update...

I just wanted to post a quick update about the earthquake since I have been getting questions about it. Tuesday afternoon I was laying on the floor of my room lesson planning when the building started to shake. We had experienced an earthquake here this past August so I knew immediately what it was. I could hear the Dominicans talking to each other outside about the earthquake and I yelled to see if the girl who lives next to had felt it. She hadn't and neither had most of the Americans that are here with us right now. Most of them were outside and didn't know it was happening. It only lasted a couple of seconds and wasn't bad at all. At that point I just assumed that it was a little mini earthquake that had happened here in Monte Cristi. Around dinner time we found out that our friends in Santiago and Jaibon had felt it as well and they were hours away from us. I still assumed it was just a little earthquake in the Dominican... after all, we had barely felt anything. Later that night, I was teaching math to the five oldest kids at the orphanage when my mom called to see if I was ok. It wasn't until then that I realized it had been a much bigger earthquake than any of us imagined. Shortly after that we had everyone call home to say they were ok and it wasn't until around 11 at night that we were actually able to look up what happened online and see the extent of the major earthquake that hit our neighbors in Haiti. Everything is fine here and I haven't seen any structural damage anywhere because it wasn't strong enough here to do that.

PLEASE continue to pray for Haiti. They lack resources to meet their daily needs, much less to respond to a natural disaster. I urge you to find an organization where you can donate funds to help with relief. They need all they can get right now. I also urge you to remember that these are families, children, brothers, sisters, son, daughters, fathers, and mothers that have lost loved ones, homes, jobs, food, and lives. Let's not forget that these people are faces, hearts, and souls... not just numbers on a news story. And most importantly, let's remember the fact that our God holds the whole world in His hands, that His heart is breaking too, and that He will fulfill His promises of bringing hope and restoration.