The pictures from Haiti these days are, unfortunately, familiar ones. Folks are marching in the streets, setting up blockades, looting. This time, the reported cause is the shortage of fuel, but the problems that Haiti faces are longstanding ones—corruption and poverty, hunger and insecurity. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18), which really means that when there is no sense of direction, people are susceptible to being blown in any and in every direction, and the situation in Haiti confirms the truth of the Proverb.

Last year, Central Church began a new partnership with an organization working in Haiti trying to create a better future there—Haiti Partners. A painting of the school that we help to support is hanging in our Fellowship Room as a reminder of that partnership, and I invite you to visit Haiti Partners’ website (haitipartners.org) to learn more about what the organization is doing in Haiti.

Of course, in the face of problems, like the ones in Haiti, that just do not seem to get better, it is understandable why some give up, but I like the advice, “If you get tired learn to rest, not to quit.” That’s easier said than done sometimes, I realize, in places like Haiti as well as in each of our lives, and the truth is that, sometimes, we might have to rest for a long time. We might have to change the ways in which we engage. And we need each other, for encouragement, to pick up the pieces sometimes, and to keep things moving forward when we simply cannot keep going.

“Men anpil chay pa lou,” which roughly translated from Haitian Kreyol means something familiar like, “Many hands make the load lighter.” And so, if you are tired and want to give up, there’s no shame in asking for help, learning to rest, trusting the hands of others to lighten the load.

–Pastor Don Steele