It is amazing to witness the incredible generosity of our Catholic brothers and sisters in developing countries. For example, Jim Kline, our Africa Projects Officer, recently returned from Ethiopia with a beautifully-woven basket. A very poor, single mom had given it to him. It was one of the very few things she owned, and she’d made it herself—she wove and sold baskets for a living. Her gift represented an enormous amount of time, as well as food and other necessities the sale of that basket would have meant for her family. But she insisted he have it.

Africa Projects Officer, Jim Kline, accepts the generous gift of four cabbages from an impoverished woman who grows them for income.

Another poor Ethiopian woman grew cabbage on a small plot of land to sell in the marketplace. She absolutely insisted Jim take no less than four of her cabbages. Again, that gift represented a generous portion of the only source of income she had, but she gave it out of Christ-like love. Both women were able to earn their livelihood because of Cross Catholic’s support of an income-generation program for marginalized women. It was their way of giving back out of their bounty.

When one elderly man in Haiti was asked why he cooked what little food he got from Cross Catholic-sponsored Kobonal Emergency Survival Program and invited his poor neighbors to come and eat, he explained, “The Bible tells us, what I have I’m supposed to share with my brothers and sisters, even if they don’t share with me…When it’s all said and done, it’s not me giving it to them. It’s God giving it to them, because it was God who gave it to me.”

1 John 3:17 tells us that if we have material possessions and see a brother in need but have no pity on him, the love of God is not in us; and James 2:15-17 says if we see a sister without clothes or food and simply give her good wishes but do nothing to actually help her, our faith is dead.  The people Cross Catholic works to serve—the poorest of the poor—have next to nothing; yet they freely and generously give, not only to their needy neighbors, but also to those of us like Jim, who have more material possessions than they will probably ever own. Catholics in prosperous countries such as the U.S. could benefit from their incredible examples of selflessness.

Our Projects Officer Mike Henry, who has been updating us from the field since the earthquake shook Haiti Tuesday, sent us more news this afternoon. Below is an excerpt from his notes from the day after the earthquake:

Mike Henry, Cross International Catholic Outreach projects officer

I woke up at dawn on Wednesday morning to the sound of helicopters flying over and thought, “My God, it wasn’t only a bad dream.” I was in disbelief. The aftershocks began early, typically just a slight shake.

I decided that I needed to get busy trying to help. I figured that the search and rescue teams were on the way, so maybe I could help expedite the situation by doing an assessment of our neighborhood and documenting areas that held trapped survivors. I had already seen and heard many, so I thought that I would do another walk-through of the areas of Cineas and Augustin to put together a more thorough report.

As I walked through the neighborhood and interviewed different members of the community, I had to fight back the tears. There was so much damage that you couldn’t distinguish one house from the next. Every other house seemed to have missing people inside. Some folks had found and saved one or two family members who had been stuck, but were still missing others.

Mike interviewing earthquake victims in the streets of Leogane, where 90 percent of the buildings collapsed. (Photo courtesy of Kathryn Bolles, Save the Children)

I drew up a small map in my notebook and began charting where people were missing, trying to distinguish between the difference of “missing” and “alive and trapped.” It was bad out there, but I managed to get together a pretty accurate map for the search and rescue teams.

When I got back to our office, I found that the number of community members staying at our unofficial camp had increased a bit.  I realized that logistics would soon become a major issue as we would need food, water, latrines, and either tents or some other shelter for each of them. We were able to get several cases of Vitafood meals from a partner we shipped to recently. We also gave some of the cases to a nearby orphanage that had run out of food.

With all the destruction everywhere, it’s good to be able to start helping people. I am hopeful for tomorrow.

Please pray for Mike as he continues to work with our ministry partners in the field to help the devastated earthquake victims of Haiti. Also, visit our disaster relief page to see how you can help.

