Haiti 17

02-01-2010
BY JEFF BRANSCOME (Fredericksburg Freelance Star)

The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley checked an e-mail from Haiti on her iPhone as she was introduced yesterday at St. George's Episcopal Church.

"My job doesn't stop," she told about 30 people who had come to hear her story. "We're trying to get food for one of our refugee camps, and we're having trouble."

Stanley, who is a missionary in Haiti for the Episcopal Church, held a 50-minute forum and also preached at the church in downtown Fredericksburg.

She spoke about the magnitude-7 earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12.

"This is personal for me because Haiti's my home," she said. "These are my kin."

She said it would take at least 25 years to rebuild the island nation, and called on everyone to help.

"We're not asking whether you want to be involved," she said. "We're asking how you want to be involved."

Stanley was in Virginia for theological studies when the quake hit. For now, she has been tasked by the Episcopal bishop of Haiti, the Rt. Rev. Jean Zache Duracin, with coordinating relief and development efforts from here.

In fact, the e-mail she received at the beginning of yesterday's forum was from a relief agency.

In an interview with The Free Lance-Star, she said she recently stopped a sermon in Burke to take a phone call from the Episcopal Church's headquarters in New York. It confirmed that two missing missionaries were alive.

"That was a phone call worth taking in the middle of my sermon," she said.

During yesterday's forum, Stanley addressed news reports that the U.S. had stopped flying critically injured quake victims to American hospitals for treatment because of a dispute over who would pay the medical bills.

"If we cannot help our brothers and sisters right off our shore, I am going to stand at the White House, and I am going to scream and yell," Stanley said.

Some Haitian parents, she said, have let their children die rather than have lifesaving amputations because "to be an amputee in Haiti is to be condemned to a life of poverty."

But not all the news is bad.

Aid organizations are working together. "We're getting the supplies, and we're helping the people--believe me on that," Stanley said.

The Episcopal Church has a 149-year history in Haiti, and educates about 85,000 Haitian children.

"The church is strong in Haiti, and the earthquake isn't going to stop us," Stanley said.