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I’m in the home stretch of this painting I’m creating for the 2010 Together For Adoption Conference. It’s called “HAITI: We Have Not Forgotten.” It will be auctioned off in an effort to hopefully raise at least $10,000 to help the orphans in Haiti.

Here’s photos from Day 10 and 11…

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Wrapping up a painting is like finishing a really good book. You are so anxious to get to the last page to find out what happens, but then once you’re there, you wish there was more to read.

I can’t say I wish there was more to paint on this piece, but I do feel it’s a bittersweet moment to be done with a project that I’ve spent half the month on.

The most striking thing I’ve found about nearing the end of this painting is how many people I keep finding in the shadows. I tried to count them all, but it is too daunting of a task. The people are so tiny in the photo — it’s almost impossible to see each and every one of them without a magnifying glass.

I feel such a strong sense of irony in this regards.

It’s hard for me to even think of them as REAL PEOPLE, yet I don’t want to leave anybody out of the painting. I try to pray for some of them as I’m adding them to the painting, but my mind always wanders back to shapes and colors. Not their souls.

But these are REAL PEOPLE that I’m painting. Not just images on a page. They have souls.

I want to account for each and every one of these little people who I’ve never met. I want to add their bodies to my painting as a witness to the fact that there is still hope and beauty in Haiti.

Yet how much more does GOD care for all of them? He knows each of them personally. He knows their names and their stories. He knows their souls. And he knows the ones who were never found. The hundreds of thousands of people who met their death in the collapsing buildings. The people whose bodies were never found in the shadows or rubble.

The irony of all of this is something I’m still trying to wrap my mind around.

How can God know every single person in my painting, as intimately as He does? How can he know every single person who died in the earthquake on January 12th, as intimately as He does? How can he handle the immense sadness of losing all those REAL PEOPLE? People He loves more than we can ever imagine. People He loves as much as He loves both you and me.

I don’t know. I guess that’s just part of what it means to be God.

By the grace of God, there is still hope and beauty alive in Haiti.

Can we help to keep hope alive in Haiti?

Yes. We can tangibly show the love of God to the orphans of Haiti by helping to care for their physical needs. As the bible says in first chapter of the book of James, in the 27th verse…

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

For more details on how you can care for the orphans of Haiti in their distress, or how you can attend the 2010 Together for Adoption Conference, please see the links below.

Build an orphanage in Haiti

World Orphans work in Haiti

2010 Together For Adoption National Conference