Update from Haiti

here is a great update from the local org we are partnering with in Haiti… Much more to do. if you haven’t yet donated, you can go to their website.
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Dear Friends,

Thanks for your continued prayer and support. Here is the latest update from Brad.

PKN Staff
Pittsburgh Kids Foundation

How can I help?

Letter From Brad Henderson

Dear Friends,

I arrived back in Pittsburgh today (1/24) after a week in Haiti.Please pray for PKF staff member Chris Pfeiffer who remains in Haiti to help coordinate our efforts there. Please continue to pray for Haiti. The only word I can think to describe the situation in Haiti right now is “overwhelming.” There is so much that we still need to do! At the same time, I want you to know that there is much we have already done! It was a total team effort. The key to all our efforts this week were the missionaries already on the ground (EBAC, WOMI, MFI & Hearts For The Hungry) and the local Haitian people; they are the real heroes!! They needed us to help fund their immediate efforts; but because of the miles they have logged in Haiti over the past 30 years, we were able together to reach out to thousands of starving people. We feel very good about the foundation we were able to lay this week for ongoing efforts that will save lives in the weeks, months & years that lie ahead. Here is a summary of what we are currently doing in Haiti:

We have partnered with the relief organization “Hearts For The Hungry” to maximize their ongoing efforts to feed people in Haiti. We were able purchase supplies in Haiti last week that were/are immediately contributing to the earthquake relief effort. Because of your generosity, the PKF has been able to immediately turn 32k in cash donations into food and supplies for the Haitian people; and additional money has been pledged. We need to continue to help fund the efforts of “Hearts For The Hungry” in Haiti! In addition to what we did last week, another 40k+ has been pledged to purchase food and supplies in the weeks ahead; this money will be used to support EBAC, WOMI & MFI in addition to “Hearts For The Hungry.”
The PKF has the privilege of funding a plan for ongoing food distribution to earthquake victims arriving at the Cap Haitien & Milot hospitals. Hot food is prepared for the victims and their families who are arriving by the busloads. The victims are also being provided with dry food to sustain them in the tough days that lie ahead. Many of these displaced refugees are being taken in and housed by local Haitian families. We are a part of a “door to door” effort to make sure that these generous host families of very little means have what they need to survive. We will be helping our Haitian friends & missionaries to feed these tired, broken and hungry Port Au Prince refugees in the days and months ahead.
Alice Wise and Kathy Goukers are the two incredible ladies who have run the EBAC orphanage for the past 30 years. There are currently 80 kids living at the orphanage. They have already agreed to take in some “new orphans” left abandoned by the earthquake. With the older kids and many of their extended family members returning with them from Port Au Prince, we expect the number of mouths that they feed regularly to double. We have made a pledge to EBAC to sustain them in these efforts and ensure that the kids’ needs are met moving forward.
Providentially, we are in the middle of a project to construct a new orphanage in the Cap Haitien area which is over 50% done. We have put a plan in place to expedite the construction and begin to move new orphans in ASAP. In the past two weeks, we have raised an additional 75k towards this project. We will need to raise another 175k in the near future to complete the construction. We believe that this is something that we absolutely need to get done!

Our work is only just beginning! Haiti needs your love, support and prayers more than ever moving forward. Thanks for being a part of the PKF Haiti Team!!

Dr. Brad Henderson
President
Pittsburgh Kids Foundation
116 Federal Street, Suite 100
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

great blog post from a visitor/friend.

here is a great blog post that Phyllis Sigal wrote recently, after her visit to the Wexford campus of North Way Christian Community.  She is the mother of one of our North Way Oakland members and I have met her a few times.  If you missed last week’s service, you can watch it on our website.

http://www.news-register.net/page/blogs.detail/display/984.html

haiti.

I have a number of thoughts about Haiti, that have been running around in my head for a few days.  However, they are not unique to me – in fact, i’m not going to take the time to repeat what Donald Miller has said so well on his blog, reacting to Pat Roberston’s comments yesterday.  I couldn’t agree with him more, and you can read it here: http://donmilleris.com/ 

Now, on to what to do.  There is an amazing Pittsburgh, Christ-centered non-profit called the Pittsburgh Kids Foundation.  Our church supports them in numerous ways and they support us in numerous ways.  It’s one of the best partnership we have in the city!  They just happen to have been involved on the ground in Haiti for nearly 20 years.  If you are considering giving to the disaster, please consider giving through them, as it there is minimal overhead, and it goes through their missionary partners hands.  They even have a team leaving PGH on Monday, on private-donated jet, full of doctors to help!

