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Giving in a Crisis Time What do you think is the best way we as a church can support those in critical need of emergency assistance in Haiti? |
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Katy Brumbelow,
Thursday, 1-21-10 1:49 PM |
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re: Giving in a Crisis Time (1) First and foremost prayer for ALL of Haiti. Secondly... some information that isn't being completely shown. The city/village my family and I go to is called Les Anglais. It is on the far lower SW spit of the island on the coast line. People are flooding in. They have some money. However, there are NO supply trucks of products coming to the reaches out of Port Au Prince. People are getting hungry and desperate. (2) Pray for resources to be bought, grown, consumed, air dropped, etc... (3) Pray for wise decision making with money that is being donated. (4) And yes do give money, be it $5 or $500... it is needed. |
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Amy Bowen,
Thursday, 1-21-10 6:07 PM |
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re: Giving in a Crisis Time After some thought we decided to give to a charity with which we already had a relationship (Compassion) because they were already on the ground and presumably have the network and local know-how to be able to use the funds efficiently. There's guaranteed to be a ton of inefficiency especially at the front-end of such a crisis and I have a gut feeling that mid-sized, well established, non-governmental agencies are probably going to be among the more efficient wielders of funds. Could be wrong; hope I'm not! I have to admit I have very mixed feelings about the mailbox full (both virtual and physical) of begging letters. Yeah, they're all from reputable organizations to whom we've given in the past, but I feel quite overwhelmed by it all. We did decide to give a lump sum to just that one charity rather than split it up into smaller pieces distributed around the set. But I always hate throwing away those pieces of mail with sad looking children and the word "CRISIS" on the envelope. Makes me feel like a selfish, uncaring jerk. Which, of course, is why they send them... wish there was a way to make known the need for help without being so emotionally manipulative. :( |
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Annette Collins,
Thursday, 1-21-10 9:10 PM |
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re: Giving in a Crisis Time I'm really excited. Just found out Avon donated 1Million to Haiti! Also a portion of all my customers sales get donated too. |
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jody,
Friday, 1-22-10 9:13 PM |
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re: Giving in a Crisis Time I was so upset @ the flak Pat Robertson was getting about the alleged "pact with the devil" Haitian leaders had made in their effort to become independent from France, even though Robertson's ministry has contributed $millions to Haiti relief, that I donated to that ministry (Operation Blessing) out of pure spite |
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Steve Hardgrove,
Saturday, 1-30-10 11:34 AM |
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re: Giving in a Crisis Time Way to go, Steve. Incidentally, Operation Blessing is the group that largely financed surgery for a young woman from the Philippines that we (the global outreach group at church) have been praying for. But you don't hear about these small things. According to the lady who works with these girls, they just showed up with some cash and asked how they could help this young lady. Sorry I'm a little (a month) behind reading these posts. Yikes! |
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Katy Brumbelow,
Friday, 2-26-10 10:34 PM |
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re: Giving in a Crisis Time I guess we have a new crisis to give to now. Chili had an 8.8 quake today. Hawaii was glad to have dodged the tsunami bullet. It could have been bad. But it turned out to be only a small swell. I like giving to "World Vision" on these things as well as on a regular basis by sponsoring a child. In a crisis like these they are already there and know what's going on. The money is handled by the people who live and serve in the country not by people swooping in to assess the situation on the fly. The resources are purchased locally whenever possible so it helps the economy recover more quickly as well. The best part is that from everything I have seen they really know how to get the best bang for the buck and are eager to share about Jesus whenever they can. |
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Debbie Day,
Saturday, 2-27-10 3:32 PM |
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re: Giving in a Crisis Time Yes, I too prefer to give to charitable organizations that I trust and not to second-guess their priorities. There are a lot of people that are much better at shopping than I am, and I suspect a lot of them work for organizations like the Salvation Army, Compassion International, and the like. |
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David C,
Sunday, 2-28-10 6:23 PM |