Amidst the tragedy of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, God worked through his people to offer a helping hand to children in need. One such person who interceded for God was Gladys Thomas, director of a multi-faceted ministry in Port-au-Prince that includes an elementary school, School of the Good Sower, and an orphanage, Haiti Home for Children. Gladys took in as many orphans as she could after the earthquake.

Evans, 13, found a new home at Haiti Home for Children after the earthquake.

One of those lucky children was Evans, 13. He had been living at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince before January 12. After the earthquake, that orphanage abandoned its children to the streets and closed. Evans was befriended by an 18-year-old street boy who took him under his wing like a brother. The pair cobbled together a shelter in a tent city and begged for money and food together in the streets.

Evans survived on the streets and in a tent city from January until April. Then a mobile medical clinic found him and learned his story. They contacted Gladys, who immediately made a home for him at Haiti Home for Children orphanage. At first Evans didn’t want to leave his new “brother.” But the older boy was 18, a veteran of the streets, and knew he couldn’t join Evans at the orphanage. In the end, the boy told Evans to go with Gladys—he knew his “little brother” would receive the care and love he needed.

Now Evans has a safe place to live, goes to school, and eats a hot lunch every day. Best of all, he learns about the comforting, saving message of Jesus—now that’s nourishment! Gladys is just one example of God working through his followers in the aftermath of the earthquake. With help from generous American Christians, Cross International supports Gladys’ ministries in Haiti, and we hope you, too, will join us in helping her reach out to more children in Port-au-Prince.

Click here to read about School of the Good Sower, Haiti Home for Children, and other ministries that Cross International supports in Haiti.

If you look at Haiti solely in terms of statistics, the picture looks bleak: barely half of Haitians over 15 can read and write, more than two-thirds of the workforce is unemployed, and about 15 percent of Haiti’s children are orphaned. And after the devastating earthquake in January, poverty and homelessness are on the rise.

Sedellia and her 3-year-old grandson, Marc, find hope in God after the earthquake.

But if you look at Haiti at the “people level,” you’ll see a different picture altogether, one of hope that comes from the Christian people of Haiti.

Take Sedellia Guerrier, 63, who survived the earthquake at her home in Gressier, which is just a few kilometers from the epicenter. When the earthquake hit, her house tumbled down around her, her son, and her grandson, Marc, 3. The damage appeared severe—a wall toppled on her son’s back and broke it, and her house was completely destroyed. But Sedellia looked through the destruction and saw God’s hand.

“The dust hadn’t settled when I began to pray and give thanks that my family was saved,” she said. By the grace of God, Sedellia’s son was not paralyzed from the injury. Marc, who had been inside the house during the quake, was found sitting on the roof of the collapsed home, which Sedellia calls a miracle. And after sleeping under a tarp with her family for three weeks, she praised God for sending them a tent to live in instead.

“When you don’t ask for something and it shows up, it could only be God that sent it,” she said. “A tent showed up and we slept in it for two months.”

Today, Sedellia lives next to the rubble of her old home in a one-room temporary shelter made of salvageable cement blocks and tarps. Seven family members live there with her. Despite losing everything, Sedellia thanks God for keeping them alive and knows he will help Haiti recover.

“It’s not money that makes you rich; it’s the power of God and love in your heart,” she says.

Click here to find out how Cross International is reaching out to earthquake victims like Sedellia—and how you can help!

In the midst of despair people around the world have been touched by the faith and resilience of the Haitian people in the months following the devastating earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, killing thousands and leaving more than 1 million people homeless.

Cross staff members working in the field in the days and months after the earthquake saw this display of faith first hand. Our Haiti projects officer, Mike Henry, described this scene just a week after the earthquake:

“While walking amid the ruins of Port-au-Prince, I came across a spontaneous outdoor gathering of Haitian believers who had just watched their whole world crumble, now joined together in prayer and worship. The earthquake could take their homes and churches, but it could not take their faith! I was amazed by the joy, gratefulness, and prayerful resolve these Haitians were showing in the face of such devastation.”

