Please pray for those in Haiti ...

This just came to me via Rollin Keller from OPC Pastor Steve Igo who is in Haiti with the Hopps. Please continue to pray much grace for all those who are attempting to help in the midst of so much destruction and loss of life. Pray for God-given words full of grace in light even as they seek to bring relief to so many without hope in this life or the next.

Need Your Prayers for Disaster Relief on Wednesday in Haiti
January 12, 2010 at 11:53pm

Dear Friends,

I am sad to say that the reports from Port-au-Prince get worse by the hour. On the positive side, all of our missionary friends and area pastors are reporting that they are unharmed - so far! Praise the Lord! But the stories they send by email about injury, death and destruction is almost overwhelming. One missionary couple watched their 3 story school building in Port-au-Prince collapse to the ground. Praise God it occurred at 4:53 PM when all the children were gone. Another missionary couple has many injured and dead lying in their front yard, while they try to get some sleep on the bottom floor of their home with neighbors and a visiting mission teams tonight. A mission team of American doctors and nurses who “happened” to be in Haiti this week are busy working with the sick and injured. I am 15 miles north of this devastation with missionaries Ben and Heather Hopp, and I can only imagine how sleepless and distressing the night in Port-au-Prince will be. We were on pins and needles, especially when after-shocks began to intensify between 8 and 9 PM in the evening. Were people shouting and panicking in Port-au-Prince when the earth rumbled yet again?

Some missionaries are stopping by our compound tomorrow morning at 6 AM to pick up missionary Ben Hopp and me to join their team of disaster relief workers. One of them was in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake, helped as many as he could during the daylight hours, and then made his way back north to our community in the dark. He was soot and dust covered when he knocked on Ben and Heather’s door for a ride home. Since UN workers are limited and government services are in disarray, it really appears that the first stage of relief will only come from civilian and faith-based workers. So God willing, here we come!

Please pray for the many civilians, church workers and people of faith who will clearly have their work cut out for them during the daylight hours tomorrow. In God’s providence, our church sent me with a team of disaster relief workers to New Orleans 5 years ago - 3 weeks after Hurricane Katrina. The church has also sent me on many disaster relief trips since then to Bay St. Louis, MS. That experience has taught me that God works powerfully among his people during times of disaster. No doubt, tomorrow we will dig people out of the debris and help transport people to places of help. But in the midst of the overwhelming physical work, the most important thing we will do for the people of Haiti is profoundly spiritual. We will pray with them. We will listen to their stories. We will weep when they weep, and rejoice when they rejoice. And we will urge every one we meet to lift up their eyes to the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Jesus Christ will be present with us tomorrow, and we fully expect him to make himself known among the people we serve in His name.

Thanking you in advance for your prayers,

Pastor Steve Igo
Cedar Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Hudsonville, MI USA