Haiti Earthquake Relief

I am a Compassion Blogger.
But I've really struggled today with blogging about the Haiti Earthquake.

Because I don't know what to say.

How do you motivate people to soften their hearts to a nation in so much pain that we can't fathom? Yes, we had Katrina and 9/11 and Pearl Harbor and other tragedies. But we have a usable infrastructure. And we have resources. And our nation is HUGE, geographically, so we can get things from other parts of the country. And we're not destitutely poor. (yes, English majors, I made that word up!) We know what it means to suffer, but we cannot even fathom what it means to be Haitian right now.

To say that my heart breaks for the people of Haiti is both a slap in the face to their suffering and an understatement.

My heart does not "break" -- because I am not walking the streets lined with rotting bodies.
Their hearts break.
Their lives have been shattered.

Where do you turn when you live on an island? What do you do when your only airport runs out of fuel for planes, so help can't get to you? What do you do when the roads buckle, making transportation to your only neighboring country nearly impossible?

I saw one man on CNN this morning who said he was just walking the streets because he had nowhere to go. His home and the homes of everyone he knew had been destroyed.
No church.
No hospital.
No government.
No stores.
No restaurants.
No gas stations.
No banks.
No phones.
No email.
No water.
No food.
No news coming in about when the help will arrive (or if it will).

How do we keep ourselves from stagnating?
For starters, we give.

Compassion has been at work in Haiti for over 30 years. They work through the local church (how very Baptist of them!), which means that they didn't have to figure out how to get the helpers into the country. They were already there.

They just need our resources.
They need us to reach our hands across the internet to join forces with them.
Even if our lives allowed it, we cannot go to Haiti right now.
But we can send our hearts to those who are there.

If every person in America were able to give just $1.00 to Haiti, just one time, that country would have almost 3.5 times what Obama promised to the country from our government. We know that not everyone CAN give, so when you do, throw in a few extra dollars for those people who cannot give.

And pray.
Pray for the children who have lost their parents - either temporarily or permanently.
Pray for the parents who are now childless.
Pray for Compassion.
And the countless other organizations pulling together every last bit of water and food and bandaids they can find.
Pray for the workers, digging through countless miles of concrete rubble in hopes of finding just one more person alive.

Pray for mercy.
Pray for speed.
Pray for peace.

The world is watching right now.
What will we do for our neighbors?
Will we give them our crumbs from the table?
Or will we invite them to sit with us and feast in God's Kingdom?

You can provide immediate relief today.

• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

Let's be Jesus' hands and feet to Haiti right now.
Go.