Published: Thursday, January 14, 2010
Missionary from Arlington saved from rubble in Haiti
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Courtesy of the Zook Family
Katie Zook, a Free Methodist missionary from Arlington, sits with the 5-year-old son of a co-worker before Tuesday´s devastating earthquake in Haiti. Zook was rescued from beneath the rubble and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The boy´s father, a caretaker at the mission, was among the untold thousands of people to die in the earthquake.
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Courtesy of the Zook Family
Katie Zook, a Free Methodist missionary from Arlington, visits a rural school in Haiti where she handed out tooth brushes and tooth paste and taught the children how to brush. Zook survived Tuesday’s devastating earthquake with leg and lung injuries.
An Arlington family endured hours of anguished uncertainty following Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Haiti before learning their daughter had been rescued from the rubble.
Katie Zook, 22, a Free Methodist missionary, was treated Wednesday for bruised lungs and leg injuries at a United Nations hospital and U.S. Embassy medical facility in Haiti. Wednesday afternoon, she was flown on a medical helicopter to Guantanamo Bay. By Wednesday night, she was being flown to Miami for further treatment. Her parents were making arrangements to join her there.
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake’s death toll is believed to be extraordinary. It flattened entire neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and even the president’s palace.
“The building she was in collapsed,” said her father, Greg Zook, an associate pastor with the Arlington Free Methodist Church. “We have since learned she was huddled in a fetal position under the rubble for three hours before she was found.”
Wednesday brought a mix of relief and sadness to the Zook family. Their daughter survived; some of her co-workers were missing and another, a mission caretaker and father, was found dead.
“We definitely feel it was just a miracle that she survived,” Zook said.
The Zooks had many unanswered questions Wednesday. They were still trying to get more information about the extent of her injuries.
They didn’t know what building their daughter was in. She was most likely in one of two guest houses built of concrete blocks. One was five stories; the other, two stories.
Zook said he learned the five-story building caved to the ground and caught fire.
The Zooks and fellow church members have long worked to improve conditions in Haiti, widely believed to be the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere. They have helped build churches and schools as well as volunteered at hospitals.
Katie joined her dad on a trip to Haiti in 2005 and “she fell in love with the people there,” Zook said. While at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho, his daughter, a music major, organized trips with classmates to help in Haiti.
In September, Katie began what was to be a two-year mission. She was based in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the Caribbean nation’s capital, where she taught English to seminary students and assisted missionaries.
She lived in a guest house near the missionary headquarters and church in Delmas.
Katie had joined the church choir and spoke French and Haitian Creole.
Waiting for word about their daughter was an ordeal.
The family helplessly watched TV news accounts, monitored Internet reports, including social networking sites, and tapped into e-mail and Twitter.
“That just added to our anxiety,” Zook said.
The family heard secondhand about a cell phone call from their daughter’s Haitian mission that was made shortly after the earthquake. The caller reported a building had collapsed, but the phone line went dead before there was any word of injuries.
Finally, at 1 a.m, Wednesday, the Zooks learned from a Free Methodist bishop in Indiana that Katie had been located and her injuries weren’t considered life-threatening.
Watching her go to Haiti last fall was difficult, but the Zooks gave Katie their full support, just as they had when their oldest son, Josh, joined the Marines.
“We wanted her to be close to home, get married and settle down near to us,” Zook said. “She just had a strong sense and desire to be over there. She was very driven to do this.”
Zook said he will return to Haiti to lend a hand when the time is right. He expects Katie will do the same.
“Anybody with any compassion, once you have been there, it just gets under your skin,” he said. “The need is just so extreme.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
Katie Zook, 22, a Free Methodist missionary, was treated Wednesday for bruised lungs and leg injuries at a United Nations hospital and U.S. Embassy medical facility in Haiti. Wednesday afternoon, she was flown on a medical helicopter to Guantanamo Bay. By Wednesday night, she was being flown to Miami for further treatment. Her parents were making arrangements to join her there.
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake’s death toll is believed to be extraordinary. It flattened entire neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and even the president’s palace.
“The building she was in collapsed,” said her father, Greg Zook, an associate pastor with the Arlington Free Methodist Church. “We have since learned she was huddled in a fetal position under the rubble for three hours before she was found.”
Wednesday brought a mix of relief and sadness to the Zook family. Their daughter survived; some of her co-workers were missing and another, a mission caretaker and father, was found dead.
“We definitely feel it was just a miracle that she survived,” Zook said.
The Zooks had many unanswered questions Wednesday. They were still trying to get more information about the extent of her injuries.
They didn’t know what building their daughter was in. She was most likely in one of two guest houses built of concrete blocks. One was five stories; the other, two stories.
Zook said he learned the five-story building caved to the ground and caught fire.
The Zooks and fellow church members have long worked to improve conditions in Haiti, widely believed to be the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere. They have helped build churches and schools as well as volunteered at hospitals.
Katie joined her dad on a trip to Haiti in 2005 and “she fell in love with the people there,” Zook said. While at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho, his daughter, a music major, organized trips with classmates to help in Haiti.
In September, Katie began what was to be a two-year mission. She was based in a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the Caribbean nation’s capital, where she taught English to seminary students and assisted missionaries.
She lived in a guest house near the missionary headquarters and church in Delmas.
Katie had joined the church choir and spoke French and Haitian Creole.
Waiting for word about their daughter was an ordeal.
The family helplessly watched TV news accounts, monitored Internet reports, including social networking sites, and tapped into e-mail and Twitter.
“That just added to our anxiety,” Zook said.
The family heard secondhand about a cell phone call from their daughter’s Haitian mission that was made shortly after the earthquake. The caller reported a building had collapsed, but the phone line went dead before there was any word of injuries.
Finally, at 1 a.m, Wednesday, the Zooks learned from a Free Methodist bishop in Indiana that Katie had been located and her injuries weren’t considered life-threatening.
Watching her go to Haiti last fall was difficult, but the Zooks gave Katie their full support, just as they had when their oldest son, Josh, joined the Marines.
“We wanted her to be close to home, get married and settle down near to us,” Zook said. “She just had a strong sense and desire to be over there. She was very driven to do this.”
Zook said he will return to Haiti to lend a hand when the time is right. He expects Katie will do the same.
“Anybody with any compassion, once you have been there, it just gets under your skin,” he said. “The need is just so extreme.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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