THE NESTON congregation of a Methodist minister from Haiti will gather a year on from the devastating earthquake to remember the victims.
Reverend Marcus Torchon, a Haitian minister who has been on an exchange programme in Neston since 2006, will talk at a service on January 12, about the commitment that the Wirral Methodist Circuit has undertaken to help rebuild a school in the desolated north west region of Port-au-Prince.
Rev Torchon’s family were among the millions of people affected by the quake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale.
In the immediate aftermath of the quake the minister had to wait for five days to find out that his brothers and sisters in Haiti were safe. He finally discovered that his family had survived the disaster, however his mother’s house was left completely destroyed.
Since the Haiti earthquake on January 12 last year he has worked to raise funds to help rebuild a small community there.
Wirral Methodists have helped to raise money to rebuild the Leveque Methodist School which housed six teaching staff and 130 pupils before the disaster.
Rev Torchon has visited the area himself to see the progress of the new school which is currently being housed in a church while construction continues.
At the ‘Remembering Haiti’ service of recollection and dedication at Claremount Methodist Church, Wallasey, Rev Torchon will be joined by Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, better known as Reverend Leslie Griffiths.
Methodist preacher Rev Griffiths spent most of the 1970s serving with the Methodist Church of Haiti where he was ordained and has also taken a personal interest in Haiti to help rebuild the lives of the Haitians since the earthquake.
The Haitian Government estimated that 230,000 people died and more than a quarter of a million homes were destroyed.
In September 2010 there were still more than one million homeless people living in tents and in November 2010 aid agencies responded to an outbreak of cholera which rapidly spread through the capital Port-au-Prince.
The service of recollection and dedication will be held at Claremount Methodist Church, Claremount Road, Wallasey on January 12 at 7pm. All are welcome.
Further details about the service and the Wirral Methodists’ fundraising efforts for Haiti can be found on their website www. wirralmethodist.btck.co.uk