New Urgency

There are times in life when you can clearly see the road before you. It's not always like that but today, looking out over the mountains, I can see forever. It is beautiful! I just finished reading a book about persecution of Christians in China. Could not put it down and I'm still mulling it over in my heart. It was shocking.
What we saw in Haiti two weeks ago was shocking as well. It is giving me a new sense of urgency that I'm trying to put under words here. We traveled to a remote area called Pereille and once we got closer we saw groups of people sitting in the fields along the road .Strange! Many of them were young adults. In all my years there I had never seen this before. It was almost like people were waiting for something to happen. When we came at the meeting place there were hundreds of them gathered around and it became clear that we could not do our traditional clinic. There were just too many people so we resorted to passing out medication for worms and vitamins. Doug, the chiropractor helped by some of the others, touched many people with back ache. We had brought in copies of a brand new Creole children's book that tells the gospel. I realized that there were a lot fewer kids than normal. They were almost all adults. It was strange. Maybe the kids were in school but that had never kept them away before. Anyway once we started giving out the little books the people almost fought to get one. I know they had no idea what it was about but they were so excited. In a very short time the three hundred copies we brought were gone. My mind keeps going back to that day. Hope came into the hands of many people who really had no reason for hope. What made them wait and for what? Could it be that they all have holes in their hearts? A vacuum that needs to be filled now that they realize that their government is not going to do anything for them. An emptiness Voodoo cannot fill? Now that they have seen their dreams shattered in the rubble of Port au Prince. Dreams about escaping the poverty and becoming someone. Port au Prince was the city where many of them thought they were going to make it. It is likely that a lot of the ones we saw along the road were refugees from there. Urgency! A few days earlier we held a clinic in another but just as remote area. It had taken all out of me to deal with the suffering there. I know it did the same to the doctors and the other members on the team. People who were hurting so bad that it defies any description. Like the woman on crutches who was brought in. They took a sock of her leg to show what once had been a foot. All there was left was a piece of bare bone sticking out of her leg with some remains of what must have been a bone in her foot. A few months earlier she stepped on a nail. If only we had seen her before. Like the boy whose foot had a gaping gash on top and Scott sewed it shut. Like the old man who was holding the side of his head in anguish. Melanoma was growing in the roof of his mouth most likely into his brain cavity as well. I talked with him about being with Jesus soon and he was at peace with that. The pain he was in! So many of them and so much pain. People with holes in their hearts hurting for something to set them free.
The fields are white for the harvest but the workers are few. Urgency! We have to act now and reach out to the ones God puts on our path before the opportunity is gone. Times have changed in Haiti. People are more desperate than ever. Do you feel my new urgency? You want to help?