Spared to Give Back

When the Haiti earthquake struck, Katie Zook was on the fourth floor.  Realizing that the doorway she was standing in was not reinforced, she found a pedestal table to crawl under and assumed the "duck and cover" position.  When she was rescued three hours later she was in the basement, still under the table, with rubble all around her.  A collapsed lung and other injuries made it impossible for her to call out, but she found an empty handiwipes container and banged it on the table so that she could be found.  After weeks in hospitals in Guantanamo and Florida, she is now back home in Arlington, Washington, recovering.

As a teenager, Katie fell in love with Haiti and returned to minister there a year ago, after she finished college.  She taught English, helped arrange for a huge conference that had just finished earlier in January, and assisted in any other way she could.  She especially enjoyed getting into the community, coming to know the culture, and loving the people of Haiti and the people with whom she served.

Her beloved supervisor, Pastor Jeanne Munos, also took cover in a doorway on the fourth floor when the ground began to shake.  Katie's last glimpse of Jeanne was of her shoes, the very pair Jeanne had recently loaned her to wear to a friend's wedding.

Before the earthquake Katie had just finished reading the book of Job, seeing similarities between Job's suffering and those of the Haitian people.  Job 38 ad 39 have come to have special meaning to her as the Lord challenges Job.  "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?... Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Tell me, if you understand..."

Like Job, Katie has come to know for certain that God is in charge, even in the midst of suffering.  Although she is anxious to return to Haiti, she says, "God is in charge, and I am not and never will be.  God knows what Haiti needs and who can help meet those needs."

"God is using this terrible event for His glory," Katie says.  "He is doing amazing things in Haiti.  He  does not need us to do His work," and then she smiles, "but He chooses us to help.  I've bee spared to give back."