Shot by Catherine Lainé of AIDG (flickr)

If you haven’t been in a cave, then you know of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti six days ago, and the ensuing humanitarian crisis that’s developing now.  Over 200,000 are now estimated dead with many of the living in desperate need of food, water and medical care.  Christian and non-Christian alike are working hard to help mitigate and relieve some of the incredible suffering that’s now taking place.

For believers, we are called to be faithful stewards of God’s resources.  That means that we should be saving up funds to spend on others, and not just ourselves.  Jesus tells the story in Luke 16 of an unrighteous, worldly steward who knew enough to spend his master’s money in a way that would benefit his future.  And Jesus argues that if an unbeliever knows enough to do this, how much more should Christians be investing God’s money into things of eternal consequence!

With that in mind, I wanted to make you aware of a variety of solid, trustworthy and less-heard-of relief organizations that are now hard at work in Haiti:

• Churches Helping Churches – an effort launched by James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll to specifically help solid Haitian churches that have been flattened or otherwise destroyed by the earthquake.  Hospitals, schools and other major buildings get all the attention, but biblically solid churches need to exist in Haiti for them to truly thrive.
• Childrens’ Hunger Fund – this organization is primarily focused on bringing food and the hope of the gospel to kids.  Francis Chan (pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley) sits on the board and they have been operating in Haiti since before the earthquake.
• Missionary Flights International – they provide air support to missionaries working in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  Since the earthquake, they have been shutting supplies there as often as the airport will let them land.  Here’s a report on MFI from our own Eric Verkouteren…

As the Lord would providentially have it, I’m sitting in the parking lot of Missionary Flights International in Fort Pierce Florida, awe struck of the mercy god supplies. As an established organization, MFI organizes and partnerships with missionaries in Haiti to be a support chain in the supply of personel and goods. In response to the recent earthquake, this operation has expanded it’s daily flights and services beyond what it can withhold. As I walk around the hanger I see over 200 volunteers packing and sorting supplies. In talking with the Vice President Larry Cambell, he acknowledges the donations of some 100,000 lbs of supplies just today! MFI normally operates three restored DC-3 aircraft, but the demand has quickly exceeded the capacity of the organization.

Supplies being loaded at MFI (by Eric V)

In talking with Mr. Campbell he explained, ” The need is beyond our limit. With the generous support of Hendrix Motorsports we have two corporate jets shuttling workers and personnel. But we are still overwhelmed. We have 100,000 lbs of supplies sitting on the hanger floor with no way to get it down to Haiti. We need a C-130 or other aircraft to acomplish the task.”
Surely the need will continue for the next few months. Acording to Mr. Campbell, the US military has taken over the airport in Haiti, the flights are leaving several times a day. As I write I’m watching the supplies be loaded, personnel making their last phone calls, and more supplies arriving by the pallet. I’m stirred and I hope you are too to seek the lords hand, and to reach out how He may lead. More than just a temperal need, there is a spiritual need beyond what we can imagine.
Let’s rally in Christ…
In Him,
Eric

If you’d like to personally support what the Hurleys are doing in Uganda, visit SOS Ministries and make a donation.

Erick

Obviously this does not in any way remove the need for me to personally share the Gospel with them (or risk offending them).  But it does offer a supplement to the evangelism process.  It allows them to see into my life in a way that is not threatening to them and gives them extended exposure to the Gospel.

Anyway, the point is: 1.) Get a Facebook account if you don’t have one, 2.) Add unsaved friends and (especially) extended family, 3.) Make your statuses and posts strategic for the Kingdom.  They are watching…..  Facebook missionally!

For those of you who are new to Kaleo, FBC or Facebook, mine is at: http://www.facebook.com/erickcobb (I would be happy to add, so please request it), the Kaleo Facebook group page is here and the FBC Facebook group page is here (please become a member).

But more importantly do steps 2 and 3 above and let’s follow Paul’s lead and “become all things to all people, that by all means [we] might save some…and do all for the sake of the Gospel” (I Cor 9:22b-23a).  Including Facebook.

