Haiti Relief

Mt. Oak & Friends,

Recently I was listening to a podcast from a pastor I respect greatly – he said that if a pastor wants to lead by example – he must be willing to share what he is doing. With that in mind he gave an example of how he and his wife gave to a project at their church – not in figures (amounts) – because that would only be relevant if they knew his pay and then only based on his pay scale… what he did was make it relevant to all.

With this in mind – we should all be aware of what has happened this week in Haiti. More than 3,000,000 Haitians – a third of their county – has been impacted by a devastating earthquake. It has been called the greatest one day death toll in the history of earth.

With this in mind and with the mind of encouraging our congregation - Carolyn and I have decided to give an extra week’s giving (a gift beyond our tithe) to the relief effort in Haiti. We give weekly so it was easy to figure out our gift. If you would like to follow suit, figure what a week’s giving would be for you and yours and give it tomorrow or next Sunday – a check made out to Mt. Oak UMC with Haiti or UMCOR in the memo.

If we all do this – Mt. Oak could send from $12,000 to $15,000 to UMCOR for the Haiti relief effort – wouldn’t that be amazing? I know this would be a challenge for some – maybe for most – but it is nothing compared to what those in Haiti are facing as they try to recover from this devastating earthquake. Some of our weekly gifts to the church are more than some Haitians make in a year. You can see how it will help.

UMCOR is the United Methodist Committee on Relief and is already in Haiti. 100% of our gifts will go to the relief effort. We will collect the checks over two weeks and write one check to UMCOR from Mt. Oak.

I pray that you will put this to prayer and do as God leads you to do.