Renee Splichal Larson serves as pastor of Heart River Lutheran Church in Mandan, North Dakota that worships on the campus of the North Dakota Youth Correctional Center.
On January 12, 2010, a powerful earthquake struck Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, leaving nearly 300,000 dead, over one million people displaced, and devastating what little infrastructure Haiti had. The year of 2010 continued to be unmerciful to the people of Haiti with a Cholera epidemic, Hurricane Tomas, a governmental election, and a lack of follow-through on promised rebuilding funds from foreign entities.
Renee, her husband Benjamin Splichal Larson and his cousin Rev. Jonathan Larson were in Haiti on January 12 when the earth moved. The building in which they were staying collapsed on all three of them. Jonathan and Renee lived; Ben died. Remembering the life of her husband and being a victim of the earthquake herself, Renee feels deeply called to continue advocacy and conversation with and for the Haitian people.