My Words for Haiti

Words just won’t come. For once, perhaps I have nothing to say. For days my emotions have been raw, taking in the suffering that is happening in Haiti. Worry pervades my thoughts. Worry for the moms and dads who can’t find their children; for the children whose parents have died and they’re now orphans; for the leaders who no longer have the tools to lead; for the already desperately poor who now have even less; for the lack of infrastructure (roads, water, communication) and the enormity of how to go about replacing it; and crushing sadness at the massive loss of life.

Paul and I immediately made a gift to Bethesda Evangelical Mission www.bemhaiti.org, run by a Haitian-born pastor who is a friend of ours, with the full confidence that our meager resources will combine with the resources of others to allow BEM to bring a measure of relief to those it serves in Haiti.

However, I don’t feel satisfied that I have done enough. I have no medical training at all. And, you need only ask my family about the time my Mom’s greyhound died in the middle of our living room while she was vacationing in Maine to find out how inept I am in an emergency. Suffice it to say that my actual labor would be of very little use to anyone in Haiti right now.

So, then what? What am I good at? How can I help those in Haiti?

A passage from Tracy Kidder’s account of Paul Farmer’s work in Haiti (Mountains Beyond Mountains) comes to mind. “How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: 'Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe,' in literal translation, 'God gives but doesn't share.' This meant, as (Dr. Paul) Farmer would later explain it, 'God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but He's not the One who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us.'”

Here’s what I know: I am a good communicator, leader and motivator of people. Perhaps I can use this big, gregarious, energetic, thoughtful personality of mine to encourage long-term “sharing” with the truly desperate in Haiti.

Small groups of people in my church have sponsored sugarcane villages (bateys) filled with Haitian workers and their families who come to the Dominican Republic seeking a better life and a living wage … albeit barely. Perhaps we could work with BEM and sponsor one of the orphanages they work with. Perhaps we could work with the pastors of BEM and sponsor a family in need?

Our world convinces us that we must plan for the future: for our children’s educations, for our own retirements, etc. While I totally understand the wisdom in this thinking, I am struck by the fact that I am quite literally ferreting extra money away while the people of Haiti are starving and suffering TODAY.

For me, something’s got to give. What about you?

Perhaps I did have a few words after all.