Haiti

Over the past week and a half we have seen on the news and I have heard through Haitian friends of the devastation in Haiti. Along with the devastation, we have heard story after story of people who are miraculously found alive and the people who would not give up; those under the rubble and those searching for them. How a husband dug and dug for 6 days for his wife before they were able to rescue her barely injured. A 15 day old baby who was lost for over half his little life and saved. We see people singing and praising God in the streets and helping complete strangers. It has amazed me to see people rising above adversity with songs, dancing and a fearlessness that I can only believe comes from God. It has been a great reminder not only how blessed we are but how trivial things on this earth are (Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. Ecclesiastes 5:10) and how much more important it is to help our fellow man (and woman) regardless of their geographical location.

When I was in Haiti a few years ago, we (the group I was with) primarily stayed in villages far from the capital however for a couple of days we did go into Port-au-Prince. There were men carrying these, what looked to be, back breaking wagons overflowing with all types of things. Sometimes these men would have so much weight on their backs that you could literally see them inching step by step, sweat pouring down their faces. And then you would see a man set down his load, walk over to another man and either leave his load to carry this strangers load so this other man could rest or take things off of the strangers wagon and place them on his wagon to make the strangers weight much lighter and more bearable. This selfless act of the Haitian men has been a great example to me of how we can lift burdens off of each other; in particular those struggling in Haiti right now.

While I was there the people who we were staying with gave us each one of these hand made figures. On the bottom of it is this scripture verse: Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

If you are looking for a place to donate you might want to check out http://www.worldvis ion.org/home. nsf/pages/ home.htm/ or http://www.water.cc/initiatives/haiti/