Imagine camping with your family. Now imagine camping with your family, with no camping gear FOR NINE MONTHS. That is what is going on right now in Haiti. Most people are living under tarps and blankets cobbled together to form the most minimal type of shelter. My brain explodes and my heart aches when I think about parents trying to raise their children in these horrible conditions.
Over one million people are living under tarps and tents at this moment in Port-au-Prince. My goal is to build four families houses in Haiti. That requires $5,000. At this moment, we have $1,315 in total donations. That is about 26% of the goal. The scary thing is, I leave for Haiti in 10 days! That's not much time.
I have been struggling mightily with a way to give you readers an accurate update on the amount of money we have raised together to build houses for homeless families in Haiti.
The Chip-In Meter (and the associated orange bar graph) on the side of the blog is great for people with Paypal accounts, but it has some significant limitations. There is no way for the orange graph to record the money from checks that people have mailed in directly to Heartline Ministries. Thus the orange bar graph has been rather inaccurate when it comes to totals from all sources of funds. I've been trying to figure out a better way of visually showing that.
So now we have a new improved blue graph near the top of the right side of this blog. It is just above the Chip-In graph. This blue graph adds together the Paypal contributions and checks for a complete financial picture of where we are. (Thanks to my hubby Ralph for working on the graph this weekend, in spite of the fact that our three kids were in a conspiracy to not give him a moment's peace to work on it.)
Those who have paid close attention may have noticed something else...I have lowered the goal. The old goal was probably unrealistic for these current economic times. I really appreciate the people who have dug in their pockets to give a donation to build a house for a homeless family in Haiti. $2500 builds two strong wooden houses in Haiti. Having a safe house means that families can stop living under tarps, tents and bedsheets.
The wonderful women in my Tuesday morning bible study group took up a collection for the Haiti Houses, and generously donated over $450. Thank you so much! I really appreciate seeing your faith in action. Appropriately, in the bible study we are reading and discussing the book of ACTS--which is largely about missions. Thank you Marilyn (our teacher) and all the fabulous women who attend. You all are huge gifts in my life. Again, I thank you.
I must get the donated money to the Heartline bookkeeper before I leave, so really Nov. 1 is our collection deadline. The funds need to be donated through Paypal or mailed by then.
So get ready to pay! I've been dieting for almost three solid months. I'll do the official weigh in tomorrow and find out how many pounds I've lost and how much you need to contribute to Heartline Ministries, if you are sponsoring me on a per pound basis. Of course, all donations of any amount are welcome.
Remember: In Haiti, camping has nothing to do with vacation. Please help me build some houses for needy families there.
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