If you were in Haiti now

Since January 12 when the earthquake hit Haiti, I’ve continued to wonder with some measure of grief, what I would do if I were somewhere around Port-au-Prince right this minute, as a survivor of the catastrophe or just arriving as a helper, a volunteer  with much needed aid and a word of hope.

I was thinking of the various needs and challenges I’d identified while watching the news on Haiti when I received this report from my dear friend Seth Barnes.

We’re talking to Miguel Shaul now who just returned from Haiti. He described a school that was full of students at the time of the earthquake that completely collapsed.

They had turned the large cement slab in front of the school as a triage center for the living right next to that place of death because there was no more space for them. A pickup truck with four crushed but living people showed up. There was no room for them there. The man driving it said, “Where else can I take them?”

There was a woman crying beside the body of her sister who couldn’t get treatment and had just died. A mass of people are fleeing Port-au-Prince. It was hard to move. It is becoming like a war zone.

People are being triaged all along the way from the capital to the Dominican Republic border.

Miguel describes the situation as “on a knife’s edge.” But he added that this can push us to a complete dependence on God. The pastors are saying that people are turning to God in an unprecedented way.”

Can you take a moment to reflect on the pictures you’ve seen posted on the internet, video clips from the various news media and their reports on Haiti in the last one week; what do you think you’ll be doing now if you’ve lived through the last one week in Haiti? Yeah, you may never know, but just imagine it.

How would you lift yourself to be able to lift the people around you? 

What would you say to someone that has not seen their loved one, who’s probably dead or still under the debris somewhere, praying to be discovered and rescued? 

What encouragement would you give the fellow needing medical attention right beside you but not getting it?
 The security crisis seems to be worsening as 4,000 convicts are on the loose. The main prison in Port-au-Prince holding them collapsed too. With your safety at sake, would you dare to go help save people that may die if you stayed back?

Based on what you’re seeing on TV or reading from other sources, what kind of help would you love to render in Haiti now?

The Great Commandment and the Great Commission will always blend perfectly, especially in catastrophic places like Haiti. But who will respond and how? It’s unfortunate that some Christ’s disciples are indifferent.
 
Can the rest of us that would love to be in Haiti now giving a helping hand but can’t make it, kindly express our desires for Haitians below? You can say a prayer here.
 
Click [here] if you want to go beyond just making a comment or praying and fund the efforts to save lives and restore hope in Haiti.
 
For updates on goings-on in Haiti, check [here].
 
“Faithful and True God, you’ve seen worse cases before, but please find for yourself in Haiti, a platform to manifest your greatness in the midst of the mess we see. Make room for yourself, be in the news today and let men celebrate you. In Jesus name! Amen!”
 
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Author: Uche Izuora

I'm inspired by God’s passion for His name in every generation, which provokes global worship through Jesus Christ. Becoming an emotionally healthy and transformative disciple, I aim to mobilize the Church to engage in cross-cultural missions and raise other like-minded disciples who discover themselves in Christ and seek to present and represent Him as Savior and Lord among the nations northward of Uganda.

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