When your World Crumbles...

If your world crumbled before you, what would you expect? That's what the people of Haiti are wondering right now. Their world has fallen, their government is literally in shambles, their jails are empty because the walls fell in, and yet last night on the telethon Hope for Haiti Now I watched a woman pulled from the wreckage of her home 6 days after the earthquake hit and she was singing. The woman was singing and praising God! I was in tears within mil-seconds.

What they are going through is devastating, I can't even imagine the pain and suffering, the fear and bewilderment that the Haitian people are going through. Every time the world goes through something heart wrenching it makes the world come together and show our true colors. Who are we if we don't help? As a Christian it makes me incredibly happy to see the people who drop their lives and their families to go and help in countries that aren't their own, for people they've never met, they risk their lives because humanity demands it of us. To help those that are less fortunate and cannot help themselves. We all are essentially selfish creatures but when times get tough we all seem to tap into the other half of our selves, our better selves, we dig deep even in times of recession and we find money to send to people who have nothing!

As horrible as the tragic events of the earthquake are I can be GLAD and REJOICE in the fact that God has called upon his servants to be there for those that are less fortunate. I can be GLAD and REJOICE that He is there in Haiti with them holding them up and loving them especially in the times of fear and pain. I can be GLAD and REJOICE that He can make beautiful, awesome and radical events happen in the midst of tragedy, that He can turn it all around. He is the only one who can make something horrifying and paint it into a beautiful picture of people helping people.

If you haven't given yet, there are a multitude of organizations, the Red Cross or the Hope for Haiti Now organization, your local church is also probably accepting specific donations for the small country of Haiti. Show your love with any donation possible.

My Church Family

I was so proud of my church family over the weekend. Sometimes my Church gets alot of flack for its size and different objections to how it is run. I've learned to look past that because alot of the people who have oppositions and issues with it don't come regularly to see how awesome and fantastic the services are, how much energy and love is placed into the ministries, and how much people learn and grow in love for God and many other things.

But before the weekend our pastor informed the church family (that is the actual members) that the church had a shortfall at the last service of the year for tithe and due to the recession they had been clinging tightly to the budget all year and due to the low weekend service attendance they didn't make their normal tithe income. They were facing coming into the New Year with a deficit. So our pastor asked everyone to pray about the possibility to help close that gap that was created.

The outcome of the letter was astounding! The church family donated over and above what was needed by about 2.5 times! The church and more importantly the members do so much for the community its always amazing to see how they are willing to give even when money is tight to continue to help others. It put a smile in my heart and more importantly I think it put a smile on Gods face to see radical generosity from the church family!