It was the best text message the Rev. John Hearn Jr. has ever received

Garden City church relieved to hear from Haiti mission workers

Catherine Jun / The Detroit News

Garden City — It was the best text message the Rev. John Hearn Jr. has ever received.

On Thursday morning, a 25-year-old teacher at his missionary school in Port-au-Prince finally replied to the multiple text messages the Garden City minister had sent, trying to find out if she and others had survived the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday. The young teacher, Rolande Stlot, had grown up at the mission, and Hearn had sponsored her since she was 16, calling her his “adopted daughter.”

Some time after 6 a.m., his cell phone received her four typed words: “We are all ok.”

“That was my wake-up call this morning, and a beautiful one,” Hearn said.

Until then, Hearn, of Christian Faith Ministries of Garden City, had received no word on the fate of anyone at the church’s Haiti mission, called Friends of C&S Mission. Besides waiting for word from Stlot, he hadn’t heard from Herbert Studstill, a 61-year-old volunteer from Romulus. Nor had he heard whether the school’s 35 children were alive.

Across the United States, those with family members and friends in Haiti continue to worry, as communication networks remain disrupted, making phone calls difficult or impossible.

In Michigan, relief agencies are racing to prepare relief shipments to Haiti. The Coast Guard Air Station of Detroit is on the scene there, assisting with relief operations, said Lt. j.g. Alan Baker. Commercial flights to Haiti have been canceled.

Grand Rapids-based Haiti Foundation Against Poverty secured seats on a charter plane out of Palm Beach, Fla., for medical doctors to head to Haiti on Friday morning.

Also, the Caribbean Student Association at Michigan State University is planning a fundraiser Jan. 29.

“We want to do whatever possible to help save as many lives and rebuild the country,” said President Nicholas Kerr, who’s a Jamaica native.

The Garden City church has been collecting clothing, as well as toiletries and bandages.

Hearn said he is working with U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ office to try to fly to Haiti on a military plane.

Studstill had left for Haiti last week to help with the expansion of the mission’s school. But the building was the least of his concerns. He focused Thursday on the text messages.

In the messages from Stlot, Hearn learned that everyone was alive and safe, and they had all found refuge at another mission, Morning Star Christian Academy. The group was with Pastor Jay Threadgill, Stlot wrote. Then the messages stopped.

“I was grateful to get that much,” Hearn said. “Now we have to get food and water and supplies there.”

Leslie Studstill, 41, of Romulus was overjoyed to get confirmation her father was alive. She said she had tried to call him, sending text messages and leaving voicemails. She never got an answer. Nor did she ever successfully reach anyone at the State Department hotline established for Americans. That number is (888) 407-4747.

She received the news from Hearn on Thursday morning. “It’s been like a roller coaster,” she said. “Now I know he’s safe. It’s a good feeling.

But Roger Allen, pastor at the New Covenant Free Methodist Church in Clio, said church members Merle West of Mount Morris and Gene Dufour of Clio remain missing in Haiti, where their flight was scheuled to arrive an hour before the quake.

Staff Writer Kim Kozlowski and Associated Press contributed.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100115/METRO01/1150397/Garden-City-church-relieved-to-hear-from-Haiti-mission-workers#ixzz0e7ic5N6O

2 Responses to “It was the best text message the Rev. John Hearn Jr. has ever received”

1. Frances Jones says:

   January 29, 2010 at 8:16 pm

   I’m very concerned about the conditons in Haiti and the children at the mission. I’ll send more when I can. Love
2. Ashley Monkowski says:

   February 24, 2010 at 11:38 pm

   I think that is an interesting point, it made me think a bit. Thanks for sparking my thinking cap. Sometimes I get so much in a rut that I just feel like a record.