Haiti in Chaos: Where is God?

 

If the all-powerful God could help any nation, it should be Haiti. Every denomination has its missionaries scattered across the island. Churches, chapels, and Bible studies proliferate as the people of faith seek to save the people of the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. The Gospel is preached from the capital city to the lowest village. Former President Jimmy Carter, a devote Christian and founder of Habitat for Humanity, has spent countless time building homes and negotiating politics on this small island.    

In 1985 I went on a mission Trip to Haiti with my Evangelical Baptist Church. We landed in Port Au Prince, the island nation's capital, and were ushered into an airport flooded with people. The heat was oppressive, I held back vomiting at the stench of body order and urine, and there was no air conditioning to give relief. Stepping outside, I was met with culture shock at the level of poverty and lack of basic services.  Obviously from America, we were flocked with people begging for money or anything we might spare. The local missionary warned us not to hold anyone's baby as they would quickly hand the child off and disappear in hopes that we could bring them to America.  

In the evening, we made our way through a maze of buildings.  We went in and out of alleys, ducking our heads through low passageways until we finally came to a small room that had been set up as a chapel.  People sat shoulder to shoulder on old wooden benches with no backs, and the preacher stood in the front behind a small podium.  The people rocked back and forth, shouting, "Amen!" as the preacher proclaimed the saving power of Jesus.  A young man fell to the floor, screaming and shaking as people gathered to pray for him. We looked to our missionary guide for an explanation of what was happening.  "He's possessed by a demon," The missionary told us. The service went on for hours.   

The next day we headed out in an old Jeep to the backcountry, where we would spend a week putting a roof on a one-room church made of stone walls that swayed with the breeze as if ready to fall over.  As a new Christian, I was inspired by this work.  These are indeed the people whom God would want to help.  The experience would motivate me as went back to America to pursue a life of full-time ministry.  I would pray every day for the people of Haiti.

So what has happened to Haiti? My expectations as a young Christian were that with all the prayers, humanitarian work, and missionary endeavors, God would surely bring peace and prosperity to the land. No one needed it more.

Fast forward to today, 2022.  Haiti is worse than ever. Their president has been assassinated, and gangs are ruling the streets.  Earthquakes have devasted the cities that have virtually no infrastructure to repair the damage.  Where is the God we preached so passionately about? Does he not care? Or has he no power? After all these years, with the power of prayer and missionary zeal, Haiti has only worsened.

Haiti has disappeared from the headlines of the news. Worse, it has disappeared from the headlines of the American Evangelical Church, which is focused on its "cultural war" and crying of its "persecution" as people leave the faith in droves.  The Church has forgotten because it never really cared as it focused on "souls" and forgot the person. Despite what I had been taught, neither the church nor its God had any power to change anything. 

If help comes to Haiti, it will NOT be through the church. Haiti is proof that the Christian God is impotent.  If help comes to Haiti, it will take the work of the international community of nations that decides that people who have no money, oil, or exports to benefit the world are worth our help.  Yet the international community has largely forgotten this small island nation as it focuses on the war raging in Ukraine and the scandals of a former American President.

What will happen to Haiti?