As the death toll in Haiti rises, and as the images of the terrible earthquake slowly begin to fade from our televisions, computer screens and minds, now is a good time to reflect on Rapid City's own generous response to that disaster.
Immediately after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed much of Haiti's capital city, local people, organizations and churches opened their hearts and their wallets to the most poverty-stricken nation in the western hemisphere. Donations flowed into area churches all over the Black Hills, but none more generously than they did at Dove Christian Center.
That local evangelical Christian church, and its longtime leader, Pastor Gary Johnson, have a special connection to Haiti through Pastor Serge Coulanges. Johnson and Coulanges enjoy a 37-year friendship that includes monthly financial support of Coulanges' many spiritual, medical and educational ministries in Haiti. Even before Johnson knew the fate of his good friend, who thankfully survived the earthquake, the Rapid City pastor was raising money through a special relief fund for Coulanges. Less than one week after the quake, Dove Christian had collected more than $8,000.
Even as the earthquake struck, numerous Christian-based missionaries with ties to Rapid City and South Dakota were working in Haiti. A team from the Hot Springs area, including Dr. Garry Strauser and others, staffed a medical outreach clinic at the Celebrate Jesus in Haiti compound on the island of La Gonave. Two other area physicians, Drs. Bryan Den Hartog and Terry Graber, were part of a Mission to Haiti team. Although they were forced to evacuate the country in the earthquake's aftermath, we salute their service and hope they'll all find their way back to Haiti to contribute their skills again sometime soon.
Post earthquake, Dr. Strauser recalled one of his Haitian colleagues bemoaning the fact that his countrymen, including members of his own family, were "dying like dogs" in the streets of Port-au-Prince. Two weeks after the earthquake, too many Haitians are living like dogs amid the rubble and ruin of their capital city. Perhaps 700,000 people are sheltered only by makeshift tents without safe water sources or sufficient food as governments and aid workers struggle to match resources and relief aid with the people who need it.
Like the rest of the worldwide community, we send our profound sorrow and deepest condolences to the people of Haiti for this terrible tragedy. But as residents of a rich nation, we must do more than just send money and prayers. We must help Haiti help itself. Mitigating the effects of this natural disaster, and the next one that will inevitably occur, includes reconstructing not only Haiti's buildings, but also its society as a more economically just system, a less corrupt government and a nation that distributes its meager resources in the most equitable way possible.
