Why didn't God prevent the earthquake in Haiti?

The real answer is, "We don't know."

But there are four things that we do know. 

1. We live in a fallen world with a broken order.
We live in an exquisite, beautiful world with an amazing order. Ordinarily, the general order of things is that when we work hard, things go well. But we also know that we live in a fallen world with a broken order. So sometimes, if we work hard, things do not go well. There are earthquakes, floods & hurricanes that do tremendous damage. So when things go awry we will feel a lot of pain but not necessarily shock. 

When things go 'south', it drives us to the core of what makes us happy. If our core is money & power, we will be devastated. If our core is God, then that will drive us deeper into Him, and He will personally transform us to have the courage, wisdom & dignity to be what we really are: a child of God. 

2. God does miraculous acts in the midst of terrible circumstances.
Have you heard some of the stories? Like the people who were in the supermarket when the earthquake struck and ended up being trapped inside in a small area which had food & drink for 6 days until they were rescued...or of the 20 girls in the orphanage that VSPC helped construct who all somehow escaped unharmed while their house was reduced to rubble...these people all declare that God miraculously rescued them.Try to convince them they were just 'lucky' - won't happen. 

3. God is always with us in the midst of hardships, giving us strength & wisdom to bear through (and even be fruitful), even if the hardship does not turn out well. Plenty of testimonies: Joseph in prison, Bonhoeffer, John Stuntz, men & women who are enduring losses with amazing grace...probably you personally know people who can attest to this.

4. These things do not happen because some people are worse than others. 
It is wrong to try to attribute blame to someone for catastrophes that have happened. No one can know such things without divine revelations, and chances are most high that if someone claims to have such, they are deluded. Our job as human beings, and as a follower of Jesus is to crawl over the entire earth and seek out people who are in need, and do something to help - and fast. Doesn't matter if the people are 'deserving' or not. 

Food for thought
It is said that If we want to know what God is like, we should look at Jesus. So concerning this issue I always think about what Jesus did when he went to Lazarus' tomb. Why on earth did he weep in anguish at the tomb when he knew full well that Lazarus was gong to be alive in 10 minutes? I think it is because he can be 'both' 'and': feeling terrible about how bad things are at the moment (weeping in anguish) AND being able to rejoice in the rock-solid knowledge of how wonderful things will be in the future. 

What that means to me is that in the moment, even though I do not understand God's timetable, I know that Jesus understands my sorrow about terrible things: I picture him weeping in anguish with me, caring that much. I also picture Him doing a thousand things beneath the surface - all for good - that I cannot see. That helps. 

Written by Jayne George, Director of Kids Ministries. It is a compilation of thoughts from David George, Tim Keller, and a few others she has been reading.