Earthquake in Haiti

Here you can find several News Updates with Prayer Points about the Haitian Bible Society's immediate response.

We hope that you will be encouraged. (Click on photos to enlarge them).  The Haitian Bible Society staff have been distributing food and medicines, and responding to the many requests from the survivors for spiritual comfort in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.

The worldwide family of Bible Societies is supporting Mrs Magda Victor and her staff by providing crucial resources that the Bible Society is not in a position to produce itself. The Updates and photos describe what has been done and is being done. As a second wave, the Haitian BS will be distributing Gospels, Selections and Bibles as a menas to enagage in direct contact with families that have been left homeless.

The Bible Society in Northern Ireland has supported our colleagues in Haiti in the past and so we would commend them and their families to the prayers of our supporters here. The following Prayer Points are suggested:

•  That humanitarian and medical aid would quickly be channelled to the survivors in this poverty stricken country. Remember all the Aid agencies and their staff as they make crucial decisions with others.
• Mrs Magda Victor, the Bible Society Executive Secretary, and her staff are working in the community, bringing what aid and comfort that they can. All the staff have suffered damage to their own homes and yet are ministering to others. Pray for the Staff team, for their continued safety, and for God's guidance as they seek to respond to the indescribable scenes around them.
• Most buildings in the city have been destroyed or damaged. This includes the new Bible House, opened with our support in May 2008, which has suffered strucural cracks to the walls. Pray that the Society will be able to communicate and work effectively in this situation.
• The Bible Society in Haiti is heavily dependent on outside support from Societies such as BSNI. We recently committed to support their Bible distribution programme in prisons in 2010, and we will seek ways of expanding that support in the light of this new disaster with the help of our supporters. In the coming weeks, pray that the Bible Society of Haiti will be able to distribute all available Scripture resources to survivors, and that the necessary funds will be found in other countries such as ours to support their work for the months ahead.

By coincidence, Haiti features on Page 3 of our Word at Work magazine which has just been published. It is accompanied by a request for gifts to support their work. If you wish to be included in that Appeal, please send your gift to BSNI, 27 Howard Street, Belfast BT1 6NB (marked 'Haiti Appeal'). All gifts received will be placed at the disposal of Mrs Victor and her team in Port-au-Prince and we will report on the impact of their work in the coming months.