"I live in a tent right outside my home"

"'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills fall to pieces, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, my covenant commitment of peace won't fall apart.' Says the Lord who has compassion on you." -Isaiah 54:10

I love this verse and its perfection for Haiti. We have heard so many "quake" stories from the Haitians and all of them are equally heart wrenching. In my previous post, I introduced you to Michille and his family. Michille might be the sweetest, most joyous, follower of Jesus I have ever met. Let me give you some examples: He is our translator but can often be found on the rafters of a shelter, going above and beyond (literally) helping our volunteers nail in roofs. I was sick the past couple days and one morning this week, when I was sitting on the porch, he said, "Loiuy (this is how my name sounds in there accent), are you feeling better?" I said I was and he replied, " you know God is our healer and I prayed that he would make you better."

A few of us took Michille home today. We parked about 300 yards from where he actually lives. I jump out of the back (yes, I know, awesome) and we went over this ghetto bridge with a creek under it. We start walking on this path and to the left was a community of tarps and tents (around 300ish). And to the right, another path which we took. We walked a ways and then came to his house. His wife and kids were sitting outside in a chair. He has a son, Jon, who is 3 and a daughter, Oneida, who is 2 months.

A little background before I continue, just since Brian and I have been here, there have been 2 aftershocks, one of which lasted about 3 seconds and shook everything. Almost all the Haitians, even if their homes have no damage, are sleeping in tents because they are too scared to move back inside.

Back to the story, Michille, took us into his house...in every corner the walls were cracked all the way down and in some parts the roof was also. If a hard enough aftershock happened, the house would buckle, which explains why he and his family are living in a tent outside their house. I could not help but start crying as I saw this. It seemed like some horrible tease to have a pretty house that cannot be lived in. Michille, walked us back to the truck and apologized the whole way that he did not have anything to offer us at his house.

Last night, it stormed and stormed. Brian and I are sleeping under a tin roof in our little out house so it was extremely loud. I layed there thinking that I am not going to get any sleep because of this noise and then immediately thought that 95% of Haitians are living in tents, getting soaked, afraid of the rumbling and noise...With all of this said, I have been thinking about this statement a lot lately, "I live in a tent right outside my house." I am sure this has spiritual implications and meaning but can't quite figure out how it can be paralleled to Jesus...so I am putting it out there. Do you have any insight?

This is the house next door to ours. It was completely destroyed.

Brian took this picture in February when he was down here. It is of a church. Everything fell but the cross at the alter.

They started building a shelter at Jasmine's orphanage for the kids because they are all still sleeping in tents and hurricane season is beginning. The girl in the orange shirt name is Amma. I am trying to get her to smile more because she is very solemn. At this orphange they have a worship service on sunday mornings and she plays the drums for it. She is awesome at them. Clapping games along with songs never gets old to them.

This is the floor of it on the second day.

This is it by the end of the second day.