When Christian music artist Aaron Gillespie agreed to accompany his wife, Jamie, on a trip to Uganda last year, he didn’t realize it would completely change his heart. He fell in love with mission work, and a few months later he found himself on a plane to Haiti with Samaritan's Purse staff.

“You can proclaim Christ all day long, but until you do something, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

Gillespie, lead singer for The Almost and former drummer of Underoath, recently finished recording his first solo album, “Anthem Song,” scheduled to release on Tuesday. He wanted to visit Haiti to shoot a music video for the first single, "We Were Made For You," and to see how Samaritan's Purse is helping people recover from the earthquake that devastated the country in January last year.



“Samaritan's Purse is doing so many tangible things on the ground,” he said. “There are people there who are really talented. That was the most humbling thing—meeting doctors and aid workers who give their time. It was just amazing to see.”




While Gillespie spent a lot of time in the cholera clinics and visiting our temporary shelter communities, his favorite project was an orphanage. The building used to be a nightclub. The owner chose to devote his life to helping others when he came to faith in Christ. He died a few years ago, and in his will was the wish that his old nightclub be turned into an orphanage. Gillespie is now raising money through Samaritan's Purse to build latrines at the orphanage.

“It’s really killer to see these kids who don’t have anywhere to go,” Gillespie said. “I met one guy who went into the city after the earthquake and just started looking for children to take care of. It was really inspiring. Samaritan's Purse is giving these people the fuel to do so. It’s people helping people, which is how God intended it.”

To garner more support for the relief efforts in Haiti, Gillespie wanted to shoot his music video there to show his audience what it looks like to have everything stripped away.

“There’s no Hollywood ‘let’s paint a picture,’” he said. “You’re going to the picture. I hope we captured the essence of who they are and what they’ve gone through.”




People in Haiti avoid cameras, Gillespie said. The media has exploited them, and they’re no longer interested in empty promises.

“No one delivers,” Gillespie said. “But God unites people, and He saves people. I believe God is a good God and He’s working in those people and He’s going to use what happened there for His glory.”

During a shoot for his music video, Gillespie decided to help a man by giving him a guitar. The man had been playing guitar for over 50 years, and the strings on his instrument had corroded and started to rot.

“I wanted to bless this guy and show him love this way,” he said. “He was so thankful. I knew that was the thing that needed to be done.”




Although Gillespie was impressed with the work being done by Samaritan's Purse, he’s felt a shift in his emotions about Haiti since visiting because there is still so much to be done.

“There’s a lot of anger when you go somewhere like that and you get home,” he said. “You see all these issues that are horrible and really simple to fix. It’s not that everything is so difficult. If we had clean water, immunizations and garbage detail, we would have 90 percent less issues. I think it’s frustrating at times.”

But after visiting Samaritan’s Purse projects, Gillespie does know a lot of progress has been made. He explained the importance of the work in a few simple sentences.

“It’s real. It’s actual. I hope people can get in and see it for themselves.”

Samaritan's Purse , Haiti , Help for Haiti , Making Music For Haiti