... but you want to do something to give aid and comfort to victims of hurricane Katrina?
My personal recommendation would be to stroke a check to World Vision, an organization the wife and I have long had much respect for and that is rated highly over at The Charity Navigator. They've set up a donation page here.
Mrs. BH and I are at this point going to wait a few more days to see if my company might have a matching fund program that will double the monies sent. I'm grateful that I work for a company that does this regularly.
The Instapundit is all over this with lots of links and plenty of choices as to charitable organizations.
Vanderleun and The Anchoress are rightly pointing out how some folks who were more than willing to help with tsunami victims are horribly silent about America's victims.
And the TTLB people are doing their part with a Katrina relief aggregator page.
The pictures and stories I've seen are heart-breaking, tragic and makes one quickly ponder their personal blessings.
I pray for all those affected. May God's presence be made manifest. And quickly.
UPDATE: Moments after posting, I received the following in e-mail from our very good friend Joni, a Mississippi resident with many friends and relatives affected by events. I asked her for permission to post it and she had no problems with the idea. It's a moving testament to what has happened and it ends on a hope-filled (and prayerful) note:
I found a link on MSNBC that took you on an aerial ride over Hancock county,
MS and part of Harrison. There is nothing left. I cried.I finally got in touch with my friend Betty. I had dinner with her and her
daughter Saturday night in Oxford. She knew she couldn't go home so she
went to her son's house in Jackson, MS. Betty is sure that her house is
gone. She lived a block from the beach in Waveland (Hancock county) -- like
I said, there is nothing there anymore. But you couldn't get there even if
you wanted to. We have some friends who stayed in Long Beach.
They are less than 2 blocks from the beach. They made it with minimal
damage to their house, but they are trapped. They can't get out. So,
Betty's son will leave Jackson on a rescue mission tomorrow to get the
them and Betty's 3 dogs (John (the son) is taking care of Betty's
dogs). Friday, Betty's brother-in-law is coming to Jackson to pick up Betty
and her 3 dogs and take her to Florida provided he can find enough gas to
get there and back. After that, she may go Atlanta, but she doesn't know.Our friend Ann was supposed to go to Birmingham, but no one has heard from
her. Her house in Long Beach is gone.The President Casino is across highway 90 from where it was moored.
Treasure Bay casino has disappeared. The Copa casino is now in the parking
lot of the Grand Casino in Gulfport. The Palace casino sank.There is no way to get from Mississippi to Louisiana from the coast. The
twin spans in Slidell are gone. The causeway is not stable. I-10 IS
passable -- until you get to the twin spans. The Bay St. Louis bridge is
gone (that takes you from Harrison to Hancock county), the Ocean Springs
bridge is gone (that takes you from Harrison to Jackson county and on in to
Alabama). The Popps' Ferry bridge is gone (takes you from Biloxi to north
of the back bay).I still can't reach my friends in Gulfport and Biloxi, nor do I know how the
rest of my friends in Long Beach fared.The devastation is incredible.
We got our power back last night -- only to lose it again this morning at
0930. It finally came back at 1200. We still don't have cable. But we
have air conditioning and each other (I think I said that backwards). My
brother-in-law called again today -- he was trying to buy a generator. He
said they may come stay with us until they get their power back -- which may
be a couple of weeks. They have no water either.Betty was talking about how many "refugees" there are. People with
absolutely no place to go. No house left, no car to take them to another
place to stay, no gas to put in the car if they had one, no road to travel
on if they had the gas ...I feel so useless sitting here in my cool house eating hot food.
I asked God to wrap his arms around those people -- and I know he will. The
coast people are incredible when it comes to adversity. They will persevere
and they will build back. Wait and see. But in the meantime I pray for
them.
As we all do Joni. Lord have mercy.
MORE: Chris Muir is echoing Joni:
















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