Reflections on Haiti

What happened in Haiti was and is devastating. So why does God allow this kind of destruction if He loves us? Especially in a country where 80% of its people were already living in poverty?
If Jesus has the power to calm the storm, "Who is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him." (Mark 4:41), as well as the power to control all the elements then why does He allow things like tsunami's, earthquakes, and hurricanes to happen?
The tsunami tragedy in Asia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and now 7 days ago the earthquake in Haiti has many people questioning God's goodness. Adam Donyes, the K-2 men's assistant director, covers these issues really well in his blog so I'm gonna share what he had to say:

The Word states that Christ holds all of nature together (Col. 1:16-17). Could God prevent natural disasters? Absolutely! Does God sometimes influence the weather? Yes, as we see in Deuteronomy 11:17 and James 5:17. Numbers 16:30-34 shows us that God sometimes causes natural disasters as a judgment against sin. The book of Revelation describes many events which could definitely be described as natural disasters (Revelation chapters 6, 8, and 16).

Is every natural disaster a punishment from God? Absolutely not. And we should never, ever, ever, presume whether or not we know that a natural disaster is God's judgment. Since God identified Job as the most righteous of men (see Job 1:1, 8; 2:3), the book of Job forever refutes the notion that every tragedy that befalls people is a judgment on their sin. While no one is sinless, and bad things do happen to morally perfect people (because there are no morally perfect people), they can and sometimes do happen to the best people. God is free in our lives, as He was in Job's, to permit personal or natural disasters for His own sovereign purposes without ever being an evildoer.

In much the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts, God allows the earth to reflect the consequences sin has had on creation. (Romans 8:19-21) tells us, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The fall of humanity into sin had effects on everything, including the world we inhabit. Everything in creation is subject to “frustration” and “decay.” Sin is the ultimate cause of natural disasters just as it is the cause of death, disease, and suffering.

The Bible helps us understand why natural disasters take place. It does not tell us why God allows them to occur, so we should never assume that we know why He does! Why did God allow the earthquake in Haiti to kill over 100,000 people? I don't know, none of us do. But I do know such events cause us to contemplate eternity and what occurs after death! Regardless of disaster God is still good. Tragedy doesn't change His goodness, perhaps if we look close enough it actually illuminates even more. The opportunities we possess as the body of Christ to show His hand in the midst of suffering, in the midst of loss, and in the midst of confusion is at its greatest in the midst of natural disasters. We have that opportunity to show His hand now! People in Haiti are re-evaluating what is valuable to them, they are contemplating the meaning of life. They are questioning who or what can be powerful enough to do this. God can, and does, bring great good out of terrible tragedies- Romans 8:28.