On the afternoon of January 12, Yonel, one of eight children, was doing what many 12-year-old boys in rural Haiti do: he was working in his family's garden, tending to the animals.

Yonel lives in a rural mountain village, and his family's garden runs along the steep side of a mountain. When the earth began to shake, a boulder rolled over him. Yonel passed out when the boulder hit him and broke several bones. Yonel's brother rescued him. The family made a make-shift stretcher out of a board and carried him to our mission hospital the day after the earthquake.

"If it weren't for this hospital, I wouldn't be here," Yonel says. "I will never forget what they did for me. May God always be with them."

Yonel's sister-in-law died in the earthquake, and he is sad for his brother. But he feels very blessed and grateful because God spared them more hurt and loss. All of Yonel's brothers and sisters as well as his mother survived the earthquake, and their home was not destroyed. Yonel already lost his father before the earthquake, and is thankful he didn't have to experience the painful loss of a sibling or mother.

"I know that God is real, and he allowed me to live," Yonel says.