I want to take a moment to give you an update on Vineyard Mercy Response efforts in Haiti.  From their website, Phil Schissler, director of Vineyard Mercy Response:

"Due to the generous outpouring of compassion and mercy by the Vineyard community, Vineyard USA Mercy Response is pleased and excited to announce plans for a building project to aid the people of Haiti. The Haitian people continue to suffer the effects of the devastating earthquake that occurred on 1-12-10. Our hope is that this project will be of long term benefit in providing a foundation from which other beneficial ministries may begin.

"The Vineyard Community, in partnership with Convoy of Hope and the Global Aid Network ("GAiN", a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ) will be coming alongside a local Haitian church to construct a facility to house and feed relief workers. The facility will be located just outside of Port au Prince on a 40 acre site owned by the local church. When the construction phase is complete, the camp will be staffed and operated by GAiN and Convoy in conjunction with the local church. The camp will include facilities to house 150 relief workers, bathroom facilities, dining hall, kitchen, and staff housing.

"The camp will be self sufficient, with its own electrical, water and waste water systems. The construction of the camp will be a closed-end project for Mercy Response. The local church pastor, Esperandieu Pierre, GAiN and Convoy are committed to a long-term ministry plan based at the site. That plan includes enlarging the church, and the construction of a school, hospital/clinic, warehouses, and an orphanage.

"There will be an opportunity for teams to travel to Haiti to participate in the construction phase of this project and we anticipate starting construction in late June."

Over the next few weeks, Vineyard OP will be working out the details for a mission trip to Haiti to join Vineyard Mercy Response in their efforts there. If you are interested in this trip, please contact me and let me know.

I include this last little bit as an opportunity to explain why we would do something like going to Haiti to sleep in a tent on a cot in the heat and to work hard every day:  As we do our best to be a community that walks out a life of following Jesus Christ together, we are called to love mercy as God loves mercy.  In a world consumed by self-interest, where cynicism and fear are the lenses used to interpret the things that happen in this world, God calls us to act justly and to love mercy in humility (Micah 6:8).  This is not just a call to agree that justice and mercy are good ideas.   God is always calling us to a holistic response: mental asent, spiritual submission and an outward working that expresses itself in ACTION.

Later,

David