We are in Haiti.  I just need to keep letting that sink in.  I am closer now then I have ever been to one of the poorest places on this planet.

Last week, I was boating on Lake Minnetonka, eating Famous Daves, steak and other amazing food, driving great cars.  It is not wrong to do or have any of those things.  What is difficult is describing how I feel now… seeing what I am seeing.  Another Heartliner, Heather Hendrick wrote this recently.

“It’s like being in a movie theater, watching a scary, disturbing movie then walking down the hall, a few doors down into a Disney movie.  It’s hard to process.  It’s also hard to stay in my seat or listen.  What I want to do is stand up and tell people what is going on a few doors down.  Right on the other side of the wall.  While we’re all sitting here in this new room talking about the weirdest topics, trying to convince ourselves that God is good and gracious towards us in our peaceful, thermostat regulated lives, horrible, horrible things are happening right down the hall to an unimaginable number of people.”

I realize that I knew nothing of these things less then a year ago.  These things are happening all around the world right now.  This second.  Today, they stare me in the face, right outside our door.  What I know is that my own life, my own self-absorption, my own self-centeredness, is apparent to me while being here.

I realize that I didn’t really know or understand.  I mean I read some articles in the paper but I didn’t know.  Really know.  I believe that it is lack of knowing that leads us to do nothing.  The Guest House is a great ministry because it is providing a place for people to stay while serving and helping in Haiti.  It allows us (me included) to come be involved and really know.  It is more than an article in the paper.  It is real life, day in and day out for these people.

It does not have to be Haiti!  There are many great places to be involved and be informed.

How can we really know?

• Read books, online blogs, and other online media.
• Setup Google Alerts using keywords on subjects you are interested in.
• Connect with people that are out in the field.  Maybe missionaries you, your family or church supports financially?  A part of sending and being the one that stays is being connected to mission work through the missionaries that are being supported.
• Other ideas?

What books, blogs have you read that open your eyes to the poor around the world?  What ways are you able to really know and be involved with the least of these?