Reflections on Haiti: No More the Sound of Weeping

Our theme for VBS was "Creation." We talked about the creation story, how sin ruined perfection, how Jesus came to redeem, and how God will one day create a new heavens and a new earth. The morning of the last lesson on the new heavens and the new earth, I asked Jim (one of the leaders) how he was planning to approach it with the kids in his group to make it understandable to them. His face lit up.

"Can you imagine what Haiti will be like when God makes it new? I'm going to tell them how these old things will pass away, and there won't be pain and poverty and sadness anymore! Isaiah 65!"

His enthusiasm was contagious. When I had a minute, I looked up Isaiah 65 to get familiar with it for myself. I want to be that excited about what I'm telling the kids. My eyes filled with tears when I read it.... they filled with tears when I read it just now to get ready to write this blog post--

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create;

for behold, I create [Haiti] to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.

I will rejoice in [Haiti] and be glad in my people;

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days. . . .

They shall build houses and inhabit them, 

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit; 

they shall not plant and another eat; 

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 

They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,

and their descendants with them.

Before they call I will answer;

while they are yet speaking I will hear....

Haiti is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. You probably won't hear a lot of people say that, but it's true. But it is covered with layers of dirt and grime and... well, poverty really. But some day it will be completely and utterly transformed.

I was only there for ten days, and I didn't understand the majority of the names that were told to me in answer to my pathetic "Ki jan ou rele?" ("What is your name?"). But Jesus knows each person's name. From the kids at the orphanage to the patients in the village medical clinics to each one that watched us or waved to us as we drove past in Ric's large truck. I think how much my heart overflows with love for the children that I met; I'm overwhelmed when I try to fathom how much God loves each of them.

Haiti will be utterly transformed someday. There won't be children crying because they're hungry. Or pushing each other to get to the front of the line in the hopes that they don't get left out. Or grieving because a parent or sibling has just died from a disease that could have been treated-- if they'd only had the money for it.

I think of the day when "no more shall be heard the sound of weeping and the cry of distress" in Haiti, and again I am overwhelmed. All of creation suffers as a result of the fall, but in Haiti it is so much more obvious. It just makes me think that the new creation will be that much more obvious in Haiti, too.

And that makes me really excited.