The Weekly

January 14th, 2010


Haiti
Grave. Urgent. Devastating. All of these adjectives have been used to describe the current situation in Haiti. But even our best attempts to give words to this tragedy fall short.
It's horrible.

As a church family, we're two weeks into our exploration of Jesus' words in Matthew 5. Last week, we read this very timely announcement: 'blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' On the morning of January 13 as I read the news and saw the images I could not help but wonder: can that possibly be true? Could it possibly be that those who are spiritually empty, at the end of their ropes, and with nothing to give are blessed and the kingdom of heaven is available to them?

Our Haitian brothers and sisters are living that Beatitude right now. And we have an opportunity to support them.

A tragedy such as this transcends all boundaries - especially denominational boundaries. But it is worth mentioning that the makeup of the International Church of the Nazarene has included Haitians for over 50 years. The Church of the Nazarene in Haiti has 2 medical clinics, a Bible College, and over 500 churches with nearly 120,000 members. These really are our brothers and sisters.

We're ready to help. During our worship service this Sunday we'll make available a special opportunity to support our Haitian brothers and sisters. 100% of the money collected in this special offering will go to support Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Caribbean Disaster Response. Specifically, the money will be used to help the churches in Haiti respond to the needs that surround them. The funds will be used to supply necessities such as food, bottled water, hygiene, and other forms of immediate assistance. For more information on teh Caribbean Disaster response please visit NCM.org.