Been following David Hayward’s nakedpastor blog — funny, insightful, love his cartoons. David just came back from a trip to Haiti and his accounts have been, I think, quite moving. I quote/post the following because I read it over a couple of times this morning. I think it gets at some of the emotions those who go on mission trips experience when they come back to what we might call the “easy life” back here in the US or, in David’s case, Canada. And, on top of it all, he’s got some great photos, like the one below. The link at the bottom of David’s post will take you to Adventures in Mission with descriptions of their work and how you can help.
Yesterday morning I had a breakfast in Haiti of fresh mangoes and coffee. We sat on our duffle bags in the back of a pickup truck as we rode through Port au Prince on our way to the airport. Getting through security was a quagmire of bribes and explaining in my broken French to get to the gate on time. By 8 pm that night I was sitting inside a limousine on my way to my friend’s house for a barbecue. I arrived to be greeting by a couple of my good friends. We drank expensive bottles of red wine they had acquired while we ate grilled sea bass, truffled cheeses, and smoked a #2 Montecristo into the wee hours of the morning. Now I am sitting in the comfort of my mom and dad’s home in Newmarket, just north of Toronto.
You catch the disparity…
The photo was taken from the roof of the AIM base in Port au Prince, Haiti. Click on it for a larger image. The sun was setting and the sky and city was absolutely beautiful. It is a beautiful country with beautiful people. They didn’t deserve this tragedy. But they do deserve our help. There are billions of dollars, supplies and people waiting to be deployed in Haiti’s aid. There is so much to be done. The problem is so overwhelming it would be tempting to just forget about it, like a Soduko puzzle too complicated to complete. It would be simpler to forget about the pastors and the churches in their communities and leave them to their own devices to survive and figure things out. It would be easier to let the sun set on our initial shock and attempts to help and pretend that the problem disappears under the cover of darkness.
Please help.
Jim Doepken 