NGOs

U.N. agencies and an association representing over 80 NGOs are calling for an “immediate opening of Gaza’s crossing,” asserting that the continuing closure of the Gaza Strip is putting at risk the health of 1.4 million people.

“It is causing on-going deterioration in the social, economic and environmental determinants of health,” reported Max Gaylard, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

“It is hampering the provision of medical supplies and the training of health staff and it is preventing patients with serious medical conditions getting timely specialized treatment outside Gaza,” he added in a statement released on the one-year anniversary of Israel’s military offensive on Gaza. more >>

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle landed in “hell” this week where he witnessed a teenage boy shot in the head and a girl sold to an older man. He was in the collapsed city of Port-au-Prince where rubble from former buildings and streets piled with corpses give the impression of an aftermath of a war zone.

Driscoll, along with Pastor James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Chapel in the Chicago-area, landed in the capital of Haiti on Monday to assess the situation and needs of Haitian churches and to deliver 1,000 pounds of relief supplies.

On his first day on the ground, Driscoll said he heard a gunshot behind him and when he turn to look he saw a teenage boy immediately killed by a shot to the head. The teenage boy was just a few feet away from a seminary property and next to a makeshift clinic where thousands of people slept outside, Driscoll reported on his Facebook page. more >>

Two prominent leaders of the separation of church and state debate recently argued whether it is “alarming” that a self-described para-church ministry has received millions in government funds for its drug treatment program.

Teen Challenge, an evangelical Christian recovery program connected to the Assemblies of God denomination, is at the center of the debate between the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law & Justice.

Lynn referenced in his Beliefnet blogalogue last week a recent article in The Minnesota Independent about the more than $10 million in government funds that the Minnesota Teen Challenge has received over the past seven years. The Minnesota government has also raised federal funding for the Christian organization several times during that time period. more >>

"Children with gaping head wounds lay screaming and confused, some had lost motor skills from the blows they had received to their heads. ... We were shocked that so few had received any kind of treatment."

The account by David Darg of Operation Blessing International was recorded Monday, nearly a week after the 7.0-magnitude quake struck Haiti and wreaked havoc on the Caribbean nation.

Relief and humanitarian teams on the ground have been hard at work trying to save lives while at the same time relaying their first-hand accounts to the rest of the world on blogs. more >>

Hundreds of Salvation Army volunteers in the United States have spent the last few days preparing and packing one million ready-to-eat meals to send to survivors of the Haiti earthquake.

They are in addition to the 250,000 meals are already awaiting shipment from Des Moines, Iowa.

The meals, courtesy of food group Numana Inc, consist of rice, soy protein, freeze-dried vegetables and vitamins that can be cooked in boiling water. more >>

As aid workers frantically rescue survivors of Haiti’s massive quake, several hundred miles north in the United States many churches and ministries are anxiously awaiting word about missing workers and missionaries.

In Florida, the state Baptist convention is praying for word that 18 of their workers in Haiti are safe, according to Baptist Press, the news wire service of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Florida Baptist Convention says it has not heard from 18 of its 21 Haitian staff after the 7.0-magnitude quake hit Haiti Tuesday and decimated the capital Port-au-Prince. The other three Haitian employees were found unharmed. more >>