Appeal for Haiti
The ROCOR Fund for Assistance writes:
Please Assist Our mission in Haiti!
…for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in. — Matthew 25: 35
A very powerful earthquake has devastated Haiti, the poorest country in our hemisphere. The media reports that up to 3,000,000 Haitians have been affected by this calamity. Life in Haiti is very difficult under normal circumstances. Now it is on the brink of becoming unbearable.
ROCOR’s mission in Haiti has nearly 2000 members. We have been trying to reach our priests there, but so far no luck. Most of the telephone towers in Haiti have been destroyed or damaged.
Jan. 17 Update:
Both ROCOR priests in Haiti are alive, mission school in Port-au-Prince destroyed
New York – The Fund for Assistance is happy to inform our supporters that both ROCOR priests in the Haiti mission and their families are alive.
“They are staying together and sleeping outdoors – afraid of more tremours,” said Matushka Sophia McKenzie who reached Fr. Gregoire Legoute by telephone on Saturday, January 16.
Jan. 15 Update:
Fr. Gregoire Legoute, one of two priests in Haiti alive
According to Matushka Sophia McKenzie (Miami), Fr. Gregoire Legoute is alive. She spoke with him for a moment before the line dropped.
“I only know that he was alive at the moment. He said things are bad and then we were cut off,” she said in a telephone interview.
Nothing is known about his family or Fr. Jean Chenier-Dumais, the other ROCOR priest in Haiti.