Youth Specialties Blog

Berthan

By Adam McLane on February 18 2010 | 5 Comments

BerthanIt started with a touch. While exploring a neighborhood, the pastor of a local church lead me into the yard of a very nice home. Rather, what was once a very nice home. The concrete home had crumbled during the quake. The outside walls fell first, then the second story partially collapses onto the first floor. I was in full journalist mode. 
 
I asked the pastor if he thought it would be OK if I took a few pictures. I took some wide angle shots to capture the size of the home and the magnitude of the destruction. Then I walked towards the rubble pile to get some close-ups of the front steps. Just as I was looking at the lighting and the subject, I felt a gentle touch on my right elbow.I turned my head to the right just in time to see they eyes of a young man, about my heighth. “This is my house,” he told me in broken English. “I used to live here until the earthquake. “I am so sorry.” I lowered my camera as I now felt like an intruder. “I see that you are fine, was everyone else OK?” He took a few seconds to answer and I wasn't sure if he had run out of words in English or if he was struggling to find the right words. 
 
Either way, I instantly shifted from journalist mode to pastor mode.As I turned 90 degrees to face him he began to speak again. “As I felt the house begin to shake I started to run outside. I made it to the steps when the house…” He put both hands out and motioned that the building collapsed. I got trapped but someone was able to pull me out.” Then a long, painful pause, “But my sister died.” My heart sank. We continued to talk. I couldn't figure out if his parents also died or if they had moved away to another Province… But the fact remained that this 18 year old boy was now all alone.“Where are you living?” it was a question I asked because I didn't know what else to say. “I don't have anywhere to go. So I try to sleep where I can, mostly in a field.” He said matter-of-factly.
 
An 18 year old boy, deep in morning, sleeping under the stars among the cries and chaos of a collapsed city. My mind raced with thoughts of what it must be like.
 
“Do you have bad dreams since the earthquake?” He told me that he barely slept. That he just laid on the ground hoping for sleep that never came. It seemed as though each moment of his day was consumed in reliving the horror. “Was it loud when the house fell down?” I asked him. “Yes, very loud. I cannot forget the sound of the walls falling.“There are thousands of Bertrand's in Haiti today. But the Holy Spirit was prompting me to find out what his needs are and see if there was anything I could do. We talked a little about food and shelter, but he didn't seem interested. So I closed our time by praying with him. 
“Mr. Adam, there is one way that you can help me.” His eyes now full of fiery hope. “I don't have anything. I have no place to live, no food, no water. But that doesn't matter to me because I know God will take care of me. The one thing I need, when the school re-opens, is to go back to school. But I do not have money for the fees. My parents are gone.” 
 
Berthan's HouseThis floored me. It represented the hope we heard all over the city for the future of the Haitian people. Somehow they know that immediate relief aid is only part of the problem. This young man knew that to truly change his life he needed to lay a solid foundation of education. 
 
I took his picture and told him I would see what I could do. What he didn't know is that I took that picture and broadcast it on Twitter and Facebook. Within minutes I had several people willing to pay the 3000 Haitian dollars (About $75 USD) for him to attend school for one-year. 
 
It's easy to get lost in the numbers of this event. More than 200,000 people killed. 3,000,000 people displaced. More than 750,000 living in tent cities. 
 
And yet each of those numbers has an individual story to tell. Each of them has their own pain and hopes to wrestle though. Each has their own grieving process. 
 
In a way, while I cannot tell all of their stories, each story needs to be heard.
 

   

By Adam McLane on February 18 2010 | 5 Comments

Relationships Unfiltered

By Andy Root on February 17 2010 | 0 Comments

 Youth worker Shannon Savage-Howie and I discuss some implications of chapter nine of Relationships Unfiltered in this Andrew Root liveBlog.  We look at why youth ministry is theological and ways to go about having theological discussions with others in your church.  We also discuss the impact of consumerism on young people, seeking a middle ground between being consumeristic or anti-culture. 


 


Listen below.  Find back posts at blogtalkradio or on iTunes.  


