Doorway to Peace Haiti

Ray Alercia

Hi I am Ray Alercia. My ability to be part of the Doorway to Peace Haiti team involves something of a miracle concerning my health and I have been asked to tell about this. So I will.

I have been married to my wife Pamela for thirty-five years. We have four children, three daughters, and one son; six grandchildren, five girls and one boy. I spent twenty years in the restaurant management business, and fifteen years in heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing.

In November of 2000 after completing repairs to a day care center for under privileged children in Allentown, PA, I had just started my scheduled “On Call” week, i.e. where you are working eight hours and on call for the rest of the day for a week. I was feeling a little sluggish and called my daughter Stacy to make an appointment for me with the doctor for Friday. She did more than make the appointment, she told Dr. Raso everything and gave him my cell number. By the time the doctor got through checking me out I was on my way to Easton Hospital.

Dr. Raso has treated four generations of my family. I lost my father, when he was fifty-two, from a massive heart attack. By the end of November I was totaly disabled, out of work before Christmas, with a family in turmoil because their husband and father might not make it to Christmas.

The first miracle occurred when my first granddaughter was born in December of 2000. Helping to take care of her took my mind of my health problems. From November 2000 to April 2003 I was in and out of the hospital five or six times for congestive heart failure. In May of 2003 I sold all my tools. The reason for this was that people were calling wanting me to do work for them. My family figured no tools, no work.

In May of 2003 I experience the second miracle. My wife, being an Elder of our church asked me to go with her on the WeKirk trip. We signed up for the talk on missions in the small church. The speaker was Joseph Delva. After hearing Joseph speak on his dream and mission group Doorway to Peace, I was so moved that I wanted to help in any way I could. The money from my tool sale was in the bank. Back to our room I went for my check book.

Later that evening I found Joseph Delva, Aida and Bill Spencer talking together. Aida and Bill Spencer are parish associates at the Pilgrim Church in Beverly, Massachusetts and are professors at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. After getting their attention, I asked them how I could help them in their mission work. Taylor and Susan Camerer along with John and Cristy joined the group. I explained that the mission trip would not be possible because of my heart condition. We talked for a few minutes. They asked if I believed in the power of prayer. I said “yes I did”. The next fifteen minutes is hard to explain. With the uplifting of prayer I felt as if I was floating on a cloud with a burning sensation in my heart. Before we departed, not really knowing how this would be possible, I said I would be on the June 2003 trip to Haiti.

On the way home my pastor asked us what we had gotten from the conference. When I said I was going to Haiti in June, you could have heard a pin drop in the van. A “NO YOU CAN NOT,” is what I heard from all three of them. Finally convincing my wife that I would go only with Dr. Eisen’s approval.

Then came the third miracle…my trip to Haiti. It centered around what Dr. Eisen would say. I knew already that it was the only blessing my wife required. Your must understand that up until then I did not go any where alone. The Tuesday after returning from WeKirk was my next O-2 Stress Test, which I had once a year and was always scheduled six months in advance. On the day in question traffic was so bad I called Temple Hospital in Philadelphia to say that I would miss the appointment for my O-2 stress test as they only did two a day. The lady said to come in and reschedule the appointment. When I arrived, she was on the phone with someone. She informed me the lady she was talking to had cancelled her O-2 stress test for the next day. This test was the “go OR no-go” for Dr. Eisen and my wife. The following day I was back at Temple for the O-2 stress test. The results from the test showed that the heart function went from 8 to 12 percent up to 24.5 percent in a week. I hand delivered the results to Dr. Eisen who wrote out a note to my wife giving the OK for the trip and taking my name off the heart transplant list that May. June 2003 was my first trip to Haiti. My church sponcered me with all the funding. In 2005 my pacemaker and defibulator were installed.

I do fund raisers with our church to support Doorway to Peace missions. In June of 2008 and January 2009 I returned to Haiti. I helped do the plumbing rough-ins of future bathrooms and the bathroom and kitchen for the new building behind the school in Haiti.