And this wasn’t an isolated incident. NPR did a piece last week in honor of the six-month anniversary of the earthquake that touched on that very subject. A group of doctors shared an inspiring moment they experienced in the midst of tragedy and pain, at a makeshift tent hospital in Port-au-Prince. This happened to be there very same tent hospital that Cross supported with tents, medicines, and other aid after the quake.

In the piece, the doctors explain what happened: “…a man begins to play a guitar in the corner of the tent, and patients begin to sing.  Soon every Haitian in the tent is singing or clapping or dancing.  The song: “Jesus, thank you for loving us.” (Click here to listen to the full audio segment.)

These doctors were overwhelmed by the experience. As one put it: “It’s extremely humbling to be around a people that, in the worst time of their life, have it in their hearts to give gratitude for what they have left…”

This is reminiscent of the story of Paul and Silas praising and singing hymns to God despite being chained and in prison (Acts 16:25-31). And if you recall, through their worship the jailer came to Christ. Like this story, the Haitian people’s hopeful attitude despite the devastation caused by the quake is an amazing testament to the awesome power of God to overcome any circumstance.

Click here to learn more about what Cross has been doing in the last six months to help earthquake victims in Haiti.

More than 1 million people were left homeless after the earthquake. The survivors fled Port-au-Prince in search of temporary shelter and food.

This week marks the six-month anniversary of the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, killing more than 200,000 men, women, and children and reducing the capital city of Port-au-Prince to a field of rubble. Droves of traumatized survivors fled to the countryside in search of food, water, and shelter, and at least 1.5 million were left homeless.

As photos from Haiti published by the media this week show, the people are still in great need and it will take years for the country to recover. However, we at Cross are thankful for the progress that has been made with the help of compassionate Christians who have selflessly given to help Haiti.

Already, with their support we have been able to provide more than $73 million in cash grants and shipped goods to help those hurting in Haiti. This first helped us provide emergency relief — food, medicine, and other supplies — to victims in the days after the quake. It then enabled us to work with our ministry partners in the months after the disaster to provide recovery and relief to thousands of displaced earthquake victims living in refugee camps.

In addition to the food we continue to ship to earthquake victims, Cross has turned its efforts to recovery with a plan to build hundreds of earthquake-resistant homes.

Now, six months since the earthquake, we have been able to turn our efforts to long-term recovery — clearing debris to make room for new structures and rebuilding schools and homes. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we’ve also began a plan to build hundreds of earthquake resistant houses in Port-au-Prince and three other regions for families whose homes were destroyed.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers as we continue to work with our ministry partners to rebuild the lives of the earthquake victims.

Click here to read a full report of what Cross has been able to do to help Haiti in the last six months thanks to the generosity of American Christians.

Cross supports education and microenterprise programs that promote development.

There is an old saying that goes: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The second part of that saying is the goal of much of the work we do to help the poor here at Cross.

However, during staff devotions this morning we were reminded of how important the first part is, as well. Our newest projects officer recently returned from Central America. It was his first time visiting some of the projects we support there, and he was struck by the impact of our elderly feeding programs — those meeting an immediate need rather than supporting development.

Cross also meets the poor’s more immediate needs through feeding programs for the sick, elderly, and vulnerable children.

“These programs provide palliative care to deal with the effects of poverty. As we minister to the more immediate needs of these people, we are expressing the love of Christ in a very real way,” he explained. “Yes, it is important to teach people how to fish, so to speak, but what about the people who are too old or sick or unable to learn how to fish? Should we just forget about them?”

It is clear from Matthew 18:14 — “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” — that every person is important to God.

Giving an elderly woman a daily meal is just as meaningful in God’s eyes as supporting a scholarship or microenterprise program. Both are meeting important needs of the poor and, in the process, sharing the gospel of Christ with them.

