Cite Soleil, "City of the Sun" or "Sun City", has been described as one of the most dangerous and impoverished places in the world. It is the largest slum in the world and is known for it's unsanitary conditions, poverty and crime. Most people in Cite Soleil live on less than 2 U.S. dollars a day. The illiteracy rate is as high as 66%. Armed gangs patrol the streets and disease is rampant. Didier Revol, an ICRC press officer based in Geneva, describes Cite Soleil as being "a microcosm of all the ills in Haitian society: endemic unemployment, illiteracy, non-existent public services, insanitary conditions, rampant crime and armed violence." (http://www.redcross.int/EN/mag/magazine2006_2/10-11.html)
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Under the blazing sun, we entered the shanty town. After driving through potholes and stagnant water laden streets, past shacks and people with skirting eyes, we finally arrived at the barred gate of Le Phare des Angeles orphanage, located off an alleyway where two Haitian men gazed at us with angry suspicion. Someone honked their horn and the gate was opened. We could barely squeeze the Mitsubishi in the narrow driveway alongside the shabby building that housed 28 or so orphans just inside Cite Soleil. We could hear the gate shut behind us as we exited the three SUV's we took to transport our team into the slum. We joined a small gathering underneath a ramshackle tarp that in all it's best efforts could not bear the heat of the day. Sweat dripping off their backs and seated on wooden benches, the congregation looked toward the Pastor who began reading from Psalm 46:
God is our refuge and strength,
and everpresent help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains shake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the City of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see the works of the Lord,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
"Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
The Lord Almghty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Shortly after the Pastor finished reading, the orphan children assembled at the front to sing a song. The song was "Count Your Many Blessings".
Google Earth
I'm sure we have all at some point or another looked up our homes on Google Earth. I did it once recently and could see my car sitting in the driveway. It was bizarre to me. We often use Google Earth for navigation through the streets of Haiti, and in this case, Cite Soleil. I had seen this area on satellite earlier in the day and as I sat on the hard wooden bench in a small tent church in Cite Soleil, I envisioned myself from that Google Earth perspective. My mind zoomed into Cite Soleil, to this part of the slum itself, then the alleyway we took to enter the tucked in little compound, the tent church crammed into tight quarters, and then to me. As I pondered whether or not this little tent church itself was visible from satellite, the verse in Hebrews that says "Nothing is hidden from God's sight" came to mind. I had always thought of that verse in a negative way, as a child, knowing that if I did something wrong that God still saw it. And that is true. But what is also true is that there is nothing good that the Lord does not see as well. And sitting there, in a small church in the largest slum of the world, in the sweltering heat, under a less than adequate tarp, I knew that this church was visible. Visible on Google Earth? I don't know. But visible to the Lord? Absolutely. He sees those who love and worship him, even in the midst of one of the worst, most violent, poverty stricken places in the world. They are not, and will never be, hidden from his sight.
