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The Scratch

By Robert Pinkston

I have a scratch on the face of my Timex Expedition watch. I knew I should not have taken it to Haiti following their devastating earthquake, but I am glad I did. I was there to do disaster relief and restore some type of hope in the name of Jesus Christ. House after house was broken, some lying in rubble on the ground and others with cracked and crumbling walls. My scratched Timex is a constant reminder of the brokenness and yet resilience that I experienced among the Haitian people.

Nearly everyone in Port-au-Prince was affected by the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Many lost loved ones and dear friends, lost their means of income, and over 70% have homes that are beyond repair. I expected the Haitian people to be broken and downcast. Most everyone was living and sleeping in the street or in a makeshift campsite, having fashioned a temporary shelter with a tarp, blankets and rope, or quite often telephone wire. Instead what I discovered was a people with an incredible hope in God, His goodness in their present and His provision for the future.

What was particularly of interest to me amid all this destruction, with houses flattened like pancakes, was the occasional house that was virtually intact. On closer observation, one could see that the foundation was strong and considerable care and workmanship had been put into the construction of the building. I learned later in the week that many Haitian contractors would pride themselves on being able to build a house with as little cement as possible, saving money in the process. Jesus said upon his conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”

Conversely, the foolish man who built his house on the sand, when the storms rose, the “house fell with a great crash.” While His teachings could certainly be applied to building practices, I thought of our lives. It is hard and costly work to build our lives on the rock of Christ. It takes time to know His Word and principles. It is counter culture to apply them in decisions of our life. The world offers quicker, seemingly easier and less costly answers. Yet in the reality of the tests of life, they will erode and give way. The crash will be great. In the end they will cost more than we were willing to pay. Amid the earthquake that is surely to come, the house with the firm foundation will stand.

In Port-au-Prince we would climb the hillsides each day to the most affected and damaged areas of the city. For some reason, these ‘houses on a hill’ had been neglected by most relief agencies. I did not see signs of any other humanitarian group the whole time we were there, except for a tarp from Samaritan’s Purse. Our task was to clear the rubble from these crumbled houses. Our team of 11 North Americans were joined by a team from a local church. Neighbours would gather as we would begin our back-breaking job. Some were sceptics, others were incredulous. They would all watch as black and white, Haitian and North American would work together to restore hope. Hope in a caring, loving God is what we had to give. Soon, one by one the neighbours would join in. Before long we were 30 to 40, working as one team. Brick by brick we would remove the brokenness right down to the foundation.

One morning as I was part of a chain gang stacking broken bricks on the side of a slippery muddy hill, a gentleman climbed up the hill through a thicket with his young son. He was dressed in a very nice dress shirt. He just stood there staring at me. Finally, when I was getting very self-conscious, he spoke. ‘Where are you from and why are you here?’ I explained. He still wasn’t convinced. ‘You mean you came from Canada, no one is paying you and you are clearing the rubble from the home of a total stranger?’ he asked. Once again I explained that we were there because we love Christ and we want to help the Haitian people. He was lost deep in thought for what seemed like several minutes. Then he turned to me, ‘If you can come half-way around the world to help my people, then I can help my people!’ And with that he rolled up his sleeves, grabbed his son by the arm and went to work, oblivious to the fact that his shirt was getting muddy. He helped us for the next two days!

The Haitians taught me a Creole word, ‘COMBITE’ (comb-beat). They would begin saying it as we were all working together. It refers to the olden days when farmers would work together to put up a barn or bring in the crops. The Haitians would smile and laugh and say ‘combite,’ to each other. I could see by the gleam on their faces that they realized that their synergy was the ‘salvation’ to their city and their lives. Our sense of working together in Christ name was maybe the greatest contribution we gave. It reminded me of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 that ‘they (His followers) would be one.’ This particularly is relevant to me in North America as each church and denomination often ‘does their own thing’ and distrusts the others. Recently, the mayor of Sherbrooke, Quebec, where I live, stated that evangelicals could not be taken seriously because they are so divided. The irony is that of our team of 11 were from at least 5 different churches and 3 denominations. We learned that through COMBITE we were one and we were making a difference.

Yes, there is a scratch on the face of my Timex Expedition watch. It is a constant reminder, that in the face of overwhelming odds, but with an undying faith and hope in the living God, you can ‘take a licking, but keep on ticking.’