Joyce Meyer Ministries Aids In Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts


ST. LOUIS, Jan. 14, 2010—Joyce Meyer Ministries (http://www.joycemeyer.org/)
through its Hand of Hope missions group, has partnered with the Haiti-based Christian humanitarian organization Love A Child (http://www.loveachild.com/)  to help bring immediate short-term assistance, relief and aid to the earthquake victims in Haiti. The aid includes food funded by partner donations and shipped to Haiti by the ministry. The ministry's medical clinic in Fond Parisien, the Jesus Healing Center., is open around-the-clock and is aiding in treating the injured.

Another long-time ministry partner, Convoy of Hope, (http://www.convoyofhope.org/)
already has people on the ground assessing the damage in Port-au-Prince. A development team is en route to provide additional relief assistance, which may include the distribution of food, water and supplies. Joyce Meyer Ministries maintains relationships with other humanitarian groups that also are coordinating additional assistance efforts.

"Our first response when we heard the news of this devastating earthquake was to pray for the health, safety and well-being of the precious people of Haiti and surrounding areas who have been affected by this disaster," said David Meyer, CEO, Hand of Hope. "We pray for God's hand of protection to be on them and on those providing disaster relief as well."

A poignant email from Bobby Burnette, founder of Love a Child, illustrates the dramatic and emotional toil this disaster is having on relief personnel already on the ground."It's a horror! The after shocks, all 30 of them big ones, will make you cry for the Haitian people. They are still coming!" In a separate email today from co-founder Sherry Burnette wrote in a separate email today, "Everything here is upside down . . . no grocery stores, banks are demolished, gas stations . . . bodies everywhere. We have been out collecting wounded all day long!"

In addition to prayers, donations, critical supplies and additional volunteer support are greatly needed. Recognizing the rapid dispensing and decreasing availability of food, water, medicines and medical supplies, the following is a list of medications and medical supplies most urgently needed that people can donate to Love A Child for the earthquake victims.

Medications: (any medications - all items marked with an asterisk [*] are the greatest needs)

Acetaminophen*
Anti-diarrheal
Antibiotics
Aspirin
Benadryl
Blood pressure medications
Cough medications
Diclofenac* (injection and oral)
Hypertension medications
Ibuprofen* (Advil, Nuprin, Medipren)
IV serum
Lidocaine
Multivitamins (children's and adult)
Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic*
Oral rehydration salts*
Zantac


Medical Supplies Needed for wound care:
Ace bandages
Alcohol pads*
Antibiotic ointments
Band-Aids
Betadine* - wipes and sticks
Blades - sterile only
Bulb syringes - (stub adapter; no loose/single units; spinal)
Casting supplies
Catheters (Entra caths)
Compression stockings
Drapes*
Dressings - sterile & unsterile (coban, tegaderm, steri-strip, surgilast)
Gauze - any size
Gloves - all sizes, sterile/non-sterile
Gowns - surgical and patient, head & shoe covers; goggles, masks
IV supplies - tubing in sterile packages only (including pediatric)
Needles - butterfly, angio catheter
Pediatric supplies
Scalpels
Sponges - surgical only (includes x-ray detectable)
Surgical towels - cloth/paper
Sutures*
Syringes
Tape - all types
Thermometers
Tongue depressors
Splints - for legs/ankles/wrists/arms

Additional Needs:

Blankets (used or new)
Bottled water
Buckets (5 gallon with lids)
Mats
Non-perishable foods (no cooking required)
Sandals and/or "flip flops"
Sheets (used or new)
Tents (small)
T-shirts (large)
Toiletry sacks (containing washcloth, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant)

For distribution purposes, with the exception of the tents, all the above items can/will be packed inside the buckets that are needed by displaced survivors to carry water.

