Thanks!
Carter

WHAT:    Dinner with your brothers and sisters in Christ followed by dancing

WHEN:    Saturday, February 13, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00ish

WHERE:    Fellowship Hall

DRESS:    Nicely. You’re on a date, remember?

The menu will include:  Rosemary Capellini with Baked Chicken and Salad. Cost is $10 per couple; tickets can be purchased from Amber Saugier. Last day to buy tickets is Wednesday, February 10.

Hi there Carter,

Hope you are well. Typing here at 30,000+ feet, en route to Haiti.  I will
try to send this on one of my layovers.  Would love to have your
continuing prayers.  Oh, and technology permitting, I hope to share a
report from Port-au-Prince.  But meanwhile, here’s a quick update.  Food
for the Hungry’s Director of Health Programs recently wrote from Haiti
saying, “Haitians are influencing people from other nations through their
courage and faithfulness.” He went on to show how this is a two-way
relationship saying, “The huge worldwide response is giving Haitians hope
that they can pull through this. As C.S. Lewis has termed it, there’s a
‘good infection’ happening here, and we need to keep it going.”

It has been humbling to see this “worldwide infection” to provide care for
Haiti, even within the ministry of Food for the Hungry. Our staff in the
Democratic Republic of Congo live in one of the world’s poorest and most
war-torn countries. Yet, they have taken up a collection among themselves
to help Haitians.

Our very own staff in Bangladesh, also one of the world’s poorest
countries, have raised $1,168 to date, more than 10 months salary for a
typical Bangladeshi staff member.

We give thanks to God for such an outpouring of love from staff and so
many partners in ministry throughout the world.

A short update on work in Haiti is included below. We give thanks that,
this week, Food for the Hungry has received a two million dollar grant
from the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance toward rebuilding
efforts. This can only happen through a strong public-private partnership.
It was the private funding that enabled our staff to be first-responders
and create a strong proposal for the U.S. Government to fund. Now the
initial private investment is being multiplied. All of this is toward the
end of hope for Haiti.

In addition to the news below, I hope you can take a moment to read a
reflection a member of the FH relief staff wrote last weekend.
http://fhrelief.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/not-abandoned/ Her
Christ-centered words are the foundation of our hope for Haiti.

May the Lord bless you as you join with many to extend compassion and care
for Haiti.

All the best to you,

Ben
++++++++++

NEWS: Food and Hygiene Kits Distributed

Food and hygiene kits reached more than 1,700 Haitians through Food for
the Hungry (FH) distributions on February 1, 2010. Distributions will
continue in coming days. Shelter kits will also be provided to give
protection, as the rainy season nears.

According to Sara Sywulka, FH Relief Director, “Everyone is concerned
about the lack of sanitation that could lead to disease.”  FH water and
sanitation efforts include latrine construction, neighborhood clean-up,
water filtration and water storage.

“Child friendly” spaces have been created to serve at-risk children in
target areas. These spaces are designed to provide safe, structured areas
for play, learning and trauma therapy.

Food for the Hungry is laying the groundwork for rebuilding efforts.
Rebuilding programs involve rubble removal and reconstruction and will
also provide employment for many Haitians-a vital aspect of economic
recovery.

Target communities for FH’s relief work are: Bellevue La Montagne, Siloe,
Kenscoff and Aux Cadets. There are more than 50,000 displaced people in
these communities, and more than 120,000 people are affected.

Additional FH Activities

.  A team of five doctors have arrived from Food for the Hungry-Canada and
are working in Petionville on triage and other medical needs. They are
serving hundreds of people each day.

.  A 16-member disaster response team from Korean Food for the Hungry
International is on the ground and serving at two hospitals.

.  FH reopened a facility that serves people with HIV and distributed
hygiene kits and insecticide nets. HIV care and prevention programs were a
primary focus of FH’s pre-earthquake work in Haiti. Today, those living
with HIV are especially vulnerable to infections, disease and other health
problems.

Web updates are available at www.fh.org/haiti.

But what happens when the thing in which your faith rests shows signs of faltering? It creates fear. Sometimes fear then is a good thing – if your faith is in something that can’t withstand the difficulties of life. Sometimes it is this fear that shakes us loose from having faith in the wrong things. So we ought to examine our fears.

As we take a closer look we find that faith in Jesus is the counter to fear. He reveals himself as the Master over the storm, the Master in the storm, and the Master that endures the storm.

Mk 4:35-41 Jesus, Master of the Storm - Discussion guide

Finding Truth

One of the first things to remember is that all truth is God’s truth, no matter where we see it. All, people with a Biblical understanding of life and people without, are created in the image of God. An image bearer cannot help but reflect at least some aspect of God’s image, no matter how warped that image may be. It is still there. In addition, everyone is interacting with the world that God created. Whether or not a person credit’s God with creation doesn’t change the fact that it is God’s world. As such, it is impossible to remove all aspects of truth. To do that would reduce us to beasts. Beasts don’t have culture. All this is to simply say that no matter the culture or cultural expression, there will always be something that is built on truth.

Asking the Right Questions

That leads us to finding the right questions that will help us uncover the truth from its layers of confusion. If we can uncover the truth, we can find common ground. Often, the best questions to ask have to do with the way a story (or song, or other aspect of culture) affects you. Does it move you? Does it shock you? What was moving? What was shocking? Why do you think it was moving? Why do you think it was shocking? Was part of it moving and part of it shocking? Ransom Fellowship is a ministry, which helps with this very thing (visit ransomfellowship.org/discernment.asp for further discernment tools).

