Haiti Update

This post is so late coming. Tomorrow will be one week since the earthquake rocked Haiti and devastated so many lives on an island where people live a lot of their life in desperation. Friends have asked me what I know about what has happened and I've explained to them what I have heard from those in contact with the people I met while I was there just over a month ago. I just kept thinking that everyone kind of already knew since some of my friends were posting things, but I didn't think through the entire thing clearly to think about those of you who don't know those who are posting the updates.

I will make several posts here on this blog of the updates that I've received so that you will know better how to pray and where to give to touch the lives of people in Haiti who have had an impact on my life.

First, we received news that the mission on which we stayed, Double Harvest (you can donate and help them here: www.doubleharvest.org )sustained some damage, but that the medical clinic is still in tact and that they are able to treat people there. Also, the village that is right outside of double harvest sustained major damage, but that there were no fatalities. Thank you, Lord.

Second, we received news that the lady who interpreted for us, Rebecca Larkin for the week and lives on the other side of Port Au Prince, closer to the epicenter, is safe but that her orphanage that she assists with sustained major damage. They care for over 100 children there and they have had no shelter, their food was buried under one fallen building, and they have no clean water to speak of. You can donate to this mission and see a pictures of Rebecca at www.hearttohearthaiti.com I actually just got on her blog www.rebeccalarkin.blogspot.com and saw pictures of the children eating so that is a great update and truly calms my heart tonight. Be sure to pray with her amazing/heart-wrenching prayer that she posted on Sunday, January 17.

These are the things that have been truly heavy on my heart for the last week and have really cluttered my mind with thoughts about how much I really care for the rest of the world that our Jesus cares so much for that he gave his life. I mean, I've heard the stories of the tsunamis or the hurricanes or the mudslides that have wiped people out, but as much as I thought I cared, I have never been devastated in my soul about it like I am right now. These are people that I know, that I held hands and prayed with just a few weeks ago and then really left Haiti caring for. Now they are in very real trouble, fighting for their own lives and the lives of those around them. These are people who have given up their cozy life in North America to go to the poorest country on this side of the world and give their life there and now they are truly living day to day in the realization of God's grace and his power to take or save their life. These are people who have never known, even for a day, the comfort and ease that I have enjoyed everyday of my life...and now this.

It's heavy...I don't know where to put it in my brain...but I know that I am praying like I've never prayed before for these people, my friends, in Haiti. Please do the same.