By STAN VOIT

Editor

A Sevier County couple has arrived in the capital of Haiti, where they will work with a medical team assisting the victims of the earthquake.

Harvey Brown Jr., president of Pigeon Forge-based Impact Ministries, said Tuesday that Mike and Karen Wyatt, who are members of the Impact Ministries board, will work with a medical team from Mercy Ships, a global charity that has operated hospital ships in developing nations since 1978.

The Wyatts, who live just outside Sevierville, flew into Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, this week, then drove some eight or nine hours from there to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to assist earthquake victims — leaving at 3 a.m. from Santo Domingo. They successfully crossed the border into Haiti on Tuesday.

Mike Wyatt is a retired Army Medical Service Corps officer who oversaw a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH unit) in the Gulf war, Brown said. His wife Karen is a chaplain.

“They are uniquely equipped to respond to this crisis,” Brown said.

In Haiti, Mike Wyatt will oversee the administrative, logistic and management functions of the medical team, while Karen Wyatt will serve as caregiver and chaplain, Brown said.

“They are doing this at their own expense,” Brown said. “It was on their heart to go and respond to this crisis. We at Impact Ministries are doing what we can to raise funds to be sent to Haiti.”

He said the transportation costs alone for the Wyatts are around $2,200.

Their stay in Port-au-Prince is expected to be at least 30 days, but could be extended if the Wyatts find the need remains, Brown said.

Mike Wyatt is posting messages from Haiti to his Facebook page (under the name Michael L. Wyatt).

“Just arrived at New Life Orphanage full of children don’t know how many yet,” he posted around 4:10 p.m. Tuesday. “This will be our base camp for awhile. Going to work in Field hospital in PAP.”

An organization called Care Net will bring in the neediest patients, he said. The medical team members are mostly from Texas. Their main contact “broke down crying he had not (slept) in 3 days.”

Wyatt wrote that his iPhone is being used for all communication.

“iPhone great but battery sucks (so) only doing short burst,” he wrote in a 4 p.m. post Tuesday. Two hours earlier he wrote that he had seen his first dead body.

The following coordinates can be pasted into either Google Earth or Google maps to see their exact location: 18.602700, -72.268295.

Brown heads up a ministry that started in 1996 and moved to Pigeon Forge about five years ago. According to its Web site, Impact Ministries Inc. is “an internationally focused not-for-profit preaching and teaching ministry … dedicated to the renewal of Christ’s church. The message is centered around the power of the gospel to bring hope, healing, and holiness into the lives of believers and the ministry of the church.”

The ministry conducts short-term missions abroad.

Brown, a former administrator at Asbury College in Kentucky, is a Methodist clergyman and former Army chaplain.

To make a donation to support the Wyatts’ efforts in Haiti, make checks payable to Impact Ministries with the notation “Haiti” in the check memo line. All such donations are tax-deductible and will be used to support the Wyatts’ trip and to buy supplies they’ll need. Checks may be mailed to Impact Ministries, P.O. Box 39, Pigeon Forge, TN 37868. For more information call Impact at 898-4445.

svoit@themountainpress.com

The Wyatts in Haiti

n What: Local couple Mike and Karen Wyatt are in Port-au-Prince working on a medical team connected to Mercy Ships

n Contact: Mike Wyatt has a Facebook page, under the name Michael L. Wyatt, where he posts messages from Haiti. He has to conserve batteries because it’s so hard to recharge them in Haiti.

n How to help: The Wyatts are on the board of Impact Ministries based in Pigeon Forge. To help their efforts, make donations to that ministry (write Haiti on check memo line) and send to P.O. Box 39, Pigeon Forge 37868