Port au Prince, Haiti

Yesterday, October 2nd, 2010, I returned home from an international trip to Haiti with my work for Food for the Hungry. I've been on many overseas trips and missions trips as well. However, this one was unlike any that I've ever experienced. My job with FH is relational. I deal with music and entertainment artists that speak on behalf of our organization and for children and communities in need. This past weekend I accompanied a pastor/author named Palmer Chinchen to Port au Prince, Haiti to let him view what it is that we do on the ground in the fields. I wasn't prepared for the complete and sheer devastation that I saw in this disaster torn country. As resilient and loving as these people still are, they are still completely crushed and devastated from the earthquake almost a year ago.

I've always believed in the work that we as an organization do in communities around world, but there is still so much need for us as a people and a nation to be the hands and feet of our Lord. The situation there is daunting!

I witnessed a child dying from Typhoid fever, a pastor that had lost his child the morning of our arrival to their community, yet he was still concerned for us and his people. I saw women and men walking up and down a mountain for hours every day just to get a bucket of unclean water. I saw children that only eat once a day and are perpetually hungry. It's sad. It's devastating. It's emotionally draining, and it's hard to process! If anything, it has greatly put my life and personal situation into perspective and has changed me. It's changed me for good! It's made me look at "non-eternal" things quite differently - and that, for me, is growth!