Darlene Etienne had been in her shower when the 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti on Jan. 12, collapsing her house, she said. A blanket of concrete and steel entrapped her there until passersby heard  a faint voice coming from the rubble of her what had been her hillside home.  A  group of young men  using pick axes, a sledgehammer and whatever else they could find began digging out Darline until Haitian and French rescue teams arrived to complete the task. Within nearly 4 hours, the 17-year-old was freed.  

French medical staff  treated her Wednesday night  aboard the French medical ship Siroco, off Port au Prince, as seen in this Associated Press photo. Doctors said her survival was medically inexplicable.

A person can stay alive without food for 15 days but without water for than long –not usually.

 ”It’s a miracle, ” a British police chaplain declared when Darlene was pulled out of the rubble.

“It was the second remarkable rescue in the Haitian capital in the past 24 hours and may have marked one of the longest stretches of survival on record in any natural disaster. In a nation that has counted its dead by the tens of thousands, Darline’s survival provided a rare moment of pure happiness,” The Washington Post reported.

I have been reading and looking at news reports of the rescues that have taken place since the earthquake, including the one that has remained etched in my mind of the little boy who was pulled from rubble last week. As soon as he was free of the hole in which he had been buried in for  too many days, he flashed a smile and raised his small arms in sheer exhilaration.

I need to see those rescues, to see that miracles still happen amid such tremendous sorrow. To know that despite what appears on the surface that God does not abandon us. He is there in the midst of our troubles, giving us the strength that we need to make it one more minute, one more day. His grace is sufficient and his faithfulness is great . Yes I still wonder why Darlene survived for so long and was rescued, and so many others didn’t. Are there more Darlenes still clinging to life and waiting for passersby to come their way?

Questions of who lives and who dies in such horrific natural disasters, or in plane crashes, or in exploding sugar plants or car accidents or in many other circumstances, such as cancer or other illnesses, are too big for me. All I can do  when those question bubble up is stop and pray that my lack of an answer not does not lead to lack of faith. I will do what Darlene must have done, and what a number of other earthquake survivors say that they did —  hold fast to faith in God.

Please continue to pray for Haiti and support relief efforts because the needs remain great and will be for a long time to come as people are resettled and as the rebuilding begins.

What has touched your heart about the stories coming out of this tragedy?

Related posts:

1. Let the spirit of Christmas linger through you