no prize for the winner

Last week, we were told by the school that even though we are both in the beginner class, we will be required to speak in chapel for twenty minutes in March (in French, of course!) Yesterday during one of our breaks, another missionary approached us about this, and asked if we felt that this was unjust, because a beginner (much less two beginners) had never been required to do this.

Last week, I did think this was a bit of an injustice. But this week, I received a phone call from my sister after she had experienced a three day conference at Messiah College on poverty in the world. Still overwhelmed by all she had heard, Lisa told me that the fact that stuck with her the most was that the president of World Vision said that 30,000 children die every single day of poverty-related causes (malnutrition, starvation, lack of resources for medical care, bad water).

Last night, I finally researched a topic that my dear college room-mate had brought to my attention a few months ago. Bex is currently on the road to spending her life as a full-time missionary to Sudan. As we discussed all of the broken pieces that are Sudan, she told me that she had heard that it was actually Haiti that had just “won” the most corrupt country in the world.

I Googled this idea and found her to be quite right. Transparency International, the leading global coalition against corruption, has recently posted the results of their annual ranking of 163 countries. Each country completes several types of surveying, and then is graded on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being completely uncorrupt, and a 1 being most corrupt.

When I looked at the chart, the correlation between corruption and poverty is obvious. Every single country considered 3rd (or even 4th) world, scored below a 5. Myanmar, Iraq, and Guinea all tied for 2nd place. Haiti “won.”

I think again about my “chapel injustice.” And I think about what this corruption rating means life is like in Haiti. I think about the “injustice” (for lack of a stronger word) of 30,000 precious children giving up their last breath today, when the future should be so bright.

And all this makes me wonder if I have every actually experienced any kind of true injustice…and what changes are ahead as we prepare to move from a country ranked 20th to a country who came in dead last at 163rd.

I do know that there will not be much we will be able to do about the corruption plaguing Haiti. But we also know the beauty, in any country, of one who lived in darkness walking into light, of one who lived in desperation coming to live in hope…even when circumstances never change.

May we each have the courage today in each of our countries to reflect the Light that a hurting, unjust world is dying for.


To see the ranking of all 163 countries and to view more information, go to- http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2006/cpi_2006__1/cpi_table