ReligionPure&Faultless

Haiti Day 1

Some random thoughts and observations after my first full day in Haiti with the HORT team www.haitiorphanrelief.org.

Area of damage much larger than I expected.
Shocked at the sight of buildings detroyed next to buildings virtually in tact.
Amazed at the Haitian life that continues.
Happy to see a lot of cleanup work being done by Haitians.
Touched by those exhibiting hope and dispair.
Embarrassed to look at the feet of someone still buried in the rubble....... feeling more like a voyeur than someone trying to humanize the tradgedy with a photo.
Wondering where all the international press has gone.
Encouraged by pastors and leaders with the vision, desire and stradegy for rebulding in a new way.
Thankful for a meal and a bed tonight in the midst of so many with so little.
Until they all have homes
Alan

Sent from my iPhonef

Posted via email from Alan'sWorldOrphan'sBlog

Haiti Orphan Relief Team

Some folks have asked how they can pray for our team while in Haiti. We would love to have an army of believers praying daily for our work in Haiti.

By way of reminder the overarching aim of the Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) is to identify, train and resource Haitian churches to be the direct rescue and care mechanism for Haiti’s hundreds of thousands of orphans. This is truly the most effective and scalable response to a need of such great complexity and magnitude. The primary goal is to better enable Haitian churches to reunite or keep children within extended family structures. For children that have no other options, HORT will help Haitian churches to provide direct care in home environments, not institutional orphanages. U.S. churches are also part of the solution and are being recruited by HORT to come alongside these Haitian churches in church-to-church partnerships to initiate, strengthen and grow their outreach to orphans in their immediate communities. These partnerships will also work toward the self-sustainability of the orphan rescue and care efforts in Haiti. HORT is a Christ-centered, church-focused initiative based on the assumption that the church has been clearly called by God to care for orphans (James 1:27).

As for this first HORT deployment, here are some specific prayer requests:

• Pray that as a team we might be the hands and feet of Christ to the people of Haiti.
• Pray that our attitude toward the people of Haiti would be servant-focused, that is, that we would see ourselves as their servants for Christ’ sake.
• Pray for unity of hearts and minds amidst the team – that logos and egos would be left in the U.S. and that our attitude would be that of Christ (Philippians 2:1-8)
• Pray that HORT would be able to begin to effectively map out a long term, sustainable orphan-care model for Haiti
• Pray that as a result of our efforts many Haitian children would find love, support, education and care in a Christ-centered environment
• Pray for safe travel from the states to Dominican Republic and then from DR into Haiti
• Pray that the Lord would lead us to the churches and pastors He wants HORT to engage
• Pray for discernment to know how to handle the unexpected issues that will certainly arise
• Pray for extra patience and grace for wives, husbands and children back in the States.
• Pray for the Lord to raise up churches in the U.S. that would be willing to partner with churches in Haiti in a church-to-church partnership.
• Pray by name for the team for spiritual (Ephesians 6:10ff) and physical protection:
  • John Roberts (Incident Commander)
  • Paul Myhill (Liaison Officer)
  • Jodi Jackson Tucker (Information Officer)
  • Scott Vair (Planning and Finance)
  • Byron Schick (Operations)
  • Jenn Gash (Logistics)
  • Theo Sandberg (Task Force Leader)
  • Allan Hunt (Task Force Leader)
  • Aaron Bensko (Videographer)
  • Dieula Previlon (Local Cultural Expert)
  • David Leventhal (Task Force Leader)

Some of our team will be returning to the states on 02/24/2010 and others on 02/28/10. I am grateful for your participation in this effort.

Haiti Orphan Relief Team

Yesterday The Christian Alliance for Orphans hosted a conference call of over 40 organizations and churches to discuss, plan, and learn what could be done in Haiti by working together. The Haiti Orphan Relief Team (H.O.R.T.) is that plan in action.

The team will deploy February 14th and updates from the team can be viewed on Facebook or Twitter .

If you would like to see recent photos of the situation that the HORT team is going into click here: Haiti Photos  .

I am thankful that the ministry of World Orphans is part of the H.O.R.T. initiative. Please click on the links above to learn what you can do and please join us in prayer for our staff members who will be part of the team leaving for Haiti February 14th.

Until they all have homes!

Alan