If you are like me and like the show Whale Wars, you’ll find this interesting. More info on the sinking of the Sea Shepherd ship Ady Gil by Japanese whalers.
Month: May 2010
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Coronado Beach Day
It was fun to just relax at the beach yesterday. We all got a bit too much sun. The water was frigid. (57 degrees!) But we found a good parking spot and set up… and just did nothing. You’ll see in the pictures that the kids had a blast jumping off and playing on a very large mound of kelp and sand.
I guess this means summer is officially here.
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Bringing May to a Merciful End
New feature at Chase.com I am thankful for Memorial Day weekend. A beach day ahead– but that’s not why I’m so happy it’s the official start to summer. I’m just happy to get May out of the way.
The last 45 days have sucked for us financially. Like, literally, there has been a vacuum attachment having its way with our bank account.
A mistake on a tax form. SLURP. A little fender bender with an uninsured driver. SLURP. Some bi-annual bills. SLURP. SLURP. SLURP. Paying for our summer vacation. SLURP. Going on a mission trip. SLURP. Replacing some broken stuff. SLURP.
Two points of celebration. This series of unscheduled bills brought out all of the temptations.
- Celebration #1: Savings!
- Celebration #2: We didn’t put it on credit!
I logged into Mint the other day and I expected a pop-up to slide down and go… “You’re kidding me right now, aren’t you?” May was a blood bath of a month for us. But we got through it and we’re happy to see it go.
I can’t wait for June. I’m ready to start off a new month.
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$95 per day
Jean Michelle and Mark Oestriecher – May 27th, 2010 For the last couple of days I’ve been captivated by the stories flowing from my friends on a trip to Port-au-Prince. A group of church leaders is there to launch a partnership program which will pair an American church with a Haitian church. (Follow the team | Give to the program)
This all sprung out of our trip in February. As we travelled around the city we connected with various community leaders and discovered they were all pastors. The church is the only surviving and functional piece of infrastructure in Port-au-Prince right now. Don’t even get me started about the relief/aid organizations.
So Seth Barnes asked if we could meet with some pastors to hear what their needs were. A few hundred pastors representing more than 1000 churches showed up! Realizing God had just unleashed something on this relatively small NGO– Adventures in Missions went back home and talked to their board about what to do. The result was something they are calling the “Church Partnership Program.” Essentially, they are setting up Haitian leaders to form a simple relationship between an existing Haitian church and an American church.
$95 per day
In Haiti, $95 per day is all that is needed to fund the Son of God orphanage. Staff, housing, food, school, clothing, everything… for 125 children.
Here is one of two stories Marko shared on his blog today. (Read the other one)
very soon after arriving in the courtyard of the orphanage/school, jean michelle took my hand. he has a bright smile and a sparkle in his eyes. when i backed up to a ledge he was sitting on, he put his arms around my neck; and for the next hour, he was either on my back, or holding my hand. over and over, he said to me, in broken english: my name is john michael, your name is marko.
jean michelle wrote his name for me on a scrap of paper (he wrote “jhon michil”), gave it to me, and asked me to remember him.
i asked one of our wonderful translators, john, to help me out, and had a little chat with jean michelle. his parents were both killed in the earthquake in january, and he was living on the street when pastor max found him 3 days ago. now he’s in a community of love, and getting an education.
but he’s still hungry. and he still sleeps on a rug, outside, in a courtyard, with 125 other kids, every night.
I can’t speak for you. But this tugs my heart big time. $95 a day feeds 124 other kids like him. It makes me want to consider adoption. It makes me think of the things I spend $95 on all the time. I makes me think that I completely suck as budgeting. It makes me feel guilt and ashamed that I’ve blown that on dinner before. Or that I will blow it again on dinner in full knowledge that I could be helping so many.
But more than anything it’s a call to action. I can’t sit here in knowledge of that and do nothing.
If you are ready to get involved, here’s how.
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Bring a Can to Church Day
Photo by CarbonNYC via Flickr (Creative Commons) I want to encourage you to do a little civil disobedience within your church congregation.
Start bringing and leaving a canned food item to your church every time you go. Have every person in your family do it, too. Don’t make a spectacle of it. Just leave your cans in the foyer on the floor or on the counter in the bathroom. Sunday morning worship? Leave a can. Mom goes back later for a meeting? Leave a can. Your son goes for youth group? Leave a can.
