Lani Bersch was shopping in Wal-mart at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday when her cell phone rang.

It was a relative telling her about an earthquake that had devastated Haiti, and that she should get to a television set as soon as she could.

Two of her four children are in Haiti.

Bersch’s 29-year-old daughter, Kathryn, or “KC” as everybody calls her, lives in Haiti not far from Port au Prince, where the earthquake registered 7.0 on the Richter Scale, devastating that country and killing tens of thousands of people.

Her son, Alec, 21, is visiting his sister.

Tuesday evening, she experienced the first of many times calling her daughter’s cell phone number over the next day — and the phone would just keep ringing.

Bersch rushed home to watch the news and found it was far worse than she had imagined.
“For a while I went numb,” she said.

Lani Bersch and her husband, John, live just inside the city line, but are members of Towson’s Central Presbyterian Church, where she serves on the missions committee.
 
KC has been on an outreach mission in Haiti for Central Presbyterian since 2004. She lives at Wings of Hope, a home for 40 severely handicapped, formerly abandoned children, and spends her time caring for them.

Some of the children at the home, which is on a mountain top as close to Port au Prince as Westminster is to Baltimore, are in wheelchairs. Some are autistic. One boy has one arm, one is blind, another is deaf.

“They are children society has discarded,” Lani Bersch said.

Bersch visits the home once a year when she can get away from her work in the development office of the nonprofit Hearing and Speech Agency in Baltimore.

She fell in love with one of the little boys and sponsors him. He’s 10, but looks and acts like a 3-year-old.

“He just wants to he hugged and held,” she said. “He’s my baby.”

Alec, a sophomore at Towson University who wants to make a career in occupational therapy, visits KC between semesters to work with the children. He spent a semester there after graduating from Archbishop Curley.

The brother and sister also work with or teach children at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys, halfway down the mountain.

The St. Joseph’s home, Wings of Hope and a second boys’ home in Haiti are all part of the St. Joseph’s Family mission, founded 25 years ago.

KC is with the children 24-7.

She feeds them, diapers them, teaches them, comforts them, loves them.

“They have become her children,” her mom said. “She is a volunteer living a Mother Teresa lifestyle.”
KC, who graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame and the College of Charleston, N.C., was in middle school when the family vacationed in Haiti to meet a foster child they had sponsored.

KC fell in love with the country and the people, and in college visited Wings of Hope with a church group.

In her senior year, KC told her mom she was moving to Haiti.

“KC came to us right out of college and said this is what she wanted to do,” said Phyillis De Smit, Central Presbyterian’s outreach coordinator.
 
“Since then, has been phenomenal,” she said. “She is passionate about her work and has boundless energy.”

There is no salary associated with KC’s work. Her mission is largely funded by contributions made by churches — in her case Central and the church she attended in college.

When Bersch or her son travel to Haiti they bring items KC has requested for herself or the children.
“There’s no way to ship things to Haiti,” Bersch said.

In fact, Bersch was in Wal-mart to get medicine she’ll take to Haiti.
 
She had a flight booked for Sunday, Jan. 17. She was looking forward to the St. Joseph Family’s 25th celebration.

News from Haiti

Bersch’s hopes for the safety of her children rose Wednesday as she received an e-mail from another parent who had been told Alec and KC were alive.

She prayed.

Then, on Thursday, Alex managed to send an e-mail message:

“Every member of the St. Joseph’s family is alive, standing and well,” he wrote. ...
 
“Tuesday night was definitely the scariest night of my entire life. I have never been in an experience ... where I truly feared for my life, but more importantly than that, I was fearing for the lives of all the Wings kids.”

“Today, when I went down to St. Joe’s, I saw bodies on the streets.”

The St.. Joseph’s building was cut in half by the quake, and the newer half severely damaged, he wrote.

“Our entire living space consists of two rooms, a small kitchen, the front gate and hallways. ... Luckily, we have drinking water, food, and our water cisterns are still working.”

Then, he told his family he had been praying and meditating since Tuesday — something had been gnawing at him.

“At this point, I have absolutely no idea how long I will be in Haiti. ... While there are certainly things that I have in the states, such as college, and looking for a job, nothing I have in Baltimore even begins to equal the priorities that exist here.

“I am here for this disaster — there is a reason for that. And I truly think it would be wrong for me to go back to my safe, easy life in Baltimore, when I am already equipped to help here.

“All I ask is for support, and prayer for guidance. I have no idea what the future is going to hold, except that I need to find that out here.”

Later, Bersch also received a message from KC on Facebook:

“Hi Mom. I don’t even know what to write, except I love you and life will never be the same.

“Caribbean Market flattened, Hotel Montana flattened ... but not one scratch on the kids at Wings, not one.

“Miracles. God is so good, so good.”

“I have no idea what I am writing, just know that we both are alive and well.

“We are going to need as much donations as possible. Get to work on that, dear mother! Pray.”

Donations for St. Joseph’s Family mission may be sent to HeartswithHaiti, 11503 Springfield Pike, Cincinnati, Ohio 45246. For more information, go to heartswithhaiti.org, or to the Central Presbyterian Church Web site, www.centralpc.org.

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