As you travel through the country, you see children everywhere. But it is not how you’d expect to see children living: carefree and playing. These children are picking through garbage, begging for food, constantly surrounded by death and danger. Only 50% of the children attend school. There are a number of reasons for this. There is no money to pay the fee of 3- 4 dollars US needed to go to school for the month. There is the pervasive hopelessness that it will make no difference anyway; there is 80% unemployment in the country. Additionally there is the reality that you have to make a few dollars, gather whatever scraps of wood, rubber, garbage or food you can find in order to provide fuel for the small cooking fire or help provide a bit of food for the family. Quite possibility it’s your job to fetch the water from a nearby pump, but most likely you will fill your bucket in the open ditch that runs along the road. It is the same ditch that your neighours bathe in, wash clothes in, and wash the chicken or pig meat in, or anything else you can imagine. Or it could be for the simple reason you have no mom and dad and you are completely on your own.
Everywhere you go in the country there are children. They are putting their hands inside the vehicle windows as you pass, running, trying to keep up, begging for ‘a dollar mister, please a dollar’. At first you try to put that dollar in these little desperate outstretched hands – however, after the first day, quite frankly, you run out of dollars. You would need thousands and thousands of dollars in your pocket. It is heart wrenching to come to the point when you sadly say, “I’m sorry, no dollar”, and the pleading continues. You are overwhelmed with the sense of helplessness, and the wave of guilt that washes over you like a heavy blanket. As the nationals watch me they tell me that after awhile you become immune – you have to because you are constantly surrounded by it; you have to in order to function and actually bring help. I nod, but inside I scream, “I do not want to become immune!, this is not the way that it should be”. But it is the way that it is. I prayed, God you need to come now. How do you allow this? Again, I hear the same voice I heard in Citie Soleil, “I have not forgotten, it is you (the world) that has forgotten, I have not allowed this, you have. The words of Nehemiah assault my heart:
3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. (Neh 1:3-7)
I want to take some license, and I believe that it is appropriate. Replace Jersualem with Haiti, and the exiles for the Haitian people. Exchange the people of Israel for the people of Canada. Try reading it this way:
3 They said to me, "Those who are survived in Haiti and are living in the country are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Haiti is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said: "O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Canada. I confess the sins we Canadians, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Jesus.
Until this is our heart, how can we expect to hear from God? We cannot become immune; we must allow ourselves to be broken and overwhelmed to the point where we can do no other thing than --- repent and act.
Anyway, I was just thinking
Neil
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