Huanta Floods

Several provinces in the Andes Mountains of Peru were declared disaster areas during the week of January 25, 2010, due to several days of torrential rains and the resulting floods and mudslides. In the province of Huanta, several hundred homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Many families have lost what few possessions they had. Pictures The Ministry of World Service has responded to this disaster by sending a donation of $2,500 to The Presbytery of Huanta.

Sharon Presbyterian Church’s Ministry of World Service responded to this disaster by sending a donation to The Presbytery of Huanta. The funds will be used by the Presbytery to purchase new corrugated metal roofing panels for the homes of widows and single mothers. These families are often the humblest and poorest.

Upon learning of the donation, Pastor Samuel Montes, President of the Presbytery of Huanta, wrote:

“I am extremely grateful for the support of the members of Sharon Presbyterian Church. While I have no words to adequately thank you, I pray that God will always bless you for your everlasting love for your brothers and sisters in Huanta. God has placed me here to be with people in need, both materially and spiritually. Thanks be to God for my brothers and sisters at Sharon Presbyterian Church who help me walk with my people.”

Please keep the precious people of the Presbytery of Huanta in your thoughts and prayers.

Give, Act & Pray for Haiti

By now most of the world knows of the terrible earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In the wake of this great human tragedy, we are grateful for the outpouring of so many expressions of care and generosity from Presbyterians everywhere. Because of your quick response, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) was able to double its commitment of funds to provide immediate aid those first few days following the quake. Your gifts were put to effective and strategic work in coordinated efforts with our international and ecumenical partners, Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance and Church World Service (CSW). The first phase of response included search and rescue teams, food and water distribution sites, and medical care for the injured. There is still much work to be done.

One week later, following a major aftershock, the death toll keeps rising. There may well be more than 100,000 fatalities. Among the dead is a long-time partner in relief efforts, Sam Dixon, executive director of United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Our hearts are heavy, yet inspired by the daring and faithful service of so many people. Despite the overwhelming circumstances and even threat of personal danger, God’s love is made incarnate by the courageous and compassionate work of God’s people.

PDA staff member Carlos Cardenas reports from Port-au-Prince that shortages of fuel and transportation create extra challenges to the already overwhelming challenge of receiving and delivering food, water, and medical supplies.
Jean Zaché Duracin, who leads the PC(USA)’s partner church in Haiti, is living in a tent city in Port-au-Prince. Duracin, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, rejected offers to be evacuated after his home crumbled in the earthquake. He vowed to “stay with my people,” the Episcopal News Service reported. Given the extremely limed resources at the moment, the bishop urges American congregations to have patience with regard to sending large volumes of volunteers at this time. Every outside volunteer places a demand on resources, fuel, food and water that is desperately needed by the earthquake survivors right now. Those who do have a passion to serve are encouraged to register their interest so that we can contact you when the situation is stable and appropriate.

The Episcopal cathedral is gone. Schools and hospitals are destroyed. Government buildings are in ruins. With so many symbols of safety and security destroyed the people search for signs of hope. Mark Hare, PC(USA) mission co-worker to Haiti, writes:

Port au Prince has been deeply wounded. The whole country will be deeply affected. I have no answers for any of these problems. Just the reminder that I felt, again, this morning while reading the [Mission] Yearbook [for Prayer & Study], that our God is a God of hope, that despair has already been defeated, and [that] now is the time to face what has happened and to act, act out of that hope and not out of despair. I don't have any idea what that will mean. But our God is up to the task. Pray for us, that we will also be up to the task.

Yes. Our God is up to the task. Pray that we will all be up to the task.
Join Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in the relief efforts. As God’s people we are called to stand in the “GAP” — GIVE. ACT. PRAY.

Give — Financial support for relief efforts can be made online and designated to DR000064. Gifts can also be made by phone at (800) 872-3283, and checks can be mailed to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.Act — Prepare for a special worship service in your congregation using the hymn, bulletin inserts and other worship resources available from PDA. Congregations and individuals can also put together hygiene kits and baby kits to be distributed through Church World Service.Pray — Join with others in lifting up the people of Haiti and those seeking to provide aid in this critical time. As the eyes of the world turn to Haiti, let us join our hearts in prayer.

Torrential Rain in Peru

Several areas in the Andes Mountains and jungle areas of Peru were severely impacted by torrential rains during the week of January 18, 2010. On Monday, January 18th, torrential rains in the state of Ayacucho caused widespread damage and some deaths. The following letter, from Pastor Samuel Montes, President of the Presbytery of Huanta, was sent to Sara Armstrong and Rusty Edmondson, PC(USA) Delegations and Partnerships Coordinators in Peru. We thank Sara and Rusty for their translation of Samuel’s letter and for informing us of the disaster that has affected our brothers and sisters in Peru. Sharon Presbyterian Church will be responding with financial assistance during the week of January 25, 2010. Please keep these precious people in your thoughts and prayers.BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST AND FRIENDS. January 19, 2010

This week, the Andean and jungle regions of Peru are being hard hit by heavy rains, affecting thousands of the most humble and poorest families and their homes.

Yesterday, the province of Huanta, in the Ayacucho Region of Peru, was hit by torrential rain that lasted a little over 5 hours, from 4:30 PM until 9:40 PM. According to the telephone calls received by Radio Amauta from affected people and the findings of Radio Amauta Radio emergency personnel, the rains and subsequent flooding left at least 350 homes severely damaged. The walls, mostly made of adobe brick, were severely damaged by water. In some areas of the city of Huanta, drainage/sewage systems collapsed. We had a report about 10:00 AM this morning that 46 houses (for migrant families) located on the outskirts of Huanta were destroyed. According to reports of the authorities, more than 80 houses of the poorest families (widows, and single mothers), are uninhabitable in the rural communities of Huayrapampa, Aranhuay, Cercan, Pucara, Chocco Wichqa, Razuhuillca and Tanauasi. Vast areas of crops and orchards are affected. Roads are impassible due to landslides.

