Engage Community Church

On Sunday Jan. 17th we took a collection for Haiti. Our friends Doug and Randie Thomas who attend Engage are connected with an orphanage in Port-au-Prince called Good Samaritan Orphanage.  Really it’s not what you think of when you think orphanage.  Haiti has a huge population of children under the age of 18 due to shortened life-spans for adults, disease, death, and now earthquakes.  These orphans run the streets unless people take them in, care for them, school them, and give them the love they deserve as creations of God.  There are thousands of these little orphanages all over Haiti.  Good Samaritan houses 30 kids whom are supported by people like Doug and Randie and others from our sister church Carlisle BIC.  The bad news is that the orphans of Good Samaritan are not living indoors since the quake. They sleep in an open courtyard near their shattered home. They are running out of food and need help asap.  On Sunday we took a collection for these orphans. We can’t save everybody but we can be used of God to help and rescue 30 orphaned children out of the throngs of need.  That’s what we can do.

I am excited to share that Engage raised $1,190 in cash with an additional $970 pledged. WOW. That’s over $2,200 from the Engage. We are people who want God to use us as a part of his ongoing plan to bring his people and his creation back into harmonious relationship with Him.  God use us! Stretch us. May the grinding routines of life not suffocate the clarity of how good you are.  May our petty complaints be replaced by clear visions of what you could do…what you want to do..when we stand willing with ears to hear and eyes to see. Challenge our small notions of who you are! Challenge our small notions of ourselves and what we are capable of by your grace and power!

Stephen Santos wrote this song for Haiti last Sunday:

“Shatter our Hearts”

This old world shatters and shakes
This old world bends and breaks
God tell me what’s the place
For a big loss in the human race

And if God can’t break our hearts from across an ocean
He may come here to draw a tear
And if we stay afraid to show emotion
While one’s like us are dying there
Then I’m afraid we’ve become the saddest generation
That traded hearts for stone
God’s not satisfied with a part of your heart
He wants the throne

Tv man counts the numbers out loud
We’ll follow the story till a new one comes around
But there’s too much emotion in the end
We may realize those were fathers, mothers, friends

Stay tuned for more of how you can show mercy and love to Haiti….