Six Months Ago Yesterday....

literally millions of people saw their lives change forever. Some Haitian, some not. D and I had been outside doing something-I can't remember what- and came inside. For some reason, we'd left the tv on and as we walked by it, the news of the earthquake came on. I am not being overdramatic when I say that my heart sank in my chest, way down deep, to where you just kind of feel like you've had the wind knocked out of you on an emotionally level. If you've ever been to Haiti, you know why. All I could say was "Oh Lord Jesus!" I knew when the reports started coming in that it would not be thousands of people dead even thought the first reports were being very conservative in estimating how many were injured or killed. There was just no way that an earthquake of such magnitude would leave Haiti with such minimal loss. And in an ironic way, as those words of "Oh Lord Jesus" were really the only prayer I had for about a week after the quake, God pushed aside a dam of prayerlessness that had been acculumating in my life as we spent months, well actually over a year, waiting for some positive news regardin Conleigh's adoption.



After the earthquake, I heard and read lots of comments that questioned the need to help Haiti when there are plenty of needs in our hometowns and in our country. While I do not disagree that it's important to help those who live in our country or our neighborhood, simply adopting a "look out for ours" mentality is not how Jesus would have us love.



Today as I helped my kids do their quiet time, the story was that of the good Samaritan. You know the one where three people are given an opportunity to help someone who was hurt and laying alongside the road. Two people walk by, paying no attention to the man's need, but the third attended to the man and helped nurse him back to health. The third person was not from the man's ethnic group but was a Samaritan who had every reason to be apathetic at best, hateful at worst towards the injured man. Jesus decided to tell the story in response to the question, "Who is your neighbor?" and used the story to show a real life application of the commandment, "love your neighbor as yourself." I couldn't help but see this story and be reminded of who my neighbor is, in this case not just Mr. Lyle who live in the big white house next door but also those in Haiti who are homeless, jobless, without quality medical care and access to a constant food and water source.



For more reading on the hard things and joys that are happening in Haiti right now, I'd urge you to check out this post by Heartline Ministries. They have actually kind of "reinvented" parts of their ministry to better serve the new needs in Haiti. We also just received an email from Kenson's orphanage which works directly in Port Au Prince. Again, it describes the difficulties of working in PAP right now.