so…since this blog is about sharing the small snippets of our life with you, i have to take a bit of time today and share a very LARGE snippet of my life with you, and ask you to help me out.
i’ve mentioned before that we have a deep connection to the country of Haiti, and have been traveling there for the last 10 years. our hearts are in love with that nation, the people, the children, and the time that we’ve spent there has changed our lives forever. we long to see so much happen in Haiti, for God’s redemption of that land to be so apparent, and have been privileged to get to watch God bring His Kingdom in so many spectacular ways.
but as the world has seen since the earthquake at the beginning of this year, Haiti is a nation that is desperately in need…of so many things. but what the world has failed to really see is that deep need has really always been there….the earthquake just seemed to magnify some of it for awhile.
but after traveling there over the last decade, the desperation of that nation has always pressed heavy on our hearts. there is a contingent of peeps in our community that share this love of Haiti too. so about 4 years ago, a group of us, lead by the vision of one friend in particular, who is presently living in Haiti with his wife as a full time missionary, started working on a grass-roots kind of non-profit organization called Lespwa Worldwide (www.lespwaworldwide.com). Lespwa means “hope” in creole, the native language of Haiti, and the organization exists primarily to bring HOPE to the people of Haiti, with a direct focus on the children and orphans of Haiti.
you can go here to see some things i’ve written in the past about Haiti and Lespwa. we have been blown away at how God has grown this little ministry, and how He is choosing to use it to further His Purpose and Plan in our beloved land of Haiti.
you’ll be hearing lots more about that in the upcoming weeks as we prepare to travel there again. but for today, the reason i’m writing is because i really need your help!
there is an opportunity we have to be granted a large sum of money to continue the work that has been done and is presently being done by Lespwa in Haiti.
so here’s the deal:
Chase bank is giving away over $5 million dollars, all to charities that have small operating budgets (under $1 million dollars.) They are having a voting contest on Facebook and the top vote getter wins $250,000. The next 4 spots get $100,000 each. The top 200 charities get $20,000 each.
we are presently in the top 200, but that can change as more votes come in.
the voting ends next Monday, July 12th, so alot can happen between now and then.
so i’m asking you to vote…today…if you are able and feel led to do so. you have to have a facebook account in order to vote. i’m thinking most of you do, but if by chance you do not, it is super easy to create one if you wanted to do so!
so to vote, just follow this link:
If you vote, afterwards you can share the link and info on your status and make this your profile picture if you’d like:
(you can follow this link to do that: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=51600030&l=2bfbaf82f1&id=5104106…just tag yourself in the photo in order to make it your profile picture…just for this week and then you can put your ultra cool profile pic back up! or you can save this image onto your desktop and download it into your profile in facebook.)
and then explain where to vote in the caption and tag your friends and tell them to do them same- it really works!
Need motivation? As of yesterday morning…
The Harry Potter Alliance was in first place for voting. Albeit a compelling book and movie series, the Harry Potter Alliance will get $250,000 when we could use that money for building trade schools for desperately needed future mechanics, carpenters, and farmers here in Haiti…
its okay if you don’t feel led to go vote, but can i ask you to do something that is even more important?
Take a minute to pray for the people of Haiti. Regardless of this contest, God will continue his restoration of Haiti, and we ask that you pray for the Haitian people. If you don’t like praying, or don’t believe in prayer, tell God that too. (quote taken from my friend Jay)
thanks friends, for letting me call upon you to do this. and feel free to use whatever means necessary to get the word out…blog about it, tweet about it, text it, email it, etc…
can’t wait to share with you all the work that God continues to do in Haiti, as we HOPE for (confidently expect) God to continue to show up in a big way!
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