Yesterday, Justin Bryeans and I hopped in a car and drove to Oregon. Our goal was to talk to some friends about a potential long term partnership with a community in Haiti. On our way we heard about the tragic earthquake that struck the island nation. You’ve seen the images by now: bodies lying dead on the streets; people lined up for medical treatment that is in short supply; buildings in shambles. It’s awful. So what do we do?

Give – There are many great organizations who are in position to help immediately. One of them is CAMA services. Funds are being raised for some possible immediate relief and also for longer term needs as those arise.  Contributions can be sent to our regional office at PO Box 3020, Wilsonville, OR 97070.  You may simply designate your contributions to ‘Haiti Relief’ and we will forward it to the CAMA office in Colorado Springs.  If you’d like to send your contributions directly to CAMA Services you may do so by going to their website at www.camaservices.org where you will find their contact info.  It is not possible to send contributions directly to Haiti at this time due to the overwhelming devastation.

This is crisis mode. The world is paying attention for now, but in the next weeks and months this will fade from our televisions and blogs. The sexiness of crisis will be gone, but the devastation will remain. Let’s pray as a community about what it will mean for us to walk with our Haitian neighbors for the long haul. . .

When Justin and I set out yesterday, we were serious about forging friendships between The Porch, Kaleo, and a church community in Haiti. This seems even more important today.

More soon.