It breaks my heart...

Did you hear Haiti was hit with a 6.1 AFTERSHOCK today? Do you understand the devastation there? I was in this country twice...in two different parts of the country... in college....several years ago.  When we got off the plane, at the airport (below), it smelled like rotting flesh and sewage. (This is where the PRESIDENT of the country and the PRIME MINISTER lived for two days after the earthquake)
This was before the earthquake. This was normal life. These people are suffering, and have been for YEARS.  Their market is open air with food in the reach of the place a donkey stands for hours. The donkey serves as their transportation and food carrier up the mountain.  They bathe and drink water from streams where cows drink and urinate.  I could go on and on...
We walked miles to give a lady in a hut on top of a mountain some medicine. She had dirt floors. A hut the size of my bathroom. She smiled. She hugged us. She was joyful.

When things like this happen, or for example, after I visited Haiti, I chose to ignore the need. Ignore the pain. The suffering.  I befriended these people. I left them my clothes I wore. My shoes. But not my heart. Why? It was too hard. Too heartbreaking. I couldn't handle the loss and pain these people had. So I chose to ignore it.

 

This girl and I played soccer (futbol) every day. She followed me home. She waited at the gate for me each morning. I visited her home.  She is real. She has no clothes. No food. She might not even be alive anymore.  I can't ignore it anymore. I wish I could, because I hate seeing the pain. Part of me thinks that if I don't watch the news, it won't be real. That is true, right? I sometimes do that to the war on terror.

Click here to donate..

If you're interested in giving.... I'm not trying to be a billboard for giving.
But honestly. Pray for them. Pray for their safety. Pray that they might see light and hope.  I was watching Oprah today and Wyclef was saying that at night the people just sing. They sing praise songs. Really? Could you praise God in that? Because it sounds easy, as I go crawl into my warm bed after using my real, porcelain toilet and have a nice little huge piece of chocolate and grab my glass of water. It's not as easy when you think of the wretched smell (it smelled like a homeless person who never showers....in every corner of the country), when you think of the violence there.....
We need to pray. As a body of believers we are called to pray. 



Isaiah 43:2 (New Living Translation)


 2 When you go through deep waters,

      I will be with you.

   When you go through rivers of difficulty,

      you will not drown.

   When you walk through the fire of oppression,

      you will not be burned up;

      the flames will not consume you.

Praying for Haiti as I go to sleep tonight.  Even if you don't or can't give. Pray for them.