Don’t ask permission. Just do it. The Bible tells you it is OK.
Eventually, someone on the church staff is going to say… “What’s up with all of these cans? And what do we do with them?”
I’ll tell you what they will do. Someone will put the cans in a box. And it’ll just sit there.
Imagine if 20% of your congregation got in the habit of doing this? Instant food pantry. It’s not a program. It’s dealing with a problem. Who keeps leaving all of these cans here!
See, I think you’ll join me in the understanding that a house of God should also be a place of refuge for the hungry. As we linger in this recession I can guarantee you there are hungry among every single congregation.
And my experience in working in churches for nearly a decade– every single one of them had random people who drop by every single day looking for food or money. And in nearly 10 years I can think of only a couple of times we had food on hand to give them.
Almost every time people come to the church looking for help and are turned away. This isn’t exactly Good News in the neighborhood, is it?
I believe God has hard-wired us in the knowledge that if we need help or need a place to run to, the church is there.
Sadly most congregations in America have gotten lazy. They think an annual clothing drive or food donation to a local pantry is the right answer.
“Ding-dong.” Every day the bell rings at the church. People come to them who are hungry. Don’t you want your church to be a place that gives them food? Wouldn’t you want your music pastor to overhear the secretary start to explain to someone that the church doesn’t keep food at the church but makes an annual donation to the food pantry in town… and says, “Wait a minute. The janitor found these cans. You can have them.”
Bam! Instant food program. The church didn’t spend a dollar. They didn’t have a meeting to discuss it. They didn’t hire a staff member to start it. It’s just a box (or closet) full of cans people mysteriously left at church.Bring a can to church. Every time. Every person.
Problem solved.
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Google TV: Who is it good for?
Hmm… bringing all the video you can find on Google, which isn’t already on Hulu or YouTube or Netflix? Sounds like Google TV was made for the porn industry.
Dear Lord, let this thing come with a very strong filter for the sake of our children. (And college students)
What am I missing? What’s worth watching that isn’t already able to be streamed to my TV via a device?
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What does the Easter Mayhem teach us?
Several weeks have now passed since Easter. My hope is that by now, church leaders are scratching their heads and wondering if it was all worth it.Easter mayhem?
A lot, LOT, of churches consider Easter to be a day for growth. For church marketing types, it is Super Bowl Sunday. With the highest attendance of the year the attitude seems to be “Since lots of people are coming let’s do something awesome and maybe those visitors will come back!”
And boy do churches go all out. They alter the schedule. They plan a special service. The kids ministry is amped up. There are meetings about the big day. There is a special marketing plan for the day. There are mailers and prizes and flowers and bands and rehearsals and... then it’s over.
Somehow in the middle of this we try to be somber and remember that Our Lord was crucified and three days later resurrected! But the truth is that staff at those churches are hyped up on adrenaline and hope that this is the year that they will reach a new attendance record.
Easter mayhem is the 2000s version of Vacation Bible School which was the 1980s version of Sunday School
I don’t know how it all got started. But somehow Easter went from a holiday we solemnly celebrated to a day where people can win a car for showing up to church.
Easter, in some churches, has become less a religious holiday and more a church growth opportunity.
Easter is the highest attended weekend of the year in most churches. But the weekend after Easter is one of the lowest attended weekends of the year. Followed by the month of May– where church attendance and program enthusiasm typically murmurs out as the school year comes to an end.
What’s the point?
The point is exactly my point. While attendance is typically at an all-time high engagement is at an all-time low.
And when you look at the return on that investment– Easter mayhem is as effective at reaching people as Vacation Bible School. There may be a whole lot of people there for the event, but does it translate to long-term attendees?
Not in my experience.
What translates to long-term attendees?
Neighbors loving neighbors. Finding a community where you belong. Community service. And other things that aren’t as sexy as giving people a car on Easter Sunday or shaving a pastors head on the last day of VBS.
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Support my Haiti trip
I would greatly appreciate any financial support you can help us with as we head back to Haiti to lead a team on July 19-25. As I mentioned in the video– we are trying to offset these expenses so we can not only honor God with our service but also our financial stewardship at the same time. If you’d prefer to mail a check, here is a link to our Chip page which has our address.
