The Struggle Continues to Unfold

Every day, it seems there is another unique story of enormous tragedy. Yet every day, there are stories of courage and hope. It's as if you can feel the struggle unfolding between good and evil, light and darkness,... life and death. The people of Haiti continue to need our help. Click here to hear a recent phone report from a friend of mine, Dr. Vernon Brewer, who is on the ground in Haiti helping with the relief efforts this week. Below is a moving (and graphic) display of the need and the invitation for people to help.

This is NOT happening!

There is nothing spiritual about what I'm about to type. However, something random just occurred that's the icing on the cake for my week. About 15 minutes ago, a huge chunk of one of my eye teeth literally just fell off! Today, both my kids are home sick from School. Donna was sick hurling all day Monday, which is not easy to do while wearing a a cast. Last night I came home after my Tuesday night Immerse bloc,.. Maris (our dog) jumped into my arms and peed all down the front of me. Donna had forgotten to take her out.

And NOW THIS! (Is it normal for my jaw to throb? I think so!)

At this stage, I'm waiting for my body to become covered in boils. Gotta go now. Gonna break a pottery vase, pick up a shard or two and any minute now, start scraping away!!

Speechless

I read this today from the AP. Speechless.

Trapped beneath the remains of her home, a nine-year-old girl could be heard begging for rescue yesterday as neighbours clawed at sand and debris with their bare hands.

It had been two days since the earthquake collapsed the cinderblock home in Port-au-Prince, trapping Haryssa Keem Clerge inside the basement. Friends and neighbours braved aftershocks to climb over the rubble, one of hundreds of toppled structures teetering on the side of a ravine.

The city is full of people desperate for more help than neighbours can muster, and it never came for Haryssa.

Just hours after her screams renewed the hopes of rescuers yesterday, her lifeless body was finally pulled from the mass of concrete and twisted metal. It was wrapped in a green bath towel and placed in a drawer. There was nowhere to take it, so the body was then left on the bonnet of a battered Isuzu Trooper.

"There are no police, no anybody," said Haryssa's despairing godmother, Kettely Clerge. Neighbours had to hold her back as she wailed: "I want to see her."

A day earlier, the child's mother, Lauranie Jean, was pulled from the rubble of the house. She lay moaning in a tent as volunteers rubbed ointment into her wounds.

The family has now taken refuge in a dirt playground, one of hundreds of open spaces across Port-au-Prince that are filled each night by people trying to avoid aftershocks.

Haitians living in the capital's growing tent cities say they do not expect help to come soon. "People are waiting for someone to take care of them," said Michel Reau, 27, who brought his wife and infant child to the park after their home collapsed. "We are out of food. We are out of water." Haryssa's godmother had doted on her, according to a neighbour, Bellefleur Jean Heber. She raised her as though she were her own daughter and walked her to school in their Petionville district every day.

As word spread yesterday that the child was still alive, more than a dozen people came to help. Inside the cramped basement, Haryssa was trapped by a partially collapsed roof. Rescuers got close enough to pass her water but they could not get food to her before she died. Heber said nobody expected help from the authorities. "Haiti is an abandoned country," he said. "People are relying on themselves."

Across Port-au-Prince, similar tragedies unfolded yesterday. At the St Gerard school, Cindy Terasme broke into sobs when she caught sight of the feet of her 14-year-old brother, Jean Gaelle Dersmorne, protruding from the rubble. The child was dead. So was another schoolgirl known only as Ruth, whose dust-covered legs dangled lifelessly from a collapsed wall.

There was at least one encouraging tale. Spanish rescuers pulled a two-year-old boy from a collapsed home last night. Dirty and teary-eyed, Redjeson Hausteen Claude appeared to smile at his ecstatic mother as he was carried from the rubble.

An unknown number of people remain buried after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit on Tuesday, collapsing houses, office buildings and a children's hospital. Haitians used sledgehammers and their bare hands to search for survivors or bodies, piling the dead up at roadsides across the city.

Associated Press, guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 January 2010 12.21 GMT

I never blog twice in one day...however...

