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Inside Haiti, after the quake
I was in Haiti less than a week after the earthquake. I went with Churches Helping Churches on a aid-delivering and fact-finding mission to help the country and it's churches. What follows is an excerpt of my journal from the trip. Amidst the chaos I captured what I saw the best I could and am including pictures from our trip that help tell the story. Video from our trip and the individual stories from Haiti can be found here and here.
It's approaching 2 a.m. and I cannot sleep. The images of what I have seen today in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, keep haunting me. And I cannot get the taste of decomposing bodies out of my mouth.
The adventure I am on started a mere five days ago with an early morning call from Pastor James MacDonald. We had met through mutual friends and an organization called The Gospel Coalition. He called to discuss how we might mobilize churches from the US and world to help the Haitian churches following a massively devastating earthquake and powerful aftershocks. After that initial conversation, our day was spent texting, calling, emailing, and strategizing, ultimately culminating in a plan to visit Haiti to witness the need firsthand.
On Friday I prerecorded a sermon to be played at Mars Hill Church on Sunday, on Saturday morning my renewed passport showed up just hours before my flight, and after some time with my family celebrating the birthday of my four-year-old son Gideon, my wife and five children dropped me off at the airport with tears. The Mars Hill team and I arrived in Chicago Saturday night, worshiped at Harvest Bible Chapel on Sunday morning, got our vaccinations, debriefed for the trip with a tactical team, and drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan, with our crew that had grown to include a seasoned security specialist, a two-man film crew, an award-winning combat photographer, the creative director of John Piper's Desiring God Ministries, and a senior staff member of a relief organization.
After a few hours of sleep, we drove to our small plane that was packed with medical supplies and doctors who traveled with us. Our flight left the US around 3 a.m. and by sunrise we were circling over Haiti, which looked like a battlefield from the air. Unsure if we could land because of the numerous reports of planes that had been denied landing privileges, we prayed and waited. Before long we were on the ground in Haiti, a mere four days after my first conversation with Pastor MacDonald and less than a week after the earthquake hit. I turned on my iPhone to discover multiple messages from international aid workers who were unable to enter the country asking how we did it. We did not do it.
God had pulled off a miracle to get us into Haiti.
Upon departing the plane, the first thing the soldier said to me was, "You will now see a crisis of biblical proportions." Looking around the tarmac, it was surprising how little aid we saw being unloaded and how few supplies were on the ground.
By
Mark Driscoll
|
March 1, 2010; 1:10 PM ET
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Posted by: YEAL9 | March 2, 2010 7:48 AM
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"You will now see a crisis of biblical proportions."
If there's one sentence that can be shook-out of your Adventure by a 7, 8 or 9 on the Richter scale to Haiti, then it's this one above. Lets forget about big mouths like Robertson and other religious dummy's.
Interestingly: In another part of this beautiful planet there was another "..Biblical Proportions.." story. This happened happened in MOROCCO North via 2 MINARETS in ZAiO & MEKUS that came tumbling down killing many, only days apart. What makes this so Quranic/Biblica is that, SWITZerland's big Mouth LIBIYA's Col. Khadafi, last week, had asked the Islamic Ummah (world Muslum community) for a Jihad plus Boycott against non-Believers over their fear of over building of Minarets there.
Interestingly the Arabic word "ZILZAL" (means the the Shaking or like Rapture) which has it's own prophetic long awaited anticipations.
Hay, Did you hear about CHILE? a 9.2 Earthquake?
Secret: All That is Happening i saw IT coming. Of course not exactly this away. And this is only part 1 of many Around the Globe.
The Next sign is in MECCA! So wait & Watch. Just remember "IT". How many signs do you Humans need?
Posted by: oldsong1 | March 1, 2010 5:50 PM
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The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chili prove yet again that we should not live on the top of fault lines. The same can be said for living in areas like New Orleans that are below sea level, next to the ocean and subject to periodic level 5 hurricanes. Rebuilding in these areas goes beyond being significantly stupid!!!