Comfort

^1-2 "Comfort, oh comfort my people,"
says your God. (Isa. 40 MSG)

"May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord," she said. "You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls." (Ruth 2 NIV)

⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. (Ps. 23 NIV)

⁵⁰ My comfort in my suffering is this:
Your promise preserves my life. (Ps. 119 NIV)

³"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
⁵Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.

My sister in law is a psychologist on the US Navy ship the COMFORT which is helping the people of Haiti right now. While I haven't watched all the reports about the situation in Haiti, I did watch when she was quoted on the NBC Nightly News broadcast Monday night. And I have read her Facebook posts and her emails - mostly telling how much great work they are doing, how proud she is of the Navy and the people there, and how utterly exhausted she is.

I read a report about the many people of Haiti who are now multiple amputees. With very little support for prosthesis, handicap accessibility, and medical follow-up care, I wonder if or how they will survive long term.

I hear about the 300,000 children who are now orphans there - up from 100,000 before the earthquake.

I hear of a government so corrupt for so long that this nation has had the poorest "standard of living of any country in the Western Hemisphere."

Jesus calls us to care for the widow, the orphan, the downtrodden... and I see the people of Christ's Church doing just that work through groups like International Aid and Compassion International.

My prayer is that God's people would step up and care for their brothers and sisters in Haiti. My prayer is that voodoo and other non-Christian religions would be wiped out in the Light of God. My prayer is that the widows, the broken, the orphans, the lost, the homeless....all of God's created peoples would be comforted by the Comforter Spirit and the work of Christ through his Church.