I was just reminded by Scott Hofert that we have taken part in initiatives to feed children in Haiti in the past through Love Haiti Missions. We would like to include this organization as one of the places that would be worthy of sending resources to as well. Click here to read more on that front.

I also just read Vernon Brewer's blog. He's the president of World Help, the organization I mentioned in my earlier blog this morning. It was such an incredible post, I felt the need to share it with the rest of you.

_____________________

January 14, 2010

I was humbled by a blog that one of my good friends Cheryl Smith wrote. She posted it yesterday and it concerns World Help's efforts in Haiti. I wanted to share it with you.

Vernon Brewer.

Earthquake in Haiti Shakes My Morning

This morning I had an early meeting scheduled with Rusty Goodwin and Noel Yeatts at World Help to discuss their Twitter strategy. World Help is a nondenominational Christian organization that was founded to meet the spiritual and physical needs of hurting people around the world. They are taking seriously the call of Christ to minister to “the least of these.”

Last night, Rusty asked if we could meet a bit later because he needed to talk about Haiti with Founder and President, Vernon Brewer. Vernon is a man of great vision. Because he has spent a lifetime in obedience to the call of God on his life, World Help has been ministering in Haiti for ten years. There are several hundred children who are being sponsored by the gifts of everyday people like you and me.

As I was driving to the meeting with a cupajoe for Rusty, he called to see if we could reschedule. They were all slammed trying to figure out how to minister effectively in Haiti. I completely understood! I offered to drop off the coffee, pray for them and then leave so they could get to work. I’m glad I did because here is what I learned:

God is About Positioning

• For ten years, World Help has been building in Haiti. Building feeding centers. Building churches. Building relationships.
• World Help has established relationships with partners in Haiti and elsewhere, thus positioned for expedient help. World Help staff will make an impact. Quickly, while time is of the essence.
• Before there was even an earthquake, World Help was preparing. Three days ago two containers with $2.5 million dollars in medical supplies, medicine and shoes arrived at the wharf in Port-Au-Prince, simply waiting to be unloaded. There, ready before anyone even knew about an earthquake. Except God.
• Vision goes beyond crisis. Vernon’s ultimate vision is for World Help to provide clean water to people who need it most. Once the need for humanitarian aid is met, clean water will be an ongoing need in Haiti. Through Causelife.org, World Help will continue to meet the needs of people in Haiti, and around the world.

I’m blown away by the hand of God in using Vernon and World Help to minister to the people of Haiti. Perhaps this is a picture of one life, several lives, yielded to God.

Be Found Faithful

Haiti Relief

Watershed just responded to the crises in Haiti by channeling some of it's justice and mercy resources through World Help. World Help is the organization where Scott, Taryn, Donna and myself first met and cut our teeth in leadership and ministry. If you would like to join Watershed in getting involved in this effort and would like a trusted organization to work through, World Help is our suggestion.

Click here to learn more.

Tom Rogers Hospitalized in critical condition.

Good morning. I just got off the phone with Scott Hofert this morning. His step father, Tom Rogers, was admitted last night to CMC in the University area. He is in critical condition. Apparently, his ongoing struggle with his health surrounding the loss of his kidney's several years back, is really taking it's toll. He's on a ventilator and not doing well at all. Due to the seriousness of this bout, they've called his kids to come in from Buffalo

Tom and Diane were a part of the original core team that launched Watershed over 4 years ago. They have been like surrogate family for the O'Neil's, including us in on Holiday gatherings and family events when we first arrived here in Charlotte. They are like family. As much as his health would allow, Tom has been in Threshold, been a part of blocs and served in cafe' throughout the past four years. He's an wonderful man, a good friend and a lover of Jesus.

Please pray for Diane, Tom's children and of course Scott, Nels, Brian and their prospective spouses and kids. In my conversation with Scott this morning he and his family have asked that on one visit at this time and that any prayers or encouraging words be emailed to he or his mom. Diane's email is diane@comehomecarolina.com. Thanks.