In my long career as a Christian journalist I have covered many tragedies, from the tsunami of 2003 in Southeast Asia to the tragedies of 9/11 to countless floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. Yet most pale in contrast to what we are seeing in Haiti.
We know that Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Long burdened by witchcraft and voodoo, it’s one crisis after another. Then 2 1/2 years ago the president was assassinated, and now the government is no longer in charge. Gangs rule, and the chaos is so great the banks are closed, the airport is closed, the infrastructure to get fuel and food is gone and people are going hungry.
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A longtime friend, Danita Estrella Watts, is a former businesswoman who was touched by the poverty she saw when she visited Haiti as a tourist in the late ’90s. She went as a freelance missionary, helping as she could. When Charisma covered what she did as a human-interest article in 2002, the response was so great that it launched her ministry. Today she has a school with 400 students, an orphanage, a feeding program that serves around 16,000 meals a month and much more.
When I learned of the crisis in Haiti, I invited Danita to my Strang Report podcast, in which she tells of how she waited at the Dominican Republic border just a few miles from her orphanage and couldn’t get in. No Westerners can get in. However, they can hand food over the border and someone will take it back to the orphanage in a wheelbarrow.
She told me the chaos is such that for the first time in the orphanage’s 25-year history she has had to hire armed guards, which is a new expense she must cover. So I invited the viewers to donate to help. Charisma Media does this through Christian Life Missions, a nonprofit that over the years has raised millions of dollars for worthy causes from the readers of Charisma and our other media properties. Our policy going back to the 1950s is to pass along 100% of the proceeds to the project that is being helped.
We can’t help everyone in Haiti. But we can respond with the love of Jesus to help this successful small ministry that we know and have supported over the years. You can check out our website and see other photos and information about Danita’s Children and even see how we raised money for Christmas gifts a couple of years ago.
Wouldn’t you consider giving generously, as my wife and I are doing, to help these children until conditions improve in this impoverished country?
If you want to help with the crisis in Haiti, you can make a tax-deductible donation to Christian Life Missions, which will channel 100% of your gift to a ministry called Danita’s Children, which runs an orphanage, a school and has a feeding program for hundreds of children. Charisma Media works with Christian Life Missions, a nonprofit ministry to help those in need such as these children in Haiti.
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