When Lanny and I first met about four years ago, he laid out his hope and vision for what would ultimately become The 410 Bridge.
“What if God allowed us to mobilize hundreds of churches, people, resources, time and partners and focused on one country in East Africa, do you think we could move the needle so that the rest of the world saw what was going on in that one country and asked us to do the same thing in other countries?”
The results in the communities we serve in Kenya have been witnessed by others. Several organizations have asked us to consider taking our model of sustainable community development into other countries. Many of those requests were in East Africa but we were also asked to consider Haiti. To this point we’ve resisted expanding outside of Kenya because of our single-country focus. But that’s about to change…
Like you, we’ve watched the devastation of the earthquake in Haiti. Our hearts break for the people and the children impacted. Since the earthquake, people and churches have been contacting us to see if The 410 Bridge could help mobilize people to serve in Haiti. After much prayer, conversation, and counsel, we realized that we couldn’t turn a blind eye to the needs of a neighbor – the poorest country in the western hemisphere – and to not leverage our gifts and resources to help would be disobedience to what God is calling us to do.
James Ward and I will be traveling to Haiti next week to assess partner organizations that are asking for our help. We’ve learned that their is a significant need to help rebuild structures, care for children orphaned by the earthquake, and possibly work on temporary water solutions. Over the next several months, as we serve in a “relief” capacity, we will be assessing local leaders in rural Haitian communities. At the same time, we’ll keep a watchful eye out for the end of relief and the beginning of rehabilitation and development.
Be assured that our commitment to Kenya and our communities has never been greater. This year we hope to grow from 12 communities to 18-20. We’ll send 900 people to Kenya on short-term trips and the Daraja Children’s Choir will continue to be the voice of our organization.
Our mission statement says this… “We mobilize and unify the body of Christ to enable the self-developing capabilities of the people we serve.” It’s time to mobilize and unify.
If you feel that God is calling you to engage… to help… to care for the least of these… we’d like to hear from you. Even if that call sounds more like a whisper, if you have an interest in serving in Haiti over the next few months, or helping financially with the relief effort, please let us know by completing the form below. We’ll be contacting you with more details as they become available.
As always, let me know your thoughts and comments.
Kurt
