The whole earth groaning, broken, sad...
Seeing my best friend Becky Burton, husband Jimmy and new baby Abigail Faith was delightful. O to see Becky so happy with her first baby! To hear her story of how the birth went, how God was so present and faithful through everything, and how Abigail got her middle name. That was very good.
But Haiti? Haiti is hard.
I sometimes think of the verse in Psalms where David says "I was young once and now I am old, but I have never seen the righteous forsaken, your people begging for bread". I like to claim that as the truth, but is it true in Haiti? Its funny, I think about the life I live here in the US, the life we provide for our son, and it feels opposite. We don't realize the pain and suffering experienced in other parts of the world until we grow up and open our eyes to it. My son has no idea still...
But the Lord is in Haiti, His witnesses are there and His beloved are cared for. His promises true, His life sustaining all.
Praise God for the faithful who serve, who love, and press on in the hardness of it all. My friends, Becky and Jimmy, serve as part of a ministry called Heartline. They do several things: provide education and work opportunities for women, family planning and parenting education, and health care for pregnant moms and their babies, as well as a home for new teenage moms in need of support. You can buy the beautiful purses and jewlery made by these women online: Haitian Creations.
Soon, Heartline will be breaking ground on a bakery that will provide jobs with about six men as part of an intense discipleship program.
Heartline started out as an orphanage offering adoptions for children in need. However, with the influx of mothers giving up their children for adoption because they felt they could not provide for their children (not that they wanted to live without them!), Heartline decided to change models. They started a program for pregnant mothers which offers healthy meals, pre-labor education and medical care through the delivery of their baby, and parenting education. The program is small, taking only 30 pregnant moms at a time. They intentionally keep it this way. The women make friends, build a support group, and the combined result of it all is that they feel loved and well equipped to bring a child into the world and care for it. They bond with their babies, even naming them from the moment they're born (rather than waiting months or even years because who knows? The baby might die.) They continue coming for about six months after the baby is born, but have friends and resources for life.
I had the incredible opportunity to assist in the clinics on two days, as well as a class on the stages of labor (where my friend acted out the second stage of labor and I dutifully rubbed her back!) The skit culminated in a baby doll being pulled from under an actresses shirt who was shouting "Jesus!" The women howled with laughter!
Passing the grey streets, rubble and trash, the throngs of people walking in all directions, (I wonder if they work or where they go?), pass the crowded UN tent cities still erected after the devastating earthquake of 2010, sitting with baby Abigail in my lap as my friends tell me of the random assaults and robberies of foreign missionaries that have peaked in recent months. They take me to the airport, and I leave my precious friends behind in the broken land, bleeding and pained, groaning for grace to rebuild, restore, set right. My heart cries out like in Isaiah 58-
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
