Prayers for Fellow Blogger in Haiti

1/15 UPDATE: Kristen and her daughter are back on US soil. They were evacuated in the middle of the night to a military base in New Jersey. They will be home by this evening.

My sister-in-law, Kristen Howerton, was in Haiti with her infant daughter and soon to be adopted son when a 7.0 earthquake struck. You know her as the author of the Mama Manifesto blog here on Conversant Life. Kristen has not updated her Conversant column but, she has been able to post to her personal blog. You can click here to read her story so far.

She has been in contact with her husband, Mark, and all three are safe. The Livesays, the American missionaries she's with are also OK. The children at the orphanage made it out of the building safely. You can read updates from the Livesays and Kristen at http://www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/. They are updating as often as they possibly can in the midst of power outages and general chaos.

This picture is of Karis and Keanan, her infant daughter and adoptive son, taken just hours before the earthquake.

There are no commercial flights out of Haiti until at least the 17th. Kristen doesn't have a seat until the 21st. Please join me in praying for her and all those surrounding her.

We are thankful and relieved to hear Kristen, Karis, and Keanan are OK. But, there are thousands of people who are not OK, thousands that are still buried in the rubble. Haiti is already the poorest nation in the world, with 80% of its people living below the poverty line, on $1-$2 per day. The country was desperate before yesterday's earthquake. What little they had has been demolished. There are simply not enough resources within the country to address the overwhelming devastation.

Please consider donating to ANY of the following humanitarian relief organizations that are already on the ground there, building shelters, freeing people buried in concrete, distributing supplies, and helping counsel the grief stricken.

Heartline Ministries (This is where Kristen is, it is the orphanage they are adopting from)

World Vision (already on the ground)

Samaritan's Purse (already on the ground)

Medical Teams International (team will arrive in Haiti tomorrow)

Overlake Christian Church (We will take up an special offering on Sunday - or you can donate online and designate "Haiti" on the memo)

Red Cross (already on the ground)

UPDATE 1:37pm: Kristen has updated her personal blog. You can read her story here. Kristen is at the airport in Port au Prince trying to catch a flight. Evacuations of American citizens have begun. We are waiting to hear from her. Thank you for your continued prayers for Kristen and for the entire country.

UPDATE: 6:08pm: We received word that Kristen is at the US Embassy in Haiti, awaiting evacuation either tonight or tomorrow morning. We are relieved but, are understandably anxious to hug her in person.