Providence Ministries

Today I ran across the website/blog of Providence Ministries, a ministry which describes itself as “a non-profit organization based in St. Paul, MN. Our purpose is to enter into a partnership with Haitian Christians to better the lives of individual children and others in the Haitian community. We use this blog to update our friends & supporters while we're traveling in Haiti, and also to provide updates, pictures, and thoughts in between trips ...”

Their most recent post, dated February 8, was entitled “a heavy burden.” It tells the story of a 15-year old girl who, just a child herself, had her own child die of malnutrition in her arms as she attempted to walk the several hours on muddy mountain paths to get him emergency medical treatment.

In another post titled “haiti behind my eyes” and dated December 30, 2007, Terri writes the following:

I both love and hate Haiti. I have seen some of the most awe-inspiring beauty and some of the most soul-killing ugliness there. Most of the time this beauty and ugliness is woven together like conjoined twins. It breaks your heart wide open and prompts the kinds of questions that you will wrestle with for the rest of your life. The biggest question is this: how is it that I was born in this plush little cradle in the world and Francianne and everyone else I love there were born in the fear-drenched regions of poverty and despair?

I don't think there's an answer to this question, but it binds me to Haiti in peculiar ways. I drift there in my mind periodically to wrestle with demons and to remember how lucky I am.

Both of these posts jolted me once again with their description of the stark, hopeless reality of life and death in Haiti. I know that I can never truly understand it, not even once I’ve had the opportunity to visit myself when we go to meet our twins someday. All I can do is pray … educate others … and make a difference in the lives of the two precious children God is entrusting to us …