By MARK MAYNARD, Kentucky Today
RICHMOND, Ky. (KT) – Shamma Lorrean’s mind raced back to 2010 when the Haitian native heard about last weekend’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake. He was overcome with fear for friends and family.
“When I woke up on Saturday, my phone rang and I got the news,” he said. “I saw the earthquake and saw the magnitude. I woke up panicking. My family is there. For 15 minutes, I couldn’t find anybody. Nobody was answering. I was calling and calling. I was presuming everybody had died.”
A rush of panic overcame him before someone finally answered. His family was safe. He could breathe again.
Lorrean knows the fear and helplessness that comes from being in an earthquake. He was on the third story of a building that collapsed to the ground in 2010. “I was reliving all of that,” he said.
That earthquake turned out to be a turning point for Lorrean, a place in his life where he saw God becoming more real than ever. It also put him on a journey to Kentucky where he has earned a college degree at Clear Creek Baptist Bible College and is a full-time worship pastor at Red House Baptist Church in Richmond.
“2010 was a wake-up call to bring me back to God,” he said. “When the earthquake happened, I was literally thinking, ‘Is that the rapture? Why am I still here? Something’s not right.’ I remember praying, 'God spare my life.' He did and since then I have never stopped.”
Lorrean was able to escape from the rubble and from a life that had put his faith on the shelf as he pursued a music career in Haiti. His rock band was able to sign an international record contract. “We were one of the top three national winners,” he said. “Haiti is very poor. Everybody paves their own way. When the earthquake happened, we were at a recording studio. We were making it. We lost everything. I was down, really, really down in a dark place.”
The earthquake had wiped out everything. He was living in a tent city, putting together a shelter with some sticks and a tarp. He expected to be there for only weeks but those weeks turned into months.
Lorrean had maintained a close relationship with his parents. His father is a pastor in Haiti, and because of that Shamma thought he was OK with God. But upon listening to one of his dad’s sermons as a teenager, he realized he didn’t have that personal relationship with Jesus. He was baptized in 1999 and continued to serve the church.
“I always strived to do better in my life,” he said. “My parents never had enough. I discovered the talent show. My mom prayed that I won this contest and I did. I ended up chasing the fame and the money and for a couple of years, stepped out (away from his faith).”
Then God sent the wake-up call in his life that included a year living in a tent city. It was during that time that his mother became terribly ill, and that led to the next chapter which unveiled how God was providing a lifeline for him. He was in an area where doctors from the United States were trying to help with the overwhelming sickness and injuries. Lorrean didn’t know how to help, so he did what he knew–entertained people in the room as they waited to keep spirits up.
“It was such a sad scenario,” he said. “I thought it would be good if I could make them laugh a little bit. In the middle of all that noise, this gentleman was working the room. I noticed him kneeling on one knee with his hand on his head. It was almost like I heard somebody say, ‘Go help him. He needs some assistance.’ I go over with everybody laughing and joking and put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Can I help you?’ He said, ‘I was literally praying God would send me somebody, anybody, who could help me speak with this people.’ He knows what to do but he couldn’t communicate with them. My English was rough but I was able to be an interpreter for him.”
That man was Dr. John Williamson, a professor at Lincoln Memorial University who had come with some others to help during the days and weeks after the earthquake.
Lorrean, who said he literally had nothing at the time, was hoping the doctor could give him some cash for his efforts. But Williamson later told him he had bad news, that all he had was credit cards. He knew the helper was hoping for cash. He did offer what he could, including scrubs and socks and what food he had on hand which included M&Ms.
“He felt terrible because he didn’t have the cash to help me,” Lorrean said. “I was glad to help. He said you need to get in touch with me and gave me contact numbers.”
That began a relationship that eventually brought Lorrean from Haiti to Kentucky. “We have become like family,” he said. “He has seven kids, six biological and me. I was probably 24 and I asked him, ‘Can you adopt me?’’’
Dr. Williamson enrolled Lorrean at Clear Creek Bible College where he graduated in five years despite barely knowing English. He learned as he went along with help from many of the professors at Clear Creek. He surrendered to the ministry in 2017 and serves as the worship pastor using his musical skills at Red House Baptist Church.
Lorrean has also started a family of his own with his wife Tabitha, who is from Michigan. They are looking to adopt a baby from Haiti, and he shared she recently had a miscarriage. Life hasn’t always been easy but he’s thankful for the connections that came from the 2010 tragic earthquake. He understands what God has done in his life.
“I felt helpless” after the last earthquake, he said. “I don’t have a lot of resources. I’m now a pastor and know how to help them if I can reach out to them. I will reach out to friends and pray with them. I’ve learned what I didn’t have, someone who was encouraging me every day. It just got darker and darker and darker. Things in Haiti are rough. People have no hope. I want to bring hope to them again.”
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