Saved from Valentines Day

Perhaps leaving for Haiti on Valentines day was too much, I remember thinking before leaving for Haiti. Previous to the thought of going to Haiti, I had quite the Valentines day plans to bless someone special. It didn't take me long, maybe five minutes after saying yes that I would go to Haiti, that I realized that this year, Valentines wouldn't be what I wanted...

I haven't come to grips with why it was such a bummer before I left, It was just Valentines day and yet my heart and mind couldn't let go of it. You see while several other friends I knew were celebrating their relationships and love, I was on an airplane celebrating clean water to drink, and air conditioning.

Its amazing, never once in Haiti did I even think to ask anyone there what their Valentines Day looked like. It just wasn't even an issue...I knew from day 1 that they weren't focused on it.

Since i've been back, it has began to grow on me, why in America so much celebration of love between two individuals, and yet, so little love for the brothers and sisters in Haiti. This sounds extreme, one friend who was recently married did a small getaway for he and his new wife, wanted to make his first valentines day special.

Meanwhile in Haiti, a new couple maybe married 4 or 5 months, spend their entire Valentines day trying to get clean water just so they can survive. Its interesting isn't it. One couple so engaged in love that they go to a getaway for V-Day, another couple just an Island away, so in love they spend their time surviving. Many would say the couple in America is more blessed, I used to agree, but I can't anymore.

What gets me about the people of Haiti, is people like pastor Jeante' who lost everything materially in his house, everything collapsed, and yet his Valentines day consisted of feeding starving children in an orphanage alongside his wife. No flowers, no nice dinner, in fact no dinner at all. Yet among all this a joy unspeakable that I have never seen in America. I mean enduring Joy. A joy rooted in deep eternal promises of Gods word. I began to cry as I saw his house...he lost everything... he lost nothing... I began to realize the reason he wasn't sad about all he had lost in the Earthquake, it is because all he had he already had considered loss...Why?... compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. So when the Earthquake came it was no loss, for he already had counted it loss, he just clung to all he had Jesus Christ.

As he and his wife serve 80 more orphans than before the earthquake, I began to think...I wish my Valentines day were as special as theirs was. I no longer was thinking about the special gifts and notes I was going to send, rather I began to envy the deep joy and biblical center of this couples Valentines Day. They considered everything as loss on Valentines Day except for knowing Christ.

I am thankful that God saved me from Valentines Day and am hopefull that someday I might too...enjoy Valentines without Flowers or without a meal. And with empty stomachs one day cry with my Wife "God is Enough" O that that type of Valentines Day might Come.

Journal from Haiti

In the last two days I have seen more than I can bear, Maybe that sounds extreme well good, it is. Their simply is no words I could use to justify such a statement. It would never be clear to you why it is unbearable. Maybe the word Horror does that bring any emotions or feelings that might possibly help you understand?
These people have been robbed of every provision. Pigs in America live more comfortably than the people of Haiti. Pigs have food, water, and a warm pile of trash to sleep in...the people of Haiti don't even have that. Many times my mind runs to the story of the prodigal sun who slept in pig slop...but at least he got to eat that...these people in Haiti are so hungry they would bow down for a meal...even one meal...like that.
My mind could sit and wander, when will this suffering end? Perhaps I will wake up, and this will all be a dream. O the wish of many Hatian children, hoping their hunger will one day stop being a nightmare.
And yet still, the suffering isn't limited to just physical needs. If it were...their may be some hope, but the needs run much deeper. Their is a deep need for comfort, far more than a meal and water can provide. A comfort that can endure the horrific suffering of these people. When will hope come?
I wish had more to write, but my agony drags me away, to write of all this reminds me, I need to pray. Below is one last story, to share in my grief....the morning is coming...new mercies I seek.
Rue was in his house January 12th a little after 430 and his house began to shake. s he begans to go on, you can tell, his life has been forever changed. He goes on, "I tried to get out" he says, but he simply couldn't, whats worse is that his family couldn't get out either. The building falls and pins Rue into the building...thier is no moving. Whats more is who else it pinned..."My mother had the entire ceiling collapse on her...then she suddenly got big"...The tears start to roll..For three days Rue is face to face with his dead mother, perhaps eveyr half hour screming MOTHER MOTHER ARE YOU ALIVE? This is when my tears began to fall...and the physical pain is met with the emotional pain...For three days Rue sits across from Mommy and deduces she is dead. Are you feeling my hopelessness yet?
As he began to describe his resue, it becomes clear why he only has one arm...to get him out of the rubble, they must cut his arm off, because it is caught under the rubble. Sobbing at this point I began to wonder "O WHY GOD". I take a deep breath and the tears continue coming where will this pain find comfort? No amount of food or water will quench the three days of agony lying with his dead mother. The pain of losing his entire family surely eclipses the pain of having his arm cut off.
The rains came last night...an Orphan girl is walking outside with a mud plastered pillow with nothing else but Hope...Hope in what? A meal? A hope that maybe someday, these nightmares will all go away.