Haiti: Christian Aid Ministries

The folks of Christian Aid Ministries are active in Haiti and in the States as they work hard getting aid to those affected by the earthquake a week ago today.

I encourage you to contribute to their earthquake relief efforts at the page I have set: Haiti 2010 Earthquake Aid. (You can do so with a check via snail mail or online using the PayPal donate button there.)

It is my understanding that over all among all their aid programs, almost 99 cents of every donated dollar goes to their programs. That’s amazing efficiency and stewardship, folks!

Here are two photos from their people on the ground in Haiti:

BethanyB of Christian Aid Ministries administering aid at a mobile clinic in Haiti
BethanyB of Christian Aid Ministries
administering aid at a mobile clinic in Haiti

   

An injured Haitian being transported in a wheelbarrow
An injured Haitian being transported in a wheelbarrow

Haiti: Did He Recognize Any?

Steve Yoder of Christian Aid Ministries views heaps of bodies of Haiti's earthquake dead. --

As I understand this, Steve Yoder lives in Titanyen. I wonder how many people — some of them friends, perhaps — he recognized in the heaps.

Titanyen, Haiti—Down a rocky dirt road in a valley tucked inside green, soft-rolling hills, Haiti is disposing of its dead.

[…]

Steve Yoder, who is an administrator at the Menonite mission called Christian Aid Ministries in Titanyen, choked back tears as he viewed the heaps of bodies.

“This is heart-breaking,” he said. “It’s very grim. It’s very sad. But in this situation that’s the best that can be done.”

Source: No Burials for Haiti’s Dead (Warning: article includes a graphic photo or two)

This is a good reminder to pray for the people who know those being rescued as well as those who are being dumped. If the foreign teams that go to Haiti in response to the disaster are traumatized by what they see, imagine how this impacts those who live there — nationals as well as aid workers and missionaries. Wow!

Read a little more from Christian Aid Ministries’ people in Titanyen.

Christian Aid Ministries in Haiti

From CNN:

Christian Aid Ministries, an Amish-Mennonite organization, has had staff and a distribution network in Haiti for over 20 years. To help earthquake survivors, they are providing search and rescue operations, emergency supplies such as medicines and food, and later on rebuilding of houses.

From CAM themselves:

CAM-Haiti staff members spent much of the night helping dig people out of concrete rubble. They were traumatized by what they saw and heard — dead bodies strewn around, sounds of tapping from those still alive but trapped deep under the debris, dead and injured pushed in wheelbarrows, and much more. It is so scary digging people out; one wrong move could kill them, says Darvin Seibel, CAM’s staff member in Haiti. One lady’s head was pinched so tight, any shifting would instantly kill her!

[…]

Our Titanyen facility has been turned into a relief center and mini-hospital to feed and care for homeless mothers with young children. A USA CAM rescue team, including some EMTs, flew to Haiti to help look for survivors and do cleanup. Our staff in Haiti, including the La Source medical clinic team, is doing everything they can to provide emergency aid. Later there will be a lot of rebuilding to do as well.

As I recall, over 98% of donations to Christian Aid Ministries goes directly into their programs. That’s really good!! So please visit the Haiti page I set up for them and donate to their relief efforts.

Help Haiti?

You know about the 100,000+ death toll currently being reported as a result of yesterday’s Haitian earthquake.

Christian Aid Ministries (a well-established, of-good-report Anabaptist relief organization headquartered in Berlin, Ohio, USA) operates medical clinics there.

So they’re well-positioned to help right away.

You can help them help the Haitians. Click the Haiti earthquake link in the green box on that page.

Thank you!

Two Exciting Investment Opportunities

I’m sure that by now most of you have heard of the financial meltdown being faced by the United States economy. It all started with the banking system starting to tremble. No, wait, it all started with people not being able to pay back all the money they had borrowed from the banks. Actually, I think it all started with real estate prices going down. Well, come to think of it, it really started before that, back when real estate prices went up. Or I guess it started before that, back when the banks decided to loan money to anybody who was willing to borrow money, which is what helped make the land prices go up.

Anyway, it started somewhere, sometime. And by all appearances, getting it started was a lot simpler than getting it stopped is going to be. You see, just this evening President Bush got on the radio, TV, and just about everything else he could get on and told Americans in general that there is going to be a widespread financial disaster. In other words, the average person would lose his house, his job, his retirement, his savings, his insurance, his sanity, and perhaps an arm and a leg. Unless, of course, we allow the government to step in and bail us out. Bail us out, mind you, to the tune of seven hundred billion dollars. For those of you who don’t know how much money that is, it is a 7 with a whole wagon load of zeros.

Anyway, in the midst of a world full of financial turmoil and uncertainty, I thought you would all be excited about a couple of wonderful investment opportunities I recently learned about. These are both guaranteed not to lose any of their value, and will not be affected by moth, rust, thieves, or financial market melt-downs. You have no need to fear when you invest in these securities, because they are backed by a pool of wealth far in excess of a measly 700 billion greenbacks. Read it all

Most? Seriously!

What percentage of global population lives in indigence and poverty?

So what’s with this BBC headline and story?

Most ready for ‘green sacrifices’

Most people are ready to make personal sacrifices to address climate change, according to a BBC poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries.

I dare say most people on the planet have greater matters of more pressing concern regarding daily survival. I suspect they don’t know about or even care about global warming. They have nothing to sacrifice.

Where Little Ones CryBut to those who have money to spend and fall in BBC’s “most people” category, an extremely practical and helpful suggestion for a green sacrifice:

You’re welcome.

Disclaimer: I didn’t interview and/or poll anyone in any country. I have been wrong before.

Tsunami in Asia

No, this isn’t breaking news:

It’s been nearly a year since the tsunami devastated southeast Asia. Thousands of people were killed, thousands were left homeless, and thousands continue to be in need today.

Open Doors USA’s Carl Moeller explains. “Tens of thousands of communities are still wiped off the map with virtually no infrastructure remaining. And, we along with other agencies are continuing to find new pockets of just personal devastation throughout the tsunami areas.”

It’s broken news.

Should we care anymore? Do we care anymore?

If you care, I have a recommendation: Christian Aid Ministries.

Above all, love God!