Its been a little over five months
since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Over 3 million lives changed
in just 30 seconds and more than 200,000 lives lost. You probably can remember
where you were when you heard about it and probably even remember the horrific
images that you saw on the television. They can remember how it felt though.
There was just an incredible amount of destruction, mass chaos and thousands
upon thousands dead. There was a sense of desperation that something needed to
be done.
What you may not know is that that
desperation started back in November. Haiti had been under a spiritual stronghold for over 200 years. They made a pack with satan that if he’d free them
from slavery from the French, they’d turn to him. They got their freedom from
the French and became devoted to voodoo. Many people described Haiti as one of
the darkest countries in the world. Pastors couldn’t get people in their
churches. Missionaries would leave after only a few months. Haiti was a mess.
In November of last year, thousands pastors from different denominations threw
their differences aside and meet together to pray from their country. They
prayed bold prayers literally asking that God would “take Haiti and shake
everything that could be shaken.” Guess what, He answered.
Everywhere I look I see the power
of God. I mean, look at the picture. What else is powerful enough to do
that? At times I’m heart broken because those were people’s homes and
businesses that’s are now just rubble. God answers prayer though. They wanted
shaken and that’s exactly what God gave them. It’s the Haitians themselves that
will tell you it was God. They are rejoicing! If you go outside you can hear
churches at all hours. One team this week had “noise problems” because the
church they were staying near started services at 4am and ended around 10pm daily!
Can you imagine?
At home if the service goes past an
hour and a half people are getting anxious. Last Wednesday I got the chance to
go to a service and these people praised Jesus! “Merci Jesu!” I mean there were
praising, shouting their adoration to Jesus. We even ended the night with about
30 minutes of sweat dripping dancing. It was great! I look at my life and wonder, “why don’t
I worship like they do? Is God not this great in my life too?” What are we
doing wrong? We know its not God that’s in the wrong… “Do I not have reason to
worship God like these people do? Have I taken for granted everything that He
has blessed me with and somehow thought it was all me?” Its very convicting yet
refreshing at the same time. Its refreshing to see people just go crazy for
Jesus because that’s the proper response to what He is doing in their
lives. In the midst of destruction and hopelessness they have
turned to God. There is much we can learn from the church in Haiti.
Ryan
If you are looking for
ways to help out in Haiti, AIM (Adventures in Missions) has a really great program
called “Church-to-Church” that is connecting Haitian churches with non-Haitian
churches. You can find more information about it here: http://www.adventures.org/haiti/churchtochurch.asp
