Haiti
Dear Friends,
I am writing this article at the same time as I am listening to news reports of the utter devastation to life and property in the small country of Haiti caused by a massive earthquake the likes of which is unknown to such an area of the world. I cannot, as I suspect many of you will acknowledge, try to imagine what it must be like to lose so many dear friends and members of one’s own family literally in seconds!
I am listening to the cries of those who mourn as they see the bodies of their loved ones stacked up in the middle of a crowded main street. Their wails are constant as the full scale of the tragedy is becoming clear that over 250,000 people have lost their lives.
I am listening to the cries for help muffled under heaps of bricks and concrete realising it will be many days, probably weeks before sufficient aid will arrive to release the owners of these voices and by then it will be too late - in a few hours the place will grow silent and with it the last thread of hope for some will have broken.
I am listening to the sound of empty stomachs and reports that many more lives will be lost as a result of malnutrition and lack of clean water - of the need for shelter from the burning rays of a scotching sun bearing down on a desolate landscape with hardly a habitable building left standing. Soon it will be the rainy season followed by hurricanes - what then for the Haitians chances of survival?
I am listening to the voices of community leaders including Church ministers who try, without much success, to explain the big question of why this phenomenon should strike a small country containing already desperately poor and struggling people.
I am listening to the people of Haiti who say life will never be the same again!
I am listening as I’m sure many of you will also be listening to an inner voice asking what I possible can do to assist my neighbours from across the other side of the world. Yes I can give much needed money but what else do they desperately need from their Christian brothers and sisters?
I am listening to the voice of hope rising through a child rescued from under a pile of rubble many feet deep. Many people look on in the desperate hope he might belong to them. For one mother her emotions overwhelm her, as she realises this small child is all that remains of her once beautiful family - she and those around her continue to pray to God for his mercy!
Our prayers are vital to enable the immense operations that are taking place and will increasing take place over a very long period before some kind of normality to life can return to Haiti. I would also encourage you to pray for more change to take place in the country - politically, socially and economically. Pray urgently and earnestly for action to alleviate exploitation of children, decent wage for adults, a stable government, cancellation of debts owed by Haiti to western countries. That the money given to Haiti to rebuild their lives is a grant and not a loan!
Prayer for Haiti
Loving God, as followers of Jesus may we remember that he was first and foremost a healer. Jesus brought life to those experiencing social alienation. May we do the same. Jesus reached out to those in desperate situations and allowed them to know firsthand the compassion of the divine. May we do the same. Jesus challenged the attitudes and structures that caused misery in his own time in order to bring God's love to those in need. May we do the same. When the world informs us that we too can choose to be healers may we respond with the heart of Jesus by saying, "I do choose."
The people of Haiti cry out from the agony of death, broken limbs, hunger, thirst, unemployment, environmental destruction and political instability. We pray especially for the following:
·That the plight of those experiencing the pangs of hunger and hurt in Haiti will not be forgotten.
·For the healing of the Haitian environment, which has undergone a tremendous amount of destruction and exploitation.
·That the people of Haiti may have their voices heard throughout the country.
·For all of the children living in crowded orphanages, on the streets, and in other inhumane situations.
May we as people of faith respond to this injustice by reaching out to help. In the name of our Lord’s spirit of love, compassion, and justice we pray these things. Amen.
David