They stayed in the "Starlight Hotel" in our construction site. It was named Starlight Hotel because it had no roof. They set up clinics at Karen's house. Our 2 oldest classes at the time, 5th and 6th grades,translated every days for many weeks. Many people were helped and lives were saved. Praise the LORD!!!!!

I saw an email from Agape Flights. It said one missionary had received 2 ½ tons of donations and could not get it all at once. I thought, who would do such a thing!!! I found out later it was me! Because I was evacuated and did interviews, people donated generously. Very generously!! Praise the LORD!!!!!

Our driver would pick up a truckload of boxes from Agape each Saturday. We assigned 2 teachers each week to distribute whatever was brought in by Agape Flights. They were to have everything sorted by Wednesday and begin sending things home with the students. Each student would carry an armload of clothing, shoes, etc. for them to distribute to neighbors every day. Every Saturday, the driver would bring in another truckload from Agape Flights and another team of teachers sorted. The school children carried everything out into the neighborhood to the people who were in need. Praise the LORD!!!!!

We had an employee assigned to tents and tarps in the boxes from Agape Flights. He would quietly walk through the tent cities looking for newborn babies, people with bandages or casts, and very fragile, elderly people. Those people received tents or tarps. Praise the LORD!!!!!

Another team of teachers organized the neighborhood tent cities to receive donations of food. Every day, truckloads of food appeared at the gate. The people in the neighborhood observed and waited. At 3:00, representatives from each tent city gathered outside the gate. When everyone arrived, they came in, sang a hymn, prayed, thanked God for provision, and took their food supplies back to the tent city to distribute. Praise the LORD!!!!!

Large donations came in which we used to build the school. It took over a year to get everyone inside. It was so good to have a roof over our heads once again. Praise the LORD!!!!!

Now, ten years later, we have a 3 story school with 18 classrooms, living space, school kitchens, etc. all built with donations after the earthquake. So, now I look back and no longer wonder why I was on the third floor of a building falling down. The Lord brought something good out of a terrible tragedy. Beauty from ashes. Because I was in the building, I inhaled concrete dust which caused me to be evacuated which resulted in interviews which brought in great donations which were used to build Christian Light School. Thank You, Lord!!!!!"