It's been a busy week, and the news of the devastating earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday has taken a while to sink in. My brother was visiting from New York City when the news broke. Then it was off to a two-day staff seminar, and I was out of my NPR-listening, TV-watching routine. Even so, the earthquake was on all of our minds--one of my colleagues has family living in Haiti, and while he knew that his parents were safe, he had yet to hear from his brother.
Until last night, I hadn't seen any coverage of the aftermath. What I saw last night broke my heart.
I traveled to Haiti with a group from my church in December 2002, and rang in 2003 to the accompaniment of the distant beat of voodoo drums in the eastern wilds of that country. It's hard to put into words the experience of Haiti, or to explain to those who have not been there how this earthquake only brings a more extreme version of chaos to what is already indescribably chaotic. The poverty is staggering. But the joy and hope of the people I met was humbling and inspiring.
In this video from our trip, shot and edited by Jeff VanderMolen, friend, team leader and co-founder of Haiti H2O (that's Hope 2 Opportunity), the single quote from me is, embarrassingly, "I haven't cried once, have I?" I've cried plenty for Haiti this week. And I continue to hold on to the hope that God can deliver the suffering people of Haiti from this most recent, and most extreme, tragedy.
Lord have mercy.
***If you are wondering where you might donate money to help the people of Haiti, I strongly encourage you to consider giving to Haiti H2O. Jeff will be leading a small team to Haiti later this month, after the initial response has passed. Click here to find out more. I can vouch for the integrity of this organization and the way they will use these funds. Their overhead is very low, so almost every dollar you give will go directly to helping the earthquake relief effort.
