Missionaries 'called' to aid victims in Haiti

It's been three weeks since the earth shuddered beneath their feet.

Three weeks since they saw flesh torn and limbs severed. Three weeks since they heard mothers sobbing.

The memories are still vivid for a group from Concord Christian Church that was on a mission trip in Haiti when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit.

Eight of the missionaries returned home within days of the quake.

Two stayed behind.

Lakey and Bobby Curlee, a couple in their 50s from Faith, choose to remain in Haiti.

The couple, which has been attending Concord Christian Church for about 10 years, has been doing mission work for six years, and they usually spend six to eight months in the Caribbean country every year.

The Curlees will come home in March, just as they had originally planned.

"If there was any time a missionary is called to serve God and people, during a tragedy is when you're needed most," Lakey Curlee wrote in an e-mail.

With sporadic Internet access, Lakey Curlee e-mails family and friends and adds notes to her Facebook profile with updates on the Haitian people and her work.

The Curlees are staying at a compound operated by Lifeline Christian Mission, an international mission organization. Their access to power and water is dependent on energy from a generator.

After the initial chaos that followed the earthquake, doctors and people from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, began trickling into the compound and the clinic there, Lakey Curlee wrote.

She said severe aftershocks continue, and now that hundreds of people have set up makeshift tents on the compound grounds, they face the threat of disease. U.S. troops were expected to arrive to set up latrines, she said.

Lakey, a caterer, and Bobby, an electrician and minister, are putting their skills to use. Lakey is working as a cook, preparing food for more than 100 mission staff, doctors and nurses and Haitian translators. Bobby is the compound's handyman, repairing everything from walls to generators.

With no walls and a thatch and tin roof, the compound's church, designed to hold about 600 people, has been packed with nearly 1,200 people at services. Lakey Curlee described how mission workers used some of the generator's energy to power amplifiers and speakers for guitars, drums and trumpets during a recent service.

"The people are still singing louder than the music," Lakey wrote. "Needless to say, the Lord's message is being heard way past our seven-acre mission complex."

Memories remain

Back at her home in Concord, Hollie Gregory said she's having trouble adjusting to her daily routine. She returned to work last week, but things just seem trivial in comparison to what she saw in Haiti.

She has nightmares about a 5-year-old girl who came to the compound's clinic with her arm all but severed. She dreams of the young man with an abscess that had to be drained with the incision made by a box cutter because the clinic had no scalpels.

"I'll never forget his face and cries of pain," she said.

Michelle Lyon, a 29-year-old from Concord, has been having nightmares about being stuck in a building during an earthquake.

She said she feels guilty because she was able to leave the country when so many others could not.

The week after their return, the group spoke in front of packed pews at Concord Christian Church, receiving a standing ovation from the congregation.

When asked if any of the group planned to return to Haiti, nearly all of them nodded.

"God called me to missions," Gregory said. "If I don't go back, I'd feel like I was giving up on something important in my life. I can't imagine not going back."

Nancy Kaiser took the microphone and explained that, at 70 years old, she is too old to make the trip again.

"But I think somebody her age...", she said, passing the microphone to 16-year-old Beth Bowman.

Beth responded without hesitation.

"I'd absolutely go back."