I'll try and make this concise and brief. Haiti was devastatingly poor and overpopulated. We worked and stayed at the House of Hope Orphanage. It was actually in a nicer area than most.
A bit if Haitian factoid...its the poorest country in the world. We rarely had electricity, I slept on the roof, there were rats, awesome!
Most of the homes were 2 room, made of rusted sheet metal, and no further than 4 feet apart from each other. But what I think I struggled with the most was that they lived in the dump. The trash piled higher than our vehicle, and homes were situated right in the middle. People rummaged through the remains, bathed, swam, washed dishes, and filled drinking water containers in raw sewage.
The New Testament refers to "hell" only a handful of times and most of its reference is the Hebrew word, "ge-henna," which actually is a town's dump. You can visit Jerusalem today and still see "ge-henna." It was a place of the discarded, the unwanted, trash. There's something symbolically disturbing to see a nation living in hell.
Disease is rampant, malaria kills daily, HIV is staggering, 50% of the children die before age 5...is there any hope? There is, and it's not in government. It's not in military. It's not in the UN. It's in community and humanity acting as the hands and feet of Christ, restoring and loving.
It's good to be back.
Much love,
Ross
3 comments:
Glad you made it back safely. Thanks for the post about the situation down there.
Thanks for the post Ross, lots to process I'm sure. Glad you're back safe!
Thanks for this, Ross. I can't begin to understand how overwhelming this situation must have been. There is so much work to be done and yet we waste so much time on foolish and inconsequential issues. Thank you for the reminder.
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