I just returned from Haiti last week. I came back to a nation still digging their way out from the devastation. Every Haitian bears the scars of the earthquake. Many walk the streets on crutches, missing a leg.  Bandages, casts, and slings are as common as the collapsed houses.

All have suffered emotionally. Hundreds of thousands are overwhelmed with grief.  They have no advocates, counselors, or assistance. An entire city suffers from Post Traumatic Stress.

The voices of Haiti are still crying out.

This week World Help delivered another 40-foot container loaded with supplies. It drove straight into Port-au-Prince with hundreds of large family tents, cots, wheelbarrows, shovels, and other tools. Our team personally delivered these right into the hands of our partners, needy families, and orphaned children. So far we have shipped or airlifted more than 20 containers and 14 more waiting to go out.  ...

I have spent the last couple days with our team on the ground in Haiti overseeing the distribution of the food, water, medicine, and supplies we have sent.  We went to our warehouse and confirmed that these supplies had arrived and are being distributed to the people who need them the most.  We also spent an entire day at the airport to make sure all the shipments we airlifted had also arrived and were distributed.

The devastation is unbelievable.  Yesterday I saw a hospital that had caved in during the earthquake and killed 400 people.  300 of those were children.  Witnesses told me that for days, they could hear their cries and could do nothing about it.  It made me thankful that we are helping to provide for 400 newly orphaned children.

Today, I was invited to a meeting with the Haitian President’s Chief of Staff, some of his Cabinet ...

I spoke at Liberty University's Convocation on Friday morning. We showed World Help's video on Haiti to thousands of students. I also challenged them to do something for the desperate nation. 

If you click on the following link it will take you to a full length article. Liberty has already pledged to support 17 Haitian orphans and that is just the beginning of their support.

http://tinyurl.com/ycdnh96

I walked the streets of Port-au-Prince and all I saw was the utter destruction of an entire nation—a nation that has lost everything.  The latest estimates are that 150,000 people are dead, 1.5 million people are homeless, and 3 million have been affected by this earthquake.

But as I looked around me, amidst the devastation, I saw a people who are trying . . . a people who want to rise up and rebuild their nation.  In fact, on each city block, I saw people digging with their bare hands.  Some were using plastic plates to dig.  They are desperate to help.  They are desperate to find the bodies of their loved ones.  And they are desperate to rebuild.

One man told me that as thankful as he was for the food and water we were sending, there is just as great a need for tools and small equipment ...

I wanted  to email all of you and give an update on my trip to Haiti.
 
I traveled there with four other men and we returned late on Friday.  I am physically and emotionally exhausted from everything  I experienced there.
 
The death, destruction and chaos were overwhelming.  Although I have been many times to poverty stricken countries and have responded to other natural disasters, I have never experienced anything that can compare to what I saw last week in Haiti. The smell of death was everywhere. I saw bodies being loaded into a dumpster and others loaded into a dump truck.  Everywhere I looked there was death and destruction.  It was like a war zone.  I was prepared for it to be bad, but not that bad.  
 
I witnessed so many children who are now orphaned, many of them badly injured.  Other children were ...

 I hope this story impacts you as much as it did me.

Trapped beneath the remains of her home, a nine-year-old girl could be heard begging for rescue yesterday as neighbours clawed at sand and debris with their bare hands.

It had been two days since the earthquake collapsed the cinderblock home in Port-au-Prince, trapping Haryssa Keem Clerge inside the basement. Friends and neighbours braved aftershocks to climb over the rubble, one of hundreds of toppled structures teetering on the side of a ravine.

The city is full of people desperate for more help than neighbours can muster, and it never came for Haryssa.

Just hours after her screams renewed the hopes of rescuers yesterday, her lifeless body was finally pulled from the mass of concrete and twisted metal. It was wrapped in a green bath towel and placed in a drawer. There was nowhere ...

I was humbled by a blog that one of my good friends Cheryl Smith wrote. She posted it yesterday and it concerns World Help's efforts in Haiti. I wanted to share it with you.

Earthquake in Haiti Shakes My Morning

This morning I had an early meeting scheduled with Rusty Goodwin and Noel Yeatts at World Help to discuss their Twitter strategy. World Help is a nondenominational Christian organization that was founded to meet the spiritual and physical needs of hurting people around the world. They are taking seriously the call of Christ to minister to “the least of these.”

Last night, Rusty asked if we could meet a bit later because he needed to talk about Haiti with Founder and President, Vernon Brewer. Vernon is a man of great vision. Because he has spent a lifetime in obedience to the call of God ...

In the wake of the largest earthquake in 200 years to hit the nation of Haiti, World Help is already working with its long-time partners on the ground in Port-Au-Prince to provide aid and medical relief to those who have been devastated by this 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

Preliminary reports indicate that there could be as many as 100,000 casualties.  Reports of men and women finding the bodies of family members in the rubble continue to come in.

Since the initial quake, at least 28 aftershocks have hit Haiti, some above a 5.0 magnitude.  Most of Port-Au-Prince has been destroyed, leaving many of its 2 million inhabitants homeless.  Because 8 out of 10 people in Haiti already live in poverty, this is an even greater catastrophe.

World Help currently sponsors several hundred children in Haiti and although our communication into this country is very limited, every effort is being made ...

I just returned from Guatemala where I took a passionate group of people for a week. They came from California, Virginia, North Carolina, Washington, and so many other places. Some were pastors, businessmen and women, politicians, and everyday people. The youngest was 9 and the oldest struggled to walk. Each of their stories was different, but every one of them shared the same desire . . . to make an eternal difference in the life of another.

Through our Cause Life project they caught the vision that giving clean water is the key to providing life. I can’t tell you how excited I was that we were dedicating 5 new wells! Each well was made possible through a person, just like you, who saw a need and acted.

These wells are in villages where there has only been dirty, contaminated water. Infant mortality is 50 percent and higher in these places because of water born diseases. The conditions are deplorable and miserable. ...

Thank you for your commitment, passion, investments, and friendship.  
2009 has been an incredible year and 2.5 million lives have been  
impacted.

My new resolution for 2010 is summed up in the words of Emerson:

"To laugh often, to win the affection of children, to earn the  
appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false  
friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave  
the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden  
patch...to know that even one life has breathed easier because you  
have lived.  This is to have succeeded!"

Wishing you a healthy and prosperous new year!