Haiti--One Year After the Earthquake

One year after the tragedy in Haiti it appears that little has changed for the better. Haiti was a tragedy even before the earthquake and the cholera epidemic now continues to promise even more grief for this sad and beleaguered country.

I would like to tell of my non-experience with the relief effort that has been so valiantly waged there by others for the past twelve months.

Within two days after the earthquake brought down Port-au-Prince a call for relief workers was extended through an online magazine I read (Meridian Magazine.com). A hastily organized task force, the Utah Hospital Task Force) put out a call for 150 qualified volunteers to fly to the country to participate in a field hospital project to build a temporary hospital and render aid to trauma victims. By the second day 700 people had volunteered including me. Within two or three more days 150 of us were chosen. We had doctors, nurses, translators, builders, leaders and others whose applications had the qualifications that were needed.

I bought my airline ticket to Salt Lake City, got the necessary immunizations, and with the contributions of family members became equipped with what we were told to bring.

Upon arrival in Salt Lake City we had a meeting two days before our planned departure on a chartered jet. That night, however, we were given the discouraging news that the Haitian government earlier that day diverted the water supply that our group was counting on and that we would have to bring our own water to supply our needs until a reliable and adequate source could be had. Water, as you know, is heavy, and we would have to jettison several thousand pounds of payload to make weight so the aircraft could be cleared for flight. After everybody and everything we needed was weighed, along with the medical and construction supplies, and we sacrificed everything we could, including our own clothing, items for the children, etc., but we found we still could not make weight. Our leaders asked for ideas. It was then that a little short of a dozen of us volunteered to stay behind. I was among those who stayed. We felt that our skills or potential contribution might not be as great as others who we felt must go on the mission. With our body weight and personal items and the camera crew and their equipment subtracted from the total the plane made weight and flew with 138 volunteers.

Why I bring this up is to relate what it taught me about me.

When my wife and I read the call that went out just a few hours before we both felt an immediate and powerful spiritual mandate that we should respond to that call. Cheryl, though 100% willing and desirous to go herself, felt that my skills and background would better meet the qualifications of what they were looking for and that I might get chosen. We submitted this to God in prayer and received an answer that was clear and confirmatory. I applied immediately. Within a day or two I received an email that I was chosen.

When I later volunteered to stay behind, as hard as that was, that decision, too, was spiritually confirmed and the feeling was strong that the Lord accepted of my willingness to help and that I had passed this important life test.

Here is the point. We all, I believe, are placed in a position or given a test or tests, challenges or opportunities, sometime in our life that is life-changing and/or character-defining. Moreover, I believe that to be about ‘our Father’s business,’ which is to bless his other children, we should be willing with a life-time of preparation behind us to respond to the call to serve however and whenever it might come.

What a blessing this was for me, even if I did not do one physical thing at that time to help these poor people. These people are still strongly on my heart and in my prayers. I would encourage you to read in the current issue of Meridian Magazine about the life-changing experience of one who did actually go. It is inspiring.

‘Called to serve’—an important concept. ‘Lord, here I am. Send me’—an important response. I hope I am and you are up to the only acceptable response if and when ‘the call,’ our call, comes again. Though it will be perhaps of a different kind and in a different place and custom-made to test our mettle, I’m sure we will all get one. Let’s be prepared, come what may.