You will have heard on the news about the earthquake that struck the Carribean country of Haiti on Tuesday.  Not only was this a powerful earthquake, but, according to the BBC, ‘decades of poverty, environmental degradation, violence, instability and dictatorship have left [Haiti] as the poorest nation in the Americas.’  This means that the effect of the earthquake is even more severe that it is had hit some other countries.  They are estimating that 3 million people have been affected, which is three times as many people as there are in Northern Ireland.

When you see news like this, do you ever wonder: How could little me make any impact?  I would think that everyone has felt like that at sometime, but there are three things that we can do just where you are, sitting reading this blog!

1.  Many international charities have launched appeals for financial aid, and if you are on Twitter, you will see that actors, pop stars etc are all supporting these appeals.  You can give money to those charities.  Choose one you trust and read about the ways that they will spend the money.  Christian Aid and Oxfam have posted videos on YouTube to explain their appeals.

2.  Spread the word!  Make sure that your friends and family realise what has happened.  With facebook, twitter, texting, YouTube, blogs, (or even old fashioned talking to each other)… there is no excuse for not helping raise awareness of issues such as this.

3. MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! PRAY!!!

At time of natural diaster such as these, it can be hard to understand how God can let horrendous events like this happen.  That is a topic for a different day, but remember that God has promised that He will listen to all our prayers.  In fact by praying to God ‘little old me’ suddenly has the creator of the universe on their side and listening to everything they say.  Prayer is the most powerful weapon we could ever imagine, and we can pray at anytime, anywhere, for anything!

How should we pray for the situation in Haiti?

1. Firstly, find out a bit about it what has happened.  www.bbc.co.uk is always brilliant at explaining world events that can be confusing.

2. Look at both what has happened and what problems are emerging as the emergency services try to help and make a list of prayer points. 

3. Pray.  Spend some time with God lifting those effected before Him.  Your prayers could last a few minutes or half an hour.  You could pray once or a few times a day.  God hears every prayer, and He loves that we all talk to Him in our own way, so just do it!!

Just to get you started, here are some KEY FACTS taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/americas/2010/haiti_earthquake/default.stm

• 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 1653 local time (2153 GMT) on Tuesday 12th January 2010.

• Officials fear more than 100,000 dead and three million affected

• Up to 150 UN staff, including peacekeepers, unaccounted for

• How to help: Public appeals have been launched by international charities

If you have any prayer points for Haiti that you would like to share with the other blog readers, than please post them in comments below for everyone to see.

Sarah