Click here to learn more about what Cross is doing to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of the poor in Latin America.

This weekend, many Americans will express thanks for their freedom as they celebrate Independence Day. The idea of freedom means different things to different people: freedom from want, freedom from oppression, freedom to succeed, freedom to say and do as we please.

Blessings Before

As Christians, we understand freedom in a very exciting way. Ephesians 3:12 says, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” That means God allows us to come to him directly through prayer—we are free to talk to him, share our lives with him, and worship him with not fear, but joy.

Sadly, many people in our world aren’t free in this sense. About 78 million people don’t have access to the Bible in their native language, and about 1.2 billion people have never heard the gospel. What are we as Christians to do about this? Can we do anything at all?

Here’s a story that can help us take heart: In Malawi, Africa, thousands of children have become orphans in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. Annie Chikhwaza, who runs Kondanani Orphanage there with support from Cross International, discovered a pair of 17-month-old twins in “tragic” condition.

Seeing Blessings recover under Annie’s care is proof that Christians can make a difference in lives around the world.

Little Blessings weighed about 8.5 pounds and his twin, Hasting, weighed about 15 pounds. Blessings had large, open wounds on his body and both children looked like skeletons. Neither had hair on their heads nor could sit and stand.

Annie says that in just two weeks, the twins have gained weight and their skin has changed color from pale and gray to chocolate brown. Their hair is growing and it is black instead of orange, a tell-tale sign of malnutrition. Blessings’ wounds are nearly closed up, and Annie says she’s certain they will both make a full recovery.

God calls us to use our freedom to give in his name, to offer of ourselves when no one else will. Thanks to gifts from caring American Christians, children like Blessings and Hasting experience God’s love through us. Galatians 5:13 says, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” God calls us to use our freedom for good, for serving each other in his name. He reminds us that we can’t understand freedom only in the sense of what we aren’t forced to do; he asks us to think of freedom in terms of what we are at liberty to do for others.

Click here to read about how you can serve others in God’s name through programs supported by Cross International.

For Mari Lu and Lino Vizoro, a new house changed everything.

Top: This shanty is where the Vizoro family used to live. Left: The Vizoro family now lives in this house built by the Gawad Kalinga housing program. Right: Mari Lu, Samantha, Angelica, and Lino Vizoro.

“We used to be one of three families who lived together in one house,” Mari Lu said. “The house had no toilet inside—we had just a common outhouse for 10 families! When it rained the house flooded because it was below street level. This new house is above street level, so it won’t flood.”

The Vizoros, along with their daughters Samantha and Angelica, live in Pasay City, part of metro Manila in the Philippines. They used to live in the shanty pictured here, which was patched together with tin, wood, and whatever other materials they could find. Flooding and disease were two major problems in the area, along with crowded and dirty living conditions.

Thousands of families live in horrible conditions in slums throughout the Philippines. An estimated 5 million families in the Philippines are in need of safe housing. These poor men, women, and children live each day on the edge of survival. Families living here are constantly exposed to garbage, polluted water, and disease.

But there is hope for these families. The Gawad Kalinga (Giving Care) housing program replaces these shanty communities with clean, safe houses. For families like the Vizoros, a new house is more than just a building—it’s a chance for Mari Lu and Lino to offer a better future for Samantha and Angelica. Their new house, shown here, keeps them warm and dry, and it also gives them self-esteem and hope.

Mari Lu says God gave her a house and answered her prayer for a safe place to raise her daughters.

“Thank you for the materials to build a dream come true,” she said.

Click here to read about Gawad Kalinga and the many other housing programs that Cross International supports around the world with the help of generous American Christians.

First the good news: ten African countries are only half as poor as they were two decades ago.

Young children in sub-Saharan Africa face an uphill battle for survival against poverty, hunger, and infectious diseases.

Now the bad news: child mortality rates have actually gone up, rather than down, in six sub-Saharan nations. Sub-Saharan Africa holds the unfortunate distinction of being the only region in the world that has seen an increase in the mortality rate of children under age 5. That’s according to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals Report Card released on Tuesday.

