Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThis tongue-in-cheek article satirizes and at the sametime poignantly highlights Haiti's extreme suffering in the wake of hurricanes, flooding and disease. Wouldn't it be great if we could spread the wealth of suffering around? Better yet, wouldn't it be great to be able to opt out of such awful suffering altogether? I am certain that if I lived in Haiti I would be more than ready for an opt out!
It is safe to say that Haiti probably wouldn't have made it this far if it hadn't been for numerous churches and humanitarian groups at work in the region over the years. Our hearts go out to the beautiful people of Haiti and we wonder why they have suffered so much and for so long. Why have untold billions of dollars in aid from all over the world failed to stabilize and improve this little country? Why haven't the richest most powerful countries in the world been able to help Haiti? Haiti has one of of the highest populations of aid workers in the world and yet its plight continues as if the aid workers didn't exist at all. Why is that? Why is it that all of our efforts to help Haiti seem to get washed away with every storm? Why oh why isn't anything working??
There are no easy answers to any of these questions. Yet it is critical that as a world community we find the answers because we need to fundamentally change how we operate in Haiti. Are we there to really help Haiti or are we there just to get our humanitarian "rocks off" so we can go home feeling good about ourselves? Are we just throwing money at the problem and hoping for someone else to come up with the solutions? Are we allowing the status quo to remain because "there's money in them thar poor Haitians?" Make no mistake some of the humanitarian groups there would probably not be in business if it weren't for the poor conditions in Haiti. All I am saying is that it is time for us all to take a good look at what we are trying to accomplish there. I know many who have been on mission trips to that region and they tell me they have seen the face of Jesus in the people they help. Maybe that's the reason Haiti stays the way it is. Maybe it is one of the few places people can see Jesus in the work they do and the people they help. But I think it is time we look to ways we can see Jesus in our efforts to help Haiti build a sustainable country. I think Jesus would like that.
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