I wanted to take a moment away from my normal nonsense to lift up the people of Haiti as they deal with the aftermath of the horrible earthquake that rocked the small island country a few days ago. I have never been to Haiti, but there are people and organizations for which I have great respect who were heavily invested in ministry with the people there. My youth groups sponsored children through Compassion International for many years, and Compassion has a huge presence in Haiti. Even as I write this blog Compassion is seeking to learn which children, teachers, doctors and ministers survived this tragedy. My former youth and current youth pastor Ashely Goad Broadhurst has strong connections in Haiti and has been praying hard since the news first broke. Tony Campolo and students from Eastern College built many schools and did much work there. Tony often spoke of the people of Haiti being "the poorest of the poor." I once heard someone ask him if they were evangelizing the population, and Tony responded "Not yet. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." It is once again time to show how much we care. If you can give money, please do. If you have other gifts you can share, please do. But all of us can, and must, pray for these earthquake victims and their families in the name of Jesus. The Christ called on us in Matthew 25 to take care of "the least of these brothers of mine." Today- right now- we have an address for those very people. It's Haiti. Take time to care.
Because of Jesus,
Thank you so much, Carl. We have been praying without ceasing. Our hearts are joyful, as we have received word from many of our Haitian friends & family that they are indeed alive and well. However, we're also very saddened to learn that over 50% of our water systems have been destroyed...at a time when our people need water the most. We will continue to pray...and we'll be going down soon to begin assessment & repair.
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