The Connecticut deacon who was rescued from the rubble in Haiti had a chance to tell his story yesterday:
Prayers filled his thoughts for 10 hours as Chuck Dietsch awaited rescue or death.
All around him, Dietsch heard screams. People were in pain or mourning as they discovered the bodies of loved ones killed from falling debris during the earthquake that shattered Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12. He and fellow volunteer Jillian Thorp also were suffering. Trapped beneath what had been their mission house, they lay together, in and out of consciousness as they began losing air, his body eventually going into shock from the pain.
Pausing several times Tuesday morning to regain his composure, Dietsch recounted a night “filled with horror and terror.” He stood at the pulpit of Sacred Heart Church in Southbury, of which he is a deacon. He said he called the news conference to bring attention to the help the victims will need.
“We prayed for the many people that we heard. There was a lot of noise that night, not just the earthquake. Half the people on our front street died,” Dietsch said. “The sounds were horrific because death filled the night.”
Staff members of the mission house, which is run by Haitian Ministries for the Diocese of Norwich, usually leave every day at 4 p.m. Dietsch, who turned 66 on Monday, and Thorp, 23, were the only two who had stayed behind. They were on the second floor of the building.
“When the ground began to move, she did not recognize what was happening,” Dietsch recalled. But, because he’d lived in California, he knew that feeling. He grabbed Thorp and the two stood in a doorway as they fell along with the second floor.
They were confined to a small space, his back pinned against a concrete block and her legs pinned on top of him. A 2-by-4 that had fallen, badly injuring his left hand, was propping up the rest of the debris on top of them. They felt hope when a staff member of the mission house returned at about 1 a.m. to see if they were OK. Their yells caught the staff member’s attention who left and returned with two other Haitian men. The three, along with Thorp’s husband, Frank Thorp, worked until 3 a.m. digging with their hands to save Dietsch and Jillian Thorp.
The Haitian Ministries supports artisans and their families, provides education through a scholarship program and provides medical care and emergency relief, Dietsch explained.
“We’re there to help the Haitians live a better life and they saved my life,” he said, while trying to keep his composure. “There is no way we can ever repay them.”
Dietsch and Thorp, an Old Saybrook native who now lives in Washington, D.C., were taken to the American Embassy in Haiti and later flown to a hospital in the Dominican Republic. Dietsch arrived at Bradley International Airport Thursday night.
Dietsch has a deep gash on his left hand and many bad bruises, including around his left eye. He said his entire back is one large bruise. Upon his return to Connecticut, Dietsch spent many hours in the emergency room at Danbury Hospital. He said he has temporary nerve damage and that his kidneys had shut down. He is having surgery today to repair his hand.
Dietsch had been in Haiti since Jan. 6 and was planning to stay until the end of March. In addition to his and his wife’s work with the Haitian Ministries, their church has been working for the past few years with a parish in Haiti. He and his wife, Dorne, with whom he celebrated his 43rd wedding anniversary the day after he came back, plan to return to Haiti.
“I’m alive because of the grace of God. I can’t go through the rest of my retired life saying, ‘God saved me and now life is wonderful.’… God wants us to help the Haitian people,” he said.
posted January 20, 2010 at 12:03 pm
If you are “alive because of the grace of God”, then what about all the people who died? Did God run out of grace for them, or want them to die? Why did Almighty God not stop the earthquake? Does your God theory really make sense to you?
God did not want them to die, and God did not want you to live.
God is fiction, and so is Pat Robertson’s devil.
You are alive because the concrete block happened to miss you and crushed someone else.
Certainly do whatever you can to help the Haitian people.
That does NOT include teaching them about imaginary gods and demons.
posted January 20, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Dear Jim,
Please explain, if you can, how God is a concept of a person’s imagination.
Is it, that somehow the imaginations of more than a few thousand people over two
thousand years agree on an entity derived from their imaginations. If God
were something derived from a person’s imagination do you think this “God” would
demand anything of them? No, it is more likely that this “God” would be required
to give them everything they ask. And of course this would be silly because the day to day experience
of every person is that we never get everything we want.
