So today I am up bright and early. Woke up at 6:30am or so. I don't have any classes today but I woke up and once I'm awake, I'm awake.

So I flip open my macbook and head to Yahoo!'s home page. BAM! Right on the front page is "Strong new earthquake hits Haiti." It struck just this morning! Wow...

Now pretty much everyone knows about what has happened in Haiti. There was a 7.1 earthquake (correct me if I'm wrong) just last week and it just flat out devastated the country. According to the article, over 200,000 people have died and another 250,000 are injured from the 7-magnitude earthquake and here they are struck yet again. I think many, if not ALL of us have asked at least once "Why is this happening to them?" If you read about Haiti's history in the past seven or eight years, they have just been devastated year after year with multiple natural disasters over and over with these ones, being the first big earthquakes they have had throughout that stretch.

Almost every world relief organization has aided to the desperate country. You've probably heard of the texting of "Haiti" to 90999 for the Red Cross. If you're a christian Seventh-Day Adventist, you've heard of ADRA (Adventist Development & Relief Agency. Now, Maranatha Volunteers Int'l is stepping up to help.

Although Maranatha is not involved in immediate disaster relief, they encourage the support of those organizations specializing in disaster response. Maranatha stands ready to provide construction support in Haiti when it is appropriate to begin reconstruction. They are communicating with the Seventh-day Adventist world church in regards to the needs facing the church in Haiti. A special fund has been established to raise money for the reconstruction of churches and schools in Haiti.

In 1974 and 1980 Maranatha was involved in several phases of construction at the Adventist Hospital in Port-au-Prince. In 1985 Maranatha helped build a school in the northern city of Cap Haitien.

If volunteers are needed to help with reconstruction efforts, They will notify interested people through their website and by e-mail. If you are interested in possibly volunteering, sign up at this website.

Keeping Haiti in my thoughts and prayers and I pray you do the same,
-Aaron Nakamura