Going the last mile to help Joseph | Disaster Response

Hours up a narrow muddy road, Joseph lay under debris from the earthquake. Trapped under his home with a broken back, Joseph was dying.

Our disaster response team got the call about Joseph four days after the earthquake in Haiti last year. Our field team and partners were doing rapid assessments near the epicenter, traveling from village to village, assessing needs, and reporting them back so we could respond as effectively as possible.

A pastor from a rural village in Bouffard, Haiti calls, saying, “No one has made it up here yet…there is a man, Joseph, who is dying. We need your help.”

Our team knew they had to figure out a way to get to Joseph.

Bouffard is an extremely small mountain community far at the end of a mountain road. If you’ve been on a mountain road in Haiti, you know just how difficult those are to traverse. Now after an earthquake and significant rainfall, the path was nearly impossible. Our team made it to the end of the steep mud road to find that Joseph’s house was another mile past the end of the road.

So they walked to Joseph—willing to do whatever it took. During the earthquake four days earlier, Joseph’s block home had collapsed on him, breaking his back. When his family found him, they did all they could to help keep him alive. They knew his back was hurt, so they made a makeshift stretcher out of a thatched door to stabilize him.

Joseph’s family and friends had come to peace with the fact that he was likely going to die. But then help showed up. Our response team quickly put together a plan and called in a medevac to meet them in a town down the mountain.

The community surrounded Joseph, and carried him down the mountain, each step excruciatingly painful. They made it to the truck that would take Joseph to the helicopter and placed him in the bed of the pickup, hopeful their friend would find healing.



The medevac helicopter arrived to transport Joseph, still strapped to the makeshift stretcher, and several other patients to Port Au Prince, met by our very own Dr. Marlene who was on the tarmac in PAP to transport patients to nearby hospitals. These patients were able to receive life-saving medical care because teams of people were willing to go the last mile to reach them.

From the team at the top of that rural mountain in Haiti, with the pastor, in coordination with air support, all the way to Dr. Marlene waiting on the tarmac in PAP—that is the definition of responding in unity to serve every man, woman, and child.

God’s faithfulness has been shown through the support of so many of you who gave in these times of disaster. In 2021 alone, Mission of Hope served 341,707 people through disaster response. Since the earthquake, we have rebuilt seven schools that were completely destroyed. These communities had no idea if the kids in their village would have a chance to continue their education, and now, one year later, they are returning to a brand new school, eager and ready to learn.

It’s often said, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” We know that working together—united—we have significantly more impact than we do alone. The call is greater than our capacities, but together we can have a significant impact in the lives of people experiencing immense despair after a disaster.

Would you prayerfully give a gift to Mission of Hope, to help continue to serve long after disaster strikes in a time where people like Joseph so desperately need to be reminded of hope?

• $2,500 can provide a hospital with a generator
• $200 can provide five families with emergency shelters
• $120 can provide two cots for patients at hospitals
• $50 can provide one water filtration kit
• $25 can provide hygiene kits

Thank you for encouraging our brothers and sisters across the Caribbean.