Saturday, January 23, 2010

Haiti Relief

I believe it was last summer when a missionary named Brad Johnson spoke at our church. His story was a resonating and powerful testimony of what happens when a couple says "Yes" to God's calling.
They founded Mission of Hope Haiti and here is the link to their Website
Summit Church has been rallying medical teams to go serve in Haiti. Tonight during the service they told a story of a young girl whom they thought had lost her parents, so they sent her to the Mission of Hope orphanage. The next day the leaders of the team learned that she had been a child slave and there were 2 different families fighting over her and wanting her back. So not only was she saved from the nightmare of being injured in the Earthquake, but also saved her from continuing in the nightmare of a life in childhood slavery. She is safe in the loving arms of the Christian orphange who can tell her of God's love and purpose for her life. The following is an email sent from one of our pastors, Todd Milby, who is still in Haiti.


I have been on the ground in Port-au-Prince this last week and am currently there now. Yesterday the first of potentially three medical teams from Summit returned home and we have mobilized all kinds of resources for our partner, Mission of Hope Haiti, because of your generosity. I say potentially, because right now we cannot confirm the other flights for this Tuesday and Wednesday from our partner Missionary Flights International. Today there are 120 landing slots into Port-au-Prince and 1700 planes wanting to land. We had a team from Austin, TX coming in today and got their landing permission revoked at the last minute and rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon. They have significant contacts and still couldn't land.

In spite of having a hard time getting people and resources into Haiti, Mission of Hope has distributed 1.5 million meals to the Haitian people since the earthquake hit. Last Thursday they distributed more than 391,056 meals, almost doubling the efforts of the UN. They do all of this through indigenous church leaders and Christian ministries that make up over 1000 distribution points in a network MOH initiated called Haiti One. Haiti One represents 40 Christians NGOs, and hundreds of smaller missions and Haitian churches with more than 5000 full-time staff represented in it. They are rallied around the vision to reach the nation with the Gospel and during this difficult time have been extremely effective at bringing relief where it is most needed distributing food, water, and temporary shelter. They were already in place and operating this network prior to the disaster and that is why they have been so successful. It is primarily driven by Haitians which is also the reason for their success. It is their own people meeting the needs. They know their culture, context, and the need. Mission of Hope has also provided and facilitated dozens of medical teams that have literally served thousands in the name of the Gospel.

Mission of Hope Haiti was established 12 years ago by their President, Brad Johnson. NBC Nightly News did a story about them last Tuesday on the "Making a Difference" segment with Brian Williams. The link to view the story is on their website,www.missionofhopehaiti.org. I hope you will be able to share this very effective and on-mission organization with others so we can partner with MOH to reach this nation. It might be Haiti's darkest hour, but it will be the Churches brightest. Thank you Summit Church for your generosity and sending myself and our team the opportunity to go on behalf of the Church to reach this nation in what will be a defining moment in it's history that will bring much glory to the Father.

God Bless,
Todd Milby,
Mission Leader



God so moved me that I gave my name as a volunteer willing to go with the medical teams when they are ready to accept Physical Therapists. When this will happen, I don't know, but I ask that whoever reads this will pray for me and all that this willingness entails. From safety over there, to the necessary materials and products I may need, to safety and understanding for my family here, etc.!
Right now I just know that I need to be willing and if God allows, then I will go!

This is the link to view the NBC video about Mission of Hope


1 comment:

LCA 9th Grade English Class said...

keep me posted, if we can help you, we'd like to