Group in Haiti Awaits Return

Five Trinity students traveling with Professor Brad Binau to Haiti as part of a January Term course about mission work are safe and awaiting their return to the United States following the earthquake in Port-au-Prince on January 12.

The group is now in a hotel in the town of Jacmel, south of the capital, and awaiting transportation to Port-au-Prince and a flight back to the United States. Members of the group have made contact with loved ones and the seminary through e-mails, Facebook, and more recently by telephone. They remain safe and have access to food, shelter, and other resources.

The students were enrolled in the course “Immersed in Mission: Walking Together in Colorado and Haiti,” led by Dr. Binau, professor of pastoral theology. They left for Haiti from Littleton, Colorado, on January 11 with a group of fellow students from Luther Seminary in Minnesota, Wartburg Seminary in Iowa, and members of Abiding Hope Lutheran Church in Littleton. Abiding Hope supports a variety of ministries in Haiti, including a home for boys, programs for children with special needs, college education programs, and a children’s hospital. Abiding Hope pastor and Trinity graduate Doug Hill (1994) is traveling with the group.

After their arrival in Port-au-Prince, the group traveled to Jacmel to visit programs there. The group’s hotel was destroyed in the earthquake, as were many surrounding buildings. Most members of the group were outside the hotel at the time; the others escaped injury. Professor Binau reports that they had a “harrowing experience,” but also experienced many miracles in the midst of the devastation. The United Nations eventually brought them to another hotel, where they will remain until travel is feasible.

Trinity’s partnership with Abiding Hope and its ministries have provided opportunities for students to learn more about congregational and global mission work. The students were scheduled to return to Columbus on January 22.

The January Term provides opportunities for seminary students to travel throughout the world. Other Trinity students are spending this term in Kenya, Geneva, and Iceland.

A separate group of Wartburg Seminary students working in Haiti as part of their January Term encountered the earthquake in Port-au-Prince. One of those students, senior Ben Larson, died when the school in which he was teaching collapsed. His wife and a cousin, also students at Wartburg, survived and are returning to the United States. Trinity grieves with its sister seminary and fellow member in the Covenant Cluster, and with the Larson family, as they deal with their loss. More information can be found at www.wartburgseminary.edu.

Trinity Lutheran Seminary continues to gather as a community in prayer for the people of Haiti, for the students and their guides who traveled there to learn more about the church at work in the world, and for those now involved in the relief efforts.

For information about the ELCA’s response to Haiti visit www.ELCA.org.
For information about Abiding Hope’s projects in Haiti and the student group traveling there, visit www.hopeinhaiti.org.