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My heart is broken today for the people of Haiti.  Port au Prince, the capitol city of 2 million people, has been decimated according to news reports.  Perhaps you’ve seen the all-too-graphic images.  The death toll is rising; some reports are claiming as many as 50,000 have lost their lives, with another 3 million people injured or homeless according to a Red Cross official.   Of course, there is no way of knowing what the exact number is; they may never know exactly, but it’s tragic.  As a side note, the H1N1 “crisis” that has garnered the attention of our government and seemingly stirred a panic around the world, has accounted for 12, 799 deaths worldwide (19 of which have occurred in DFW)  . . . out of 6 billion people.  It has been labeled a pandemic.  I’m not making light of H1N1, but if that is a pandemic then what do you call the  Haitian earthquake?  To put it in perspective such an event  would be like eliminating 1/3 of the population of the city where I live, and affecting half of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex.

What makes this tragic is not just that people died, but that many, if not most, died without knowing Jesus Christ as Savior.  What a tragedy.  A heart cries out, “Why do these things happen?!  Why do children die, and why do an already downtrodden people suffer even more?!”  And God’s broken heart-cry resonates in the darkness of this world that sin has marred what He created as good.  But God, being rich in mercy and grace, has made a way for desperate, hopeless, downtrodden and broken people to find hope in Him . . . even in the midst of sin’s aftermath.  The garden of Eden may have been the epicenter of a Fall that would shake and shatter humanity, but the cross was the epicenter of a Holy quake that would tear the veil that separated man from God,  break sin’s shackles, and offer life and reconciliation with God through Christ His Son.  It is such hope and life that the people of Haiti need, but it must been seen and spoken through the activity of those of us who have the hope of Christ and whose hearts have been stirred to do something.  So what will you do?

You can give money.  Be careful to whom you give because there are some, to be sure, who will seek to profit off of another person’s suffering.  I’m choosing to give through the Baptist Global Response fund.  You can do so if you choose by going online to http://www.baptistglobalresponse.com/new/giving.php

Within the next several months teams who have disaster relief training will be needed to go and help in Haiti.  So what can you do now?  Put your “yes” on the table and be ready to go if God open’s that door for you.  Begin now getting a passport if you don’t have one.  Locate a group who is looking to be mobilized as the time comes.  And most importantly . . . pray that God would use you to be Jesus to Haiti.

I am thankful that our government is responding and even taking the lead in the relief effort.  My prayer is that Christ-followers will respond with as much fervor, and in doing so display the compassion and hope that is only found in Jesus Christ.  My challenge to all who read this is simple:  do something.