To answer your question, no, God’s grace did not run out for those who died.
If you are looking for a reason as to why the people died I suggest you think about the
points made here
http://frtimmoyle.blogspot.com/2010/01/devil-is-real-and-he-is-us.html
God is real and the devil is real. The reason that these people died is because of human
greed. Because people in power in rich countries refuse to fully “love God with all their hearts and souls, mind and strengthlove their neighbour as themselves”.
God does not want people to die. God is the author of life, not death. For example, from the Book of Wisdom
” 13 For God made not death, neither has he pleasure in the destruction of the living.”
But of course the Bible probably holds no authority for you. You could als check out
http://wordonfire.org/WOF-TV/Commentaries-New/Fr–Barron-comments-on-Hell.aspx
As for why for Deacon Dietsch did not die, why was he found before he did die?
posted January 20, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Jim,
Most people who consider ourselves to be Christians do not believe that God caused this earthquake nor does he cause other natural disasters. Those things are just a part of the natural development of the Earth. Yes, we believe there is a God and a devil. But, not in the same way that Hollywood would have you believe.
God is there for the people of Haiti both the ones who lived through the earthquake and the ones who died. The ones who died are the blessed ones as, they probably went straight to Heaven and it’s eternal peace. The Deacon will probably suffer many years from the trama he underwent. But, he will be given the graces to continue on with his work helping the people of Haiti. One of his graces can already be noted. His love for God’s poor people and willingness to leave the comforts of home and go to them to work and minister to them. Have you done such noteworthy work in your life time here on earth. How many poor people have you helped by giving of yourself? Not by just sending money but, by actually getting in the “ghetto” and working side by side with poor people in the dirt and stick and mire of the poor side of the world. These places exist everywhere and there is one not far from you, I am sure.
The graces God bestows on these people are many and very diverse. Such as,the qrace to have the will and perseverance to endure the adversities they have to live with. Suffering is not without reward.
The grace of God will be there for the people of Haiti when they call to him to comfort and console them. True, some may not call out to him and God will not force them to come to him. We all are given the freedom of choice by our Creator. He loves us all. Does he create the poor. No we do. God said that there will always be poor. He also said that there are somethings that we cannot comprehend while we are on Earth.
You yourself could choose to go down to Haiti and replace the Deacon while he is here recuperating. You wouldn’t have to do the pastoral stuff just the physical labor and organizational part. You wouldn’t have to stay forever just, until the Deacon is strong enought to come back. Why don’t you Give a little bit back to the people of the world instead of sitting aroung on your bum throwing nasty comments out into the internet world.
posted January 20, 2010 at 2:42 pm
I cringe when I hear people who are not Christians say “God made this happen”… “God let these people be hurt”. We live in a natural world, created by God, but subject to all the laws of nature. Natural disasters hurt those who are Christians as well as those who are not. Christians, however, have the blessing of knowing God will be with them regardless of their condition. Just because someone is a Christian does not mean they will never suffer pain or hurt. It means they will never endure suffering or pain alone. When I read stories about people being rescued, I delight in hearing those that say through it all, they knew Jesus was with them. Amen and Amen.
posted January 21, 2010 at 8:11 pm
For Jim and all others who’ve yet to meet our Lord,
I pray one day soon you’ll discover His reality. I don’t know if it will happen without wanting Him with your whole heart, but I promise you it will be the most blessed event of your life.
He is real. He lives. What began with the most modest faith is now personal knowledge.
Just this morning I was reading passages in Isaiah. I was reminded that His “ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.” I didn’t know how true those words were until “the arm of the Lord was revealed to me” a few decades ago. My blessed awakening.
There is so much to learn of the depth and the love of our Creator. He will teach you! Just let Him.
You only cheat yourself of the Most High, the Most Wonderful, that this life offers if you don’t begin to seek the Truth now. Don’t wait, as I did, until the pain in your heart is so great that it’s almost unbearable. But if you do, you will know the Truth of His words, “Blessed are you who weep and mourn.”
Want Him, His Truth, more than anything else. And may your every day be blessed.