Benjamin Judd Ulring Splichal Larson, 25, died in the earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010. He was buried with a service of "song and prayer" with his family in attendence on February 6,2010 in Phelps Cemetary in Decorah, Iowa.  Ben, his wife, Renee Splichal Larson, and his cousin, Jonathan Larson, all three Wartburg Theological Seminary students certified for ordination, were in Haiti learning from and walking with the people of the Eglise Lutherienne d’Haiti (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti). Renee and Jon were able to escape after the top two floors of a six floor building of the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys (up the mountain from Port-au-Prince) collapsed upon them all. Ben was buried in the collapsed ceiling on the resurrection dance theater floor and died after singing a verse of a hymn. Ben, along with hundreds of thousands of Haitians, is still buried in the rubble. After spending the night in a trash-filled lot with faithful, singing and praying, surviving and dying Haitians, Renee and Jon safely returned to Minneapolis on Friday, January 15.  Learn more about these ELCA seminarians and their mission in Haiti and the continued Evangelical Lutheran Church's Response response to this tragedy ...  

As an infant Ben was wrapped in the arms of God in the waters of baptism, and from those waters, his life was an outpouring of love and joy, laughter and play, in response to God first loving Ben. Ben’s love of God, walking in accompaniment, passionately loving others, listening and learning from those who are poor across the globe, drove his serving.  

Music oozed out every fiber of Ben’s body. His passion was to sing Global songs of faith with the people of God. He played guitar, mandolin, trombone, cello, piano and any other instrument he could get his hands on. Ben picked up drumming—African and Latin rhythms especially. All who knew him loved when he picked up a guitar and sang one of the hundreds of songs he had written. Listen to Ben’s music …