Last night, however, Evan and I were up to speed and settled down in front of the TV with a blanket and the remote control. Once we turned on the 24 hour coverage of Haiti on CNN, it wasn't long before the blanket and remote were accompanied by a large amount of toilet tissue to help catch the water works coming from my face.
Have you ever watched something and felt so helpless? I can send money but what I want to do is jump through the TV screen. If I feel this helpless at home and I'm not in the situation, I cannot fathom the helplessness the Haitians are feeling. I am a believer in a God that can do and heal all things. How do you make it through something like that if you aren't?
What got me the most last night was, of course, the live video. I had made it decently through the pictures of the despairing but once the video rolled, the situation came to life and my emotions were overwhelming. At one point, a reporter scanned a small portion of a sidewalk. In this small area, there were several adult corpses piled on top of each other, 10 or so men, woman and children waiting on medical assistance and then one small covered body. This is the image I cannot get out of my head: one small covered body.
With the thousands of people dead and injured and hundreds of pictures shown, why is this the one image that is burned into my mind and paralyzing me? Maybe it was the fact that the body was alone or that it was harsh enough to be covered when the rest of the bodies were left to the open air. Or maybe it was the injured and lost people sitting so closely waiting and wondering if they will be the next one covered by a sheet or left in the street with the growing pile of others. How old was the child that was covered? What life experiences did he or she have while being so small and innocent? Did this child have a chance to know Christ? Was there anyone to tell him or her that they were loved here on Earth but most of all by a Heavenly Father? Who brought them to this sidewalk knowing that there was no hope?
I cannot imagine having to leave a small child there on the sidewalk while my World is crumbling around me. I cannot imagine walking the streets full of lifeless bodies when just 24 hours earlier the same streets were filled with my friends and family going on about their lives.
I heard an interviewer say that the nation was poor but they were proud. Even if they had nothing, most people were proud. How many times are we selfish and ask for more? How many times a day do we think we deserve better? How many times a day are we not simply satisfied with all we have been given and proud of who we are and where we come from? How many times a day do we have choices as to what we eat and what clothes we put on? These people don't have these choices, and if they did, they most likely don't any more.
Let us pray for Haiti. Pray for the lives that were spared that they will become lives that follow Christ and have a hope for their future. Pray that their Voodoo to be found senseless so they know that it is not the answer. Pray that water will arrive, that violence will lesson and that children will have compassion taken on them. Pray for our egos here in America and for the finances to be given (including the amounts that should come from our own pocket books) to help make a difference to these suffering people. Pray that Haiti doesn't quickly set in the back of our minds but that our hearts will continue to be broken for them as they try unfathomably to rebuild what is left of their lives.
We are called to love. I cannot think of a people in need of more love today than those in Haiti.
A Few Facts:
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. 78 percent of Haitians live on less than 2 dollars a day. Only 20 percent have access to clean water (on a day when there hasn't been a national tragedy). Roman Catholicism is the official religion of Haiti, but voodoo may be considered the country's national religion.
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