What makes this report particularly relevant to us at Cross International is that most of our work in Africa is in the sub-Saharan region. One of the six countries listed in the child-mortality report is Zambia, where Cross is providing food and education for impoverished children, home-based care for the chronically ill, and safe, accessible water for remote villages.

Waterborne illnesses and other infectious diseases are leading causes of child deaths in Zambia, while HIV remains a major threat, directly and indirectly, to the health of children. In many cases, lives can be saved by simple improvements in home sanitation and by educating HIV-infected mothers to bottle-feed their infants. Good nutrition and alternative water sources also play a big role, and children must be kept in school because they are the producers of tomorrow’s wealth, which will in turn provide the food, medical care, and healthier way of life that Zambia needs. Cross is promoting all these developments through partnerships with local Christian ministries that understand Zambia’s struggles and know how to make a difference, one family at a time, one village at a time.

This past Sunday, many of us took time to honor that special someone who taught us how to ride our first bicycle, change our first tire, catch our first baseball, and get through life without calling a plumber or asking for directions. Father’s Day was celebrated in 52 countries around the world, from Cuba to Greece to Afghanistan.

Arms of Love provides safe shelter for orphans and vulnerable children in Nicaragua.

The Bible has some important things to say about the value of godly fathers. “A righteous man who walks in his integrity – How blessed are his sons after him.” (Prov. 20:7) Even the Trinity itself is described in terms of a Father-Son relationship.

Sadly, many children have never known a father’s love. Some are orphans, others abandoned, others imprisoned in a home life wrecked by drug and alcohol abuse. The absence of a father figure helps to perpetuate the cycle of poverty in countries where even healthy, intact families struggle to get by. That includes Nicaragua, where Cross International is working with a local Christian ministry called Arms of Love to provide shelter for children who have been permanently separated from their parents due to death, abandonment, or abuse.

Nine-year-old Luisa came to Arms of Love after government authorities found her alone on a street selling candies. Both her parents were alcoholics and her uncle had been molesting her. Arms of Love took Luisa in, provided food, shelter, and health care, and raised her in a safe, nurturing environment with opportunities to make new friends, receive counseling, and get a quality Christian education. Now she knows she has a Father in heaven who is always watching over her and will never abandon her. Because of Arms of Love, Luisa is able to say, “Finally, I have a family.”

Click here to learn more about the great work that Arms of Love is doing for fatherless and vulnerable children in Nicaragua.

Jim Kline, our Africa projects officer, recently returned from a trip to Ethiopia. While visiting a ministry we support in the capital city that provides physical therapy and education to children with disabilities, he met a little girl named Hewett.

Hewett, a 6 year old with Down Syndrome, has made miraculous progress since she started going to physical therapy at a Cross-sponsored program in Ethiopia.

The 6-year-old, born with Down Syndrome, had spent most of her life bedridden and mute. Her parents, poor and beside themselves with worry, had nowhere to turn for help.

In Ethiopia, as in many developing African countries, children with disabilities are considered cursed. These children are often kept at the fringes of society, held back from school and hidden away from people, and their parents face constant ridicule from friends and neighbors.

Hewett, however, did not become one of those “hidden children.” Instead, her parents heard about a Christian ministry that helped children like Hewett get better. After a few years of physical therapy and one-on-one attention, Hewett can now stand on her own and she speaks. Her parents could not believe the miraculous change — Hewett couldn’t even hold up her head on her own before the help of the ministry.

“She is very engaged. She makes eye contact with you and wants to touch everything,” Jim said. “Her parents are overwhelmed with joy over the improvement their daughter has made. The ministry really made a difference in this child’s life.”

Stories like Hewett’s are a precious reminder of what can be accomplished when Christians work together to help the poor. To read about more life-changing programs in Africa that we support, click here.

You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.
Psalm 77:14