Amongst the heart-rending images from the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, we repeatedly saw survivors with their arms raised pleadingly skyward. These words, written in 1935 under Nazi persecution, hold an answer to the helplessness we feel in the face of so much suffering.

Christ alone can save us in this hour. He is perfect, forgiving love. Everything depends now on this one thing: Do you believe in Christ? Do you love Christ?

"A Haitian Angel" by Caitlin(Age 15)

What good does it do to lament about our sin? Only one thing is decisive - that we believe in Christ and that we love and trust Christ. If we now feel how the whole unhappy world is going to pieces and what an illusion such words as love, peace, and justice are, then we know there is only one true Man, who called himself the Son of Man, the Child of Man. For us only Christ remains.

Let this be the innermost meaning of these weeks and months, dear brothers and sisters - that absolutely nothing remains for any of you but Christ alone. I have nothing else to hold on to for my life or death, nothing else to believe in for my neighbours, for the people close to my heart, nothing else to trust in for our community, nothing else to hold on to for a world going to pieces - I must confess I have absolutely nothing but Christ alone! If we recognize this with the deepest feelings of our heart, then much has happened in us.

However invincible the powers of sin seem to be, however dark the forces of sickness appear, greater than all is the power of love, the forgiving, restoring love that was revealed in Jesus Christ. Therefore let us love him, for he loved us first. Let us believe him, love him, follow him!