Archive for the Missions
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Sewing for Haiti
Many of us find our hearts drawn toward the struggles for life in Haiti. But for various reasons, it hasn’t been the time for us to go.
I became acquainted with Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center in the days soon after the earthquake. They have been working in Haiti since 1999, so they were already in place to provide relief after the quake.
Their ongoing work is primarily residential care and treatment of children with severe malnutrition, although if you page back in their blog to the days just after the earthquake, you read about doing what needs to be done for many people in physical crisis.
And there are even more children needing care now. How do they clothe dozens of kids and keep 50-60 young ones in diapers?
That’s the mission we can help fulfill from our homes–dresses made from pillowcases, diapers, and aprons from pillowcases for the nannies. At this post from their blog, there is a description of the need and links to patterns for the projects.
There’s also the mailing address in Minneapolis where supplies are being collected to fill a container. The deadline is soon–end of March.
So Talitha and I went thrift shopping today and came home with a dozen sturdy, colorful, clean pillowcases. She’s excited about the project, and I’m happy for her to have some practice time on the sewing machine.
For the name of Jesus among the children of Haiti!
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Update on Haiti
“We have two choices–to die fast or to die slow.”
Please take the time to watch this TV program. It’s a haunting, heart-wrenching look at the past 6 weeks, with difficult questions about how the future can be different than the past for Haiti.
Friday, February 12th, 2010
A hero in Haiti
Thinking about Haiti over the last weeks, I’ve gotten used to 2 words together –orphan and crisis.
Obviously, there are more words that crisis could be attached to. Here’s a biggie. Tuberculosis. Like the orphan situation, this was an epidemic even before the earthquake. TB is the second killer of Haitians, just behind AIDS.
In one TB hospital, Pierre-Louis Monfort was one of 50 staff nurses before the earthquake. Now he is the only person caring for all the patients who are left:
He scavenges the rubble daily for medicines and needles. He sterilizes needles using bleach and then reuses the bleach to clean the floors.
In his cramped clinic, eight of the sickest and most contagious patients lay on brown- and red-stained beds. He said he had lost count of how many more were sleeping in other pockets alongside the hospital. (read it all)
Here is one hero in the midst of calamity. “These people here are dying, but they keep me alive,” he said. “I know they are hurting more than me and not complaining.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Give us this day our daily bread
When I hear the words “food distribution” in a Haiti news report, my mind flashes to news photos of mobs of desperate people crushing each other to reach the limited amount of food.
What a contrast in this report from Callebasse, Haiti!
Look at the pictures. People desperately hungry, but waiting patiently. A list of the most needy, so they can receive food first. Then food left over. Church members will be hungry again soon. Shall the church save it against that day?
No. Their neighbors are hungry too. So the extra food is entrusted to church members so they can fan out into the community with daily bread in the name of the Bread of Life.
Will it make a difference in this community that the life-sustaining gift was received via the hands of the church? Lord, make your name sweet in Callebasse.
