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Sharon Zeurcher was supposed to be in Haiti right now.

The 26-year-old missionary was scheduled to take her third trip to the country Jan. 16 with the Hands and Feet Project, a Christian organization that operates an orphanage in Cyvadier, Haiti, but civilian flights to the country have been put on hold until the country and its capital city, Port-au-Prince, can stabilize in the wake of a large magnitude earthquake that occurred Jan. 12.

“I had heard about the earthquake, but I didn’t really know anything,” Zeurcher said. “But once I saw the pictures, it’s like, this is really bad. It’s in the capital where most of the country lives, and having been there ,I know what it’s like. There was a physical weight on my chest for three days. I just wanted to know what to do and how to help.”

But Zeurcher, who is working shifts at the Smithville branch of the Mid-Continent Public Library instead of tending to children in Cyvadier, said all she can do now is wait until she gets word from the Hands and Feet Project that it’s safe to go back.

“I’m in contact with them and once they let people come back in and the chaos is under control, I am ready,” she said. “I so wish we could have gone earlier. I feel helpless here, and I could do so much more if I was there.”

Zeurcher said the civil unrest and chaotic conditions don’t worry her; she just wants to get back so she can do her part.

“I think maybe I’m naive about this because people tell me there’s so much political unrest and a lack of medical infrastructure. … I’m not scared,” she said. “I’ve always thought that if something is supposed to happen to me, it can happen here or there.”

When Zeurcher gets the call, she doesn’t know what will be in store for her on Haiti; maybe helping clean up the rubble or assisting the injured or just watching the children. But whatever it is, she said she’s ready for it and if they’ll let her, she wants to land a more long-term position there instead of the two-week stints she’s been doing.

“They need long-term help,” she said. “It’s not going to improve in a couple of weeks or months to get back to where they were, which wasn’t a whole lot to begin with.”

The Hands and Feet Project was founded in 2004 by the Christian rock group, Audio Adrenaline, and the organization runs a village of about 40 children whose ages range from 2 months to 9 years old, according to its Web site.

To find out more about the organization and efforts in Haiti, visit www.hafproject.org.

Staff writer Michael Westblade can be reached at 389-6636 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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