For our part at Radio Amauta, we are participating in the relief, helping families, making announcements by radio, letting the public know the painful news, and airing their complaints to the authorities. We also publicly acknowledge that, in some cases, the affected people must recognize their errors. They constructed their homes in river courses. There has been negligence in constructing drains inside and outside the city.
During yesterday’s rains, from early in the morning, Radio Amauta has been an essential means of communication with family members who left Huanta to go to work. It is urgent that they come back to rescue some of their belongings.

In Huayanay, a community of the state of Huancavelica, 5 people were reported missing in mudslides caused by the rains. At this moment, they are still searching for two bodies. There are hundreds of families at risk.

Actions in Solidarity with the Suffering:
At this moment there are hundreds of residents working to recover some belongings from the rubble. The municipal authorities and civil defense, are serving, cleaning affected houses and redirecting/ channeling rivers. Many are giving food to those most affected. The Governor of the state of Huanta announced that some materials to build new homes would be provided. But due to the magnitude of damage caused by the rains, families in rural areas are calling and reaching out to us. Mostly they are asking for repairs to the roofs of their homes so they can move back in. They desperately need roofing panels (“calaminas”). All morning they have called the radio station from their communities, asking for help with donations of roofing panels. They were calling because they woke up exposed to the elements, along with their minor children who are affected by respiratory diseases.

Emergency Proposal:
Radio Amauta, together with the Presbytery of Huanta, (of the Evangelical Presbyterian and Reformed Church of Peru), intends to provide support according to our means. We also ask for help. The priority is at least 1,000 calaminas to help at least 80 families (mostly widows and abandoned/single mothers) in rural areas. The cost of a single roofing panel is S/.14 (about US$5.00).

Pastor Samuel Montes
President
Presbytery of Huanta

Earth's Cruelty Rains Down on Haiti

Sometimes, the earth is cruel.

That is ultimately the fundamental lesson here, as children wail, families sleep out of doors, and the dead lie unclaimed in the rubble that once was Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Sometimes the rains fall and will not stop. Sometimes the skies turn barren and will not rain. Sometimes the seas rise and smack the shoreline like a fist. Sometimes the wind bullies the land. And sometimes, the land rattles and heaves and splits itself in two.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel.

And always, when it is, we do the same thing. We dig ourselves out. We weep and mourn, we recover and memorialize the dead, we rebuild our homes. And we go on. This is the price of being human. And also, arguably, the noblest expression.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel, and you have no choice but to accept that as part of the bargain called life. And when it is your turn to deal with it, you do.

But what if it’s always your turn?

Surely some homeless, dust-streaked Haitian can be forgiven for thinking it is always Haiti’s turn, just days after the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere saw its capital city smashed by the strongest earthquake it has ever known, a 7.0-magnitude monster. Surely, the rest of us watching from afar, experiencing tragedy and devastation from the comfort of desk chairs and living room couches, are tempted to believe the same thing.

Bad enough, Haiti is wretchedly poor. Bad enough it has a history of political instability and colonialism, of being ignored by the major powers when it is not being exploited by them. Bad enough, all that, yet at the end of the day, those are disasters authored by human hands, by human greed, human corruption, human economic predation.

Sometimes, though, you have to wonder if the planet itself is not conspiring against this humble little nation.

After 1994, when Tropical Storm Gordon killed several hundred people, after 1998, when Hurricane Georges swept away more than 500 lives, after 2004, when the rains of Tropical Storm Jeanne claimed more than 2,000 souls, after 2005, when Hurricane Dennis took 25 lives in July and Tropical Storm Alpha snatched 17 in October, followed by Hurricane Wilma, which stole 11 more, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Fay and Gustav in 2008 killed more than 130 people and destroyed 3,100 homes, after all that, comes this latest insult — and a death toll officials cannot begin to even imagine. Perhaps as many as 100,000, they were saying on Wednesday.

Sometimes, the earth is cruel. To crawl the planet’s skin, scanning for tornadoes in Oklahoma, charting storm tracks in Florida, running from wildfires in California, is to understand this in a primal, personal way. It is to breathe a prayer that begins, “There, but for the grace of God ...” It is to write relief checks, donate blood, volunteer material and time and to fear, even in the doing, that these gestures are small against the need, inconsequential against the ache of a people whose turn seems never to end.

But what else are you going to do? As the playwright put it, your arms too short to box with God. Even less have we the ability to answer the question that burns the moment: Why are the most vulnerable repeatedly assessed the highest price?

We are hamstrung by our own limitations, so we can only do what we always do, only send prayers and help. And watch, staggered by the courage it takes, as Haitians do what human beings always do, the thing at which they have become so terribly practiced.

Dig out. Weep and mourn. Memorialize the dead. Rebuild. Go on. And show the world once again a stubborn insistence on living, despite all the cruelties of the earth.

Leonard Pitts Jr., winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, is a columnist for the Miami Herald. His email address is lpitts@miamiherald.com.Haitian Personnel Update

Mission Trip 2010

For those interested in participating in the 2010 Adult Mission Trip to Peru, the trip is scheduled to take place from Friday, July 30 to Sunday, August 8, 2010. Links to trip information and applications or may be picked up from the Peru Mission Trip mailbox located outside the Choir Room in the Sharon Church Sanctuary.

If you are interested in learning more about the trip, please contact Randy Ross at (704) 552-5573 or mrandallross@aol.com.