NPUC president, Max Torkelsen, is urging Northwest members and churches to help fund relief efforts in the aftermath of the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12, affecting much of Haiti’s capital. The Red Cross has estimated a projected death toll of at least 50,000 and climbing, with an additional three million people hurt or homeless.

 

While accurate information is understandably slow in coming, Larry Evans, General Conference undertreasurer, says the Adventist Church has 1000 churches in the area, with about 330,000 members. Preliminary reports show two of the largest Adventist churches, which housed five congregations, were destroyed. The nearby Haitian Adventist University sustained significant damage but portions of the campus are still being used to stage relief efforts. The Adventist hospital in Port-au-Prince is functional and already serving as a clinical center.

 

Inter-American Division president, Israel Leito, and NAD president, Don Schneider, encourage NAD Adventists to help with funding, but advise strongly against well-meaning but counter-productive trips to Haiti to volunteer on-site help.

However, AN IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: Since no ADRA funds can be used to specifically target the special needs of Adventist churches, schools and members, NAD and NPUC churches will be mobilizing additional offerings in the coming weeks which will directly help the church rebuild its mission and the lives of its members. Those offerings should be designated on tithe envelopes as “Haiti Disaster Relief.”

 

“Haiti is one America’s closest neighbors and certainly fits Christ’s description of ‘one of the least of these,’” says Torkelsen. “I encourage our NW members to unite in a vigil of prayer support and sacrificial giving to provide for this critical need.”