Articles
VINEYARD NOTES
01/21/10
VINEYARD NOTES
January 21, 2010
Anamarie and I are blessed to be home after a great trip to Oaxaca, but we were stunned by the devastating earthquake in Haiti. I'm blessed to report that the offering for Haiti was about $4000. We'll be sending this out immediately to Vineyard Mercy Response which will put it to good use. Below is a link, so you can see how the Vineyard-at-large is responding. Let's keep praying for Haiti. Soon after Columbus claimed the island for Spain (and in the name of Jesus Christ), European "Christians" began enslaving, torturing, and murdering the indigenous people. The original people group on the island was almost completely annihilated by violence or disease. Their forced conversion to Catholicism followed. Some who resisted were crucified. Is it any wonder that many of the people turned away from Christianity to embrace the power of Voodoo?
Dear Friends,
http://mercyresponse.com/cgi-bin/kingdomtools/ktpublic.rb
The revolution in 1791 that led to Haitian independence was initiated with a voodoo blood sacrifice followed by the massacre of thousands of settlers.
Although there have been many efforts to bring Haitians the kingdom of God: righteousness, justice, healing, and the mercy of God; the grip of poverty, violence, and corruption have remained. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and has the highest HIV rate outside of the African continent.
As Christians from all over the world begin to pray, give, and mobilize; let's pray that this will be a significant turning point in their history. Haiti has a desperate need at this moment for God's kindness through hands and hearts of Christ's Church. Let's pray that "...God's kindness leads ...toward repentance. (Ro. 2:4)" Let's pray for this to be a turning point for this devastated nation.
~ As I was writing this I received this notice of flooding at the FFHM mission in Baja.
The recent heavy rains of the last two days have now started to cause flooding in the Baja. The Mission has had some flood damage – the office, the school and some of casa #3. Mario and the staff and workgroups are busy sand bagging to prevent more flooding. Communications lines are down but we heard by cell phone that all are safe and pulling together to sandbag etc.. The military have closed the bridge in Vicente Guerrero as the river is now quite swollen. We are also receiving reports that there are mudslides outside Ensenada. The workgroups at the mission are stranded as the bridge out of town is closed. Thankfully the rain is soft but the people in the camps are now also in need. We are praying that the Lord stops the rain for now! Charla Pereau (Charla is the founder of FFHM)
Let's stand on Romans 8:28 and call upon His name. He can and will work it all out for good.
Here is an excerpt from a Vineyard Mercy Response regarding Haiti.
Mercy Response Update on Haiti 1/20/10.....
In Bert Waggoner’s letter last Friday he mentioned that the Vineyard is working with two large, well-respected organizations in response to the earthquake in Haiti. The two organizations he referenced are Convoy of Hope and Compassion International. We have a strong working relationship with both of these organizations. Both had a presence in Haiti prior to the disaster and currently are engaged in relief efforts in the hardest hit areas. Additionally, Vineyard USA Mercy Response has an assessment team on the ground and they made it to the border of Haiti through the Dominican Republic yesterday. Along the way, they stopped and checked in on the Vineyard Church in Jimani which is about an hour from the border. The church is intact and doing what they can to help in their community. The assessment team plans to head towards Port Au Prince today. Please be assured that we are constantly processing information from a number of sources as we evaluate the situation.
Many of you have asked when you can send teams and how to help; right now the biggest need is financial support and prayer for the victims of this disaster as well as those responding. Our current assessment is that bringing in teams right now could actually hinder the relief effort, but that could change quickly so please continue to check the website for updates.
Mercy Response Update on Haiti 1/16/10 .....
We had a call yesterday from one of our partners that has people in Port au Prince. Their people on the ground who went in with a security team strongly recommended we stay on hold and not try to get in yet. They reported the unrest is escalating to a “free for all” and what we see on the news is only the half of it. It seems that the security and health concerns being expressed earlier in the week have become a reality. When things stabilize a bit, Mercy Response will be going in and this will obviously be a long recovery process. We are also preparing to send an assessment team to the Dominican Republic early next week
Bill Dwyer, Senior Pastor
Valley Vineyard, 6642 Reseda, Reseda, Ca 91335
(818) 776-9696 www.valleyvineyard.org
