Day in Haiti is inspiration-filled 'mini' mission

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — What do you do when you are petrified driving through the streets of Port-au-Prince, even on a Sunday?

You find an LDS meetinghouse.

Deliver supplies.

Worship.

Sing.

And fellowship with them.

And, oh yeah, introduce an investigator to the members.

That's what three returned LDS missionaries, also members of Utah Haiti Relief, did. I went along with Brady Anderton, 40, of Austin, Texas; Adam Wade, 25, of St. George; and Tyler Corbridge, 32, of Las Vegas, whose father, Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge , serves in the First Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Corbridge and his wife, Jacque, oversee the Chile region for the church.

Yet, my returned missionary friends provided me with my own "mini" mission. Little did I know how this experience would overcome me.

When we arrived at the Croix Des Bouquet Ward, we found the church members pristinely dressed. Almost immaculate. Unlike the TV images of Haiti that bombarded us back home, or what we found on the streets of Port-au-Prince or in orphanages.

"These people have been devastated, some living in tents, yet they are there in their clean white shirts, crisp and ironed," Corbridge said.

Anderton couldn't have been more right when he said, "They live in a broken system but they are not broken."

The church grounds, although small, had a tall brick fence surrounding them. On top of the fence was rolled barbed wire. There were black bars on the church's windows and doors. The small parking lot, maybe eight parking stalls, had its locked gate open.

"I felt like I was home the second we entered those gates," Wade said. "The chapel was like a rose among thorns."

With 30 minutes left of the service, we were able to join in song, even though three out of four of us didn't understand the words.

"I was mesmerized by their voices and by their smiles," Anderton said. "I felt completely at home," Wade said.

"They sing like they mean it — I have traveled the world and have never heard singing like I did in this chapel — it came from inside of them," added Corbridge. "It suggests strength and devotion to God notwithstanding the devastation and trial they are encountering. It suggests peace and optimism, too. Their faces show it. They are bright and smiling."

Anderton, who served in the second to last mission to Haiti from 1989-91 before it was closed by the LDS Church and had studied up on his Haitian Creole and French prior to embarking on this relief tour, was one of our translators in addition to our Haitian escort, Ryupert. Ryupert led the way to this ward building on a motorbike from the Port-au-Prince Airport with our overflowing truckload and covered supplies following closely behind.