A Haitian family reads a Bible provided by American Bible Society to earthquake survivors.

We've heard the saying that time heals all wounds. But in Haiti, time has done little to restore the hopes of those who live there.

Not much has changed since the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, which killed 200,000 people. Buildings lie ruined, garbage pollutes the ground and hundreds of thousands of people seek shelter in tents that mimic makeshift homes. Cholera, a disease caused by poor water sanitation, has created yet another threat to Haitians, as nearly 2,600 have died and more than 121,000 have fallen ill, according to Haitian health authorities.

Rhoda Gathoga recently visited the country on a ministry trip and was confronted with chaos. “There's disorder everywhere you look,” says Gathoga, research director of Global Scripture Impact, a research service of American Bible Society. “There's rubble, trash, debris, poor drainage. People are out of work, roaming the streets.”

The Haitian government, crippled by the magnitude of the quake's devastation, hasn't provided many of the basic necessities to its citizens. “There's a level of injustice about this situation,” says Gathoga. “When you meet little kids in the schools and you think about what the next 10 years will look like for them and their parents, you feel the urgency to change the situation.”

Having God's Word is crucial. “This book, the Bible, is the source of life,” says Pauleus Jean Josue, whose pregnant wife left a building just before it collapsed. “Through this book, you can have life,” says the Port-au-Prince resident who received God's Word through the Bible Society.

The people of Haiti affirmed the importance of the Bible to Gathoga repeatedly. “When I asked them about the most significant factor during the earthquake, nobody mentioned material things. The consistent thread was God.”

Jean Baptiste Jean Anio saw buildings collapse around him like a house of cards. Many people were in those structures, and their collapse signaled countless suffering and death. Because of this reality, Anio has difficulty articulating his feelings. “It was so terrible that I can't even explain it,” he says. “It traumatized me.” Anio lost a cousin, a fact he states without preamble or further explanation.

Anio received a Bible through ABS's distribution program. He took the Bible with joy, he says, and then shared God's Word with others by distributing the Holy Scriptures through the First Baptist Church in Port-au-Prince. “Everyone who received the Bible, received it with joy,” he says.

This faith heartens Gathoga who believes that God is with the Haitians, even in the midst of their heartache. “He walks with us in the pain and the mire. He is with them, and he alone is the solution.”

Gathoga has witnessed God's presence, not only in the faith of the Haitians, but also in the love they have for each other. “I met so many people who serve sacrificially,” she recalls. “They're caring for others, cleaning up the dirty places, embracing everyone they meet.

“I've asked them why they do this and they say, ‘Why not'? These are people who see beauty in the midst of disaster.”

Gathoga witnessed that beauty through nature itself. Even though Haiti is a disaster zone, she saw “pockets of places that have beautiful flowers: reds, rich greens, yellows. Such colors taok your breath away.

“God is there in the flowers and in the pain,” she concludes. “He is with us through everything.”