Images from Haiti

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These photographs of the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Haiti were chosen for their image quality and ability to tell a story.  This first picture was chosen to set the tone for the post:  Amidst the rubble there are sunbeams.  Sunbeams symbolize hope.

Additional descriptions of the photos along with photographer credits can be viewed by stopping the cursor over the pictures.  All these pictures of Haiti are from and licensed for display here though PicApp by their respective photographers.

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An injured child drinks water.  We have all known thirst.  How good it is to have cool water to drink when one is thirsty.

if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.  [Matthew 10:42].

Matthew 10:42 is about giving water to Christians.  Christians are the little ones of God.  However, God has also called us to have compassion, and to care for all his creatures especially our fellow men.

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U.S. Marines unload water from a helicopter.

The righteous man thirsts for the word of God.  There are spiritual disaster zones within the visible church where we need men to bring in emergency supplies of the living water of God’s word.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” [John 4:13-14].

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U.S. Marines push a truck loaded with water.

May God send men with just as much determination to deliver the living water of God.  And just as these Marines push together as a unit, may all Christian men work together in unity striving to speak the clear pure word of God.

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.  Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.  [John 7:37-39].

The Spirit is received through word and sacrament.

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A church building damaged in Haiti.

The true Church does not consist of visible buildings and organizations, but rather the true Church is the people of God.  God no longer dwells in a tent or a temple, but rather his Spirit lives in the bodies of those people to whom he has given faith.

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A crucifix lays covered in dust within a destroyed Haitian church building.

A crucifix is a good representation of the truth.  It graphically shows us the high cost of sin and God’s mercy.

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A Pentecostal woman prays in Haiti during an outdoor service.  How is Pentecostal worship different from Lutheran worship?  Why is Pentecostal worship different from Lutheran worship?

Many churches do not preach the pure Gospel of salvation by grace through faith.  Instead, they teach a “gospel” of salvation by grace through faith tainted with self-righteousness.  Tainted water is unhealthy.  In order to survive, we need the pure clear water of God’s word of truth every day.

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Haitians wait in line for water.

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Water being distributed.

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A girl clutches bottles of water.

That which gives us life, we cherish.  The pure clear word of God gives us life.

We receive and embrace with our whole heart the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the pure, clear fountain of Israel.

[Book of Concord; Solid Declaration; Summary, Rule, & Norm, 1].

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A soldier watches a bus drive by.

That bus is colorful.

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Children around the world are the same.  What kids don’t like to watch helicopters?

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A helicopter delivering supplies lands in a cloud of dust sending people scurrying.

I tried to choose pictures for their photographic quality and their ability to tell a story.

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Part of the essence of being human is the ability to empathize, to understand and experience vicariously the lives of others.  That is what makes us able to cheer for others in a sporting event, and to sympathize with those who are suffering.  God also uses this gift to unite us into marriages, to make families, and to create one human race from one man.  We all share the same flesh and blood together with all men, including the new man, Jesus.

Can we experience the lives of these men and women atop this truck just by looking at them?  Can we understand the lives of the people in the other photos just by looking at their faces?  Can we envision the stories these photographs tell?

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A little girl sits with a soldier.

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A soldier gives a little toy to a seriously wounded boy before he is airlifted to a hospital ship.

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The first baby born on the hospital ship USS Comfort rests while her mother is in surgery.  Stop the cursor over the picture to read more.

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A soldier carries a little girl.

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A soldier carries a man.  “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 18:3).

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The man in the picture above had an injured leg, and could not walk.  Those who cannot walk cannot get to the hospital to receive healing.

In the same manner, because of the spiritual catastrophe of sin we are spiritually dead and cannot walk.  Little children are not ashamed to be carried.  We need to be carried.  Jesus will do this.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Do not refuse the help that Jesus Savior offers.

To the left are helicopters ferrying in supplies.

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Naval aircraft handlers unload Marine helicopters.

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This is a Haitian refugee camp.  Disasters often force people to live in tents for temporary shelter.  The Children of Israel lived in tents while they journeyed to the Promised Land.  They were a sign of our journey through baptism (the Red Sea) to the promised heaven.

All mankind has suffered a spiritual disaster called sin, and in Christ Christians look forward to the day when our physical tents will become permanent mansions.  Because of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, those who trust in him will be raised with glorified immortal bodies.  And just as Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple surpassed in greatness the wilderness tents, so also will our resurrected bodies in Christ surpass our current situation.

I live in the tent of this body …  [2 Peter 1:13].

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.  For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  [2 Corinthians 5:1-5].

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