(Originally Posted 5/13/2022)
I sat in a household, the size of my bedroom. A mother, a father, four children, and a baby on the way. Shy, but glowing and hopeful. Because without hope, what are we? Without hope we are the dead walking.
A family with no real home. People who have fled from their country because of a lack of security. They left for new opportunities, but ended up in a foreign country where these opportunities have yet to present themselves. And security has yet to be found.
This Haitian family I sat with described the way they fear for their children's lives. The danger and hate they face within their community is a daily struggle. But so is finding work, because construction is the only job available to them, and there isn't always construction to be done.
So where are they to go? Why do they stay in this community, you might ask.
There's a risk with any choice they make. Security isn't typically an option. When you have a family, and love them with everything in you, risks and sacrifices are worth taking. Even if it means having to leave your children behind, so that you can seek out work wherever it can be found for the sake of your children's futures.
With every Haitian person here that I have had the privilege to meet, it's a similar story. A search for opportunity, a desire for some sort of safety.
I met a man who was a journalist. A Haitian political journalist. When he talked about his life in Haiti he lit up. He showed me his ID, he wanted me to see what his life used to be. Up until it took a 180. Now he hides. He works in construction when he can, and he fears for his life because of his past job, and because he lives in a country that is against him and his people.
I see history repeating itself. I see two groups of people in rivalry. Not just here in the DR, but literally all over the world. Everywhere I go I receive a history lesson about the hate between people groups. And yet in those who suffer, hope prevails. All the hurts they experience fail to crush their beautiful, admirable hope.
When I say that this journey has caused scripture to come alive before my eyes, I mean that this journey has caused scripture to come ALIVE before my EYES. It's not just something I read but I SEE. I see God's people, and I see the way they cling to Him. Not because they want for things, but because they want for HIM. So I quote this scripture not to relieve myself of heartache, but because I'm seeing the power of the word of God in action amongst His people.
"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope." Romans 15:4
