4:53PM

Where were you when president Kennedy was shot?  Where were you when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon?  Where were you on 9/11?  Each of these events have become defining moments in our national consciousness.  We remember where we were, what we were doing, because they were either traumatic or joyful events that deeply affected us emotionally.

At 4:53PM on January 12, 2010 a devastating earthquake struck the nation of Haiti.  We were here.  We felt the earth tremble.  We watched the buildings sway.  We heard the roar of the ground moving.  And in 35 seconds it was over.  But the results were not so quickly put behind us.  By God’s grace we suffered no damage to life or property to our family.  However everyone in Haiti knows someone who died or suffered as a result of the earthquake.

For me one of the most difficult things about the aftermath of the earthquake was not being able to contact anyone in Haiti.  The cell networks went down immediately following the earthquake.  We didn’t know whether our Haitian friends or fellow missionaries were alright.  Had they survived?  Were they hurt?  We had no way of knowing unless they had access to e-mail.  So we prayed.

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we are called to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice.  Today we mourn with those who mourn.  Nearly everyone we know lost someone either in their extended family or among their friends.  But along with the lives lost and broken are the stories of escapes and miraculous preservation.  As I think back on the girls pulled from the wreckage of their school I am reminded of the words of Psalm 9.  This was the testimony of those girls as they emerged dirty, wounded and crying out to Jesus from their tomb: “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.” (Psalm 9:13-14)

People say, “But where is the progress?  What has changed in one year?”  The truth is there is still a lot of rubble to be removed, people are still living in ragged tents and the fear of another disaster, another earthquake is still palpable.  Despite these signs of outward stagnation I can testify that God is at work in people’s hearts.  People are hearing the voice of Jesus through the preaching of the gospel and the churches are growing.  They are learning that Jesus takes on himself all their burdens, all their fears and gives them joy instead.

So at 4:53PM on January 12, 2011 we join the nation of Haiti in a moment of silence.  The noise of the earthquake one year ago becomes a moment of silence this year.  A moment to reflect, to pray and to thank God that out of deep darkness he brings great good.

“Though great our sins and sore our woes
His grace much more aboundeth;
His helping love no limit knows,
Our upmost need it soundeth.
Our Shepherd good and true is He,
Who will at last His Israel free

From all their sin and sorrow”