My Life as MaMa: Heartbroken for Haiti

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Heartbroken for Haiti

I just have to say that I am heartbroken over the events that have occured in Haiti. In 2005 I was fortunate enough to travel for a week long mission trip to Haiti. We flew into, and stayed in Port-au-Prince at Christianville University. Throughout that week we were able to visit various churches, villages, medical clinics, and orphanages. Let me just begin by saying that Haiti was like walking into another world. I literally looked around and could not believe that people where able to survive in such impoverished areas. I remember asking myself "is this really real?". Since that trip I have had a special heart for the Haitian people, and I pray for them all of the time. It has been my goal to go on another mission in the future to Haiti.

While there I was able to visit an orphanage as I said before. While there I met a little girl name Ellie. Ellie was 5 years old and only weighed 22 lbs. She had been left for dead by her family because they could not afford to feed her. The owner of the orphanage found her and rescued her. Ellie was very shy around people, and for some reason she took to me. She reached out her arms for me to hold because she was unable to walk. I carried her around the entire time I was there. The owner of the orphanage kept telling me that I was the only person who Ellie had taken to so quickly. When it was time to leave Ellie began clinging to me and crying so hard. As I handed her off she kept reaching her arms out to me and crying. I lost it. I cried the entire way back to the place we were staying. She has been in my heart ever since.

I do not know if Ellie is alive today, or if any of the other Haitian people that I met are or not. However, I am heavy with prayer for them. I pray that God heals the hurting, gives peace to the heartbroken, and that food, shelter, and water be made avaliable quickly. It is breaking my heart to see the pictures of the crying babies. I know they are hungry, and it would be so hard as a momma to not be able to feed your little one. Please continue to pray for the Haitian people and their country.

This is the face of the hurting, the face of the heart broken, the face of the hungry. This is the neighbor we are suppose to love as ourselves.

Pray for this little man and his family member.