Haiti Update

Update on Haiti from Scotty Slaydon

To say that the response from our UPCI churches to the Haiti disaster has been incredible would be an understatement.
 Already, just over $250,000 has been received along with enough medical and humanitarian supplies to fill three 40-foot shipping containers. Beyond the finances given there has been a tremendous mobilization of people becoming involved.

Thousands of our young people and children from all over North America have prepared 1-gallon Ziploc bags and 5-gallon buckets filled with personal care items. Many of our churches have become the focal point of their community's involvement in the Haiti disaster relief.

Caravans of trucks, trailers, and minivans have driven from as far as Texas, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania to our staging area in Alexandria, Louisiana, to drop off supplies. Churches in Pakistan, Taiwan, Europe, and South America have sent offerings for Haiti. We are truly the United Pentecostal Church International.

One 40-foot container full of medications, medical supplies, food, personal care packs, and family packs donated by churches, businesses, schools, and individuals is already on location in the Dominican Republic. The CSI medical team along with our missionaries, Ron and Terri Brian, and the saints of Haiti will distribute these supplies later this week and into the next. We will soon send two additional 40-foot containers full of supplies that will be distributed to the Haitian people.

CSI will have an onsite coordinator in Haiti for the next thirty days to assist our missionaries and church leaders with the distribution of goods and the upcoming medical/humanitarian teams. One medical team has already gone into Haiti and returned stateside. For the next eight weeks, four different medical/humanitarian teams will travel to Haiti to set up mobile medical clinics and help with the distribution of supplies.

We need volunteers for these teams and not just medical personnel. If you are interested in going to Haiti to help please go here http://www.compassionservices.org/news.asp?NID=503 and click on the "Get Involved - Mercy Medical Application" or contact our team coordinator, Tonya, at csi@medexpress.net.

On behalf of CSI and our missionaries and saints in Haiti, we want to say thank you to our great fellowship for your love, compassion, and involvement in helping Haiti. This disaster, like none other I've seen, has gotten so many personally involved, and we are simply overwhelmed by the goodness of God's people and their confidence in the ministry of CSI.

~Excerpted from a News Bulletin by David K. Bernard
General Superintendent UPCI