Please Do Not Forget Haiti

I was lying in the trunk of a rickety old car, sandwiched between a living person and two rotting, maggot infested corpses. The stench was unbearable and I did not want to breath for fear of losing what little food I had in my stomach. We were trying to identify the body so that some family would have closure. Finally, in utter desperation, we pulled over and our driver threw the corpses out, we simply could not endure the odor any longer.

A short while later, we were on a pier, surveying damages done in the earthquake. Out of nowhere, the dock began to shake and I knew we were going done. Cast into the sea, with debris falling all around, I wondered if this was my dying moment. Somehow, with supernatural strength, I swam to a nearby building, pulled myself out of the churning sea and huddled with four other survivors. Once the aftershock was over, I sat there, wondering "Why did I deserve to live when so many others died?" My next thoughts, "Would the shaking ever stop? Would the earth ever become stable and not threaten to move each day? If so, would the shaking in my own heart and mind ever stop?"

For me, these vivid scenes were only part of a dream. For millions, this reality is everyday life. I am moved to tears each and every time I view the video of a short term mission team being evacuated from NEW Missions near Leogane, Haiti. For the team and their families, that was a blessed day. However, what my eyes see each time is the shoreline that is filled with hundreds of Haitians who came to watch the choppers rescue the Americans, or "blancs." Those Haitians are left behind, without options or choices. They have no say on where they go next or if they have a place to lay their heads at night or if they have enough rice to feed to their babies. They are living day in and out in a hell that most of us cannot comprehend.

Already, our news has moved on. Daily events in Haiti are not being reported or recorded or brought to the front of our minds like they were the first two weeks after the earthquake. I beseech you, do not forget Haiti. Please keep praying and giving to help those who are on the front lines. If God tugs on your heart to go, please heed His voice. I know that going into Haiti right now is a frightening thought, but I am hearing such tremendous reports from hundreds who are there. God will make a way! He is raising up a new generation of people who will have a heart for Haiti. Add that to the hundreds of thousands who already had that heart, and we can be a mighty army, fighting on their behalf.

Please, please, please, do not forget Haiti.