The Comedy of David Dean

This past weekend, my daughter Hannah and I travelled to Oshkosh, Wisconsin where I was doing comedy at Lifest, a Christian music festival. It’s a great gig and also a fun opportunity for a teenage girl to go backstage and rub shoulders with some of Christian music’s biggest acts. Not to mention time with her unknown comic/Dad.

When I was not performing, we had the chance to catch a few of the concerts and talk to some of the band members….but it was an unexpected encounter in the artist’s food tent that pierced the heart of both Hannah and I.

We met for lunch with my good friends Steve Jones of Compassion International and Bob Lenz, the founder of Lifest. Steve introduced Hannah and I to the other two people at the table and then whispered in my ear, “That is Dan Woolley…he survived the Haiti earthquake.” Dan was a quiet, unassuming guy who works as a journalist for Compassion

As soon as Steve shared the news with me, a million questions popped into my head and I couldn’t take my eyes off of Dan, which I’m sure creeped him out. I waited for the conversation to end between he and Bob, then I dove in.

Here is what I learned: January 12, he and another co-worker were standing in the lobby of the Hotel Montana located in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. They were there on assignment with Compassion to write about the struggles of mothers and babies. Then his life changed. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake opened the earth and instantly, Dan’s co-worker was gone. Dan shared with me that when he woke, he was in complete darkness. Feeling immense pain, he did his best to wrap his mind around what had happened.

Dan survived 65 hours under the rubble before he would be rescued. Thoughts of his wife and children ran through his head constantly. He had leg and head trauma but was able to read from a pre-loaded app on his iphone how to treat the wounds. He also became friends with a “voice” of another Haitian man nearby and eventually, led him to Christ. Dan plans to return to Haiti soon to meet him.

I asked Dan what was the first thing he did when he was pulled to safety. He told me, “David…you can’t imagine how dark it was down there. I would wave my hand in front of my face and you could not see it. So when I was pulled out…I stared into the sky. I had forgotten how blue it was. We have always been told to not stare at the sun…but I couldn’t help myself.”

Within minutes, he was whisked away to a makeshift medical clinic where he was treated for his wounds. His leg was saved. Most importantly…so was his life.

You can read Dan’s entire story in a book out this fall by visiting: www.brokenelevators.org