In Bangladesh now there are many people struggling in the aftermath of a really bad cyclone. Here is an e-mail I recieved from one of the organizations I support in case you may not know or have not paid much attention to the news due to the upcoming holiday.

Help can come in the form of prayers or donations to an organization.

For World Vision, the URL is www.worldvision.org. There is also the international Red Cross, OxFam, and UNICEF which are helping. The death toll is OVER 3000 people!

Please take the time to care...

"Dear Sponsor,

Last week, we alerted you to the devastating category 4 Cyclone Sidr that struck Bangladesh. We want to update you on World Vision's relief response to the survivors and to ask you to continue to pray for cyclone and flooding survivors and relief workers providing urgent assistance.

World Vision continues to rush emergency aid into Bangladesh following one of the worst cyclones in a decade, which left over 3,000 dead and millions in desperate need of food, water, and shelter.

Seven of World Vision's projects were hit, three of them severely, and we are now sheltering over 20,000 people who lost their homes. Please know if a sponsored child is directly affected by a disaster, that it is our policy to notify sponsors as soon as possible.
"Now [what] we need most is food to live, a house to reside. It is hard to live under open sky. To whom will we go?" Rika, age 11 Read more about survivors of the storm.

More than 800 World Vision staff and volunteers are currently involved in the response, many providing first aid for those injured by flying debris and falling homes. Read more about World Vision's response.

"The scale of the devastation is enormous. It is very hard to get to some areas due to fallen trees. There is need wherever we look," said Vince Edwards, World Vision's national director in Bangladesh "We are going to focus our efforts on the worst affected: people who have completely lost their homes, women-headed households, the poorest of the poor and those families who have children with disabilities."

Your help is urgently needed today. Children and families desperately need food, clean water, blankets and more to survive. It doesn't take much to help save a life. God bless you for all you do to support children and families in need. Thank you,

Rich Stearns President, World Vision U.S."