Here is the update today from their director, Brad Henderson:

Hi All, 

 

Here are some important thoughts on Haiti! Please forward this on to anyone that you know that may be helpful (I think this is that one email you might want to forward to everyone on your mailing list). 

 

1) Pray for Haiti! 

We are still very concerned about 10 of the EBAC orphans (young adults now) that were in Port Au Prince during the quake. No one has heard from them. As every minute passes this becomes more of a concern. We have all seen the video and heard the reports; those we know and those we don’t know desperately need our prayers!!

 

2) Relief Efforts 

God has put us in a very strategic place to help with the relief efforts. We have been in direct contact with trusted missionaries & nationals on the ground in Haiti this morning that need our help more than ever!!! We have a 20 year history of working with these people. We have a container (semi tractor trailer full of food & essentials in Cap Haitien right now waiting to clear customs) and more food, water, etc. on the way. Money is the greatest need right now! The quickest way to get supplies in to the quake area right now is to drive across the border to the Dominican Republic (two hour drive), load up our trucks with as much food and supplies as possible and start hand delivering the food,water & medical supplies. 

 

3) We Need Money

People can send money & make donations on the PKF website (www.pittsburghkidsfoundation.org). We will strategically pass this money on to those organizations that we know and trust on the “front lines.” 100% of that which comes in for Haiti relief will go to these efforts (our overhead is nothing compared to the more highly visible ways people are being asked to give, I’m not even sure  if we have any “overhead”). 

 

4) Pray For Our Trip 

Our plan is to fly into Cap Haitien on Monday on a private plane (someone has offered their private corporate jet) full of doctors, workers, medical supplies & all the food, water and cash we can put on there. Please pray that we get “airspace clearance” to do this. The plan is to minister to folks as they flee out into the countryside. Our contacts on the ground have told us that Port Au Prince is very “unstable” right now and that there has been a mass exodus of people fleeing Port Au Prince to the countryside looking for food, water and medical help. We believe we can stay safe and effectively help more people without being inside the broken city.

 

5) Pray For Our Future Ministry In Haiti 

We have 20 years of a ministry investment in Haiti. The needs were overwhelming before the Earthquake hit. This is not going to be a “quick fix.” Pray that we don’t ransom the future by directing all our energy to the present crisis. We are going to be needed in the months, years & decades to come! 

 

We Are In This Adventure Together! 

 

Brad  

 

 

Dr. Brad Henderson
President
Pittsburgh Kids Foundation
116 Federal Street, Suite 220
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Here is a recent WPXI story on the PKF and their Haiti response: http://www.wpxi.com/news/22229556/detail.html

how long?

I ran across two scriptures in my reading this AM that I think highlight one the most important spiritual principles in our lives.

In Psalm 13 (as in many other Psalms), the psalmist questions Gods presence with the words “how long Lord will you hide your face from me?”. Certainly, this is a question we all ask on a regular basis. It usually is in reaction to some circumstance or storm we are facing: “Lord, how long will I…
… Deal with this sickness
… Feel alone
… Struggle with this sin
… Doubt my faith
… Be without a job
… Have to wait to find my spouse
… Deal with this past hurt
… Work in this dead end job

Surely the list goes on; our lives are filled with “how long” moments. We so desperately want to be able to declare, again like the Psalmist, that our patience has been answered and that God “turned and heard our cry” (Psalm 40). Yet it takes so long to get there, at least from our earthly perspective.

What we discover though through the person of Jesus is that we don’t need to wait any more for his presence. Look at how Jesus pursues this man in John:

“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him…”

Jesus knows the circumstances of our lives, and He pursues us… Not th other way around. That’s really all we need to know isn’t it.

In th midst of waiting, we discover a God who is not only knowledgable of our need of his presence, but a God who pursues us with his presence.

May you embrace his pursuit today!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

what do snakes, clowns, oceans and childbirth have in common?

i’ve been studying fear for a few weeks because i’m preaching on it tomorrow and again in a few weeks.  I’ve learned a bunch of stuff.

1.  I have ophidiophobia (snakes), coulrophobia (clowns), thalassophobia (oceans), and tocophobia (childbirth).  I would expect any man who watches labor also has the last one… snakes has been a fear ever since 7th grade when i went to that stupid nature center day and i had one on my neck… clowns is thanks in no small part to Pennywise (I shutter at the name) from IT… oceans is really only the muddy new jersey kind where needles wash up along your toes with the darkly stained jellyfish.  for the record, i am not afraid of hawaiian or caribbean waters,and am certainly not afraid of beaches or even the movie beaches, although it is not a good movie.

