Our Hearts Must Go Out To Haiti

While checking in on Twitter to see what the response to Haiti was, I did not see Haiti listed at that moment. American Idol was there. No surprise. I think American Idol would be a top trending topic even if World War III were unfolding and missiles falling. What surprised me was to see Pat Robertson as a top topic. This was strange, until I saw what the buzz, or rather outrage, was about. It’s too bad he didn’t just cite, “The rain falls on the just and the unjust” and ask for help for these anguished peoples. Rather, he said in effect, they had it coming.

The wonderful service of Christians to the hurting and needy is well documented throughout history, from the Franciscans to the Underground Railroad to the Red Cross and the countless efforts of unheralded local churches. Sadly, history has records of other less noble responses to need. The Irish Potato Famine, but one example, resulted in the death of millions because Christian leaders in the British Parliament argued that the famine was an act of God and that it would go against God’s will for Britain to extend mercy by providing food to the starving. These are, sadly, historical facts and indeed damage the reputation of the church.

With embarrassment and pain I recall to mind how when the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed in 2001, more than one Christian rejoiced because it was a sign of the end times. I share this with a heavy heart because it is in such contrast to a central feature of Jesus' ministry, whose compassion for those who were suffering caused Him great anguish.

When Jesus saw suffering, He had compassion. Matthew 9:35,36; Matthew 14:13,14, 34-36.

In late 2007 I wrote about a young Iraqi War vet who, after returning from service, went into one of the very neediest ghettos of Port-Au-Prince to help a Catholic outreach there. To get a handle on how needy this nation was even before this week's quake, you may wish to read my blog entries titled A Baby Ripped His Heart Out and A Trip to the Morgue.

Let's be sober minded today and remember those who have been less fortunate than ourselves.

A Baby Ripped Out His Heart

"When we took off from Port Au Prince we had been deeply immersed in the Haitian culture and the appalling poverty, crying, starving orphans, and near complete hopelessness. The day before leaving to come back to the States I spent a portion of the day at Mother Theresa's Orphanage with Beth and Chris just holding babies, changing diapers and playing with the toddlers. One baby ripped my heart out and kept a piece for herself. A piece I was glad to leave behind. She was maybe 1 year old and so frail and so beautiful with one small earring in her left ear.
Jon Lacore
http://www.jdlacore.net/

On Thanksgiving my blog entry here dealt with how we take so much for granted as Americans. It is almost impossible to convey this in just a few words. Images and stories and, best yet, a period of time spent in the presence of Third World poverty will all conspire to break your heart if you allow it.

We have all had glimpses of it. We all know there is need out there, that there are people hurting in ways we can't even fathom. But because we do not know how to react to it we tend to shut it out.

What prompted my Thanksgiving day entry was seeing a presentation of images from Haiti's Cite Soleil, an impoverished section of Haiti on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Jon Lacore, the son of some friends of ours, had just returned from a nine day trip to The Haiti Orphan’s Project and shared some of what he had seen and experienced there. (http://www.haitiorphansproject.org/)

Thursday of this week I followed up by having lunch with Jon who said, "After seeing Haiti I have decided to focus much more of my attention on that country due to it’s extreme poverty unlike anything I have seen before."

The twenty-five year old has seen a lot in his short life. At thirteen he was involved in a summer mission trip to Pakistan, followed by shorter but similar trips to Nicaragua and Trinidad. As a medic in the U.S. armed forces he spent nine months in Bosnia, and most recently 16 months in Iraq where, among other things, he served as a medic responsible for providing emergency medical treatment for the base, clinical duties for the soldiers and civilians on base, and aid at the trauma center for mass casualty incidents.

Even with this background, nothing had quite prepared him for what he experienced in Haiti.

Much To Be Grateful For

We take so much for granted. Hence there is value each year on Thanksgiving day to reflect on how much we have to be thankful for. Friends, family, loved ones, a home, a job. It is a good tradition to make a list, to write it down. Writing forces you to clarify even further, and this process makes you even more appreciative.

But if you are an American, when you have finished your list you will have still not recorded some things that are so basic, so part of our lives, yet we take them for granted. One way to deepen your appreciation for how good you have it is to visit an impoverished Third World nation.

We did not do such a thing this week, but we did go there in pictures when the son of a friend of ours shared photos from his recent nine day trip to a slum called Cite Soleil outside Port au Prince. Having lived in Puerto Rico and Mexico, I have seen slums. But I'd not seen anything that closely compared to this (except perhaps some very poor sections of Mexico City.)

The shanty towns stretched far as your eye could see. No yards, no electricity, no running water, disease infested stenchwater and muck all through the streets, makeshift homes of corrugated steel and miscellaneous scrap materials, and death. One in four children never see their fifth birthday. Reality is grim, and hope is difficult to imagine.

Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. For a bed, many people sleep on cardboard. AIDS is rampant. Food is lacking. And for most, even if you want to work there are no jobs. What is there to look forward to?

Without electricity, if you had as cell phone, there would be no way to re-charge the battery. No microwave ovens. No way to read this blog post because you would not have internet access, or a computer. Was that a mosquito bite or a malaria infection you just received?

The mission of The Haiti Orphans Project is to improve the lives of orphaned children in Haiti by providing medical care, access to education and equal access to basic services. If you wish to do more than "give thanks" you can visit their website and see what a few handfuls of good people are doing out on the front lines where poverty reigns.

http://www.haitiorphansproject.org/haiti/english/home88.html