Yesterday, July 12, 2010, was the sixth-month anniversary of the January 12 earthquake centered near Leogane, Haiti. According to conservative estimates, some 225,000 human lives were extinguished and over 1.5 million people are living in temporary refugee camps. It is impossible to underestimate the effect that this event has had on the Haitian people as nearly everyone has lost a family member. The view of Port-au-Prince from the mountain-top overlook belies the gravity of the situation (see above). Some twenty million cubic yards of rubble (enough to completely fill the New Orleans Super-Dome five times) still must be removed. Eighty-percent of school buildings were destroyed or rendered unusable along with nearly every governmental building of any size (see if you can locate Haiti's destroyed Presidential Palace in the middle of the picture above). Ironically, many people living in the squalor of Port-au-Prince's overflowing refugee camps have better access to clean water and food than before the earthquake because of efforts of international relief organizations. Perhaps this fact alone explains why so many Haitians are willing to live in fear and insecurity under the unprotected tents and tarps of the camps. Despite the appalling conditions six months afterwards, our Lord is a God of hope. Zach spent all of yesterday in Leogane (only a few miles from the epicenter) teaching a small group of Haitian pastors methods to counsel the grieving. More and more Haitians than ever before are seeing comfort in Jesus Christ. The Haitain churches and Christian organizations that we support have a once in a lifetime opportunity to display God's love through words and acts of mercy. We confess God is in control of this situation, but it has been a pretty terrible six months.
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