Pamplin Media Group – Lake Oswego Church helps Haitians affected by the recent earthquake

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Our Savior Lutheran Church of Lake Oswego, and Faith Community Church of West Lane, donate to the community of Les Anglais.

Members of local churches who would normally go on missions to Haiti each year were suspended due to the pandemic this year – a time when community members in a small Haitian village could use the extra help.

After a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the Haitian town of Les Angles on August 14 and killed more than 2,000 people, community members mostly associated with Our Savior Lutheran Church in Lake Oswego and Faith Community Church on West Lane decided to help give back from afar.

Churches are seeking financial donations to provide emergency supplies to those affected by the disaster.

“We send money to Reciprocal Ministries International and to our agronomist to take food parcels into the village,” said Jim Shaw, a Lutheran Church member and Haiti mission leader. “A lot of farms were destroyed, many roads destroyed and so on, so they can’t get their crops out. There are a lot of buildings destroyed, houses destroyed.”

Members of the Lutheran Church of Our Savior and Faith Community Church—the two churches formerly one, but split nearly a decade ago—developed a relationship 30 years ago through the International Mission Service of Mutual Ministries. Reciprocal is a non-profit organization that connects American churches with churches in Haiti.

Shaw said he has personally been attending mission trips to Les Anglais since 2006, a town he says is “on the way out in the lower peninsula on the southern shore of Haiti. There are about 5,000 people living in the small town.” Shaw said that there is only one road that leads to those villages and that accessing the community is an “ordeal.”

“(I) fell in love with the people there, the community, and the things we could easily do – like fall off a log – to help change their lives,” Shaw said. “We already have a relationship with this community of people in Haiti.”

Shaw said local churches help fund the salaries and expenses of an agronomist who visits and assists farms in southern Haiti. When disasters happen like the recent earthquake, the agronomist helps with food distribution, transportation, and relief efforts through a foundation called Haiti Ab Grande, which provides financial and material support to charitable and educational organizations in Haiti.

In the past, Shaw said, people who attended missions to Haiti helped dig wells, build churches and schools, and provide medical assistance.

“What society needs is what we focus on,” he said.

When Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti in 2016, a Category 5 storm with 150-mph winds hit the area “like an atomic bomb,” Shaw and others helped with rebuilding efforts. They constructed 12 sanitary wells around the community.

“Just going there every year, you see that the health of these people has gone up dramatically from having that clean water to drink,” Shaw said.

After the recent earthquake, money and donations go toward things like food and well repairs.

Shaw said he recently spoke with an agricultural engineer who asked them to provide tarpaulins and water tanks to distribute water to villages that saw their systems down and not close enough to recover water from Les Anglais well systems.

“The first thing we have to get is water, the second thing is food and the third thing is shelter,” Shaw said, adding that the rainy season is currently in Haiti. “When something like this happens, it is difficult to send aid and relief to these people because they are so spread out and the roads are horrible there.”

Shaw said one of the worst things he heard about during this disaster was the collapse of the spire of a Catholic church in Les Angles, killing nearly 20 children and adults. He also said about a third of the homes were damaged beyond repair in the community.

“In Haiti, everyone builds houses out of concrete because it can withstand the hurricane winds they get on a regular basis,” Shaw said. “It was absolutely devastating to the whole community.”

If people have questions about how to help, they can reach Shaw at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. People can also visit the Haiti Ab Grande website or the Our Savior Lutheran Church website for more information.

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