I know that you all are aware of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti Tuesday night. The devastation is unbelievable. It is estimated that tens of thousands of people have died. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is among the poorest countries in the world.
As a church, we will respond in several ways:
Give- We will be partnering primarily with Water Missions International to provide clean water to as many people as possible. We will be giving $25,000 of the Hope Epidemic money immediately to provide one water system to go where it is most needed. There are other organizations that have joined their cause and collectively WMI will be able to send a dozen or more systems. This will give more than 50,000 people access to clean drinking water, which will help to prevent sickness and disease from spreading. If you would like to give personally we are recommending that you give directly to WMI or give to Seacoast's Hope Epidemic Fund on your campus' online giving page.
Pray- We would like for our church to join together in prayer for the people of Haiti. Immediately, we can pray for the recovery and clean up process, that the right people and equipment would be moved into place so that the least amount of loss would occur. There are still people trapped and lives are hanging in the balance.
Go- WMI is sending a couple of staff members down today to access damage and come up with a strategy to help. Because Haiti is such a poor country there is concern about the emergency services' ability to cope with a major disaster. It would not be wise to send a team immediately without a plan. We could create more confusion and chaos. Food, water, shelter, and medicine are in short supply. We believe this will be a long term crisis so we may need to send teams in the near future. We are waiting for people on the ground to give us an update. We do know that several organizations, including WMI are setting up base camps. At this point communication is virtually non-existent. As soon as we have updates we will let you know.
Even in the midst of crisis and chaos we know that God is able to sustain and supply. Together let's put our hope in one who is able to do more that we can ask or imagine.
I love being your Pastor,
Greg