Haiti - Part II

Outside the 1st clinic.

While in Haiti, we visited 3 of the 13 feeding centers to provide basic medical care for the people of the local communities. This is something that was - at the time - totally foreign to me. I have never participated in a health clinic, and has actually in some sub-conscience way decided that I never would, since I was not remotely close to being a medical professional of any sort & because I have no immune system. I was wrong.

The clinic grew more and more "rural" as the week went on. I say "rural" because they were all in a remote part of Haiti, but the latter two especially were off the national highway that most of our travels in country centered around. The latter two exhibited a totally different set of ailments as the first one.

Maybe the gentlest old man I've ever met

Several passages of Scripture filled my mind and heart as I witnessed the need and at time desperation of these hurting people for a simply touch of love, look of concern.

Initially I looked upon all the people I saw with reference to how Jesus perceived a massive crowd,

And Jesus went throughout all the cities & villages, teaching in their synagogues & proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom & healing every disease & every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest."

An old man with chest congestion

Shortly after that I was a bit convicted actually about my attitude & subsequent view of these people. I looked upon them - meagerly as Christ did - but more so as I actually saw them. My attitude came across a bit haughty as I sat later that day considering this passage and my attitude. I viewed them as needing me, our team. After all, we were the educated Americans and we had a doctor with us. So! My heart was broke and changed quickly. And the compassion I thought I had felt for them gave way to true, Christ-like compassion & an aching heart for them. Afterward, they appeared to me not as sheep needing a shepherd (although this is an excellent analogy), but as broken, survival-driven, hurting people in desperate need of a supernaturally powerful God, who alone can heal all their hurts and pains, who alone can redeem them.

Later, an obvious passage flooded my mind, "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." As my attitude was changing, so my view of the people at each clinic was changing. Nothing changes that they need Christ most, above all more than any medicine or vitamins we could pass out. That does not change. What changed was what I saw in them. Christ's words here are clear, "you did it to me" ... hard to mistake what he meant. So, I realized as I watch a people in need gather around at the 3 centers, I was witnessing the identification of my Savior with the people considered the least in all the world! I realized, that in some way, I was witnessing the face of

Each member of this family had some ailment

 my Savior in these people, for as surely as He said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." Christ is with those who are ailing, and these people were & are ailing. So, instead of seeing them as needing me, I saw them as ministers to me.

And just the other day, as I was reading in Mark 3, I understood the desperation of people the world over and throughout all time - it does not change. Hurting people are hurting. Period.

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee & Judea & Jerusalem & Idumea & from beyond the Jordan & from around Tyre & Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him, to touch him.

3rd clinic where the people were pressing in

This screams desperation to me. People living in a fallen world are always desperate for something, only sometimes that know it & other times they do not know it. Ask a disease stricken person, they are keenly aware of their need for healing and thus are vividly desperate for healing and help. The above passage says "so that all who had disease pressed around him," because they knew that if they could only touch him they were healed! Like the woman with the hemorrhage. The Haitians we sought to serve with basic medical attention were desperate too! They knew we could help, by God's grace, and that we had resources they did not, nor would ever have access to. Thus, they cam to us. At one clinic in particular, this passage has a new mental image attached to it. The Haitian people at the 3rd clinic were swarming ... the crowd never grew unmanageable (size-wise), but it also never shrunk. For every person we saw, another showed up. We had so many that we eventually - because supplies were lacking - had to dose out vermox (de-worming medicine) and vitamins to all, and leave it at that. Throughout the afternoon there, we repeatedly had to ask them to back up because they were continually pressing in upon us (not like they did Christ, but it helps me understand this passage better).

The 2nd clinic

And with each patient, we prayed. Often we were able to ask if they knew Christ. If they said no, we asked if they wanted to or not. So, the Lord opened many doors, to many hearts. For all that I am grateful. And from hundreds of hurting people, I learned how Christ has and does view me, and how he has great compassion upon me and all who call upon His name.