2.  I have learned that fear in the scriptures appears first as either terror or reverance.  an angel appears or there is theophany – terror.  a bush is burning or God’s presence is near – reverance.  but i also learned that terror is always supposed to lead to reverance; when it does not, it leads us measurably away from God.  You can see this play out in Job’s life.  (Good God-fearing or reverant man / crap happens / terror / leads him away from God / about face / leads him into deeper reverance – ie “these things are too wonderful for me…”).

3.  I have learned that fear creates spiritual amnesia in our lives.  when we fear, we forget, and when we forget, we appear (and usually are) faithless.

If you’re in the Pittsburgh area, join me tomorrow at North Way Oakland (www.northway.org) as we’ll dive in much deeper to the idea of fear.

lonely but connected…

Ran across yet another great article on Atlantic, this one about how we have more connectedness than ever before, yet more lonliness.  You can read it and the associated essay here: http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/lane_wallace/2010/01/loneliness_in_numbers.php 

I think the best overarching line, that is true, is that “as we spend more time connecting to the world, it appears that at least some of us may be trading off depth for breadth. We are at once more connected and less connected, depending on how you look at it.” 

Think about this in your relational circles.  Are you connected to more people right now than you were 10 years ago?  Of course.  5 years ago?  Yes.  1 year ago?  Most likely.  The simplest way to measure this is think about all the people you have become “friends” with on Facebook in the last year… and ask yourself two important questions:

1 – Would you still be friends with them if Facebook didn’t make you?  2 – Do you want to be connected to them other than to just have them on your friends list?

Now, this is not simply negativity on Facebook… rather, agreement with the article that, as John Mayer put it, we are all lonely in a crowded room.  This underscores the importance of two things for me:

1 – We must go deeper with a group of people than we do with anyone else.  We all desperately need that, especially the encouragement, fun, challenge and accountability that comes from such intimacy.  This could be your spouse (strike could for should), a small group, a close friend at work you have lunch with, and/or David Gray, who clearly draws me into his world with their string arrangements and makes me feel like I’m a poet, although slightly meandering through life. 

2 – We must recognize the intimacy that the Spirit of Jesus desire to bring into our lives.  He too brings encouragement, fun, challenge and accountability that not only fills the God-shaped hole we all have in our hearts (Pascal), but also makes us more like Jesus, helping us to then reach out into others lives and quench their lonliness. 

These are the only proper responses, and not coincidentally, they are the only responses that remedy the situation for ourselves, and those around us…

in the morning…

“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” Ps. 5:3

What are your mornings like?  Frantic?  Sleepy?  Caffeinated?

What decisions start your day?  Snooze or not to snooze?  Outfit?  What’s worthy of the to do list?  What’s for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner?  Do I really need to use shampoo today?

What uncertainties lay ahead?  What will work throw your way?  What potential crisis is looming?  What will the weather be like?  (in Pittsburgh, just strike the last one until April – it will be 15 degrees with light snow).

We all start our days differently, but in many ways, most people start their days the same… beginning a backwards fall into reacting to whatever happens.  It’s sort of epidemic really, as we all become cultured with the morning clichés… “another day, another dollar… daily grind…” 

Personally, I do not wish to fall backwards into my day, and have learned the importance of not only starting each day with a regularity and discipline, but with a recognition that of all the other things I do, I must meet with the one who has ordained my day.  In the Psalm above, you find just one of the many examples in the Scriptures of God’s people rising up early to meet with Him.  Jesus even did it, so I’m thinking that since I’m a little less perfect than Him, I should do it too.

So, I hope that part of your resolutions for this year was how you start your day… if not, it’s not too early to begin.  See my previous post for some help with the Bible side of it (YouVersion) but don’t miss prayer, journaling and the simple regularity of it all.  I’ve even learned to simply pray - ”Lord, what do you want me to do today?  Lord, who do you want me to reach out to today?  Lord, what am I liable to forget today?” 

