January 22, 2010
Dear Grace:
We’ve all been through a very emotional week as we have tried our best to follow God’s leading in our response to the crisis in Haiti. We share the range of emotions you have probably felt at some point during the week: hope and despair, encouragement and disappointment, trust and confusion, bravery and fear. We will talk about the week, and particularly what happened on Wednesday with the news of possibly receiving many Haitian orphans, this weekend in our services. Please join us so we can process the week together as a community. You can also read the latest from Safe Families, whom we continue to trust and support, on their blog: http://www.safefamilieshaiti.blogspot.com/.
You have been incredibly generous as a church, both in the response to the potential of orphans coming to Indiana, and in your giving. We are excited to report that as of Friday morning, you have donated over $155,000 to Grace’s Haiti relief efforts. Praise God! We will continue to receive donations through this Sunday, January 24th. We will have offering boxes marked "Haiti Relief" at Grace. As we have stated, we will be giving monies to assist in the immediate efforts of both Kids Against Hunger and Nehemiah Vision Ministries, and we’ll share more with you this weekend.
Nehemiah Vision Ministries is sending their first medical relief team to Haiti today. Grace is hoping to partner with NVM to send our first trip to Haiti towards the end of February. We may send more trips after that as well. If you are interested in being part of one of those trips, click here to fill out the form on our website. We are primarily looking for medical personnel and skilled laborers at this point.
Now for the really fun part! On Saturday, February 6th, we will be packing 200,000 bags of food at Grace that will feed 1.2 million Haitians for one day! We need 400 people to make that happen. We’re asking you to sign up for a 2 ½ hour shift on that Saturday. Space is limited to 400 people and we anticipate that the volunteer slots will fill quickly, so if you are interested and can commit to a shift, don’t delay in signing up. Registration will open immediately after this email is sent.
NOTE: Due to an overwhelming response, over 400 of you signed up for all 3 serving shifts in just over an hour. Incredible.
At this time all serving shifts are full, and we are looking into creating an additional meal packaging event at a later date. Thanks for your interest in this serving opportunity.
Thank you for being an action-oriented church that cares so deeply about God’s world. May we all continue to live for God and His kingdom in this world!
Keith Carlson
Pastor of Outreach and Leadership Development
Grace Community Church
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