Haiti

The wildly popular yet wholesome Jonas Brothers will perform for Saddleback Church next month during the Southern California megachurch’s Easter service.

Saddleback senior pastor Rick Warren announced the pop rock boy band’s upcoming performance this week in a tweet two months before his church kicks off a flurry of activities.

This year, Saddleback’s Easter service will be unlike any of its previous ones, and not just because the Jonas Brothers will be there along with Christian music artist Kari Jobe. more >>

Churches and aid organizations already have massive relief efforts going on in Haiti but that's not stopping them from looking more south where Chile is reeling from one of the strongest earthquakes on record.

"[W]ithout even stepping a foot into Central Chile, it is clear that the hundreds of thousands affected by this earthquake desperately need our prayers – and will also need our help as we learn more about the extent of the damage," said Randy Hurst, World Missions Communications director for the Assemblies of God.

International and local relief organizations are still assessing the needs and damage on the ground as initial deliveries of food and supplies are being made. more >>

Spring break is officially in session at many schools in the United States. But this year, thousands of students will hit Florida’s beach with something else on their mind other than soaking in the sun.

More than 2,500 Christian students from across America are expected to attend one of five week-long outreach events hosted by Campus Crusade for Christ as part of their annual “Big Break” conferences.

Between Feb. 28 and April 3, participating college students will join forces on Panama City Beach to not only help prepare and pack meals for 1 million Haitian earthquake victims, but also to share their faith and recruit other students on the beach to help. more >>

A Haiti judge is expected to free the last two American volunteers suspected of child kidnapping.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he would make his decision this week concerning Laura Silsby and Charis Coulter.

Last week, Saint-Vil released eight of the ten volunteers and held Silsby and Coulter for further questioning regarding their motive. Silsby is the leader of the team and said they had come to take Haitian orphans to an orphanage they were preparing in the Dominican Republic. more >>

Jim Allen, one of the eight American volunteers freed from jail in Haiti, said he believed the team had all the paperwork necessary to take Haitian children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.

“We were told that all the documents required to get kids into the Dominican Republic she (team leader Laura Silsby) had,” said Allen to Anderson Cooper on CNN’s “AC360” Friday evening. “And on the Haitian side there were some documents that we needed to acquire and that was part of our goal also.”

When asked if he had seen the documents, Allen said he did see them when the children were being loaded onto the bus. The documents, said the American volunteer, were filled out as each child boarded the vehicle. more >>

Jim Allen, one of the eight American volunteers who were freed this week by a Haitian judge, will clear up a lot of false information when he starts to speak to the media, said one of his legal counsels Friday.

Allen is scheduled to speak to Oprah and CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday, and more media outlets next week.

“There have been a lot of false things that have been out in the media about what happened. Jim can certainly talk about what really happened and get the true facts out,” said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel at Liberty Legal Institute, which represented Allen, to The Christian Post. more >>