"Haiti Fatigue"

We are in such an interesting place as Americans in Haiti.  We read the news.  We hear the stories.  And, we see for ourselves.  We come from an American perspective.  But, we live each day with an increasingly Haitian perspective.  What happens each day in Haiti greatly affects us.  At the same time, it doesn't define life the same way it does to those around us.


Several news articles about the current situation in Haiti lately are noting that the world "may succumb to Haiti fatigue."  The world, one said, is tired of never-ending Haiti problems, tired of complications, and tired of there being no good solutions that work.  Add that the elections are casting doubt on whether Haiti's next government will be legitimate..."The world's fatigue may grow quickly."


Understandable, world.

Yesterday, alone to lead and teach at EBS once more, Matt's fatigue grew quickly, too.  "Didn't we JUST do this?" he asked.  "I feel so discouraged to be doing this alone again!  What do we do with all the students and no teachers and administration?  Do we cancel classes again? Do we press on? How can we wrap up the semester next week with so many courses incomplete?"  


Matt and I, and the other missionaries we work with throughout Haiti, are among some of the biggest Haiti fans you'll ever care to meet.  But everyone's blogs are talking about desperately needing to "get away", even for just a few days...just like we desperately needed last week.  All the problems, constantly being locked in, an inability to plan whatsoever, and being an intimate part of the suffering, frustration, fear and despair around us is exhausting.


Understandable, missionaries.

But it is the students... it's the students that are breaking my heart.  You think the world is tired of this?  Try it being YOUR world.  Try it being YOUR president.  YOUR family.  YOUR future. I need a break?  Haitians need a break.  But there will be no trips to the DR for Haiti...no Christmas in the States.  


Our students, more and more confirmed as being the ONLY Hope for Haiti as carriers and preachers of the Light, are SO tired.  


It wasn't just "the Haiti earthquake."  It was THEIR earth that shook, their parents that died, their children who are suffering, their people who are homeless...scarred.

It's not just "cholera".  It's the student's REALITY.  Every hand they shake, every mango they buy, every drop they drink...their friends and family that are sick and dying.  


It's not just another crazy election.  It's THEIR hope for the future of Haiti!  It's their leader, who will call all the shots and make all the decisions for the next five years!  Their president, who will represent them to the world and who will decide what will happen with aid, etc.  


I have never met, and probably never will meet, such a resilient, tolerant people as the Haitian people, who suffer, and then suffer, and then top it off with suffering, and then play dominoes in the afternoon and laugh gleefully at a passing joke.


But I can't describe to you how burdened our fantastic group of men and women are this week...excited on Monday about their choice for leadership, excited by hope for change in the future after a devestating year...then dashed on Tuesday for the 100th time with things instead being the same as always.  


It's their wives that can't leave their homes.  It's their children who have missed weeks and weeks of school, with many schools now deeming the semester "ruined" to be started all over again in January...without refunds.  It's their homeland that is being shamed yet again in the eyes of the world.


I know all of this "weakens the will of the international community to continue." I GET that.  It weakens OUR will to continue!  It weakens our students wills to continue.  


Please, please don't be discouraged by Haiti.  Haiti is just a name we have given this group of Creole speaking, soccer loving, passionate living people.  If I think too much about "where America is heading" or about how little is going WELL in the wold, I get deeply depressed as well.  So when I think of America, I just think of you.  And where you are heading.  And how I have marveled to see Him at work in You.  


When I think of the broken world, I think of Bex, of Dale and Flo, of Hugo...of thousands of people who are beautifully and daily laying down their lives to make Him known despite their governments, despite their poverties, despite their cultures.


And when I think of Haiti?  I think of Pehpay, who I kissed on the cheek yesterday as he rushed to chapel, anxious to hear more of His Savior.  Please!  Think of Jil.  Think of Valerie.  Think of Yolene, of Junior, of Jean Marie, of Ezekiel, of Evangela.  


We didn't come to fix the roads, to rely on the government or to improve the health care.  Our students don't get up each morning to feed the poor, rebuild homes or battle cholera, though heaven knows how earnestly they try.  

We are all here, instead, because at some point(s) along the way, we each met HIM.  And meeting Christ changed EVERYTHING, and made introducing Him to the corners of the world and in the highest and lowest places ALL that really matters.  


Pray for Haiti, not because there is anything good in it or because maybe there will be someday, but because you have met Him, too, and know intimately of His love for His creation around you and for His creation here.  


"Where is our Hope?" I reminded second-year this morning, second-year reminded me this morning. 


"Where was our Hope last year, last month, today?  Was it in the government then?  In a candidate? In good health?  In dreams of wealth? In improvements?  NO.  Today, our Hope is still in Christ.  Haiti's hope is still in Christ."



"And CHRIST is STILL in YOU.  Haiti is but for a moment.  America, but a drop in the bucket.  It is Christ in you, every moment, the Hope of Glory.  And it is for the the Hope of Glory, NOT the hope of Haiti, that we live and breathe and find our meaning."


May we all never grow weary of doing good, never grow tired of loving His children, even those that don't know that they are His, and never grow fatigued with the world...for it is not the world that gives us our strength and hope, but He Who Died For It.  All of it.  


Please be praying for the men and women of Emmaus, who call Haiti HOME, that the Lord might renew Himself in each of them, provide perfectly for their sending, and that HE might change Haiti through them.  


As even CNN quoted yesterday to finish a dire piece on the Haitian situation, "This is a tough time for Haiti" a Haitian author said.  "We cannot take it anymore.  I have a feeling God has something for us."