IVP - Strangely Dim - January 2010 Archives

The Haiti We Need to Know

by Lisa Rieck

Can too much be said about Haiti? She's like the quiet girl in school who nobody paid much attention to unless it served their own purposes, until suddenly, by some turn-of-events--say she found out she's dying of cancer--she's thrust into the limelight. People start making up for lost time, making up for all those years they went to school with her but never got to know her, never asked how she was, always forgot to invite her to their parties. But now, knowing her struggle, they can't turn away; they hold fundraisers and send flowers and balloons and make cards. Her name is all over town. And even if she tries to go back to being anonymous--because, perhaps, the attention makes her too uncomfortable after all those years in the background, or because she doesn't want all the pity--she can't. Her need and name are known.

We hope Haiti doesn't go back to being anonymous in three months or eight months or two years. Because the Haitians need our help--and we need their perspective.

Dave's been keeping us posted about Likewise author Kent Annan and his Haitian friends and about ways we can help Haiti through his organization, Haiti Partners. We can pray. We can give. Some of us can go, at some point. And we can learn--that we might understand more clearly and pray more specifically.

I've never been to Haiti, and I'm sad to say I don't know any Haitians, but I do feel a small connection with the country because of two books. The first is Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. In it, Kidder chronicles the life and work of Dr. Paul Farmer, who worked tirelessly to fight poverty, tuberculosis and AIDS in several Majority World countries, and particularly in Haiti. The book offers fascinating insights into Haiti's history, politics and structure. It also left me wondering how Dr. Farmer didn't kill himself in the process of his work. (It seems that trying to wipe out infectious diseases is no easy job. Go figure.)

Then, as part of my work (just one of many perks), last fall I had the chance to read Kent's Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle. I've been thinking about it ever since, even before the earthquake struck Haiti. Kent's book, in some ways, did for me what the 2004 Oscar-winning movie Crash did: it offers a clear-eyed look at a complex issue from a position of humility, one that admits we don't know all the answers.

Following Jesus is the story of seven months Kent and his wife, Shelly, spent living in Haiti. Kent's powerful, beautifully written narrative offers a firsthand account of individuals, the effects of Haiti's history on its present, the pace of life there, the customs. He learns the language. He forms relationships. He wonders why God led him there, and what, exactly, doing God's work in Haiti looks like. He has nightmares about Shelly being harmed and blames himself for taking her there. He is loved by Haitians. He is made fun of by Haitians. He misunderstands, and is misunderstood. Through it all, we get a rich, full-bodied picture of Haiti and God's work there as well as an honest look at the beauty, risk and hardship often involved in following Jesus and being obedient to his call on our lives. And, though Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle is not a how-to book, Kent and Shelly do demonstrate for us the necessary stance for any missions venture: humility, openness, honesty, authenticity.

Haiti's past and, now again, their present, is full of tragedy. They have much to learn. And so do we--about why the poor keep getting poorer. About the role our own country has played in their tragic history. About hope and resiliency and courage that seem to characterize Haitians as a whole.

Haiti Partners focuses a lot on education and on helping Haitians help each other. It's time we got some education too, so that the images on the television screen are not just faces to us, but people with names and families and histories--a people among whom God is at work. I know a little about Haiti so far, but I have much more to learn. We all can learn. While you watch, while you pray, while you give, do some reading. Meet Kent's friends through his stories. Pray specifically for them. And keep checking the Haiti Partners website for updates--today, tomorrow, next year. I suspect they'll still need our help then. And I suspect we'll still have more to learn from them.

 

A Prayer for Us as We Pray for Haiti

Taken from Kent Annan's Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle:

In you, Christ, I find my light, though it's awfully dark.

I pray for my sisters and brothers who are hurting unbearably tonight--that you would suffer with them, that you would stop their suffering, though I know you won't stop it all or even very much right now. It's more faith than I can muster, yet there's something in me that trusts you--or wants to so desperately that it resembles trust--despite it all, in the midst of it all, because of it all. I call out for you in rage and desperation and hope and doubt and tender love.

Call back to me, I ask. Call us out of our graves, like Lazarus. Weep a tear for us all again, and let us weep with you. Let's all weep together for this beauty and this mess. Then come, Lord Jesus, come and save us somehow, anyhow. And meanwhile show us how to save each other . . .

Kent's birthday is Sunday. He'll likely spend it in Haiti doing relief work. To support the ongoing efforts in Haiti, visit haitipartners.org and click on "Donate."

Help for Haiti

Haiti has been on our minds a lot lately here at Strangely Dim. A recent release in the Likewise line of books, Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle, introduces the reader to Kent Annan's first perplexing years living and working on education issues in Haiti before major political upheaval forced him and his wife to relocate to Miami. Kent now lives in Miami, jetting back and forth regularly to Port-au-Prince to continue the work of his organization, Haiti Partners. To celebrate the launch of his book, we launched a contest, with the prize being a five-day trip to Haiti, guided by Kent, to see up close the work God is doing among the people there. So yeah, Haiti has been on our minds a lot.

So when we heard about the earthquake that toppled the presidential palace, a hospital and countless other buildings in Port-au-Prince yesterday, we were perhaps more concerned than we, safely far removed from such an exotic place, might otherwise have been. We've since heard from Kent that he's in Miami this week and is thus OK, but his codirector at Haiti Partners was in the midst of the earthquake, though it sounds as though he and his family are OK. We have yet to hear about Enel and Edvard, two new friends of ours who joined Kent on his trip to the Urbana Student Missions Conference just before the new year. So while we're praying generally for the people affected by this earthquake, we find our prayers focused particularly on the people we know there, which I suppose is the nature of praying.

What will best help the people of Haiti in the aftermath of this quake has yet to be determined, although there's some effort to get water, clothes and trained emergency responders to the roughly three million people directly affected. But the recovery will take a long time. Toward that end, Kent has set up an emergency fund through Haiti Partners. You can donate to the fund by going to haitipartners.org and clicking on "Donate Now."