Haiti on my Heart

It's been nearly two weeks since the devastating earthquake, but I can't seem to get the people off my mind. Yesterday, was the World Day of Prayer and Fasting for Haiti, which conveniently fit with my need to practice the subjunctive tense through prayers in Spanish during multiple classes.

Between the news articles, the blogs from long-term missionary friends living there, and notes from short-term missionary friends and family visiting, I've been bombarded with messages and my heart's been breaking a bit.

Some of my extended family was nearing the end of a short-term mission trip on that tragic Tuesday. But for the sheer grace of God they were not harmed, "Mandie Scott and four others were taken by the Fond Parisien missionary to visit a school in Port-au-Prince but could not find a parking space. About 20 minutes into the return trip to the mission, the earthquake struck. Had they found a place to park, they would have been inside a building that collapsed. Bobby Scott was on the beach at Jacmel taking a video of four of the other guys swimming in the bay when the earthquake hit. It knocked him to the ground. The swimmers left the water, and they all got up to higher ground. Shortly afterward, a tsunami wave estimated at about 15 to 20 feet high inundated the beach." I thank God for these small miracles.

Kelly Crowdis is a CVM missionary living in Haiti. In her December prayer letter she closed with this thought, "I am so amazed and awed by the wonderful workings of God. I don't know if it's the transformation He is doing in my life or if He is really starting to show Himself more here in Haiti (maybe it's both.)" It's hard to believe that God could be working good through the destruction and sadness that we see all over the news, but as Chris Harp from Spend Yourself the apparel company noted; 2 days before the disaster people in Haiti were already dying in extreme poverty. Maybe this is what it took to turn the world's attention to this long-neglected country. Chris blogged, "The country of Haiti and its citizens will never be the same…I HOPE."

I pray the Lord will use this event to draw people together to share in His love for years to come.

"Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." -Isaiah 1:17