By now, most of the international news media have left Haiti, off to cover the next natural disaster to visit the planet.  Likewise, most of the people of the West, unless they have been reminded of the hurricane in recent days, have moved on to other causes. Though many Western aid organizations are on the ground in Haiti, most have ended their fund raising appeals for the aftermath of the hurricane.
     But the people of Haiti remain.  Thousands remains homeless, thousands are mourning loved ones, thousands more are dying of cholera, and the entire country languishes, crumpled under the weight of the second major natural disaster to hit the nation in four years.
     Who's still thinking about Haiti?  Granted, few of us can leave our responsibilities to offer help, and sure, even fewer of us can direct resources sufficient to make even a dent in the country's ills.  Perhaps the most important thing the rest of us can do at this point is to pray.  Yes, many of us can raise all kind of objections of the efficacy of prayer, but unless we are prepared to acknowledge that this world is entirely without purpose or meaning, we do so in vain.  Although God may seem indifferent to Haiti's pain, we make our day even darker if we assert that this means he is not there at all.
     For this makes us no more than a warm, soon to be cold plop of matter in an equally warm, soon to be cold universe.  If we care about the people of Haiti at all, we must care about God.
     And that's why we pray.