You Don’t Visit Haiti. Haiti Visits You.

Dan Cruver of Together for Adoption arrived back from Haiti with this thought "You Don’t Visit Haiti. Haiti Visits You."

You'll understand why when you see more of the photos of the Haitian children on his blog.

Give Me That Smile

From Brad Powell, Northridge Church

I just got back from a heartbreaking trip to Haiti. I have to tell you that, while the problems are enormous, there are no easy solutions. For me, this is extremely frustrating. And yet, in the midst of my frustration, I’m trying to remember a couple of vital truths.

Read more.

Haiti’s Restavek System and Preaching on Adoption to Haitian Pastors

From Dan Cruver, Together for Adoption

At the Haitian pastors conference (sponsored by HORT) on Wednesday (April 21) Jason Weber (Hope for Orphans) and I tag-teamed as we presented Scripture’s teaching on spiritual adoption and its implications for indigenous orphan care and Haiti’s current restavek system. Our talk to the Haitian pastors developed three headings:

1.  Creation/Fall
2.  Redemption (Israel/Jesus/church)
3.  Restoration (New Creation)

Here is the bullet point outline of my part of the Creation/Fall heading:

• The story of human history is God’s story of redemption. Yes, it’s our story, too, in that we are the ones being redeemed. But it’s God story in that he is the one who redeems. God is the one who initiates and accomplishes our redemption. We don’t initiate or accomplish anything in redemption’s story!
• The story of redemption really began in time when God created all that is, and he did so, ultimately, in order to display his glory.
• The climax of God’s creative work was the creation of man. In The Gospel of Luke’s genealogy of Jesus, Luke refers to Adam as a “son of God.” That’s not to say that Adam was divine or a god in any sense whatsoever. For Adam to be a “son of God” meant that he was graciously created to know the fatherly love and care of God,  to enjoy and participate in the love that God the Father eternally shared with his eternal Son.
• By creating man, God amazingly enlarged the circle of his family so that man might be loved and cared for even as God loves his eternal Son. As far as God the Father was/is concerned, he would have no second class children. Adam was created to share in the fullness of love that God the Father has forever shared with his eternal Son.
• But then the Fall happened. Man rebelled against the fatherly love and care of the God who created him in his image. As a result, man was cast out of the circle of God’s family. Suddenly, man found himself, not only outside the Garden of Eden, but outside God’s family of love. Tragicaly, man became an orphan of cosmic proportions.

April 18-22 HORT Trip to Haiti

from Dan Cruver of Together for Adoption...

I have the privilege of joining the Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) on their April 18-22 trip to Haiti. HORT is a cooperative effort of U.S. based ministries and disaster response experts that have joined together to respond to Haiti’s orphan crisis.

One of the major objectives of HORT is to provide U.S. churches with the opportunity to be a part of the solution to Haiti’s orphan crisis by coming alongside Haitian churches in church-to-church partnerships to initiate, strengthen and grow their outreach to orphans in their immediate communities. The Orphaned and Vulnerable Child Program (OVC) is one of the HORT initiatives established to help accomplish this major objective. Here’s what we’ll be doing on our April 18-22 trip to launch the OVC program with 10 Haitian churches:

Sunday, April 18th – Interview OVC candidate for position of in-country director and meet with Pastor Edner Jeanty to finalize Wednesday’s (April 21) training conference and to discuss accountability structure for OVC partner churches.

Monday, April 19th – Meet with Compassion International and other in-country network partners t0 coordinate additional OVC project churches.

Tuesday, April 20th – Visit 4-5 Port-au-Prince partner churches for team vision and partner role clarification.

Wednesday, April 21st – Hold training meeting for the leadership of 10 OVC partnership churches. Training will include:

• Biblical teaching on spiritual adoption and its implication for orphan care (Jason Weber and Dan Cruver)
• Why the local church should care for orphaned and vulnerable children
• OVC program implementation
• Church-to-church partnerships (expectations and roles)
• A biblical look at the Restavec tradition in Haiti

My fellow teams members are: Scott Vair (World Orphans), Alan Hunt (World Orphans), Jason Weber (Hope for Orphans), Brad Powell (Northridge Church), and Michael Miller (Northridge Church).

Please pray for us and the Haitian pastors and orphans that we will serve while there. Our desire is to serve them wisely and faithfully in the name of Jesus. If you want brief trip updates while I’m in Haiti, you can follow me on Twitter.

Rood Awakening (Part Two)

Here's the second video about Rood. Can you imagine seeing your family crushed under this building?

Rood Awakening (Part Two) - Haiti Video Blog #11 from World Orphans on Vimeo.

Rood Awakening (Part One)

Here's a video from Haiti about a remarkable young boy, Rood, who was orphaned by the January earthquake. You'll be absolutely shocked and amazed by his story.

Come back for part two later tomorrow!


Rood Awakening (Part One) - Haiti Video Blog #10 from World Orphans on Vimeo.

Inside the Tents (Haiti Video Blog – 9)

Would you like to live here as the rains and winds and sewage come? . . .

Inside the Tents - Haiti Video Blog #9 from World Orphans on Vimeo.

Intensities in Tent Cities (Haiti Video Blog – 8)

Please remember them during this rainy season . . .

Intensities in Tent Cities - Haiti Video Blog #8 from World Orphans on Vimeo.

Love Your Neighbor (Haiti Video Blog – 7)

A pretty enduring image, to say the least. A church stood tall while the house next to it collapsed during the January 12th earthquake in Haiti. During our visit, this particular church was serving as a makeshift school and was filled with children as we entered. As one of our team interviewed the pastor, I made my way into the alley between the church and house. Like many of the crushed homes in Port-au-Prince, I was able to peer into the layers of everyday life – beds, pots and pans, board games, and a TV – all compacted down into ribbons of debris.

Two of the children who used to call it home were now in the church, occupying seats before a dilapidated blackboard. When they lost everything, the church was there for them, to answer the call to literally "Love your neighbor."

They are your neighbors. YOU can be there for them also.

Love Your Neighbor - Haiti Video Blog #7 from World Orphans on Vimeo.

Living on the Streets (Haiti Video Blog – 6)

The Haitian church here serves as a gathering place for hundreds of children, as well as a good number of adults, who continue to seek food, water, shelter, and hope while living on the streets.

YOU and your church can make a difference. Partner with Haitian churches like this to help the children that gather daily on their grounds.


Living on the Streets - Haiti Video Blog #6 from World Orphans on Vimeo.

Stand with Them (Haiti Video Blog – 5)

These two cuties are double orphans, clinging to life on the streets of Port-au-Prince with surviving relatives who are struggling to keep them. I met them at one of our partner churches – a church that was packed with 400 homeless children. When you stand beside a church like this, you stand by extended families who are desperately trying to care for children such as these.


Stand With Them - Haiti Video Blog #5 from World Orphans on Vimeo.