Support for Haiti

Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, "Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame." // Luke 14:21 ESV


Dear friends and family,

Over the past year, God has called me to serve internationally as a physical therapist. It has been a huge journey of faith and trusting God, and I haven't even left yet! After much prayer and soul searching, I am honored to share with you my plans to serve in Haiti.

Joni and Friends is a Christian disability ministry with multiple programs aimed to serve and reach out to the disabled community and spread the Gospel. The organization was founded by Joni Eareckson Tada after a diving accident left her with tetraplegia (paralyzed from the shoulders down) and a new perspective on faith and disability.

I will be serving as a wheelchair seating specialist with the international short term mission ministry of Joni and Friends called Wheels for the World, traveling with a team of therapists and other short-term missionaries to Haiti from September 23 to October 2, 2011. We will be fitting donated manual wheelchairs to best meet the physical needs of the people of Haiti, sharing the Gospel, and distributing Bibles. Without these donated wheelchairs and manpower, many of these people would be home-bound or have to be carried. As home-bound and marginalized, these folks also might have limited opportunities to hear the good news of Jesus.

I have 2 major needs for this trip, which is why I am asking for your help!

1) PRAYER!!! My team and I are in need of prayer - for safe travels, for strength and energy to work long hours, for our individual fundraising efforts, for our words and actions during the trip to be an extension of Christ. If you would like to pray for me during this trip, please email me at erincweeks@gmail.com so I can add you to email updates and prayer requests at all stages of my trip.

2) FINANCES. The estimated cost of the trip is $2000, which will cover all of my expenses during the trip. It is a major step of faith for me to sign up for this trip and ask for funds, even after the year I've spent in prayer and searching for God's plan for me. I trust that He, through all of you, will provide for my needs during this trip. Tax-deductible contributions can be made online or by mail:

Joni and Friends
Attn: WFTW, Erin Weeks
PO Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
(Please write Erin Weeks/Haiti in the memo line of the check)

I feel so honored, so humbled, and so excited to serve God in this way. I have always loved the Gospel stories when Jesus heals the paralyzed man and the above parable from Luke, in which the Master invites the marginalized and disabled to a place of honor at his table. I can't help feeling that as a physical therapist, I am somehow Jesus's hands and feet in our world, living out these verses on a daily basis in my work and ministry.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers this far in my journey, and I pray that you would consider sponsoring me in other ways for this adventure. If you have any questions or want additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me!

I love you all!
erin