For the hundreds of North Carolina Baptists who have volunteered in Haiti since January, the news of a hurricane bearing down on that catastrophe is heart breaking. We cringe in ironic disbelief when the Haitian government urges its 1 million citizens still living in tents to “leave” Port-au-Prince to seek shelter elsewhere.  

There is no “elsewhere” for those who have been living beneath tarps and cardboard, in tents and behind corrugated roofing sheets since the earthquake Jan. 12 killed 230,000 of their fellow citizens and family members.  

As one told a reporter in Haiti on Friday, if there were a family member or an “elsewhere” to go, they would have gone there long ago.  

The 10 x 10 shelters North Carolina Baptist volunteers have been erecting are “anchored” by wrapping four cement blocks with metal straps, then burying one at each corner, with the metal strap nailed into the frame. They are built to withstand wind, but “wind” is to hurricane as lake is to ocean.  

When we read about “tent cities” we think of people living in tents, but with the amenities of a city: a network of roads, sanitation, transportation, access to services, etc. Port-au-Prince tent cities are simply massive campouts with tents erected edge to edge. After nearly a year in the tropical sun, they are worn thin and won’t hold out a gentle rain. There is no "community building;" no gymnasium; no solid shelter.  

Tents will not stand in a hurricane. Their occupants will not leave them because they do not want to leave whatever meager personal goods they’ve managed to accumulate since the earthquake. That tent surrounds their entire world and that world is in imminent danger of blowing away.  

Haiti is hardly banner news today. Too many other disastrous things have happened since Jan. 12. But Baptists have responded to the Haitian needs, especially Florida Baptists and North Carolina Baptists and once you’ve been there and seen the desperation, tasted the acrid smoke of poverty and wiped the grit of despair from your face weather reports from the Caribbean take on a whole new meaning.  

Remember Haiti tonight in your prayers — not the nation, the people. As a nation Haiti is a case study in failure. As a people Haitians are created in God’s image and even those who do not know Him personally through Jesus must be crying out to Him in fear and despair. Those brothers and sisters in Christ who live there are suffering the same fate, blown by the same wind, lashed by the same rain, chilled by the same cold.  

I’ve walked in the tent cities, as have hundreds of others from our state. Because we have, the frigid miseries their occupants endure tonight chill our own souls.  

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