Two dear friends of mine are traveling abroad this semester! Aly's already arrived in Mexico and I'm taking Addison to the airport today to fly to Ireland!
They're both wonderful souls and great thinkers and writers, so I wanted you to know about their blogs so you can journey with them (even from the comfort of your couch!).
So here's a video my mom (director of Friends of Fort Liberté) did to let people know some ways you can help with the community and church we work with! (If you're viewing this on Facebook you need to go to my blog to see the video: kingfriend.blogspot.com)
I haven't blogged in some time, but with the utter devastation that is occurring right now in Haiti, I just have to join the many others who are pleading for your involvement.
I've been to Haiti four times. It is the poorest, most over-populated, under-educated nation in this hemisphere. And it's right on the doorstep of America.
My mother has been a part of or led mission trips to a small community in the north called Ft. Liberté for 35 years. She, along with my deceased father (and many other wonderful people), started an organization called Friends of Ft. Liberté that has done some amazing things over that time, both for Haitian lives and American souls. Everyone needs to see people in situations much worse than their own. We need to remember 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' (Isaiah 58:7).
I was talking with some people last night about the earthquake, and someone mentioned that 100,000 people could be dead, and I said, 'Surely not that much? Maybe in the tens of thousands but 100,000?' But it seems to be unbelievably true (though the numbers are almost impossible to determine).
Haitians are literally digging out friends and family from rubble WITH THEIR HANDS. It's so terrible. Please, even from the comfort of your keyboard, take a moment to try and take that in. Let the sorrow overwhelm you for a moment. These are our fellow men and women and children, our own flesh and blood.
Haiti is possibly the worst place in the world for something like this to happen as far as relief efforts go, because communication and transportation is so bad. That's why the international effort DOES need to rival that of Katrina. The world's eyes must turn to Haiti. Let your eyes turn there also.
One very easy way to help, if you text, is to text the world HAITI to the number 90999, and you will donate $10 to the Red Cross International Relief fund, which is very much being focused in Haiti right now. It will be added to your cell phone bill. Easy. Please consider doing that now.
My mom (Annette Crislip) said that refugees are arriving in Ft. Liberté now, which thankfully was fairly untouched by the quake. So that community is going to become important in relief efforts and will need lots of resources. I'll keep you posted on ways you can help through Friends of Ft. Liberté, which will be sending money to our beloved Jerusalem Baptist Church whom we've worked with for 35 years. They will be doing everything they can to help their fellow countrymen.
