MARIETTA - It was 1:30 a.m. when Crawford Hitt, executive director of Edu-Pack, a Christian organization based in Kennesaw that provide school supplies to poor children, arrived in Haiti 10 days after the devastating earthquake.

It was too dark to see the destruction to the Caribbean nation, he said, and his group of volunteers immediately went to sleep. He tossed and turned that night. Then, at around 4:30 a.m., Hitt witnessed an inspirational sight that still brings tears to his eyes.

"A baby began to stir and his mother began to sing a spiritual lullaby about the greatness of God," Hitt, 56, remembered. "She was joined by other people who began to join in singing. In very short order, there was this choir singing this anthem of God's glory. They kept this up for over an hour."

The people who sang that night were family members of children who attend the Andrew Christian School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The school is primarily sponsored by St. Andrew United Methodist Church on Canton Road near Blackwell Road in north Cobb.

Hitt's family is among the founding members of St. Andrew. In 2004, his organization facilitated St. Andrew's sponsorship of the elementary school.

Hitt spent four days in Haiti to help with the relief effort. He has experience with such emergencies, having participated in recent hurricane relief efforts there. He said he carried 50 boxes of food as well as medicine to families.

The neighborhood where the school is located was destroyed, Hitt said. Two of the school's classrooms were damaged, a surrounding wall collapsed and all of the students' homes were damaged from the earthquake, he said. Hitt said about 95 percent of all the homes he saw in Haiti were damaged and uninhabitable.

"I didn't see a single home that didn't have some sort of damage to it," Hitt said. "Haiti was a country that already needed intervention prior to the earthquake. The earthquake really only exasperated the intervention."

Two other churches also support the school; however, St. Andrew is its largest sponsor. In 2009, the church donated $18,000 to help educate and feed the 106 students who attend Andrew Christian School.

Hitt has made more than 50 trips to Haiti since 1998. The poverty he saw then inspired him and his wife, Sheila, to form the nonprofit Edu-Pack in 2008. Edu-Pack works with churches and schools to provide school supplies to students, primarily in Haiti, and other developing countries. Roughly 200 volunteers work with Edu-Pack each year.

"I'm always impressed with their spirituality and deep faith," Mack Riley, 61, senior pastor at St. Andrew, said of the Haitian people. "To be honest with you, it kind of puts us to shame. We know nothing of the suffering they go through, and yet, they still worship the Lord."

Photos of the students were placed at the alter of St. Andrew on the Sunday after the earthquake for special prayers. The church continues to follow updates about the school and has raised $3,000 since the earthquake struck.

"This is not a one time thing where we're going to have a telethon and it's going to be over with," said Edward Resendez, director of missions at St. Andrew.

Resendez credited a Haitian minister who works with Edu-Pack, Jean Claude Jean Baptiste, with aiding the students' families and others in the school's neighborhood.

On Feb. 19, Hitt plans to take a medical team and tents for shelter on his next trip to Haiti. He said the goal of that trip will be to treat injured victims who may be at risk of developing infection.

"It'll take two years to repair the infrastructure in Haiti and probably a minimum of 10 years to rebuild the country," he said.

Donations to Edu-Pack can be made online at edu-pack.org or by calling (404) 819-1652.