haiti on my heart

if you have been following this blog here for more than a month or two, you know that haiti is near and dear to my heart, and where i spent the majority of my summer, and 100% of my vacation time for 2010 from my work...

what they are experiencing there over the past few weeks, but most especially days makes my heart hurt. literally. i can feel the pain.

since the outbreak of cholera there, (really started by the U.N. really? who knows...), to what appears to be another corrupt election, there has been unrest amongst the people.

now, there is rioting throughout the country. this is not rioting that our friends in les cayes hear about that is happening in port-au-prince...no. it is right in their back front yard. they are hearing constant gunfire, some of that sounding to them like machine guns...any and everything that can be burned in the streets is doing so...imagine trying to sleep with the sounds of unrest and the stench of burning tires....

people are dying. many of them. and if you do a google search, (at least as of 4 pm today) you will be hard pressed to find more than 1 or 2 news articles about what is happening there.

people are dying on the doorsteps of my friends. more than one. these are random acts of violence stemming from a frustration that is decades old. i can't blame them, but i can be saddened with the thought that they are only hurting themselves.

more than 2000 people have died from cholera in the past 7 weeks. more than 11,000 have dealt with the disease. it's not over yet. and, the rioting is making relief efforts for cholera ever more difficult. this disease may very well spread over the next weeks as a result.

who is being hurt by this violence? not those that the people choose to send a message to...no. it's the very people that are the weakest already. or the innocent.

if you pull someone out of the window of their car and beat them to death because you are frustrated with the election debacle, how do you know that they weren't just as frustrated as you?

my friends in haiti have had a rough life. now they are having extremely rough days. and they don't understand why God allows this. frankly, i'm having a hard time myself.

i know that He is in control. i believe it and i share it. but why the people of haiti can't get a break escapes me at this moment. i can still trust and believe, but i shake my head in lack of understanding.

when my believing friends in haiti don't understand, i can't even attempt to...

yes. haiti is on my heart, and my heart hurts. come, Lord Jesus. Amen.