I first want to begin by letting our church family know that this weekend is our Children's Sunday at WCC! It will be a great, great time to see our children participate in all aspects of worship as well as to 'roll out' the vision of partnering with families to raise Spiritual Champions! Please join us for this awesome weekend celebration at either of our services - 9:30 or 11:00!
For the remainder of my blog I just want to provide information for you in regard to mission agencies that we currently work with or that we have relationship with who will be lending assistance to the peoples of Haiti. Right now the best way we can help is through our prayers and through our financial donations. I am going to list below two emails from both agencies - the contact information is also available - if you wish to support the Haitian fund through WCC then just give a gift to WCC and mark it Haiti relief fund. The agencies are Helping Him Ministries who we have partnered with in India and Heaven Sent Ministries who we have been developing a relationship with, but have not yet partnered with them as such (they are personal friends of mine and of the highest character, integrity and heart for the Lord)!
First email from Heaven Sent Ministries:
Dear Friends -
Heaven Sent Ministries is committed to sending an emergency shipment of food to the people of Haiti who have been devastated by yesterday's earthquake. How can you help? If you are close enough to our West Virginia facility to physically come and package food, we welcome your help. Call our office at (304) 425-7120 to reserve a specific two hour time slot during the next three weeks when you can volunteer. Or message Lynda Gravier or Mike Gravier on facebook and we'll get back to you. We will begin packaging this Friday and working every day through February 7. If you are too far to help with your hands, we desperately need extra funds to buy the food ingredients for this effort. You can send a check to HSM and write "Haiti Food" in the memo, or go to our website and find the details about how you can donate online.
This is absolutely a God-sized undertaking for our us, but we are trusting that God will get all of the glory. As we provide life-giving food to the victims of this disaster, we know that the food will arrive with the eternal-life-giving message of salvation. God can use this disaster to bring glory to Himself and to draw the people of Haiti into a relationship with Him!
You can reach us at this email address, gravierml@gmail.com
This one is from Richard Field's and Helping Him Ministries:
Dear Praying Partners,
As you can imagine the news coming in from Haiti is very sketchy at best. We have not been able to contact the House Of Blessings orphanage since the initial contact. So continue praying for them. The last we heard, Franky has not been able to contact Tanya. So continue praying for him, his safety and that he will be able to make contact with Tanya. Frankie is a great man of God, I am sure he is trying to do everything he can to contact Tanya and the orphanage. I am sure he is helping others wherever he is, he will let the light of Christ shine.
The ones who have satellite Internet have been able to continue communicating through this mode. That is how we are getting information and updates. Please pray that these connections remain, so we can continue to receive the information as it is gathered.
We have heard from the Ackerman's, Els and Stephon Vervloet and many others that they are safe and doing the best they can under the circumstances. Many friends and co-workers of the Murphy's have been sending messages that they are OK. There are some families that were in two different locations at the time of the earthquake and have not been able to contact each other. Then there are others that we have heard their homes and ministry centers have been severely damaged and no word at all from anyone.
So, as you see and can imagine many family members are worried and concerned about other family members, co-workers and friends. Many still are trying to locate others, so continue to pray for them to be found and reunited. Franky is not the only one that communication has been affected, as you can see there are several.
During the night there continued to be many aftershocks, many people slept outside away from their homes because of this. This has led to other concerns of safety. I am sure many did not sleep due to the location they are in and the circumstances.
As some of you are aware of, there is one main road going up the mountain from Port Au Prince to where the orphanage is located. It is a very mountainous road, cut into the side of the mountains. With an earthquake of this magnitude it could have been severely damaged, making it impassable. That could be the cause of Franky and others not able to make it home and much traffic delays.
We have been told that when the earthquake hit, there were many people in large buildings and stores that had time to get out before they collapsed. Some of the larger buildings withstood the initial earthquake, which gave time for the people inside to get outside. Then as the after shocks came these buildings crumbled to the ground. For this we are so thankful, I am sure we will hear how many lives were saved because of this. However, the reports remain that many people did not make it out alive.
The Vervolet's sent a message earlier that they were leaving their home to go and see if they can locate some of those unaccounted for and to see how they will be able to help. Pray for their safety as they travel, we are sure that some roads are impassable and all will be filled with people, ruble and the sort.
I am sure you have been keeping up with what the news media is saying. This is a very bad earthquake, many lives will be lost, it will take much to rebuild for many years to come.
People are sending us message about relief work camps and how to help out financially. As we stated earlier if you want to help financially at this time, send funds to us designating the funds for the relief work in Haiti. As for work camps, we are uncertain when we will be able to get teams in. The major air carriers have suspended flights into Haiti at this time, not giving a time when it will resume. The private ministries that fly supplies into Haiti are trying to get clearance to fly relief supplies into Haiti. The last we heard they were hoping to get a flight out today around noon time. We have been told the airport landing strips are in good shape but the airport tower has suffered sever damage.
We will continue to keep you posted as we get the news. Please pray for the people of Haiti!
Blessings,
Richard
Helping Hands In Motion
www.hhimtoday.com/blog
I trust, hope and pray that you will become more involved than ever in the life of your local church and work with us as we reach our communities, both at home and abroad with the help and hope that only Christ can provide!
From His Grace, For His Glory!
Biz
No comments:
Post a Comment