Our Haiti Projects Officer Mike Henry was in our office in Port-au-Prince during the massive earthquake that shook Haiti Tuesday. Below is his first-hand account of the quake and the destruction it left behind:

Mike Henry, Haiti projects officer

It started off as kind of soft shaking then really intensified. There was no way I could have gotten out of the building. It was shaking too hard. I stood in a doorway to try and protect myself. Everything that was standing fell over. Computers fell off desks and pipes burst everywhere.

Once the earthquake stopped, I ran to the window that looks down over the city. It’s usually a nice view. This time it wasn’t so nice. A huge cloud of dust and smoke hung over the city. I have never seen anything like it in my life. There was screaming, crying, yelling and sheer panic coming from the city. Many of our neighbors’ houses collapsed.  About every other house had gone down the hill. They literally just fell off the mountain. It was quickly getting dark outside — it was really scary. Yelling and crying was coming from every direction.

The street just outside Cross International Catholic Outreach's office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

A few hours after the earthquake, I left our office compound and ventured into the streets to assess the damage. That’s when I realized the extent of the destruction. The streets were a maze of rubble and broken houses. They stretched in every direction. All the roads were littered with debris. Hundreds of people were stumbling around in the dark, stunned and begging for help. Most of the houses around our office had totally collapsed.

A bit later, I went with two guys from the U.S. Embassy to check on the road to see if we could get some of the critically-injured people to a medical outpost. We had only gone about 200 to 300 yards down the street when a woman came running toward us, screaming, “Please, come help me. My daughter is stuck — my baby is trapped. Please, you have to help me!”

We followed the woman, and about every 10 steps another person came up to us, asking for help to get trapped people out of the rubble. We freed one woman on the way, but there wasn’t much we could do for anyone because we didn’t have the tools to get them out. I felt so helpless. I hated having to leave them behind, knowing it would be a while until help would come. Those people are still stuck in that rubble, probably in dire need of water and air.

As I sat in the compound later, feeling helpless and overwhelmed, I heard people in the streets singing and praising God. It really touched me. The people’s faith is all they have. It is more real to them than anything around them. Their homes are gone, their children are gone; all that they have is their faith.

Mike is working with our partners in the country to channel our aid to those who need it most. The need is still very desperate. Click here to see how you can help, and please continue to pray for the people of Haiti.

To listen to an audio recording of Mike sharing his story, visit our disaster relief website. Also, see photos he took just hours after the earthquake here.

As we move into the New Year, media outlets have been a buzz with forecasts about the U.S. housing market in 2010. One Wall Street Journal article proclaimed that the future was “uncertain” with things unlikely to recover much this year.

Before she was provided a sturdy home through Cross Catholic, Tesfesseha and her children weathered the cold nights in this makeshift tent.

But the U.S. housing market isn’t the only one suffering. Worldwide — mainly in developing countries — more than 1 billion people currently lack adequate housing, while about 100 million are homeless. And these aren’t just faceless numbers. These are orphans, single mothers, widows, and destitute families struggling to survive from day to day.

Tesfesseha Tesfay was one of them. She lived in a tent in Tigray, Ethiopia with her 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old twin sons for nearly two years. More of an old tarp supported by sticks and held together with rope, the tent leaked when it rained and did little to keep out the ice-cold mountain air at night.

“I live here because there is nothing else I can do — I don’t consider it living,” said Tesfesseha, who had to leave her home in town because the rent was too expensive. Her husband cannot support them because he is very ill and lives with a relative in another town. Tesfesseha is also often too ill to work; she’s never fully recovered from a surgery she had after a miscarriage. The local Catholic church would sometimes give her money for food, but her family often went without.

Tesfesseha was one of several women to receive a new house through the housing program we support in Northern Ethiopia. When Tesfesseha found out she would be getting a house with sturdy cement-block walls, she exclaimed, “I cannot express my joy. This will make a big difference in our lives.”

We may not be able to fix the housing crisis worldwide, but we can ensure that poor families like Tesfesseha’s have a safe place to rest their heads at night. Click here to learn more about our housing projects.