Hi Everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you are off to a good start on this brand new year.  I know many of you may have made new years resolutions and should be well into them by now.  I myself am really not much of a new years resolution kinda girl the reason being I usually break them pretty quickly and besides it seems like the past few years  I seem to have some sort of year round changes going on anyway so I just try my best to go with the flow and enjoy the ride 🙂

Since I am talking about changes today I was thinking this might be a good time to talk about another change that has taken place over the past 5 years.

Change in Haiti.

This coming Monday January 12 is the 5 year anniversary of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010.  Over the past 5 years that country has been going through many many changes. I am not sure if in Haiti they do the new years resolution thing or not but today I was thinking about how we just really never know what the future holds.  The thought crossed my mind that if they do the New Years resolutions like we do in my country then about this time in 2010 they never knew that in just a few short days that their New Years resolutions would be forgotten and they would be in the middle of one of the most devastating disasters they had ever seen.

An Earthquake can demolish a whole city in a matter of seconds.

In only 30 seconds of time 250,000 people in Haiti died. Over 1/3 of their country was impacted by the earthquake and their entire government structure was collapsed to rubble. Parents lost children, children became orphans… whole families lost or uprooted.

I just can’t even begin to imagine how scary that must have been for them, it was a change that they never saw coming.

Thankfully People began pitching in to help, people donated money, supplies and many went to Haiti to try to help.

One of the organizations that helped following the earthquake  in Haiti was Compassion International.  Following the earthquake people from all around the world began giving with a totals of $31 million dollars donated to Compassion International’s disaster relief fund and Compassion immediately began disaster relief efforts.

The video below shows how they were able to use that money immediately following the earthquake and also how they were also able to set up long term recovery efforts.

As many of you know I visited Haiti a little over a year and a half ago, at that time there was still a lot of rubble and devastation. While there I was able to visit several  Compassion facilities and I was able to see first hand how well they were working and how lives were being changed and put back together.  They were able to help share the love of Jesus and give back hope to the Haitian people, helping to change things for the better.

I was happy to hear that now 5 years after the earthquake through the donors, sponsors, staff & volunteers they have accomplished everything they set out to accomplish in Haiti and so much more.  Pretty awesome huh? 🙂

Before I leave today I have one more thing I would like to share with you.. or shall I say… I have a person I would like to share with you?   Today I would like to introduce you to Jean Fritznel Demosthene.

Jean is 5 years old and Jean lives in Haiti.  He lives with his mother and his father and he has 3 brothers and sisters.  Jean likes to play soccer, he is in pre-school and  He regularly attends church activities.  Jean has been praying and waiting for a sponsor for over 9 months and is in immediate need of a sponsor.  Today I am asking you to pray for Jean that he will receive a sponsor soon.  I would also like to ask you to consider being his sponsor.  For $1.25 a day… that’s less the the price of a cup of coffee you could help change his life.  If you would like to sponsor Jean or would like more information you can contact me via the contact tab on this blog or leave your emai in the comments. (all comments are moderated so nobody will see your email except me). You can also get more information about Compassion by clicking his picture.

For some the New year brings change… If you are considering a change this year…maybe that change could be to help change the life of someone else. You could help to change Jean’s life of maybe just the life of someone in your own neighborhood.  Help a sick friend, visit your neighbor, pay for the person behind you in the drive-thru.  Most of all just take the time and slow down, pay attention to whats going on and who God has placed around you.  Changing someone’s life might be just a simple smile at the cranky looking guy in the grocery store.  Be a blessing in someones life and I think you may just find out somehow you were blessed too.

Thank you so much for reading today, happy and best wishes for the coming year and thank you for praying for Jean,

God bless you and have a wonderful day,

T

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future ~  Jeremiah 29:11