Extreme...

With much of what happens, or is said to happen in Haiti, there seem to be extremes on both sides.

Depending on your belief system you will most likely be pulled to one extreme ready to argue why you are right and why the other side is so very wrong.  Take the example of voodoo or Carnival, both provoke very strong emotion no matter what side you stand on.

I have added two photographs I took while living and working in Haiti. One is a typical "Rara band" playing music on the streets during Carnival.  The other is of two young men just after the earth quake praying and repenting for the nation of Haiti. As a sign of repentance for participation in voodoo they set a voodoo bag on fire.  Both situations left me feeling a bit on edge for a time.  Being caught in the middle of any demonstration is not generally a good idea in my thinking, extremes can turn emotional very quickly good or bad.

I recently had a conversation with one of the volunteers at a ministry I visited.

He was commissioned by his church to go and cast out "many demons" on his short three month stay.

The only problem was once he got to Haiti he was a bit puzzled.

He didn't see any crazy looking demonized type looking people walking the streets.

He found his heart deeply moved and a love for the people he met and worked with each day.

Where are all these people he wondered? 

He said he was dreading the idea of going back home and having to give a report about his time in Haiti because he knew what he experienced wasn't going to line up with what this church wanted to hear.

Now don't get me wrong, you just might see some crazy stuff but I am guessing you will be taken back by many other things before you will ever notice one person practicing something your belief system doesn't agree with.  I am guessing you will question things on a more human level.  Like jobs, food or the lack of, housing conditions and government.  Wondering what role the government plays, the role of the UN or about the role of the church and other NGO's.  I would also dare to suggest that before you leave you will have a few questions for the good Lord.  Even greater will be the questions you must ask yourself about your role in all of this.

In twelve years of living and working in different cultures I have to admit  I wish I could take back many of the things I have thought and said. I think, maybe, I am finally learning what questions to ask and finding that I have so few answers inside of myself and my thinking.  

The people who used to be so "deceived"(in my thinking) are now people just like me in need of the love and grace of a Savior. He is working in me to show me loving people is more important than being right.  Everyone will stumble, yet we must look deeply with in before we speak and keep looking for the grace needed each and every day.

I pray for the ability to have only one extreme, that I respond out of love and grace for those who are on this journey with me.  Remembering it is the goodness of God that brings us to repentance.