Hurricane Sandy: Christa

Leaving Haiti after living here for the summer was more painful than I thought it would be. I grew up in LA for 25 years of my life and all of a sudden it didn’t feel like home anymore. It was a lot to process, but it’s as if the Lord laid me down on an operation table and did surgery. He transplanted a slice of His heart for Haiti into mine, and I’ve fallen in love with the culture, the scenery and most of all the people, whom He also adores.

After a few weeks of processing, I returned back to my new found home in Haiti this past October, to practically walk straight into Hurricane Sandy. I’ll never be able to articulate what I saw and the feelings I experienced, but I’ll walk you through 24 hours of it.

The clouds started rolling over the island of Haiti and as the burning hot sun started to hide behind the thick, dark clouds… we knew this was more than just some rain. We had gotten news that a hurricane was supposed to hit Cuba, but it was clear it was headed for us as well. A team was visiting and they wondered if they were even going to be able to leave as scheduled.

That night, the team was sitting around the living room in fellowship, playing games and watching a movie, but I just sat it front of the window watching the rain pour down but be taken violently sideways by the wind. My heart sank as I started to think of all the teeth chattering in tents, literally across the street. Across the street! I asked myself, “why am I sitting in a thick concrete house, dry, and those kids are sleeping in mud.” Fighting back tears all night I went to bed and petitioned to the Lord.

I could barely sleep, such a mixture between the loud crashing water on tin roofs and an extremely heavy heart. My bed is next to a broken window and my sheets were wet from rain getting in and for the first time in Haiti, I was so cold. I can’t even imagine how uncomfortable and cold these kids where as they had no way to dry off, but to just sit and wait for the rain to stop. Every time I was woken up, I just lifted up those kids and families to the Lord. I asked for protection and comfort. I asked for the rain to stop. But after all that, I asked for the Lords will to be done. And then the Lord spoke.

The Lord took me on a journey that night as I lifted up the tent city, asking for the Lord’s will. He reminded me of the ‘storm’ in my life that drove me to my knees. Without this storm I would not have heard my Father’s voice. I would not have found the comfort that no human can offer me. I would not have experienced the miracles of healing when I thought my heart and my life was too broken to fix. He reminded me of that storm. It may not have been a physical storm, but it caused me to reach out to the only one who could save me from the drowning waves of my life.

After looking at this, He reminded me that He is so sovereign. It may not be the storm that He wants in our lives, but He uses the difficult things in this life to draw us near to Him. Who am I to say what these people need? It may not look like they have much, but they also don’t have masks to hide behind and money to stuff in a hole that only Jesus can fill. Jesus knows right where they are and He knows their deepest need, and that is Him. Period. He knows what it will take for someone to turn to Him and trust that He is faithful to fulfill all His promises. We get far too comfortable to even realize we need Jesus, and sometimes I think its almost better that this community has to be dependant on Him, they get to watch Him move. Watch Him provide. Watch Him heal. Watch Him show up in ways we don’t allow outside of our comforts. My prayer is to be dependent and desperate for the Lord. These people are, and I might go as far to say that they may experience Him in a way we don’t allow our lives to be a part of. Who knows how many prayers were answered that night, but I believe the Lord kept families completely dry and warm that rested in Him and clung to the provision of His wing.                “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”

 – Psalms 36:7

Lydel

            So that morning I was unsure what we would find. The storm lasted a couple days and we got news that 500 tents were destroyed. The visiting team graciously agreed to help us go in and put some tents back together. We heard of a woman who no longer had the ability to walk, who lost her tent in the hurricane and really needed help. We grabbed Lydel, a 17 year old boy we have quickly grown to love as he helps out at the feeding program and hangs out with us in the streets. He has many brothers who also agreed to help. So the team and essentially all of Lydel’s family took on this task to help a woman in desperate need.

     Clearly I am no tent-building master, so I just followed the tugging on my heart to go visit and be with the families after the storm as the team was fixing tents. I weaved through the narrowest pathway between tents (only room for single file) to find a huge muddy mess. The boys are somewhat clean… whoa - were the Americans dirty!! Somehow I think the Haitians have the ability to float on mud, where Americans… well, cannot. Knee deep in mud, the team is putting up posts to frame the tent with the goal to make it better than it was. We heard the conditions she lived in prior to the storm were one of the worst.

            As I walk through, I myself being American suddenly have lost sight of the Nike’s on my feet and now only see rusty brown mess covering my shoe completely. I carry on and walk through the plot to the other side greeting Lydel and his brothers and they all surround me with hugs, beaming with smiles so full of life. I loved watching the community come together to help this woman. I find a flat spot to stand and within seconds I see kids from all directions pop out of tents with wide eyes at the sight of me. I soon have my arms full of kids I’ve had the honor to know through the feeding program. As I talk to them I see the surrounding neighbors start crowding around to watch and I start making conversations with them and laughing with them.

             It’s incredible to watch these people after hardship. They are so resilient as a nation, but they rejoice in the Lord through all circumstances. It reminds me of the scripture in Psalms 13:5 “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” Those that do know Jesus in this community are the ones who are literally singing praises to God for making a way for them. They know their ultimate need is salvation and they are rejoicing in their Savior. Its too often we forget that we have a Savior who has taken the worst for us and given us life eternally. How often do we loose perspective and just focus on our circumstances? Watching them snapped me right back to the real reality of all we have in Jesus.

            After spending time with these families making sure they were ok, I decided to go back and carefully made my way through the mud. Naturally Lydel started a mud fight with me so I definitely looked like I ROLLED in the mud. As I weave through tents people are popping out laughing at me asking me if I had fallen… thanks Lydel.

            I made it out to the main street that runs through Siniace where often kids are playing soccer and there are machann selling things from the baskets on their heads. I am about to turn the corner and a woman I have never met before greets me. She had seen me coming up the road and gone into her tent to get something. Once I walk past her she doesn’t say anything, but grabs my hands and starts washing me with her only clean bucket of water. I look at her and just as I am about to say, “its ok, save your water, I am fine…” a soft still voice just told me, “let her.” A tear streams down my face as she starts washing all the mud off of me and I’m overwhelmed by the service of a stranger.

As I stand there more humbled than I’ve ever felt, I think of Jesus, lowering Himself. As it says in Philippians 2:6 “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God” he wore the costume of a salve and served us, washing the disciples’ feet. I was overwhelmed by the love of the Lord in this moment. I felt Him say, “you are here to serve these people, but here they are serving you. I am here serving you, I am washing you clean through this process.” I was reminded of all He’s done for me and couldn’t help but stand in awe, in the middle of the street, in a tent city, of how the Lord speaks.

He provides for our every need, little or big. Immediate or long term. Spiritual or physical. He used this team of people to BE the provision for the woman in need, no doubt she saw and heard of God’s provision on this day. And He provided a small, simple act of service towards me, but one that cost that woman her only bucket of clean water. How much more do I want to pour out all that I have within me to love these people with the abundant love the Lord has supplied me.

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 

- Psalm 34:4-7