"Should I go to Haiti?"

I interact with several people a day who are feeling called, led, moved to go to Haiti. I totally understand. These people are our brothers and sisters, they are our neighbors.

Since I am not there nor in a position of authority, I take pause when asked what do I think about heading to Haiti, soon.  Important? Yes. Urgent? I don't know; the recovery will take years. Haiti will need real help long after she is in the headlines.

So, if we are thinking about heading south, we might consider the following.

God looks on the heart; examining our own hearts seems a good place to start. Bolstering oneself spiritually will be well worth it, many times over.

Next, an updated passport and shots are critical. Keep working to maintain or improve physical fitness; this preparation will also pay off. 

Stay informed. Sleuth out reputable agencies, churches, organizations who are doing work that you resonate with. Are they well established? What are their ties to Haiti? Do they have financial integrity? Can they connect you to someone who has been affiliated with them in Haiti to get the inside "scoop"?. What are their needs for personnel, volunteer or otherwise? Are they ready to accommodate you now or would you be one more person to keep fed, safe, find a bed and transportation for? You get the idea

Ask trusted friends and mentors what they think. 

Be prepared to hurry up and wait. We'll have plenty of opportunities to practice patience there, might as well start here.

And last, keep Haiti in your prayers.

CNN on rebuilding effort after the quake.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/25/haiti.earthquake/index.html
Samaritan's Purse: Surviving Day by Day
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/surviving_day_by_day/
Audio Report from Haiti
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Samaritans_Purse_Today/post/audio_report/

So many

So many faceless and nameless buried without witness. So many left to wonder where their friend, lover, brother, daughter is. So many motherless children seeking safe haven. So many weary, worried and wounded.So many. So. How do I process this? I choose to believe that God notices. 

150,000 Quake Victims Buried, Haiti Says

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122925656&sc=emaf
Earthquake map of Haiti
http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/google.map.haiti/index.html

Perfect timing ~ One pilot's story

http://www.maf.org/

Will White, pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) shared this story from January 22.

Here is a flight I did today.  I will try and explain it.  Sorry if this gets long. This morning MAF was to take a team of doctors to Pignon.  The night before someone called and cancelled the flight so we were not expecting to do it and did not go in early. The doctors showed up about 9am and I told them they would have to wait until after a flight that was previously scheduled.
We had arranged for a film crew to fly to the island of Lagonave.  We were dropping off food supplies and picking up a team that was inspecting the Wesleyan hospital for damage from the earthquake.

Joy in the midst of sorrow

"I’m sure you’ve seen the singing and praying of Haiti’s believers. The television news men have not been able to ignore it. When the world is falling down around us, the Holy Spirit is at work in the midst of what to us seems out of control. When we remember that, we are strengthened, we have joy in the midst of sorrow, we give thanks even for the heartache, and God gets the glory." Boxley Boggs, in the sermon he preached today at Town North Bible Church, Texas.

These comments of our friend Boxley pretty much summarize for me the last 12 days; "the Holy Spirit is at work in the midst of what to us seems out of control...we have joy in the midst of sorrow..."

Our son Nate and I saw evidence of that today when we interacted with David, live via internet. I cannot tell you how good it was to see for ourselves that he is well, in fact thriving. "I'm really glad I'm here; it's so good to be with and talking to the Haitian people again....I'm loving it."

Another day at Bolosse

An update from Cindy McMartin, missionary with CrossWorld living on the Bolosse campus (where my David lived for 2 years, and where Samaritan's Purse went with a water purification system yesterday:

^{Where to begin? It’s hard for us all to remember what day it is, let alone what happened during the past few days. David [Scmid] said to me today, “We’re into our 3rd week since the earthquake, right?” I said, “no, it hasn’t even been 2 weeks.” The days run together and there is always so much going on. We go to bed exhausted and usually wake up weary.}

Samaritan's Purse in the News

"What impressed me is Samaritan's Purse's ability to work in so many different arenas once they're on the ground," says Dr. Bill Frist, a former U.S. senator and one of the surgeons working with Febres at the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital last week. "They very aggressively put in surgical teams. And within 72 hours, they had a water-filtration system for the hospital that can produce 10,000 gallons of clean water a day."

"This is far from the agency's first disaster. And Samaritan's Purse, with about 450 employees in Boone and 2,000 around the world, has built a reputation as a lean machine that responds quickly - and with Christian fervor.

"Some have suggested that proselytizing has no place in emergency relief. But Graham, son of Charlotte-born evangelist Billy Graham, is unapologetic about ministering to victims spiritually as well as medically.

"We want to bring God's comfort to them," says Graham. "I'm an ambassador for Jesus Christ and want everybody we meet to know that God loves them."

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/408/story/1200620.html

A glimpse of David's heart

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." —C.S. Lewis

I don't know if our sons remember this, but on road trips when the boys were little, David and I used to sing together, "harmonizing" and singing at the tops of our lungs.


One of our favorites was an old hymn that went something like this:

This world is not my home, I'm just a-passin' through

If heaven's not my home, then Lord what would I do?

The angels beckon me, from heaven's open door,

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

David taught me that song. It used to spring to his lips when I sensed a longing in him to be somewhere else. When the boys were little, I was so caught up in their every little step, word, new skill mastered, that I really didn't quite connect with David's longing; another mother would understand that comment.

But now, David has "gone ahead" of me back to the land he was raised in, to the land where we met and where we discovered we are truly kindred spirits. I miss him and long to be there with him. Every waking thought is wrapped around him.

My longing to be with David is not unlike the longing he used to express in song. Hmmmm.

David was at Bolosse today

In the short email he sent me tonight, he mentioned that he was at Bolosse yesterday and today. Samaritan's Purse hopes to put in a water filtration system there to provide safe drinking water for the 2500 people camping on the campus and the surrounding community.

It is so uncanny to me how my posts and David's activities on the field in Haiti are dove-tailing with each other. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that God can draw my heart and thoughts to what he is doing. And even so, we miss each other on the internet....playing tag with our messages. So, again I rest in the knowledge that he is where he is supposed to be.

My thoughts turn to the many hours I spent with David on that campus while we were dating.