Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Winter 2013 Issue | Page 11

Looking for Hope, Seeing Progress
Scott Zetlan
Hurricane Sandy’s floodwaters have receded from the town of
Léogône, Haiti, but the approach to this tiny Caribbean village is
anything but smooth. Turning off the crowded, two-lane main
road from Port-au-Prince, a tooth-jangling 45-minute drive along
the pockmarked dirt-and-cobblestone road will eventually bring
you to Paroisse Saint Matthieu. The Rev. Brad Rundlett, rector
of St. Timothy’s, Herndon, and his mission team have come to
Haiti to reconnect with the Rev. Wisnel Dejardin, a 2011 Virginia

The Rev. Brand Rundlett, pictured here (standing left) in a
classroom in Léogône, Haiti, led a mission team from St. Timothy’s,
Herndon. The congregation has a long-standing relationship with
priests in the region, which was hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Theological Seminary graduate. Dejardin completed his field
study at St. Timothy’s, and the team attended his wedding in
Port-au-Prince the following day. In Léogône, they discuss the
conditions in the town and at St. Matthieu.

The church, built in 1947, was renovated in 2008. The
renovations included a second story, now cracked and
crumbling as the result of the January 2010 earthquake centered
near Léogône. Outside the church, shaded by a makeshift
canopy of tarp ́