help for Haiti

A disaster of enormous proportions happened in Haiti yesterday. At this point, officials believe that more than 100,000 people may have perished in the earthquake. Prepare yourselves to be bombarded with this news for the next several days. The major news networks will fill air time with gruesome video clips and heartbreaking stories. Facebook and blog sites and Twitter are full of posts about praying for the people of Haiti. Many humanitarian organizations are hard at work gathering support. We are actively engaged in our own efforts. Please take a look at wecanshareit.org for details. I am glad that Maranatha is on the front end of offering practical help to these desperate people.

There are a plethora of things about this whole situation that are troubling. The loss of life is staggering. The level of human suffering is unimaginable. On a philosophical note, one must wonder why those who are so far down must be brought down even further. The poorest country in the Western hemisphere is ill-equipped to deal with such tragedy. Obviously, no country is strong enough to thrive through such a crisis. But considering that most of the people of Haiti live in shacks, endured four hurricanes two years ago and are malnourished as a nation, they were already in a very weakened condition. Consider that 80% of Haitians live under the poverty level and 50% are illiterate. While we would wish this tragedy on no one, Haiti is probably the worst place for it to happen. It is reasonable to assume that the country will never recover.

The heart of the world should be breaking.

Pray for these people and do something. Your little may not change a nation but it can help one family.