When you’re looking at a story, whether told through a book or movie, it helps to understand something about stories. Stories typically have a protagonist, a conflict, and a resolution. Good stories have protagonists that we can relate with. This allows the author to pull us into the story so that the experiences of the protagonist become our experiences. This is why it is important to be able to discern truth from error.

Let’s consider the movie Avatar. Avatar is a moving story. In terms of movie magnitude, it is about to top “Titanic” as the highest grossing film ever. It has been the most attended movie each week it since its release (barely a month ago). Already its won Golden Globe’s “Best Picture” award for the year. In other words, it is leaving its mark on culture. Why is Avatar such a moving story? For one thing the story takes place in a breathtaking world. The scenery is beautiful, as are the creatures and the people (or alien beings). Certainly we can appreciate the creativity in design and the beauty of the scenes. Beyond that, the protagonist of the story is a man looking for a second chance. He’s a soldier with little worth who is offered a chance to do something with significant worth. This is the way key people see him in the beginning of the movie – not worth much and a waste of time. But as the movie progresses we see his character develop. He becomes more aware of things in the new world. He begins to find the new “dream” world to be more real than his old “wake” world. In his waking world he is crippled and weak. In his dream world he is larger than life, and brimming with boundless possibilities. We can all relate with this kind of rags to riches story, where the weak and discounted is transformed into the strong and significant. It moves us because it mirrors the story of the gospel. We struggle in our weak and sinful natures and long to live in a restored world in resurrected bodies. The Christian is sanctified as he dies more and more to the sins of the flesh and lives more and more in the spirit. That longing is in each one of us because we all know the struggle of the sinful nature, whether or not we call it that or not. This aspect of the story should be moving because it reflects truth.

The Environmentalist Message of Avatar

The story should also move us because it seeks to save the world from evil abusers. It is not difficult to see James Cameron’s strong environmental message at work in the movie. Cameron is quoted in an interview as saying, “I wish everyone was a tree hugger!” Unfortunately these are “hot buttons” that bring to mind the conservative or liberal agenda as a package. Since Cameron’s statement is associated with the liberal agenda, conservatives may immediately reject the statement the movie is making about the environment. You could certainly argue about way in which he has caricatured American big business and the military. That is of course partly his point as he sees big business America as the cause of our environment’s downfall. But if we move beyond these hangups, the message of preserving the environment is one that Christians should embrace. Christians should be the staunchest environmentalists, because the earth is God’s creation and we were made to be its steward. Man’s first calling was to cultivate the earth!

While we, as Christians, should be concerned for the environment we must also understand why. The reason in Avatar is because the planet itself is some kind of deity, a deity that we are all somehow connected to. It is a store of memories and souls. This comes straight from Eastern religion, called pantheism, where all things are connected. The Bible tells us that the earth is not a god, but a creation of God. While we have a specific relationship with the earth and the creatures of the earth, we are not one with the earth and creatures of the earth. In essence, Avatar takes the good gift of God (creation) and credits it to a false god. This was the sin of Hosea’s wife (see Hosea 2).

Still, protecting the environment from people who are interested in building their own kingdom rather than cultivate it as God’s, is a valid and valiant calling. If we can ask the right questions, then we can embrace what is good (the beauty of creation and it’s preservation), and reject what is false (the pantheistic reasons). We have a tendency to embrace it all or reject it all. (There is more to say in what cultivating our world look should look like but that’s a separate discussion.)

Considering how damaging it can be in a family to come from different frames of reference helps us imagine how devastating it is in your relationship with God. We will never understand Jesus unless we see him through a frame of reference that Jesus himself provides. And here’s the kicker. If you begin to understand Jesus with this new frame of reference, the repercussions can dramatically improve your marriage, your relationship with your kids (or your parents), and on down the line. Jesus gives us a new frame of reference. We must learn to look at the world through it.

In other words, you can’t understand Jesus from within your current framework.  You can’t just take Jesus and “add him into” your current way of life. He demands a new wineskin altogether. Which is a hard thing to gain.

What we find in this passage is that the most religious people of the day, the ones thought to be closest to God, had a frame of reference had them missing God altogether.

Mark 2:18-22 Jesus the Bridegroom - Discussion Guide

My intent isn’t to give an apologetic for why the atheist should believe in God. I’ll only say this: if God isn’t there, then tragedies like this take us a step closer to despair. Instead I hope to gather some clues from the Bible as to how we should understand God and his involvement in tragedy.

If you want to help through giving, please visit www.fh.org (Food for the Hungry). Ben Homan, president of Food for the Hungry, recently shared their vision with Cornerstone which you can access here.

Understanding Tragedy - Discussion guide

But this recent cold spell brought these two worlds together. Our deacons took the initiative to open the gym to our homeless neighbors. When worlds come together you get to meet people that are very different from you in some ways. It is these differences that usually keep our worlds apart. There is often a difference in goals, in aspirations, in opinions of people and politics. There is a difference in clothes and cleanliness and transportation. There is often a difference in speech and values. There is a difference in background and experiences, likes and dislikes, manners and proprieties. These differences make us uncomfortable – no matter which world you’re from. We begin to understand that when the worlds are brought together.

But after the cold spell, the two worlds once again split apart. Cold could bring them together in the short term, but not the long. What would it take to bring them truly together?

Only Jesus can bring the two worlds together.

He does it in this passage in a remarkable way. He leaves one world to dine in the other. And so we must dine in the other. He breaks down the barriers that once divided the two worlds, and so we can dine in the other.

Mk 2:13-17 Jesus the Physician

• January 24 for the purpose of electing elders and deacons
• February 14  for the purpose of approving the 2010 Budget