Reflections on Haiti

  It's hard to put words to the 3 days I experienced in Haiti.  I traveled with the Outreach Foundation, an organization that is seeking to partner Christians around the world to join with what God is doing.  We spent our time with Haiti Outreach Ministries, a Haitian ministry that is doing some wonderful work throughout Haiti.

  It was hard to be in Haiti.  The poverty and desperation there are so overwhelming that it is easy to throw one's hands up in despair.  We drove up a mountain and looked out over the valley in which Port Au Prince sits, and looking down on that city of several million it's easy to feel like small efforts cannot make a difference in the face of such poverty.  Driving through Port Au Prince is one continuous assault on the senses.  The smell of smog mixes with the din of throngs of people lining the streets.  The garbage strewn across the street and the density of the people pressing in tempts one to withdraw to the comforts of home, to catch the next plane and retreat, far from such chaos, where life seems to hang by a tenuous thread as flames leap up and surround, threatening to bring the entire system crashing down upon itself.

  And yet, in the midst of the tumult, God is at work doing great things.  Surrounded by poverty so desperate it makes one grateful to have a simple pair of pants, the church of Jesus Christ is tilling soil, sowing seeds, and watering the green shoots that promise peace in years to come.

  Let me say that the Haitians I met were some of the most gracious people I have ever met.  The love of God that is at work within them shines forth as they welcomed us to their country.  They were pleased for us to be there and encouraged us to bring others to come and see what God is doing.  They said that, given the choice, they would rather us spend the money on a plane ticket and come build a relationship with them than simply send them the money.  They desire relationships, trusting that those relationships will help foster the ongoing work of God in Haiti.

  It was the Haitians who kept offering signs of encouragement.  When despair seemed close at hand, they pointed to the progress that has been made, to the works of the church that are all around Haiti.  They reminded me of the children that have progressed through the school and the hundreds more that are currently enrolled.  They talked about health ministries and vocational schools that are working, one by one, to elevate Haitians to new levels of leadership.  They believe in the power of the individual and trust in God to do great things through them.

  That picture right there?  Those are pies, made by hand in Cite Soleil, the poorest slum in the poorest country in the western hemisphere.  Know what is heartbreaking?  They are made of mud.  Mud pies, eaten because there is nothing else to fill the belly.

  There are people in the world eating mud.  At this point, standing in the slum, surrounded by metal shacks smaller than my living room, with two children clutching my hands and crushing poverty all around me, I was ready to choose despair.

  It was the Haitians themselves, the ones who are hard at work investing in the lives of those around them, who reminded me of what God is doing, of the tremendous things they have witnessed over the years and of the promise of more to come.

  They invite us to partner with them, to join with what God is doing, to come and see.  Mud pies may be the present, but they do not have to be the future.  May we all seek to participate in the divine economy, where people matter more than profits, where we invest in those with whom we share this globe and trust in God to lead us forward into a future of hope.