The public can immediately send these items to Love A Child's Florida office and they will take care of getting them into Haiti. They are requesting and would appreciate people printing their name, address and phone number on a piece of paper placed inside each box sent. The address to ship the supplies to is:

Love A Child
Attn: Mike Essman - Haiti Earthquake Medical Donation
9304 Camden Field Parkway
Riverview, FL 33578-0520

In lieu of the above items, those who prefer to make a financial contribution, which is sorely needed, can make donations through our website. Please know that 100 percent of your donation will go directly to disaster relief. The link is: http://www.joycemeyer.org/OurMinistries/HandofHope/News/haitiquake.htm

About Joyce Meyer Ministries

Joyce Meyer Ministries (JMM) is an international nonprofit organization that focuses on reaching people through media with a potential audience of 3 billion people. Impacting lives around the world, through its outreach arm, Hand of Hope, JMM provides life-changing global humanitarian and missions relief. In 2008, JMM provided more than 18 million meals supporting feeding centers in 25 countries and free medical care to over 150,000 people in multiple remote areas. JMM also operates 44 children's homes globally and provides a host of other disaster, missions and humanitarian aid.

About Love A Child

Love A Child is a nonprofit Christian humanitarian and Private Voluntary Organization (PVO). Founders Bobby and Sherry Burnette live in Haiti at the Love A Child Orphanage and are working to spread God's word and show the love of Jesus by example as they minister to the poorest of the poor in Haiti. Outreach programs include 14 Love A Child schools, where they educate and feed over 5,000 children each day, and food distribution programs that feed thousands of Haitian families. With the help of their partners, they've established churches in villages, hold remote medical clinics and oversee many other projects to benefit the poor.

About Convoy of Hope

Since 1994, Convoy of Hope, a nonprofit organization, has provided resources to organizations and churches to meet physical and spiritual needs for the purpose of making the community a better place. This is accomplished through domestic and international outreach, supply lines, and disaster response.

REMEMBERING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

January 18, 2010

This morning I awoke with a heart full of thankfulness and a mind in deep reflection. It is the national holiday marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- a day of remembrance for the spokesman for civil and human rights, the advocate for an end to discrimination, the preacher, teacher, prophetic voice lost in August 1968 to one who believed he (or they) could silence a vision, a people, a movement, a dream.

Dr. King spoke of many social and political concerns facing the nation and the world at the time -- war, morality, disenfranchisement, the "unchecked cancer" called hate, "the curse of poverty" -- that were best summed up on August 28, 1963. That day in Washington, DC, before hundreds of thousands from all walks of life, he called for racial equality, for "judgment" based not upon the color of our skin but by "the content of [our] character." The speech, called "a speech of rhetoric" by conservatives past and present, established a benchmark for the country if we were to truly become united.

As I consider the hurtful words spewed by Pat Robertson last week regarding the earthquake in Haiti and subsequent loss of thousands of human lives (words not far removed from those he spoke of with regard to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005), I am profoundly more aware of how far we have come as a nation, and how much further we still have to go.

When I was a child we use to say "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me." But as I became older and conscious of the world around me, I learned that was not true. One word however that communicates both power and oppression is freedom. Freedom is a core value written in many documents and a key component of various sacred texts. While sometimes misused, it is a word and a principle I love.

Freedom is religious liberty, freedom is a right to love and to marry whomever one chooses, freedom is a livable wage. Dr. King once wrote, "There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom."

The images ingrained in my memory from early childhood of the violent deaths of Dr. King and the Kennedy brothers taught me the price that could be paid by those who believe in freedom so deeply that they live on the front line in the fight to secure that precious gift and blessing for others.

Today, as I celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am also aware of the approaching one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration as the nation's 44th president and the first African American holder of the country's highest office. I remember the celebration of that landmark and the genuine happiness shared by most Americans. But this new picture of America in the 21st century was met with fear and resentment by the political and religious leaders who use race, hate, homophobia and xenophobia to advance a narrow, manipulative "wrong winged" agenda.

I remain hopeful, and thankful, for the opportunity to fight for change... for freedom. As a favorite song of mine goes, "It's been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come. Oh yes it will."

One day we will all be judged by the content of our character. In the meantime, I thank those who carry on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy in the fight for freedom, justice and equality for all. As the late Senator Edward Kennedy once said, "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." Happy Birthday Dr. King!

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Leslie Watson Malachi,
Director of African American Religious Affairs
People for the American Way