...more and deeper post-Haiti ponderings

I’ve been really (REALLY) humbled by how many people have asked me to post more here. Writing is very therapeutic and clarifying for me – although I realize that is often not the case for everyone who reads it. Actually, it is probably better than me babbling on about things with you in person. This way if you don’t want to hear, you can just click away, rather than trying to smile and nod politely as I ramble on!

By the way, many have asked about pictures. Well, once I got past the extremely strange feeling of being an “awkward viewer” of their “ultimate reality show” I actually did click a few pics. The problem is I took a really old digital camera -- just in case it got damaged or “disappeared.” Now I am having a brutal time finding the unique cord needed to connect it to my computer. There was an HCJB team on the ground around the same time I was, although they were much more in the direct quake zone. One of their team members posted some great pics that capture much of “reality” there: check:
picasaweb.google.com/hschirma/HaitiHCJBGlobalHands?feat=directlink

Anyway, before heading there, the “old reporter” in me began to kick in and I started to study the history of Haiti. I went back to before Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. I tried to learn as much as I could about what has shaped that nation. Even though I still have tons to learn (and will keep digging) much of what I have found breaks my heart!

I have mentioned how God has been growing a friendship between Pastor Adam Rodevert and me -- and between the people that come to English Fellowship Church and Redemption Baptist Church here in Quito (that is “his” church, made up mostly of Haitian refugees).

Even before the earthquake, that friendship began to make me care more about Haiti than I ever would have dreamed. Seeing, reading and hearing about the earthquake stirred me in a way nothing ever has…and learning just a little about the history hit my mind and heart very hard.

I am both amazed and saddened by how little I knew about Haiti. I am even more saddened by how little most of the world really knows about it and its people.

As friends and family began to hear about the plans for me to go, some began to congratulate me, some began to warn me, and many began to encourage me about going to teach in what most called “such a spiritually dark place.” The author of one of the history books said it makes him very sad when people come to that conclusion without ever visiting or bothering to learn anything about Haiti. Honestly, I saw far more “signs of light” than I have seen for years across North America.

After reading part of that one history book I wrote to a friend, “You don’t have to go anywhere to find darkness. We are all still living between Eden and Heaven so there is darkness everywhere. Even those of us who have been given the grace to turn to God and genuinely seek to come closer to Him must continue to recognize and deal with the darkness…darkness around us and darkness in us.

The darkness and the power of Satan behind it work frantically to get us to turn from God. That is the only thing they try to do…and we all have different and personal things they use to try to get us to turn us away from God.
That is why I do not believe that at its core, there is any difference between the force behind voodoo, and, say, the force behind the greed and arrogance of a multi-millionaire watching the news from Haiti and thinking “Those foolish Haitians got themselves into this mess, let them get themselves out of it.”
There is also no difference between that and the force that continued to whisper thoughts to me about why I should be afraid to be there…or the persistent force that kept trying to get me to worry more about what “they” thought of me than I cared about carefully teaching the Truth.

I had been asked to focus on what the God told Zechariah to tell people the Jews 2,500 years ago – and His words echo all through history: 'Return to me…and I will return to you.' (Zech 1:3, NIV) The need to turn (or return) to God is not just a need in northern Haiti; the need is just as real in North America. There are things in “my culture” that fight to make “my people” turn (or stay away) from God as much as anything in “their culture” fights to make them turn (or stay away)!

As I got to actually know some Haitians, I was very sad to find myself confronting different forms of the same bizarre myth that gets perpetuated in ridiculous ways: where I am from somehow makes me “closer to” or “more blessed by” God than they are!

Actually, the Bible makes it clear that the wealthiest nations often find it the easiest to turn (and/or stay) away from God! God told Zechariah something that should make many nations shake as much as the earthquake that hit Haiti. God said, “I am very angry with the nations that feel secure.” (Zech 1:15, NIV)

The sense of security God referred to had to do with their economies and political stability and it had to do with the way they felt that they were extra special and extra close to God.

The word that was used for “angry” came from a word that meant “to boil.” It went on to describe someone whose face got bright red from deep, intense emotions.

Another version of the Bible has God telling Zechariah: “I am exceedingly angry with those who take my grace for granted." Go back over that line again. How much more intensely must God feel that, 2,500 years later?

God used an angel to tell Zechariah those things. At the start of Zechariah 1:14, he wrote, “The angel said to me, ‘Shout this message for all to hear!’” (Zech 1:14)

That was way before they had sound systems…so when the angel said, “Shout this…!” he would have meant it literally. Knowing how urgently and seriously Zechariah took what God was telling him, I can picture it echoing all across the land.

Zechariah wrote, “The angel said to me, ‘Shout this message for all to hear!’” (Zech 1:14) Note that little yet huge word: ALL! Wherever we are from, small town or big city, northern Haiti or North America, we all have different and very personal things that work to turn us (or keep us) away from God…but we all have the same way back!
Jesus said, “I (highlight, underline, put that first word in a really big font!) I have come to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)
He was saying, "I have come to find those who have turned away. I may tap them gently on the shoulder or I may have to grab them and shake them to get their attention – but because of my love for them, I will offer to take them back to God, the Father."