Last Day in Haiti

Just arrived back in Miami, checked into the hotel and took a shower. A hot shower almost seems like too much luxury, when I think that many of the people we encountered in Haiti have never had a hot shower. Yesterday we finished some projects we were building at the orphanage and then Pastor Rosinell (he was the local Haitian pastor in our New Hope in Action video a few weeks ago) took us to one of the heavily devastated areas of Port au Prince. Hundreds of homes were destroyed in an area smaller than the size of Magic Island by Ala Moana Beach Park. Nearly 100 of his church congregation lived here before the earthquake and fifteen church members died in the collapsed buildings there. We stopped and walked around some of those buildings and over piles of rubble that used to be houses and apartments. We stopped at one church member's current "home" - a dug out flat space in the midst of the rubble with a tent and a few wooden poles holding up a few odd pieces of tin. We spoke with the Haitian man there who was reading his Bible when we arrived. Continuing on, we stopped at another church members' house site that had recently been cleared of rubble and a simple wooden structure built. Behind that site was another giant pile of rubble that had been a four story concrete home until the earthquake. Now you couldn't even tell it had been a house at all. Pastor Rosinell said at least thirty people were still buried there only twenty feet from where we stood. We stared in silence as tears flowed easily down some team member's faces. Seeing the pictures on the news does nothing in comparison to being there and seeing everything in person. A local Haitian came up to me as we began to walk away and asked if we had come to work and when we would be coming back to help build more houses. I told him that I didn't know when, but I did know that I would be back. He smiled and shook his head as he understand and thanked us for being there. There are years and years of work ahead for the Haitian people and those who come to help - to rebuild the thousands upon thousands of homes and other buildings lost in the January earthquake. But there are also years of rebuilding lives there by showing them the love of Christ. As we minister to their physical needs, we also have opportunity to minister to the Haitian people's spiritual needs - and what an opportunity it is !

We were able to touch a number of lives in Haiti in our short visit there. But the interesting thing is that we were the ones who were really touched. Some of the team feel a longer term call the mission field. Others were touched with a new found fervency for the ministry they have in Honolulu. Others felt convicted to press into the next season of their lives that God had already been speaking to them about. But everyone was touched and changed by this mission trip. My "comfortable" life will never feel the same after seeing how literally millions of people live in Haiti. May God make us "uncomfortable" enough to press us into serving Him in radical ways that stretch us and push us to a deeper walk with God. May we never be the same ! Amen

Mark