Well worth watching…

Shannon preached both services at FBC, teaching from Hebrews 11.  He honored the meaning of the text while exhorting us to have strong faith in God and not be content or comfortable with life here — for the earth is not our home.  Audio can be downloaded from our sermon archive or you can listen to the podcast, if you missed it (or want to listen again).  Shannon also preached in our college-career ministry, Kaleo, last night.  If audio becomes available, it will appear on their website.

Please be in prayer for the Hurleys as they return home next month to Uganda.  In the coming weeks, they will travel north to visit friends and some churches and then fly home in April.  I know that they are enjoying their time here, but are eager to get home and back to a life of ministry among a people who desperately need Christ.  We’re thankful to have been able to spend some time with them while they’re here – and to bless them with a Disneyland trip on Friday!  Chris took some pictures which are below:

John

Below is an email I received yesterday after the sermon and my response.  I thought it might prove helpful to others also as I didn’t get to develop this point very much..  (

Hey John,

________ and I were talking this morning about your message from yesterday. We were both very blessed and encouraged by it. We both agree we need to be more Cross centered in our family and how that would change many dynamics of struggles we have going on. We were talking through what that is going to look like and were kind of stumped by the one point you made to memorize the gospel. What do you mean by that? I believe you mean memorize key verses refering to the gospel. Could you give me a “for example” verse?

Have a good night,
___________

And here is my reply...

Hi ______,

Thanks for the encouraging email. I’m glad to hear how God used His Word in your hearts/lives.
I’m guessing by your question that you guys were in 1st service. I had to rush through the conclusion that service and didn’t get to explain what I meant that service, but developed it more during 2nd service. Anyway… here’s a synopsis of what I said and meant.

Should you know the gospel for evangelism? Yes. But that’s not what I’m talking about… What I meant is that you should memorize the aspects of the gospel which you struggle the most to embrace, believe and live in. E.g., you struggle with guilt & shame after sinning. Well, first consider 2 Cor 7:10-11 to examine if your repentance is real & matches how the Bible describes repentance. If so, then think on 1 John 1:8, God is faithful to forgive & cleanse us from our sin. Furthermore, Rom 8:1 says that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus., as we talked about on Sunday, etc., etc. In other words, pick out those gospel truths that best relate to the areas of the gospel you’re prone to forgetting/ignoring/supplanting and memorize those. Maybe it’s that section of Heb 10:10-18 where it says that Christ has offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, justifying all those who are being sanctified. You can use the verses listed in the sermon notes as a starting point, but I’d encourage you to read through Romans, Hebrews & Philippians to find, see & discover more.

Hope this helps clarify and provides you with a firm foundation on which to build,
John

• us personally — this list has great ideas on how to pray for us and anyone else serving in ministry
• our time together to be edifying and full of joy
• our families (Beth & Abby will be up in Seattle with family)
• the Ugandan pastors at the conference — that the Spirit of God would do a MIGHTY work in the lives of these men through the power of His Word
• us to be an encouragement to Shannon & Danielle Hurley
• 
• Scott & Shannon to get some good planning & strategizing done on establishing a school in Uganda
• Scott not to get sick (well, John too on this one!)

The conditions we are headed into are very remote.  I’ve been told that even cell phones don’t work in most of the areas we’ll be.  (Cell phones are the prevalent means of communication in much of Africa, instead of the land lines we have in the U.S.)  So…  for as long as we have cell services, Scott and I will be pushing out short updates via txt message.  There are four ways to read them:

• Follow us on Twitter
• Check my status updates on Facebook — I won’t be able to accept new ‘friends’ after today, so this will only work for people already connected to me on Facebook
• Get them via RSS using a feed reader — Google Reader is great if you check lots of blogs
• Regularly check the FBC homepage — there’s a side column that lists our updates

Choose whichever one you’re familiar with.  Amazingly, all of these options are coming through the Twittr service, and will auto-magically update as I’m able to send out text messages from my phone.  What a world we live in!

Grace Children’s Home – Mexico Ministry Day Trip – April 26th @ 7:45am