WHEN THE DARKNESS CLOSES IN LORD...

As my night shift finished up this morning, stereo equipment was being set up at the hospital to hold a memorial service as today marks the one month anniversary of the earthquake...it’s a national day of mourning all over the city. Over the radio Haitians were told to wear black or white and have a 3 day fast in memory of the over 200,000 lost. As I write this I can hear worship songs and singing from my bed. I don’t know the language, but I know the songs are of sadness as well as praise.......

....STILL I WILL SAY, BLESSED BE YOUR NAME.....
The faces on the people at the hospital as they sing praises are full of smiles and a strength I don’t understand. I can’t wait to get the video up of their worship services every night...clapping and singing so loud I’m sure the whole neighborhood hears. How many of us, though we have lost nothing, praise like this on Sundays--let alone every day?


.......YOU GIVE AND TAKE AWAY...........
Looking around the hospital this morning at all the patients and family members sleeping on cots, I started getting choked up as English worship songs I know began playing. As I’m getting to know the patients, their stories are heartbreaking. We have a 3 month old baby boy who will never know his mother. There are a couple young patients that lost their entire family of parents and siblings. Edison (who is about 8) doesn’t know where a single family member is. There is definitely a sadness in many eyes here...I definitely know what that emotion looks like. I hate the memory of the older man sitting silently by the side of the road with his arm raised up---asking for food without saying a word. I hate that we are discharging these patients back to homelessness.

.........MY HEART WILL CHOOSE TO SAY.... LORD, BLESSED BE YOUR NAME
My first few days here I was in shock at the world I was thrown into. Then, I quickly became immune to the piles of rubble and destruction everywhere. I’ve walked by many houses that are so flattened that I know the remains of people have not yet been pulled out. I have been told in many parts of Port-au-Prince, people are camped outside the rubble of their homes so that they can retrieve the bodies of their loved ones when the dump trucks come. One month later. I don’t understand this part of God’s plan, but along with the Haitians today, I simply look up...........