Disaster Relief in Haiti
Isaiah 58:6-12
“6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. (NIV)
A few weeks ago Pastor Keith shared a story that a pastor friend of his had told him about a little girl in an orphanage he had worked in last summer in Haiti. The orphanage had 200 children. The mission team had almost run out of food. They had a can of peanuts and gave each of the children one peanut. There was a twelve year old girl there that took her peanut and cut it up into twelve pieces in order to give more to the smaller children. I didn’t think it was possible to cut a peanut up twelve ways. His pastor buddy is a very honest man so he believed him. Pastor Keith shared with our church that we spend billions of dollars in the United States on losing weight and people are starving to death all over the world. Based on Isaiah 58, we decided, as a church, to take $7 a week for three weeks, a total of $21, and to send that money to Haiti to buy food. This was before the earthquake hit Haiti! Last Sunday Morning we collected over $1000 to buy food for Haiti! Not bad for a small church of about 50 people. Pastor Keith has a good pastor friend that has several connections in Haiti. Pastor Keith called him Saturday night and told him we needed someone we could trust to get the money to Haiti because we would be taking up money for food on Sunday. He said that he had just put a trip together and that he would be leading a team to Haiti on February 8. Here is the really cool part. Refer back to Isaiah 58, verse 12. One of the orphanages he works with had the security wall around it crumble as a result of the earthquake. It is a serious security issue to leave these children unprotected. Long story short, Pastor Keith will be going with them on this trip. The Team will work in the day time REPAIRING THE BROKEN WALL! They will preach and do evangelism at night. Pastor Keith was already amazed that God had led us to give to Haiti before the earthquake even happened. As Pastor Keith went back and read Isaiah 58, He sat amazed at how accurate God is: sharing food with the hungry, building broken walls, WOW!
The Mission Team will be leaving February 8 and will be doing Disaster Relief, helping with food in refugee camps, doing repair work on orphanages and a lot of evangelism.
So please be in prayer for Pastor Keith and the Mission Team he is going with. They will be flying into the Dominican Republic and staying in some very primitive conditions.
Haiti is also very heavily influenced by Voodoo. Pray that Mission Team will keep their attitudes and motives pure because they don’t want to give the devil a foothold in an epicenter of demonic activity.
If you are interested in donating please feel free to click the Donate Button on the home page or you can contact Pastor Keith at 865-984-0465.