G.O. Haiti Relief Blitz!

One of our fellow staffers here at G.O. put this map together for us to share with you so that you could get a better sense of where all the relief has gone through our efforts in Haiti. Again, we’re humbled by the ways in which God has equipped us to respond to this disaster.

The entire southern coast of Haiti has suffered much of the same destruction as Port au Prince. The organizations we’ve sent aid to in the North have been receiving and caring for refugees since the days after the quake.

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti. The rainy season is almost upon them. G.O. currently has 1000 or so tents on their way. We’ve also sent down three 48ft by 16ft mobile greenhouses to be used as temporary shelters and hospitals. There’s an inflatable tent hospital purchased by G.O. that just reached Santiago and will be in route to Jacmel, Haiti very soon.

I was in our Louisville warehouse today, Saturday, February 27 receiving the last of some relief supplies from our local relief drive. The huge warehouse is about full and we will be emptying it out on Monday as trucks will be hauling it away to be loaded onto a boat and floated down to the island where it will be distributed. Much thanks to Eric Leach (fellow G.O. Staffer) who has organized and managed the warehouse effort since day one of getting the space. He really has done a fantastic job!

As always, thanks for your prayers and your financial support of Vicki and myself. By helping us you are helping Haiti.

Check out a more detailed account of what has gone where in Haiti here.

Pictures and a 1000 Words...

Last Friday Vicki was visiting the girls’ school. On her way out she stopped to visit with their art teacher, Jill. Our girls are prolific artists. We have countless pictures, paintings and sculptures thanks in no small part to their art teacher. Jill commented on how much she enjoyed teaching them. She asked Vic if she had seen Sophi’s picture of the earthquake and then Jill got choked up. We hadn’t seen it. It was buried in a stack of pictures that come home on almost a daily basis. Jill said that she’d never seen anything like it from a 4 year old, that our girls were extraordinarily connected with a more global perspective. We weren’t sure what to make of it but anxiously searched for this piece of art once we got home. We found it. We’ll let Sophi explain it to you in her own words in just a minute.

Just a little more first by way of introduction… Our daughters are very aware of what’s going on in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. They’ve been to the DR with us at least 6 times. They have a sense that their mom and dad work to try and be a help to those that need it. Before the quake in Haiti they were already familiar with the reality of hunger there and the unfortunate novelty of dirt cookies. They thought about it; they prayed about it.

When the quake hit while I was in the DR Vicki was glued to the TV. Not because she was concerned about me, she knew I was ok. She, like me, understood the enormous tragedy that this was. The girls saw the footage as she watched. Vic told them that I was in the DR helping the people in Haiti. When I came home the relief efforts state side were in full swing. We worked around the clock in the office and at home. The poor little ladies were almost neglected. Friends from our community group prepared us meals for about a week so that we could devote some time to the girls without the distraction of having to prepare and clean up a meal. Soph and Rae knew we were up to something and that it had to do with Haiti. From this the following was born.


Just so you know, Tio Mano is our friend Romano, a dear Haitian brother. Tio is Spanish for “uncle” which is what our daughters call him. It will make sense in a minute. The girls have known him their entire life.


I'll post Romano's story after this:

I was fortunate enough to shoot this quick video of Romano before he left for Port-au-Prince.

Responding to Haiti, a Gift, an Act of Faith...

The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind. God has been very gracious to G.O. Ministries in the face of such an overwhelming crisis in Haiti. We have been steadily responding to the urgent needs that have come from this event. Our years on the ground on the island of Hispaniola, our familiarity with the place and our Partnerships and relationships with people all over the island have served to uniquely position us to respond. We never could have imagined that God would use these relationships in the way in which he has. It is as though a door materialized before our eyes in a concrete wall and so we were compelled to walk through. God has completely surrounded us with the resources and the new relationships to respond to Haiti’s deep need. Our capacity to be good neighbors to our Haitian friends has been multiplied a hundredfold and continues to grow. This ability to respond in a manner that immediately meets desperate needs, in a way that has been saving and continues to save lives is itself a gift. Vicki and I are blessed to be a part of it and to have a role to play in it. It is startling; it is humbling; it is a labor of love.

3 weeks after the fact we who are on the leadership team are beginning to process and consider what G.O.’s long-term response to the new reality facing Haiti will be. We cannot imagine that the island will ever be the same on account of the magnitude of this disaster. We know that we will continue in the rescue phase for at least another 2-4 weeks as larger organizations responding to the crisis will have time to get to the areas we are currently serving. We know that we will be committed to doing our part towards restoration in Haiti. We were working towards it already. To be about the Gospel and the Kingdom of God is to be about restoration. It is not work born of duty but of faith, motivated by Love. Given the enormity of what our Haitian neighbors now face, faith seems a better resource than duty. Duty draws on our own strength and will quickly prove to be lacking. Faith draws on God’s own strength and reveals to us what God will do with a little trust and obedience.

I’m convinced that God hates what has happened to Haiti. I’m convinced that years of injustice and exploitation at the hands of others inside and outside of Haiti have not escaped his notice. I’m convinced that the brokenness of Haiti is not the final word. The final word will be his Shalom which will also be the very first word of the Age to come. It is that Age that we now work towards even more fervently than before in Haiti not because we are the saviors of the world but because Jesus was and is. And at the dawn of the renewal of all things he expects to catch us working to meet him from our side of history, not out of duty but out of faith, motivated by love and compassion rooted in the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. If we have counted ourselves among the People of God and yet have had idle hands the time for that to cease is now. There are many who suffer in the world in and beyond Haiti that are in need of our faithful love and service. Let’s give it to them.

Here’s a story published today in the New York Times about our relief effort in Haiti. Read the article here. Please watch the video report “Haiti, Help from Above.” We’re grateful for the Times coverage of what G.O. is doing in Haiti. We have lots of information on http://www.gohelphaiti.org/ highlighting different aspects of our response over the last few weeks. Please check it out and direct your friends, families and church leaders there. God has graced us with the ability to do some very important work on the island. Again, it’s been a gift to share in it and now we share that gift with you too.

Grace and Peace,

The Rogers