cross-posted from the "Pneumas in Haiti" blog

Haiti gets into you.

It gets under your skin and up your nose and all over your feet.

It pours over your head like a cold shower and drips out of your pores.

It slams your vision with images of people - faces you may or may not remember, but in places you will never forget: thronging an open market, picking through a garbage heap, lying alone in a crib reaching up to be held.

It won't be silent, filling your ears with beeping horns, crowing roosters and enthusiastic music at all hours of the day and night.

As it jostles you down rutted roads, it jolts your expectations with startling contrasts: tin-roofed concrete block houses surrounded by lush mango trees, a beautiful home that lacks running water, families bathing and washing clothes in a muddy river minutes away from a clear blue ocean.

And, somehow, while you are distracted by all of its sights, sounds, and smells, Haiti creeps and seeps into your soul. Compassion for its people wraps around your heart and squeezes until you weep for the overwhelming multitude of needs. Who can fix it? No amount of money seems sufficient to satisfy all the starving children, build the necessary infrastructure, and educate millions of illiterates. You begin to understand the mindset of people who live only for today because there is no hope for tomorrow.

But there are bright beacons of hope shining with the love of Jesus all through Haiti. No one can fix everything, but each can help some. Offering hope to a handful of people at a time, they follow God's call to bring up a generation with hope beyond today or tomorrow ... hope into eternity.

Pray for these people who are committing their lives to serve the Lord in Haiti.

And pray for Kris, Andy, Linette, Rebecca, Shane, Michael and me as we seek how God wants to use us in and for Haiti's people. We can wash off our bodies, but we can never rinse Haiti's hold out of our hearts.

A friend of mine set up a blog for our Haiti team to blog about our trip. If you'd like to follow us, check it at http://pneumasinhaiti.blogspot.com.

             … a country where 80% of the population lives in abject poverty with average wages less than $2 per day for the few who can find work

            … a place where escalating food costs leave many unable to afford any food other than mud “cookies”

            … a population that buries one in eight children before the age of 5, children taken by malnutrition and preventable diseases

            … an island nation where nearly every water source has become contaminated with human waste

            … a home to more than one million orphans

… a country that lies less than 700 miles – only a 2-hour flight – from the coast of Florida

                                             … You have imagined Haiti.

Yet in the midst of such destitution, many are giving their lives to share the love of Jesus in meeting the needs of the Haitian people. Children’s Homes (crèches) care for and protect the most vulnerable children, finding adoptive homes in the US and Europe for children who have no hope for a future life in their home country. Others care for malnourished and sick children whose parents cannot afford any medical care, hoping to return healthy children to their families. Many missions organizations employ Haitians as nannies or train them in skills such as sewing that can provide them a living wage. Christian-funded schools provide free education for children who would otherwise remain illiterate.

  In June I will join a team on a one-week trip to visit Haiti, seeking ways to partner with those who are working to bring relief to its people. We will visit 6 orphan-centered ministries, bringing 500 pounds of life-giving supplies and making connections for a long-term ministry in Haiti. As I prepare to leave on June 10, I am looking for partners to join me in praying and to help with the costs of the trip. My travel and lodging costs will be about $800, and beyond that, I will be gathering supplies (food, clothing and other necessities) to donate to help Haitian orphans.

 In the next week or so, I will begin sending specific prayer requests and information about our contacts in Haiti by email. If you would like to receive that email, please send me a note at 3rsandahug@gmail.com. If you would like to donate supplies or help with the cost of the trip - or if you have other questions I can answer - please email me.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.” Jesus (Matthew 25:40)

Haiti.

It's practically off the coast of Florida. It shares the island of Hispaniola with one of the Caribbean's most desirable tourist destinations (the Dominican Republic). Yet it's the poorest nation in the entire western hemisphere. Plagued by corruption, skyrocketing food prices, hurricanes and a virtually non-existent government, the people press on day by day, trying to survive.

Watch this video (it's about 20 minutes long). And then I ask you to join me in praying for Haiti. And while this video doesn't address the crisis of Haiti's orphaned children, please pray also for their safety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbbM8OM9Dqw