Friday, September 12, 2008

Haiti Suffers from Hurricane Ike


Haiti Hit Hard by Hurricane Ike
By David Bryan, Global Outreach Ministries Director
Once again, our hearts go out to our precious church family in Haiti as Ike has unleashed its fury on this nation. The news has reported that four major storms in three weeks have killed more than 600 people and left hundreds of thousands in desperate need of food, clean water, and shelter. More stormy weather hampered relief efforts yesterday [Sunday, September 7th]. And, the heavy rains brought down a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to the hardest hit city, Gonaives, forcing trucks loaded with emergency supplies to turn back from assisting this area.
Today, I received the following report from Bishop Jean-Claude Dorlean, our National Overseer for the COGOP in Haiti:
“Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus-Christ! Do you have any news from the region of the Caribbean such as Bahamas, Jamaica and the other islands? We are praying for all the countries hit by the hurricanes.

In Haiti, I want to share with you the info that we have so far. We will send some pictures to you as soon as we can. Much of the country is separated now due to the bridges that went down and we can not have access or visit the places so far. As a result of the hurricanes, we are affected as follows (Partial Report):

1) Part of the [sea] wall at the orphanage has fallen down.
[Note per Annette Taylor, Harvest Partners Ministry Director: This is one of the major projects that we must correct very soon unless we risk losing the entire orphanage property to the sea. We have had an engineer recently visit Haiti to review this project, and the best possible answer to remedy this need according to the engineer is for us to build a new sea wall on the inside of the old wall. We need to raise around $25-30,000 to fulfill this major need. Currently we house and facilitate over 80 orphans on the very property that is at risk, and Bishop Dorlean has made a plea for us to possibly intake more orphans as a result of these recent storms. Please allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart about assisting us with this sea wall project.]

2) South East: 8 churches damamged with roofs gone and 3 churches completely destroyed, 800 members flooded.

3) 2 church members dead, 9 churches damaged, either walls fallen down or roofs lifted, 1000 members flooded, 100 houses crashed.

4) Mapou, Font Verrettes and Bodarie: 2 church members dead with their houses fallen over them, 5 churches damaged and 4 churches completely destroyed, about 1000 members flooded.

5) Gonaives: our one church there is completely flooded including our 300 peopled attending that church.

6) Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite: 2 churches completely destroyed, 1500 persons affected and their houses damaged as well.

7) Miragoane: part of church roof is gone.

8) Mariani, near Port-au-Prince: Roof lifted completedly and thrown into the sea by strong winds.

9) South and Grand-Anse: Jeremie city is completely flooded including our church, and that region we have 2000 members flooded.

10) Pilate: This church is new and was under construction; all the walls falled down.

11) La Coma: part of the church falled down.

12) Boucan Patrio: part of church roof is gone.

13) Jean Rabel: Roof of the church is gone.

This is the partial info that we share with you. We will certainly keep you posted on any new developments and as soon as we can reach some places, we will send you some pictures.”

Won’t you please remain in prayer with us for our brothers and sisters in Haiti? Literally, hundreds of families [if not thousands] are grieving, hurting, displaced, and in dire need. They had not recovered from the devastation suffered from the past couple of years’ storms, much less have more hardships to deal with now from this year’s storm and ferocious attack. Won’t you also prayerfully consider how you can assist our Haiti COGOP family financially?

Your prayers and support are vital for our people to recover…
Annette Taylor
Harvest Partners Ministry Director

How to Send Help
Churches may contribute through Harvest Partners Ministry Level Two (project) giving. Individual donors can contribute through the Helping Hand Ministry. Mission Marker Partners is also available for giving specifically to help churches in restoring and rebuilding their worship facilities.
Please make all checks payable to Church of God of Prophecy and be sure to specify how you want your offering utilized by designating it as HP L2 eg. "Haiti – Disaster Relief" or "Haiti – Church Structures and Repairs."

Send to:
Church of God of Prophecy
Attention:Global Outreach Ministries – Haiti Relief Efforts
P.O. Box 2910
Cleveland, TN 37320-2910
*Note that all gifts are tax deductible and 100% of your gift is applied to the need you specify.

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