Sunday, January 31, 2010

Left Speechless By The Suffering in Haiti



Last night, I was preparing some things to say about the devastation in Haiti. I was planning on dealing with the issue of the sovereignty of God and the suffering of the people there. Then, this morning, my wife and I watched this special sermon from Mark Driscoll, and I've been left nearly speechless. I still have a lot of theological thoughts, but John Piper is right in saying that these are things we need to teach ourselves and others BEFORE the earthquake strikes. Now is a time for the Church to pastorally minister and to give. There may come a time where we can discuss suffering and the sovereignty of God, I just don't feel, after watching this video, that now is the time for me, personally, to tackle the issue.

A few days after the earthquake happened, Driscoll was in Haiti, seeing the state of the Haitian church, and honestly, after watching it, all I can say is that the Church universal needs to see this video.

I felt convicted about a dozen times during the course of watching and hearing the things that are happening there. The most convicting part of the video was when Driscoll encountered a pastor whose daughter had been badly injured. He waited in a makeshift tent while his daughter suffered for seven days (a cinderblock had fallen on her face), and all because he didn't have the $15 needed to take a cab to get medical assistance for her. For me, at this stage in life, $15 still feels like a lot of money. But we are so wealthy here in the United States that even meager giving on my part, I'm convinced, can do a lot of good. I hope that the events in Haiti will continue to receive the utmost giving and attention by the Church around the world.

I am convinced that because the Haitian government is all by non-existent, the people of Haiti will be looking to the Church to see how much we love Jesus, and we need to show it by our generosity. This has been a tremendously convicting time for me, and I hope that you will all take the time to watch Driscoll's sermon as he relates the 36 hours that he spent in Haiti.

3 comments:

  1. Great post Adam, I can't wait to watch the video.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Adam,

    Thanks for linking to the video. I'll give it a look.

    I just want to say that the Haitian government is very far from non-existent. Much of the difficulty Haiti suffers and is now suffering is because of the government. (I'm not just saying this because I'm a libertarian. My sister spent several years in Haiti and adopted two kids from there). So be very careful who you donate your money to and know where it is going.

    Here are two places I recommend:

    http://heartlineministries.org/default.aspx
    videos of the makeshift emergency room they setup at the orphanage are on youtube:
    http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=haitidashrelief

    http://blog.rbseminary.org/2010/01/help-needy-haitian-victims-through-reformed-baptist-churches-in-the-dominican-republic/
    A Reformed Baptist church (actually the largest in the world ;) in the Dominican Republic

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the info, Brandon. I was wondering, do you know of any good web resources that would explain the issues with Haiti's government? I've been pretty curious for some time.

    My wife and I are currently sending our donations Driscoll's charity, Churches Helping Churches.

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