Faces

Recently I was asked to shoot for another missionary organization in Southern Haiti.  I found myself at the end of the day riding on a schoolbus, in the open doorway as we weaved and dodged the traffic on the National Route.  It struck me hard, because this was exactly what my first experience in Haiti was like, coming into the country just after the earthquake in 2010.   A hundred moments that would break your heart pass by in a blur.   All you can do is catch your breath, and decide if you're going to let it all go.  

The first time in-country, all I could visualize was stepping off the bus when the driver stopped, and the cloud of dust that would arise, the chaos from that first step, that first break from all things safe and delusional, into the reality that is Haiti.  

This trip, I still visualized stepping off the bus, and whether it was stopped or going, I didn't care.  
Haiti has such a piece of my heart, and the rest is shattered.  I began to look back through the images of the last 2 years, thousands and thousands of images...There is a vast body of work.   
I was taken aback at the deep sorrow I felt as I flipped through face after face...
He was shot and killed...
She disappeared...
She died...
He's dead now... 
He left his family....
His daughter was attacked with a machete...
This little boy still has the hardest life...
This little girl still doesn't have a home...
Her parents are dead...
She was raped...
He was taken away and never heard from again...
She was beaten.
And then, so many, 'we were once such good friends'... 

I heard a woman cry out just yesterday,  "I just want to see His Power!"  

Remembering it all, I'm wondering if they will ever be able to put me together again.
Such things these eyes have seen, these ears have heard, and only the Lord my God will have the shoulder for me to bury my tears.  Only His hand on my head will suffice, because there are too many questions unanswered and too many mistakes for me to ever understand except through the lense of eternity. 

All I can think of are those very last lines in that very sacred Book,
'Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.'