Haiti Earthquake and Africa

It was impossible for me to scan the newsletter properly because I don't have the correct program. However, thought I would place the letter I received from my good friend, Lloyd Frazier, here above. Perchance you know how to lift it out and manipulate it so you can read the report in Lloyd's exact words. If not, here are the pictures below - and my own assessment of the situation as I see it.

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.0 hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It reduced the capital city to rubble. So far we hear that there are over 200,000 people who have died. Bulldozers are being used to dig huge holes and bury the dead in mass graves. Most of them are un-identified...and their loved ones may never know where there remains are.

Three close friends of mine were in Haiti when this disaster struck and they barely escaped with their lives. The car they were riding in had a huge concrete and stone wall to fall on it, killing the driver instantly. The driver was the supervisor of our Church of God churches in Haiti. My friends, Lloyd Frazier, Lovell and Ginny Cary, (the Cary's are in their 80s) managed to crawl out the back door and walk almost two miles to safety. They are now safe and recuperating at their homes here in Cleveland, TN.

Haiti is the country in the western hemisphere that is most like Africa. Haiti's history has lots of African customs that have been transported to the West - plus one notable custom - Voodoo (Witchcraft). Because of that, many are quick to jump on the judgment band-wagon. The trouble with making that kind of judgment that says this destruction is an "act of an angry God" begins when trouble comes to good people. I remember a tornado destroying a Methodist church in Alabama...Hurricanes destroying many churches in Florida...and other such disasters hitting righteous people here in America. Can you imagine the rejoicing inside the Mosques of the Taliban when Katrina hit the USA? If you listened in on their comments about the H1N1 virus hitting the USA would you hear them saying it was what "the great satan" deserved. (You do know that "the great satan" is their name for the USA, right?) Maybe Pat Robertson and others who have made statements about Haiti have not read the book of Job! Why do bad things happen to good people? Answer: We don't know. We do know that God is a just God and He is in charge. We shall leave all these events in His hands. We will "Love our enemies" and "Pray for those who despitefully use us."

Haiti, like most of Africa, is smitten with extreme poverty. For years now I have pondered the question: How can this be when it is so near the shores of the USA? Further, how can there be such abject destitution and hardship in Haiti when, on the same island, the Dominican Republic has a degree of income much better than Haiti? I still search for an answer to that question.