Oklahoma missionaries planning to aid Haitians

Jake Lenhart, a youth pastor at Cherokee Hills Christian Church in Oklahoma City, said he hopes to travel with Christian Service International Ministries. He said travel plans are difficult to make because of closed airports and roads.

Lenhart's family already planned to move to Haiti this summer to work as missionaries. He and his wife, Tiffanie, a registered nurse, have two biological children and an 8-year-old son who was adopted two years ago from Haiti.

The living conditions in Haiti were dire before the earthquake, he said.

"The average person makes $2 a day, half the adults are illiterate and 80 percent are unemployed," he said. "There's no fire departments, no first response teams, no FEMA. There's nothing."

Matt Bennett, director of People to People Ministries, plans to travel Friday to the Dominican Republic, in hopes of driving into Haiti, where the ministry operates 50 International Pentecostal Holiness Churches and seven schools.

"We've learned that our staff is OK, but the country is just in devastation," he said. "The country was already in a terrible state, and it's hard to imagine what's happening now."

Bennett urged Oklahomans to donate to organizations responding to the disaster and to rebuilding efforts.

"There are many organizations, some right here in Oklahoma City, that are helping, that have always helped in Haiti that will need additional resources at this time," he said.

'Lost my heart in Haiti'

Missionary Wayne Ray of Paden looks at the images of earthquake-stricken Haiti not only with his eyes, but with his heart.

It's a heart, Ray said, he lost in the poor Caribbean nation more than 30 years ago. At the invitation of a minister in Haiti, Ray made a visit to the country.