It is good to be back in Haiti.  There is something surreal about a place so different than our culture, yet only an hour and a half flight away.  Our flight from Miami to Haiti was our shortest flight of the day (Detroit-->Dallas-->Miami-->Port-au-Prince).  My immediate first impression of Haiti was that not much has changed since I was here exactly 1 year ago.  While you don't see as many piles of rubble, you see just as many tent cities strewed about the capital city.  It is a sobering feeling to think about living in a patchwork conglomerate of tarps for a year and a half, raising a wife and children.  This is by far the biggest thing that has hit me.  It is no longer sexy in America to help Haiti.  That $10 Red Cross text message is as much a thing of the past as the Backstreet Boys.  It is amazing how trends shift in our culture from hip to forgotten.  This is how our entire culture works so it's no surprise that our attention span for disaster relief works the same way.  Do you remember when iPod screens were that dim greenish color?  Or how cell phones used to only be telephones?  Or when it was cool to roll up your jeans at the bottom?  Our culture conditions us to be cool today and to forget yesterday.  We have moved from Katrina to Haiti to Japan to tornadoes to Bin Laden like someone with no long term memory whatsoever.  "The CNN effect" fixates our attention on the current trauma with over-the-top amounts of media attention and analysis.  But after a few days, or maybe a few weeks, the news crews roll out, our life goes on, and we move on to feasting on the next trauma the news has before us...after we send in our $10 text donation of course.  The harsh reality is that these traumas continue to exist for the people ravished by them, they cannot turn off the TV or turn the page of the newspaper; especially in a country that was the poorest in the Western Hemisphere before the earthquake even hit.  Being in Haiti again is a sober reminder to me that Haiti needs our support as much as it ever has.  We need to pray for our brothers and sisters that they will be lifted up with the mighty power of God in holistic transformation ways, knowing His mercies are new every morning.  Knowing that He loves them; and that WE LOVE THEM.  We need to analyze our lives and the ways we spend our lavish wealth and consider donating to agencies like World Relief, helping the most vulnerable in Haiti.  I keep thinking:  What if I was born in Haiti?  What if my parents died of AIDS?  Or in an earthquake?  What would become of me?  Haiti is a place of such beauty, and such sorrow.  I read Psalm 77 tonight and was greatly encouraged that our God is one who's might is just as strong today as it has been the creation of the world.  Please consider how you can be a part of lifting up Haiti: in prayer, through donating, through spreading the vision of Lansing for Haiti and World Relief.  It is good to be back in Haiti.  -Noah