GLOBAL MISSIONS HELP HAITI
Haiti – One Year Later
General
Superintendent J. K. Warrick
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
12 January 2010, 4:53 p.m. — I will never forget the time or place. It felt like a semi-truck and trailer had run into the building in which I was working at a desk. My chair was thrown across the room into the bed as the seminary building shook violently. I tried to get up but was thrown back onto the bed, and I sat there until the earthquake ended. As I made my way out of the building I was met by Bill and Martha Dawson, our field strategy coordinators. We toured the seminary campus and soon noticed a great cloud of dust rising up from the mountains and the valley where Port-Au-Prince is located. The sounds and sights of those moments and the hours that followed will stay with me as long as I live.
Haitians call the horrific sound of the ground shaking “goudougoudou.” That rumbling sound, on 12 January 2010, killed over 200,000 people and left more than a million people displaced, living in tents and under tarpaulins. Even as Nazarene Work and Witness teams move into Haiti, the larger reconstruction of the country envisioned last March has yet to get off the ground in a significant way.
In November 2010 Haiti was hit again by Hurricane Tomas, which passed between Cuba and the Island of Hispaniola. Even before Tomas, the United Nations said Haiti needed 100,000 more tarps and blankets than it already had in stock in the country.
A severe cholera epidemic that began several months ago has infected more than 170,000 people, killing more than 3,600.
On November 1, the Church of the Nazarene delivered 12,000 doses of antibiotics to clinics in Haiti. The clinics will use these antibiotics, which are in short supply in Haiti, to treat cholera and other infections.
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) provided funds to purchase these medications, and NCM staff and volunteers continue to distribute relief supplies such as water and other daily use items to those in need. NCM has been providing aid to this nation continuously since the earthquake. Haiti Water Project, our effort to provide clean water for the people, continues.
Where’s the hope?
It is found in God, the Haitians themselves, and their extended family in the Church of the Nazarene around the world. People who have been praying, donating, and working on site to help rebuild churches, schools, and parsonages provide encouragement to Nazarene Haitians. These brave and deeply committed people continue to serve God and their countrymen.
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries is reporting the following from the immediate crisis response phase:
Just over six months after the earthquake, the Church of the Nazarene has distributed:
• More than 425,000 pounds of food
• 8,000 Crisis Care Kits
• 50,000 pounds of water
• 20,000 pounds of additional relief supplies, including generators
• 50,000 pounds of medical supplies and children’s vitamins (through Nazarene medical clinics and mobile medical volunteer teams)
Throughout the country, including all eleven Nazarene districts, more than 4,000 families received food, water, and hygiene kits through Nazarene distribution efforts. This includes families in more than 75 specific communities.
These immediate relief efforts drew to a close at the end of August 2010, while intermediate and long-term relief efforts continue. Community gardens and safe-place camps are just two examples of how work continues toward long-term sustainability in Haiti.
To underwrite this effort, NCM has raised $4.5 million (USD) because of your generosity. This does not include any funds contributed through specific Haitian partnerships. Our goal as a church is to continue meeting the needs of Haitian Nazarenes in 2011, building on the courageous and determined efforts of those who have done so much in the past year.
For a closer look at the situation in Haiti go to the link below to watch a video and share it in your local church, compassionate ministry center, or university chapel. It is a story that is still unfolding and will be for a long time to come.
Haiti one-year-later video … see www.ncnnews.com
On behalf of our brothers and sisters in Haiti and the Board of General Superintendents I would like to express profound gratitude to those who have given generously and sacrificially to this worthy cause. Your gifts are still needed for the long-term needs of the Haitian people. Simply go to www.ncm.org/haitiearthquake to learn how to be part of Haitian recovery.
Keep our Haitians, missionary personnel, Work and Witness teams, medical teams, and relief workers in your prayers.
J. K. Warrick, Chair
Board of General Superintendents
*** Giving through the Church of the Nazarene to Haiti If you are able to give an offering of hope, or subscribe to the weekly Nazarene update at www.ncnnews.com. The email is full of photos of the week for the Church of the Nazarene.
in response to the January 2010 earthquake and the 2011 Cholera epidemic.
please be aware that the Church of the Nazarene contributes 100% of your gift to the need! (no administrative costs like most groups)
They are able to do this by using your tithes from the General Church as administration costs.
If you are away from our local church, checks can be made out to the Church of the Nazarene and marked "Caribbean Disaster Response ACM1204" and mailed to
Global Treasury Services
PO Box 843116
Kansas City, MO 64184
Please indicate The Church of the Nazarene, Belle, WV South District as your giving point so that we may receive 10% giving credit as a church!
We wish to continue our 54 year tradition of giving 10% of our finances to others outside the local church.
If you wish to give through our local church, please make the check out to the Church of the Nazarene and mark it "Caribbean Disaster Response ACM1204" and put it in an offering plate here.
Because of Nazarene generosity, $70,000 (U.S.) was collected by Nazarene Compassionate Ministries in the first 48 hours after the earthquake. Thank you!
It is essential that the Global Church continue this generous support to Haiti to ensure critical supplies reach needy areas and aid can be administered to those in need.
For more information on the disaster and to see what the Church of the Nazarene is doing in general in Haiti, see www.ncm.org
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries