Mission Viejo Church Group Still Stuck in Increasingly Hostile Haiti

A group from the Mission Viejo Christian Church was in Haiti on a missionary trip when the devastating earthquake occurred. All are well, thankfully, but the locals are becoming increasingly hostile towards missionary groups as supplies run out. To complicate things, the group can't get out of there because of communications and transportation problems:

But by Friday there was chaos at the Maison De Lumiere Orphanage in Haiti as 11 American missionary volunteers were trying to find a way to leave after severe shortages of food, water and medicine sparked anger in people they had been trying to help.

"People are becoming hostile at the missionary workers and we now find ourselves desperately trying to get them out," said Mike Maiolo, senior pastor of the volunteers' home church in Mission Viejo. He said he had received urgent messages from Haiti that everyone wanted to leave.

The Kuebickis and the others from Mission Viejo Christian Church arrived in Port-Au-Prince a week ago to help assist nearly 100 abused and abandoned children at the orphanage.

The facility sustained heavy damage in the earthquake but no one was killed, he said.
Within hours of the quake, the volunteers became de facto nursing assistants after word spread that Maison De Lumiere was serving as a makeshift triage center.

"Lots of doctors and nurses have been coming by the facility because word's gotten out, so there's all these people being pulled out of rubble and they're assisting and attending to the injured as best as they can," Marty Kuebicki said.

Judy Beltis left her husband, six daughters and five grandchildren in California when she came to Haiti on January 8. Moments after the walls and shelves around her collapsed, she found herself attending the injured and working to save lives, said her husband, Paul.

"This is a mom who couldn't put a Band-Aid on her kids when they had a cut finger because she was so squeamish, and now she's dealing with whatever needs to be done," he said.

On Thursday, the family was assured that Judy Beltis was safe and protected. "I'm going to urge her at some point to come back and get a little rest and restoration, but I know she'll want to head right back," said daughter Jaime.

But that was before Maiolo received the urgent messages late Thursday.

He said the situation had deteriorated to the extent that no one felt safe going outside the compound. Contact with his missionary members in Haiti has been limited to occasional text messages, Internet streaming and e-mail, he said, and his volunteers have not been able to reach U.S. State Department officials.

"The world around us is in such need when something like this happens and we've got to be there for them, but at the same time, there must be a quick way to get them out when there is nothing more to give," Maiolo said.

They're doing the Lord's work and I have to believe that they were in Haiti when the quake struck for a reason. Still, I'll feel better when they can get back home and out of that mess. It's gotta be tough on the family members back home.

UPDATE: They're coming home on Sunday!