Ok, gotta finish some things up, so I can go to bed and get up early

2010 according to Paul (either one – Apostle or Hewson)

Today, everyone’s favorite rock star emitted a playful, spiritually subdued op-ed in the NYTimes.  I would recommend that with your last evening before the holidays are officially over, you take the time to read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03bono.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

Now, there is surely much to talk about, but I’ll leave that to people much more educated and specialized than myself.  I would rather make a simple comment about two of Bono’s ten:

“People Power and the Upside-Down Pyramid” – in Mr. Hewson’s analysis of the upside-down nature of the future makes the point that the masses will become powerful.  He argues that “the weight bears down harder when the few are corrupt or fail to deliver on the promises that earned them authority in the first place.”  There is not only historical proof of this, even in recent history, but there is Biblical proof; it is not difficult to see God’s people, as “underdogs”, becoming powerful, as in the case of the Apostolic church, which through martydom and it’s grassroots growth, overtook the entire Roman empire in a mere 3 decades.  Many have begun to argue that Christianity is about to assume a similar “underdog” position, as it has in the past, and can look to their brothers and sisters in 1st century Palestine, or 21st century China, as an encouragement.

“Viva la (Nonviolent) Revolución” – not to belabor the point, but again Paul may be on to something here, as revolution seems about to break in a few areas of the world… and I’m waiting with bated breath to hear how Christ’s Spirit has been at work in some of those areas… I’m holding no facts, but on hunch alone, I would guess that the underground is involved in substantial ways, much as Bonhoeffer was in the underground German church in the last century. 

So, thanks for a fun read Bono, and as I’m sure you no doubt are aware, some of the signs to which you point are perhaps good things for the Gospel, and the move of God’s church around the world.  (I have intentionally not discussed his proposed Festival of Abraham… as much as I would like to see U2, Matisyahu and A.R. Rahman rocking out a Jerusalem stage, holding hands and singing we are the world, what we ultimately all believe cannot all be true.  It’s illogical.  And so we should use our collective energy in a more useful endeavor… like maybe the One campaign… just saying).

wisdom

i’ve begun, once again, reading through the bible in the new year.  last year i rolled along with the Moravians, and their surprisingly hip daily email (see http://www.moravian.org/daily_texts/ if you wanna get on that hundred year old train, which was a good one for me last year).  this year, i’m changing it up and thanks to the God-given iPhone (tongue slightly in cheek here), and the technological networking of YouVersion, I’m going with the Project 345 Plus.  Other than sounding the most holy, which would be a clear lie if I told you wasn’t in some way factored in, I am attracted to Psalms and Proverbs every day, with the New Testament, and much of the Old.  It is a lot, but I now that it is localized to the palm of my hand and I take the bus most days, it’s doable.  In addition, I plan on journaling through what strikes me, however that will be the old pen/paper as I still cannot find the feeling duplicated by any technology or APP.

This morning one of the verses that jumped was Proverbs 2:6 – “the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

I had just been reading yesterday evening about the difference between Hellenistic/Greek learning (academic, knowledge-based, disciplinary, etc.) and Hebraic learning (holistic, wisdom-based, interdisciplinary, etc.), and certainly this Proverb speaks to the latter.  It tells us that in the inquiry of knowledge, understanding and wisdom, ultimately comes from the Lord.  (i am currently striking a reference to omnipotence of iPhone).  

This is why in Romans Paul commends us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds… he is speaking of the Hebraic understanding of applied knowledge and understanding = wisdom.  Wisdom from the Lord has the power to transform our entire lives; the lack of wisdom has the power to destroy our entire lives. 

One of my prayers for the year ahead, is that the Lord will give wisdom so that I can see transformation in my life, particularly in my family, friendships, ministry, leadership and neighborhood.

happy new year.

Happy New Year.  The last one for me has brought quite a bit.  Some highlights:

1 – a great vacation to Hawaii with my wife and our good friends Sean & Jen.

2 – a fantastic year of growth in Koen, where he is growing into a sweet, smart, silly little boy.

3 – a new baby, Tavin, who so far is just sweet… and sleepy… and hungry.

4 – a new job, Pastoring North Way Oakland, for which I am excited and blessed.

I’m curious and expectant about what the new year holds.  I’m particularly anticipating what God will be doing in our church, as we lean into him by faith and become all that He has planned for us to become in the city of Pittsburgh.

T.S. Elliot said: “the greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically anlyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief.”  This of course can be understood to speak of laying down our life physically, as in martydom or some less final sacrifice.  Yet, it also speaks of laying down our lives in other ways.  This is the ordinary stuff our lives (family, job, friendships, neighborhood, marketplace, art) where we either allow Jesus to be Lord or not.

In the next year, I pray that I learn to lay down my life in that ordinary stuff, that my life may speak to the reality of Christ.  I’m not sure what those things are yet, however, I am seeking the wisdom in the days ahead. 

I pray that you will as well.