This morning, here at Fond Parisien, we could feel the tension and fear in the air. We always have a morning meeting at 6:30 am with our main workers… they are all concerned about Haiti.

Haitians are a people who “laugh at almost everything.” But not now. We see worried faces everywhere. I had to go to our office to get some Haitian cash to buy food for the Orphanage because it is getting difficult for the driver to get through “gang areas” and come out here to Fond Parisien. I thought I would send one of my workers, Alfred, to buy food at our Market… As I walked through the front door, with the food list in my hand, I greeted our secretary, who is always “sweet, kind, and positive…” a beautiful young mother. Her husband left for the U.S., but she felt that the trip with two small children would be difficult… so she stayed here to work.

But this morning, as I greeted her, I saw “fear and concern” in her beautiful face. She got up and came to greet me, as she always did, but this time, she gave me a hug… and burst into tears. Haitians very rarely cry in public… but I could see the stress on her face. She broke my heart into a million pieces as she explained her fear of the gangs, the stress, the anxiety… I held her in my arms and prayed for her… She was crying so, so hard.

I have seen hungry children, children with bloated stomachs, and everything you could think of… We have been through hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes… We have been through “civil war in Haiti,” not to mention “accidents.” But, this was “different.” The Haitians have lost their joy, and some have lost their “will to live.”

I remembered the scripture in Psalms 137:1 a Psalm of the captivity of the people of Zion… “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof…”

The scripture goes on to say that those who carried the people into captivity wanted them to “sing a song…” but the captives hung their harps on the willow trees… they could no longer sing a song.

Please pray for the poor of Haiti… we need a miracle of deliverance from the gangs that surround us, as well as the “hunger and starvation.” I fear that the Haitian people are “giving up…” They are “hanging their harps on the willow trees…” They feel like giving up.

Please pray that God will send help… my heart is heavy, and my eyes are overflowing with tears.

Sherry