CHICAGO, IL (January 15, 2010) – Martinez Jovin, who helped develop Evangelical Covenant Church Haitian ministries in Florida and hosted numerous mission groups to Haiti, survived the earthquake in Haiti along with his wife, Immacula, Covenant News Service has confirmed.

Kurt Miericke, former superintendent of the Southeast Conference, says he received information Thursday night from the couple’s son who is in Canada. The son had heard from his father.

The Jovins live in Port-au-Prince – their house was one of the few buildings left standing, says Miericke. The home was able to withstand the earthquake because the couple had the home built stronger than most of the houses in the area, using reinforcement in the walls.

Jovin has started schools that have educated thousands of children in Haiti and has led the development of churches, as well as medical clinics.

“He’s a man of great integrity with a real passion for God,” says Miericke.

He was described in a 2001 Covenant News Service article as “a man who lives ministry – he doesn’t talk ministry, he lives it. And he does a lot with a little.”

Jovin became acquainted with the Evangelical Covenant Church in 1986 when he visited Bethany Covenant Church in North Miami. Pastor Walter Anderson and the Anglo congregation welcomed Jovin, allowing him to use church facilities for a Haitian church plant.

Jovin has helped facilitate many Covenant mission trips to the area. Then-teenager Courtney Cornelious wrote in 2005 that a trip hosted by the Jovins changed her life.