Where were you when their earth shook?

Hello my dear friends and family! I’ve been in Haiti now for three full days (!!!) and am acclimating to the way of life here at the AIM base. I’m doing well and beginning to learn how to do my job down here. God is good and is answering my prayers in many ways. Please pray for me to learn how to be excellent in everything I do, and to learn how to communicate well with everyone I need to so we can all work together to the best of our abilities for the glory of God!  …I really don’t have words yet to tell you about my time here thus far, so I’m going to steal a blog written by my awesome teammate Aaron Bruner, who was here for a while in February and April and is now back for the summer. Read on for an incredible account of what it was like to live through Haiti’s devastating earthquake…

PS – I am still in need of about $1800 of my $2000 support goal for my three months here, which will cover my plane ticket (already purchased!) and some other expenses. If you’d like to partner with me as I serve in Haiti, please click here  🙂

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Where were you when 9/11 happened?  Or when Hurricane Katrina ravaged
New Orleans?  What about Port-au-Prince?  Can you remember where you
were or what you were doing at the time? 

Did he turn a blind eye
to the suffering and the screams of these people?  I’ve been starting
to wonder…where were you God?

Tonight I met a man. 
He was younger, full of life and joy and genuinely passionate about his
work.  He greets everyone with an endearing smile and it’s safe to say
that he has some serious charm.  As this man began to open up and share
his story, I soon realized that his story contained many answers to
these nagging questions that have been plaguing me.

Before the earthquake
this guy had come to Haiti in hopes of God revealing some life-altering
purpose.  He had been working with an organization digging latrines in
the Petit Guave area, hardly the dream he had imagined would change his
life. 

He began asking God,
“is this it?  Did I really come to Haiti to dig latrines?  Will you show
me what it is you have for me here?”

January 12th, 2010
began like any other day I would imagine.  No doubt he made his
breakfast, brushed his teeth, and headed off to do the Lord’s plumbing. 
After completing his task, he even managed to play some soccer with
some of the locals.  During a break in their game, the sky begin to turn
black.  As he explained it, a large flock of birds flew into the sky
blotting out the sun at the exact same time…

Where were you when the
earthquake in Haiti hit? 

The very next moment,
he experienced a sudden drop as if the entire earth beneath him
completely sunk instantaneously.  There was a slight pause as everyone
stared in awe.  Then, in what could only be described as the loudest of
groans, the earth trembled and quaked as screams echoed from the
surrounding mountains.  The ground moved with such fluidity as if it was
an ocean wave cresting and tossing unassuming bystanders up into the
air and thrashing them back to the ground.  He related the image of one
of his translators being taken up into the air and crashing into another
man who was thrown by the earth.  Two men hit the ground, only one
stood up.  This man, who experienced it firsthand, was himself thrown
against a wall and blacked out momentarily.  When he rose, the earth
still trembled as he made his way through the chaos and yelling.  He
explained the vast numbers of people that he saw strewn across the
ground lifeless and covered and in a deep crimson color but his gaze
became fixed on one small 7-year-old girl trapped beneath the rubble.

At that moment, he
prayed for supernatural strength to lift
the burdensome rock that trapped this poor child.  He tried and tried
but the weight was too heavy.  He then tried to pull the child but with
each tug, the girl shrieked in terror and pain.  He told us that with
each aftershock, he would run off and come back and check on her to see
that she was still alive.  She would tug on his arm not to leave.  So he
sat.  He sat there gazing into her eyes as he held her close.  He
prayed over her and continued to hold her as life instantly changed. 
The next morning he squeezed her fist as hard as he could to illicit a
response, any response at all.  Nothing.  Life had been taken from this
sweet child.

Anger and sadness
filled this man.  Purpose that he had sought out before arriving in
Haiti didn’t seem to make sense after such an intense tragedy.  He told
story after story about the ensuing days and how with each quake it
seemed more lives that were close to him were lost.  He recounted
children with missing arms and legs that would scream for their
mothers.  His dreams were filled with blood-stained memories that kept
him up at nights vomiting over the images he saw.  Tears streamed from
his eyes as his voice quivered,

“God, where were you?”

As he told us about
the people that he accompanied during their final breaths, it clicked
that God was there all along.  In the midst of such devastating and
crushing events, Jesus was there to hold the hand of the dying girl. 
Jesus helped these children with missing limbs search for their parents
and get medical attention.  This man represented the body of Christ
aiding and serving the broken and hurting.  He put himself in harm’s way
to see others restored.  That is who Jesus is and exactly what he did. 
Through this man’s trail of tears, I have seen that God does not
abandon people or turn a blind eye to them in the time of greatest
need.  God’s Spirit was present so that others may see him and today I
met the man who was there when the earth groaned in Port-au-Prince.

The Healer.

The Savior.

Jesus.