Impressions of the Third Mercy Medical Team in Haiti

Today was the first day of clinics in Port of Prince. This is our fourth team and the third that I have led.

As we drove into the city, the level of destruction soon became clear. First it was every few structures that had crumbled to the ground. As we drew closer into the city, entire blocks lay in ruins.

As the scale of destruction dawned on me, I began thinking back on the patients at the hospital in Jimani. I had seen in their eyes the trauma they were experiencing. I had seen open fractures and severed limbs and had thought, "What a horror this must have been for these people!" I knew then and still know now that I will never understand the tragedy they had endured, but now I was a step closer to gaining a glimpse of the pain of those who remain alive on this earth.

Photos from Jimani (The location of the hospital where the first MMT arrived one week after the quake)

Driving into the city, nothing could have prepared any of us for these sights. No number of photographs or hours of news coverage would ever be able to demonstrate the sights, sounds, and smells in this city. No matter how hard I tried to focus on the coming clinics, the same word continued to dominate my thoughts:"Hopeless.... hopeless."

I had to take a step back in my mind and remind myself of why we had come here. "One person at a time," I told myself.


As the shock wore away and the discussions with patients and Haitian pastors began, I realized that the situation here in Haiti is not hopeless. This event will never be forgotten, and the course of history in Haiti and the rest of the world will be forever changed. However, the spirit of the Haitian people will not be broken. They will continue to mourn the loss of life, yet their faith in God has been strengthened.

As each patient receives treatment, as each family receives a bag of food and the decades go by and life transitions back into some resemblance of normalcy, let us never forget the strength and faith of the Christians in Haiti. No one knows the pains and hardships of this earth better than they, yet they have demonstrated a profound understanding of God's peace.


That is what I will take home with me when I return to the United States--not stories of brave and caring Americans, nor the narrative of a hopeless future. I will take home with me a lesson from the people of Haiti: that no pain or loss on this earth can ever outweigh God's mercy.