To weep and to hope with Haiti

Reports from Compassion’s Haiti National Office indicate that 6,000 Compassion-assisted children have been displaced, and at least 46 child development centers have been damaged or destroyed. If you sponsor a child in Haiti, you may be agonizing as you wait to hear about their well-being.

Our first reaction to the news of the recent Haiti earthquake may be to lament and ask, “Will Haiti’s suffering ever ease? Will the Haitian people ever have enough time to rebuild before another disaster or conflict sets them back?” A Haitian proverb helps us understand from their perspective: “Beyond mountains there are mountains.” Just when you think you’ve solved a problem, another one appears.

But as we work through how we feel, let’s consider whether we are weeping FOR our Haitian neighbors or weeping WITH them. There is an important difference, albeit a subtle one. For so long, the rest of the world has seen Haiti as a nation to be pitied. Of course, as an organization that works to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name, we cannot ignore the fact that Haiti is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. That’s why Compassion partners with sponsors and Indigenous Haitian churches to help children and their familiesopens in a new tab there.

But there is more to Haiti than her poverty.

Read the rest of the story at Compassion Internationalopens in a new tab

Photo: Zach Vessels on Unsplashopens in a new tab