First observation

Anyways, my arrival in the Port au Prince airport was reminiscent of some other rundown remedial landing strips in Peru.  The AIM mission team welcomed me in amidst the crazy chaos of Haitian greeters.  My initial observations of the country’s condition was pretty shocking.  It’s easy to forget how long it takes to clean up messes even in a place like NOLA from the Katrina devastation.  Haiti is drastically different.  We drove past mass grave yards where bodies were covered, but piled in areas to to get debris and rubble out of the way. In the first few days here I’ve been praying for compassion because for some reason I had the tendency to not lend my heart to the broken and miserable scenes we drove by every few feet.  It’s tough to label the tragedy as His justice or godforsaken.

I was really thinking about the prayers of Haitian christian leaders here who asked for everything that could be shaken, to be fall in November of 2009.  They begged the Lord for deliverance from corruption and sin, and the removal of their political leaders if necessary.  Needless to say, it all happened.  On the bright side, God spoke of the removing of what can be shaken – that is, created things – and what cannot be shaken would remain.  And we know that when all is stripped away, these three things remain – faith, hope, and love.  Man.  That’s awesome.  At the risk of sounding insensitively optimistic, the Haitian people here have a chance to make great of this and recover extraordinarily – all while making the Lord’s name great.  Furthermore, I believe that if God rebuilds communities spiritually, then they cannot help but be rebuilt physically.  I’m excited that we get to bear our brother’s physical burdens while empowering and equipping them with the work of the Lord.

What else should we say in response to this?  If God is for us then who could be against us?  I hope you stand with me here… I’m focused on the gospel.  The point in coming here is not to meet a temporary need or change a startling statistic; the point is to exalt the glory of Christ as we express the gospel of Christ through the radical generosity of our lives. Seriously, the gospel provides long-term sustenance amid need, instead of short-term satisfaction of need.  It’s clear, and it shouldn’t be hard for me to accept.  To meet people’s temporary physical needs apart from serving their eternal spiritual need misses the point of holistic biblical giving.

This kind of thinking makes my efforts intentionally focused and eternally effective.  I don’t think I’d do it any other way… here we go.