I have been woken up in numerous ways over my past two months in
Haiti. Some of the ways are the pretty standard; alarm clocks, doors closing,
people talking. I’ve also been woken up by some of the finer things in Haiti;
unbearable heat, obnoxious car horns, and of course the classic rooster crows
at 4am. That one never gets old. Last week I woke up in a way I had
never been woken up before. This was a first for me.
The morning started off as a typical morning. Around 5am people in the
community where I was living were up and consequently were making noise. They
start each morning with a devotional together. So when I woke up at 5am I found
my iPod (that I regularly fall asleep on) put my earbuds back in and turn on
some tunes. After a few minutes, back to sleep I went. Not a big deal. It
happens like that almost every morning.
As I lay there, half out of it, I heard a loud vibrating noise. It’s
not a noise that I’ve heard before. It was almost like a loud zooming noise.
Still half a sleep I began to realize that the ground is shaking below me. This
went on for a good 5 seconds. Long enough for me to wake up and acknowledge
what was happening. Then there were screams! Almost simultaneously everyone
began screaming and yelling. They were like the screams I had heard a month
previous anytime Brazil would score but this time they were screams of terror.
We had just experience a decent size tremor.
Of the 33 people in the community I was staying with maybe 5 or 6 of
them sleep inside the house. This has become the trend here. At almost any
house you go to you’ll find that people sleep outside at night. They are so
fearful that another earthquake will happen during the night and they won’t be
able to escape. This fear is justified though.
Can you imagine frantically running home to see if your house is still standing? You get there and all you see is crumbled remains of what was once your house. Where are your family members? Have they escaped? Are they trapped inside? All you hear are screams of fear. This is what it was like for millions. I would sleep outside too.
The terror that unexpectently struck this nation has resulted in not only overwhelming devastation and loss but also an incredible amount
of fear. Yes, the earthquake was 6 months ago but those are feelings they will
live with for the rest of their lives. We need to continue to be praying for Haiti.
God I pray that you would take those feelings of fear and replace them
with your peace. That they would grieve their loses appropriately but that you
would give them hope for the future. That they would know that you are still in
control and that you have great plans of redemption for Haiti.
Ryan
