Haiti – Part v (Faith)
By La Guevara.
May 28, 2010
I was chatting with Watson, the tap-tap driver that took us around Port-au-Prince one day, and he proceeded to talk about his experience since the earthquake.
There are certain questions that we’ll ask throughout our lifetime that we know have marked a special place in history. For my parent’s generation they were: “Where were you when John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. or John Lennon died?” For us they are: “Where were you during 9/11?” or “Where were you when Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech after winning the Presidential election?” 
Sorry, I had to throw that one in there!
But for Haitians today the question is: “Where were you during the earthquake?” So Watson answered the question. He wasn’t working as a tap-tap driver that day. He was driving his own car around the streets of Port-au-Prince.
At around 10 minutes to 5 PM on January 12, 2010 he felt the earth shake. He said that for the first few seconds or so he could only hear the earth making noise, the earth trembling, the streets cracking, and the buildings falling. After that there were screams, screams left and right. Screams that cried out “Jesus save us!” He said with a smirk on his face that the day of the earthquake everyone in Haiti became a Christian.
I’m not here to discuss what Pat Robertson said about Haiti’s curse and offering the nation to the devil, nor I am here to argue why some people question God’s intentions in allowing this catastrophe to strike Haiti – an already impoverished nation that could barely stand on its own two feet prior to the earthquake. Rather I am here to share a lesson I learned as a Christian doing missionary work in Haiti.
I sometimes wondered why some people acted as if nothing had happened. I sometimes wondered why people weren’t as shook up as I expected they would be. I sometimes wondered how they found the will to live if they had nothing to look forward to. I sometimes wondered what was their purpose in life if all they did was to, literally, survive, day by day, without seeing a glimpse of a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
But then I saw people in church all day long, people praising God for their life all day long, people singing hymns all day long, people smiling all day long, and people praying all day long.
During my first trip to Haiti we heard that a rescue team found a man under the rubbles three and a half weeks after the earthquake. A journalist asked him how he survived for so many weeks without any food or water. He didn’t have any major bruises and it seemed he was in an astonishingly good condition. The man said: “Without water? There was a man in a white robe who came to see me and gave me water everyday.”
I can’t tell you if a man physically came and gave him water everyday, if he imagined it, or if it was an answer to prayer and through his faith in Jesus Christ, He satisfied his thirst and kept him alive, but the truth is that the guy is alive. “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst” (John 4:14).
Haitians showed me what it looked like to depend solely on God for your every need, for your every single need. Us Christians throw around that phrase “I depend on God” left and right as if we know what it really means. The truth of the matter is that we ask God for help when we’re in trouble, when we have no other option left, when everyone else has turned their back on us, yet forget to praise Him when we’re doing great, when someone comes along and helps, or when we receive an answer to prayer. When did we get it backwards? How come it’s God’s fault when we mess up, but it’s our doing when things are going well?
God shouldn’t be our last resort, our last glimpse of a bright light at the end of the tunnel. He should be our first resort, our only resort. He uses other people to bless us, so a friend’s helping hand, and an encouraging phone call, come from Him.
When we’re driving and get a flat tire or in an accident what do we do? We first say: “Oh God, why did you do this to me?” But then we take out our cell phone, we call the towing truck company, or a friend, or a parent, they drive to meet us, we take out the credit card, swipe it, maybe rent a car, and we’re on our way. When things get resolved do we not forget to thank God for providing for us?
But, what happens when you don’t have a credit card, or a cell phone, or a family member near by, or a family member alive, or even a car to get into an accident with? And all you’re just doing is to struggle to find a piece of bread to feed your children that day? You still praise God. Why? Because He has given you life, because you are still alive…because of Him. Because even though you’re not wiping your butt with dollar bills, you always manage to find food. And you’re seeking Him first, and that brings you joy, that’s what puts a smile on your face.
So I don’t say anymore that I depend solely on God for everything in my life. I’d like to think so, and I’d like it to be so, but I’m still learning how to really do that. That’s what I learned from my Haitian friends. They have it far worse than I do, yet they’re more joyful than I am, they’re richer than I am, and they’re connecting with God all day, every day.
What would you do if you were in a similar situation? Do you feel our faith is strengthened when we’re most vulnerable?
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