RENMEN got a call this morning about a baby.Father Michel told us that two people could come with him so myself, & Sammy Jo joined him, Naidia, Magdala, and one other of the older girls to head out and pick him up. Turns out we didn't end up picking the baby up because the hospital didn't confirm while we were on the road. But, God had other plans for wanting me to go.
The idea was that while we waiting on the call we would head to the 7th Day Adventist hospital to visit Frantzy. Frantzy is 17 and was electrocuted at RENMEN one month ago when climbing a mango tree. The story goes that he asked for something to knock the mangoes down with and instead of giving him a wooden stick he was handed a metal rod. When he went to hit the mangoes, it connected with a power line and the current went in his hands and out his buttocks. It is a miracle he is alive and without any internal organ damage. However, he has to stay in the hospital apparently for another month while the skin grafts take and build back his strength.
When we walked in to his hospital room the first thing I noticed about him was his smile.
This big, bright, contagious grin spread across his face as he lay there on his stomach with his backside exposed to a room full of other patients and their family.
After everyone greeted him I bent down to introduce myself to him in French. He loves soccer, especially Brazilian teams. I learned he wants to be an engineer and study civil engineering in particular after he finishes high school. While we chatted all I could think of was how brave this boy is. He has been lying here like this for a month already in this crowded, nosey, and quite honestly dirty and depressing hospital that wouldn't come close to passing standards here in the U.S. The nurse came to speak to us and tell us that he needs to try to walk more to build up his strength so Father Michel convinced him to take a short walk with him before we left. It was only when Frantzy stood up that we could really see how thin he was. As if his skin is just hanging off his bones, barely any muscle. But it was such a special thing to meet him and so apparent from this brief visit what a light he is at RENMEN and how well loved he is by everyone there.
ALL the kids are such lights. I was thinking about how well behaved they are today. The older girls practically wait on the 10 of us hand and foot. It is extremely humbling. They greet us daily with kisses. So beautiful and touching. And after having the chance to drive through Port-au-Prince to and from the hospital I think it is because they are so loved and know how special, how exceptional, RENMEN is that they are the way they are. Because it is soooo completely opposite the world outside its walls.
It is an absolute disaster zone out there. In every possible sense. Like something out of an end-of-the-world movie. Atomic bomb going off type of movie.
It's as if the earthquake JUST happened. Buildings half standing, poles of debris everywhere. The standing water in the streets is black and smells worse than anything I've ever smelt before. The wild part is that down town, on the main street, they have kept the markets going... and I'm at a loss for how to describe it but its like no clean-up is happening, the buildings are half toppled over and people are just continuing on with the market, with life, and selling things under the overhangs/skeletons of the buildings, in the midst of rubble that looks as if it could fall on everyone at any moment. My pictures don't come close to capturing how bad it is. But it felt wrong to take pictures, so I took few of the streets...
Even the Presidential Palace, what should be the symbol of government and leadership for the country, is still wrecked, left waiting for someone to come and start to repaire and rebuild it.
I saw some tent communities but what I noticed more were the squatting-type shelters, metal lean-tos. Everywhere. Even in the middle of traffic medians people have set up these flimsy shelters, living with traffic bearing down on either side of them.
Kids bathing street side in black pools of waste water. RENMEN is an oasis here. I'm still processing everything I saw today.
I feel absolutely wrecked. It wasn't until I got back and Burke looked at me and asked how I was doing that I broke down and wept. Not just cried but wept for this place.
Where is the aid money???
Where is the help?
Where is everyone??!!
I don't see any evidence of cleanup or long-term aid to change the disaster out there.
Yet, I see God working in this community.The love these kids have for each other, their smiles, signs of His grace in the midst of devastation. I hope more light breaks through.... I think these kids are the key to any real future hope and change in this country.
I have to remember that nothing material we can give them will bring lasting hope or change here... only Christ working here is going to bring lasting change. And as I sit here I feel a breeze. I pray that the Holy Spirit will stir our hearts, stir the hearts of this nation, and bring comfort that only He can give. And as hopeless and wrecked as the streets of Port-au-Pince are I remember God's promises - Jeremiah 32:27 says: I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything to hard for me? The problems of Haiti may seem impossible to men, but they are NOT impossible for God.
And so as not to fall into complete despair, I sit here searching out His promises in scripture, hope for this place in the midst of disaster that seems to be forgotten by the world so quickly....
1 Peter 2:4
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
Psalm 27:13-14
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
Isiah 49:14-16
But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."
"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.
As much as I'm falling in love with these people, with this country, as much as my heart is being broken for them, I have to remember than God's love for them is far larger than I can even imagine. He's only giving me a glimpse of how His heart breaks for them. He is working here and they are not forgotten. I trust and believe in His promises.
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