Pastor Dieucin Marcelin of Église Baptiste Stricte church in Jacmel, Haiti, photographed in the severely damaged church in June.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Project Jacmel update : A year after Haiti's earthquake, historic church remains unusable
It's been nearly a year since the earthquake rendered one of Jacmel's most historic churches unusable to its worshippers.
Motivated to salvage what they could from the crumbled mess - which city workers marked with a red spray-painted "X" to indicate it was condemned - churchgoers dragged their wooden benches onto the rutted platforms that spread out across the uneven back yard. Rousing, week-long worship sessions were held to christen the new place. In the months that followed, tarps were strung up for shield from the rain and sun; paper flowers were tied onto posts to pretty them; fans were rigged up to help with air circulation during the oppressively hot summer months.
But not much else has changed since at Église Baptiste Stricte.
Pastor Dieucin Marcelin has been hoping for an overseas donor - preferably a congregation from the United States or Canada - to provide funding to rebuild his church. Visiting pastors have suggested that instead of worrying about bricks and mortar, the pastor should instead invest in his people. By enabling them, the visitors say, he will eventually enable his church.
Jessica Leeder