On Tuesday January 12, at 4:53 PM local time a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, its epicenter 15 miles west-southwest of the city, struck Port-Au-Prince Haiti. By now you you know that.
On Saturday Paul Antoine Bien-Aime, Haiti’s interior minister told Reuters. “We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies. We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number.”
There’s nothing in my frame of reference me that allows me to comprehend a tragedy of this proportion. I see reports on TV, shake my head, pray for the people, and check out ways to help the relief effort, but the reality and depth of the devastation just doesn’t compute. My life, fairly ordinary in American terms, has been so insulated by privilege and abundance that the poverty and hardship of a typical Haitian before the earthquake was incomprehensible; their plight today, I can’t begin to understand. I want to, but I can’t. Shame on me.
My first prayer is for God’s mercy on those struck by this tragedy. My second prayer is for the scales that prevent me from loving others as Christ loves me fall from my heart .
“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!”
(Philippians 2:4)
The letter below is from my friend Wesley Smith.
Wesley’s wife Primrose (she’s in heaven now) was a Haitian, the daughter of a Haitian minister. Wes and his family have dedicated their lives to ministering to people around the globe, both spiritually and physically. The people of Haiti were and are a very big part of that.
Wesley and his team are on their way or already in Haiti as I write this. Keep them in your prayers and know, with my personal guarantee, that any money given to the relief effort described below will go directly to minister to the physical needs of Haiti’s people, as Wes and his family have ministered so faithfully to Haitians’ spiritual needs for years.
January 16 update:

A very, very important way you can help is to send this address to everyone you know:

http://weseds.blogspot.com/

The plane loaded with medical supplies (thanks to local doctors and Kosciusko Community Hospital) left the Warsaw airport January 15 at 10:00 p.m.. Our team of nine people rendezvoused in Ft. Lauderdale today and will then head on to Haiti.

The team consists of:
My two daughters (Heidi and April Smith) who are nurses, my two grandchildren (Travis and Katelyn), my son-in-law (Bryan Bartow), Katrina Smoker (Lloyd’s daughter) pilot (Jon Fussle), and two Haitians.

And a big THANK YOU to David and Vivian Poulos who are hosting the team in Florida!

Right now the greatest need is for finances. The plane and pilot have been donated, but the fuel cost is $100 per hour. It was seven hours to Florida and each round-trip flight (shuttling supplies and people) from FL to Haiti will cost about $1,000 to $1,200.

We have also been given $50,000 for the purchase of 8 Hydro Wells, 24/400 unit bundles, which is 9,600 individual life packs. However, this product is in Portland, Oregon and needs to be flown to Florida. In Florida we have a large plane waiting to take the product onward to Port-au-Prince.

The last “hitch” in this process is to get the Hydro Wells from Oregon to Florida. Flying would be fastest, but more expensive. They could be trucked to Florida from Oregon, but that is a very long drive, and in the meantime precious Haitian people need clean water. Pray!

A big priority for us is to help Lloyd Smoker’s mission in Port-au-Prince. Almost everyone in his congregation was crushed to death during an evening worship service. Every building he spent 26 years erecting has been demolished. He and his wife just happened to be in the states when the earthquake hit January 12, or they would be dead, too. The Lord works in amazing ways.

Since pure water is so very important to sustain life, we feel that at this time water is a priority for Haiti. After that we will concentrate on some other things like medical attention, housing, and drilling wells. As a Primrose memorial we want to drill one well at each of our church sites in the mountains surrounding Jeremie, Haiti, where our mission is located.

Thank you for your concern and your prayers.

Believe it or not, Jeremie, Haiti, where our mission is located, is unscathed by the 7.0 earthquake that hit January 12.

Lloyd Smoker’s mission in Port-au-Prince, however, is totally wiped out with many people killed. Tens of thousands of people are homeless in the PAP area and just roaming the streets without water or any place to go.

You can send help through Full Life Crusade, P.O. Box 398, Winona Lake, IN 46590. 100% of the money will go to Lloyd’s mission or the cost of getting the pure water product to Haiti. Be sure to mark your check: “Lloyd’s mission” or “Water”.

Another very, very important way you can help is by sending this blog address to everyone you know:

http://weseds.blogspot.com/

Haiti’s airport is running out of room for grounded planes and is becoming a logjam. Volunteer pilots have flown in supplies and workers but there is no gasoline available for them to refuel.

The main prison in Port-au-Prince has completely collapsed. Many prisoners who were not crushed have escaped. It is estimated that three million Haitians have been affected by the power of this earthquake. All main roads into the capital city are clogged and impassable.

A massive humanitarian effort is underway to send help there. The runway in PAP is usable, although log-jammed at times; but planes are going in with water, food, and medical help as I write this. More than 250 Creole-speaking nurses have already volunteered and are on their way to Haiti, too.

Those who are experienced in disaster relief tell us that the next stage will be the worst. Human corpses are already beginning to rot in the ninety-degree heat beneath the heaps of concrete and other debris. Cholera, dysentery, dehydration, heat stroke, no water/filthy water (people cannot go without water for more than three days), looters, stench of death, rats and dogs feeding on dead bodies are just a few of second-round devastation to hit Haiti.

This is apocalyptic, and of Biblical proportions!

We can be so proud of our nation at this hour. When many countries are criticizing the United States of America, guess which people on this planet help the most when there is an earthquake, tsunami, or some other major disaster. Forty nations have sent help to Haiti so far; but shame on you other countries who criticize, but do not act with mercy during emergencies like this.