Below are a couple news items released from Foursquare Missions International. It is also important to note that donations to FMI should be made through the local church to ensure you are given a tax receipt. Donations made directly to FMI (because it is based in the states) may not be eligible for a charitable donation tax receipt. FMI doesn't have an online donation module for Canadians so if you want to donate it needs to be done the old fashioned way :)... through cheque or interac. Make cheques payable to Mission Foursquare Church (earmark the cheque/offering envelope with 'Haiti').
Foursquare Haiti Update 1 from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.
Foursquare Is Responding
Released: January 20, 2010
Setting up of infrastructure both on the ground and in Foursquare USA.
Jeff Roper, Lead Person for Foursquare Relief and Compassion Team
Our hearts are moved with compassion for the millions of lives that have been forever changed because of the recent earthquake in Haiti. Each one of us are so moved by this tragedy we want to go now. Our hearts break to serve these people who have suffered so much.
The Foursquare Church has been in Haiti a long time. We will be in Haiti long after this crisis. And we are in Haiti now. The Foursquare response to disaster is long-term and three-fold:
1) RESPONSE: The first three to four weeks after the crisis we serve qualified first responders and help mobilize the Foursquare family to pray, give, and go. During this first phase our relief and compassion team will actively assess the needs on the ground in order to develop a tailor-made response to the crisis. In the case of Haiti, the destruction is so catastrophic that only the “best of the best” first responders can and should be there. We are glad to say we are working with these incredible people.
2) RECOVERY: During the next 18-24 months, FMI will be sending in medical, construction, and ministry teams. If you are interested in serving on a GO Team, sign up by downloading a form at http://www.missionfoursquare.com/index.php/component/content/article/87-helping-haiti.html. Here, you can download the Emergency Relief and Database Questionnaire, which will help us build a database to form and deploy strategic teams.
3) RESTORATION: By strategically working together we will see spiritually vibrant and socially relevant churches planted throughout Haiti resulting in long-term transformation.
We, your Foursquare Relief and Compassion Team, need your prayers and participation. Our dear neighbors in Haiti, and our Haitian families here in the US, need our love, prayers, and support.
What We [Foursquare Missions Int'l] Are Doing
Foursquare missionaries in the region are playing a critical role in our response team. Charlie Finocchiaro, serving in the Dominican Republic, has just returned from checking on our family.
Pastor Guy (pronounced G-e-e) Thomas’s family is okay. Some inside belongings were broken, but the home suffered little damage.
Twelve members of his congregation are confirmed dead and at least 20 homes destroyed, including the home of Pastor Guy’s assistant pastor Rosinel. Some church members are still unaccounted for.
One church member’s wife had to have both of her legs amputated and their two children did not survive the earthquake.
Pastor Guy has not been able to visit all the church families yet, and phone calls have not been possible. Surrounding neighbors of the church have lost their homes and are displaced. Pastor Guy and other members have been ministering to them, and plans are being made to provide food, shelter, and medical services to the people of Haiti through the Foursquare Church. Sunday service, January 17, 2010, was held outside the church with about 50 in attendance. Pastor Guy’s message was one of hope and encouragement to the Haitians to which he ministered.
Of the seven Foursquare churches, Pastor Guy has only been able to contact one of the pastors. Pastor Bellande’s family is okay, but his home was severely damaged. We do not have any information on his church members. The other churches and the orphanage are outside of the Port-au-Prince area and should not have suffered much damage.
Tabare, the main church in Port-au-Prince, is just 2 minutes from the US embassy, on the same road to the airport. The church building suffered some damage, but is still structurally sound. The block walls will need to be rebuilt, including the electrical outlets, but the church columns and foundation are fine.
We are working alongside first responders who are running 5 of the 35 response units that are currently on the ground in Haiti.
Charlie Finocchiaro, our missionary from the Dominican Republic, was sent to Haiti to help in assessing the situation and to make contact with our national leader of Foursquare, Guy Thomas. Charlie was able to deliver water, food, supplies, clothes, a small gas powered generator, fuel, and cash to Pastor Guy. While there, he was escorted by an armed police detail wherever he went. Currently there are isolated breakouts of looting, and some violence. Those who are part of the search, rescue and recovery efforts must be escorted at all times by an armed security detail. Because of a relationship with the Dominican Consulate, Charlie was housed at the police station across from the national palace where it was very safe. Food and water supplies are being handed out to Haitians from the site. Across the street from the police station is a green area with hundreds of people. Prayer and praise meetings could be heard throughout each night.
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