The religious can spend hours debating about proper theology. Worshippers can debate whether we should use organ or guitar. Those outside the church can point to our deficiencies and articulate the reasons they do not need the church. There are moments however, when the questions in front of us and the answers are quite clear. The Red Cross estimates 50,000 are already dead in Haiti and a desperate situation is getting worse. Haiti does not have an infrastructure to handle this crisis. As inept as we were in dealing with Katrina, our Haitian brothers and sisters do not have any of the resources that were at our disposal. You probably already know Haiti is the poorest country in our hemisphere. You may not know the United Methodist church shares a special relationship with Haiti. It and Liberia are the two nations the Detroit Conference churches have entered into a formal covenant of support and shared ministry. In fact, one of our Detroit area mission teams has been in Haiti since early January and is working there as of today, January 15. All members of the team are okay, You can read more about their work on the Detroit United Methodist conference web site www.detroitconference.org.
Right now Haiti needs our prayers and money. This Sunday we will take up an offering in church directly for the Haiti earthquake relief. The money will go to the United Methodist Committee on Relief. This is our denominational international relief organization whose integrity and effectiveness is proven One hundred percent given goes directly to the mission site. I invite all to pray for Haiti and its people. I encourage you to give what you can to help the relief efforts.
Jesus says in Matthew 10:42, “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” Doing the right thing seldom seems any clearer.
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