From the bottom of my heart…thanks! Thanks for giving $65,000 this past weekend to help with the relief efforts in Haiti. In our partnership with Food for the Hungry we have chosen two specific areas in Port-au-Prince to serve 110,000 people. You can go to Google Earth and see both locations. The first is the Bellevue La Montagne zone north of the city and Delmas 22-75. Delmas is the main road in Port-au-Prince and all the streets that intersect with it are numbered, so we’re adopting an area that was heavily damaged.

In specific terms, I want you to see how your generosity has already helped thousands of people:

• 4,800 blankets, 160 rolls of plastic (to build make-shift tents), 2,200 solar-powered flashlights, two water community water filters, and 1,440 hygiene kits have been distributed through our partnership with Samaritan’s Purse.
• One truck load of food and water from the Dominican Republic has been delivered.
• A few hundred thousand dehydrated meal packs have been distributed through our partnership with Stop Hunger Now.
• Emergency health kits that will provide basic treatment to 10,000 people for 3 months have been put in the hands of those in need of medical attention through our partnership with Global Relief Alliance.
• Clothing, tarps, medical supplies (wheelchairs, bandages, gauze, etc…), water purifying tablets, water and food has been given to the homeless through our partnership with Kode Red.
• A combination of wheat, corn, and other fortified foods that will last a year has been passed out to thousands through our partnership with USAID & World Vision.
• Two distributions of medical supplies, one to a hospital and the other to a clinic, are being used by doctors as I type this.

So, you’ve already made a difference and we’re in the process of sending another $40,000 to Food for the Hungry, our main mission partner on the ground in Port-au-Prince, who has helped us reach people in need in the first week after the earthquake.

In addition, we are sending another $25,000 to our partners in the northwest part of the island because they are being inundated with refugees who are showing up on their doorsteps with nothing but the clothes on their back.

Our next step…

Food for the Hungry has asked if we would be willing to help them establish what they call “child friendly spaces” in the two areas of Port-au-Prince that we are adopting. After a war or a natural disaster, it is imperative that we help children process the trauma they have experienced by establishing routine and structured activities that include games and educational opportunities. These activities have a strong psychosocial component as they provide a caring and normalizing environment to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the children when their parents and guardians may be otherwise occupied. Typically these activities are located under trees, in what remains of schools, or any available space and offer games, drama, art activities, non-formal educational activities and sports. Eventually these activities transition into formal schooling once the rebuilding of a community takes place.

Here’s where you can play a role. Food for the Hungry needs us to buy:

1. Tents
2. Crayons
3. Coloring books
4. Paper
5. Notebooks
6. Pencils & Pens
7. Construction paper
8. Glue
9. Scissors (blunt)
10. Soccer balls
11. Toothpaste/Tooth brushes
12. Soap

Please bring these materials to our weekend services and put them on either side of Connection Point. 

Next, we have been asked by our mission partners in the northwest part of the island to provide the following items for the refugees that are leaving Port-au-Prince and settling in make-shift refugee camps:

1. Peanut Butter
2. Bed Sheet
3. Batteries (double AA & D)
4. Multi-vitamins (preferably the chewable type)
5. Tylenol & Advil
6. Neosporin
7. Hydrogen Peroxide
8. Rubbing Alcohol

Southland family, I would rather they have too much of something than not enough, so let’s pull together and demonstrate the kind of generosity that is reflective of the grace we have received from God through Jesus!

I love you and I’ll update everyone from stage this weekend. And thanks in advance for meeting the needs of the people of Haiti!!!