 


We also have a handful of spots left for Luther Seminary's theological conversation on youth ministry event called FirstThird.  This event is a small conversational setting where 100 youth workers will be in conversation with Kenda Creasy Dean and myself.   


 



 


 


 


 


 


   

By Andy Root on February 17 2010 | 0 Comments

Revive

By Patti Gibbons on February 16 2010 | 1 Comments

worship in the streetsFlexibily is the first rule of missions. I was taught that in an Introduction to Missions class as a freshmen in Bible college.

Truth be told, while I've participated and lead dozens of short-term missions trips, I always preferred rigidity to flexibility.

Of course, all of that changes when you are working among the poorest of the poor in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere just a few weeks after a major earthquake.

Haiti — a place of chaos and fear for visitors on a good day. And this Valentine's Day hardly seemed like a good day.

As I prepared to help in relief efforts I had sub-consciously readied myself for the worst. With my guard up I wanted to keep my distance.

On Sunday, when Seth called an audible on our day so we could worship with the people in the steets, I had to wrestle with two things. First, I am hard-wired to stick to the plan. Second, I was a little apprehensive about diving into a crowd with several hundred strangers — dancing, sweaty, loud Haitians.

At first, I smiled big and tapped my toes. (trust me, I don't have those moves) I kept a journalistic distance both physically and emotionally.

My mind wrestled with the joy of these people. Thirty days after more than 200,000 people died in “the event” broad smiles of joy mixed with sweat from the sweltering heat resulted in a moment I will never forget.

I was analyIzing the moment as a way to disassociate myself from it. I could sense it but chose to keep my guard firmly in tact.

That's when I saw a matching smile and sweat on Ian. His ears covered in headphones, his shirt sweated completely through, our video guy had made his way to the middle of the crowd.

I had this moment of justification…“well, Ian shouldn't be in there alone. And it does look like fun!” Without any more thought I began to make my way to Ian.

In the crowd was a joy in worship I'd never experienced before. The blaring worship music, me faking the words, me politely clapping… It was an amazing moment. Arms everywhere, tears mixing with sweat. It was a private moment where I danced before God celebrating the great works he has done.

And then my old-Baptist feet started tapping. As the beats continued and the words simplified I got more into it. Within about minute the smile and sweat now engulfed me.

With those people I worshipped like a little child at a birthday party. Bouncing up and down, clapping on the wrong beat, and doing my best to say the Creole words as the pastor lead. I was hardly an example to others… More like a funny sideshow.

Coming to Haiti I had this misconception that I'd be doing the work of encouragement for the suffering and bereaved. Instead, what I experienced was a heart that was reviving.

The joy ofthe people leads me to a revival of my heart.

Now if only I could find that song on iTunes?


  — Adam McLane

By Patti Gibbons on February 16 2010 | 1 Comments

Benevolence

By Patti Gibbons on February 13 2010 | 1 Comments

After being on the ground in Haiti for just 24 hours, one thing is clear. Jesus is the one caring for the people.
 
The news seems to focus on what America and other countries are doing for the people. And while I don't want to devalue that, I do want to focus your heart on one reality: Jesus is the one who cares for the people.
 
He meets their needs, he awakens them, he provides for them, he loves them. He was here before the earthquake, he was in the midst of the great quake, he was with the running as the buildings collapsed— comforting the hurting and even deciding whom to take. He was there when the lost, hungry, thirsty, and homeless went to look for what they needed.
 
He moved masses of people in foreign lands, worldwide, to give, to help…
 
But this is so clear — Jesus will be here long after the UN peacekeepers leave. He will be here when US Aid rolls up their tents and moves on. He will be here when the celebrities go home.
 
The truth is that Jesus is more generous than you or I. He is the real peace keeper, he takes care of the sparrow and he will house these people, and He is the famous one making a difference in the lives of so many.
 
Today I met people sustained on nothing more than Jesus. I met a young man who is all alone with no place to go every night. I met a mother who will lay her two little children down to sleep on a piece of cardboard in a field with nothing more than a tarp over her head. I met an elderly woman who is not able to work, or even strong enough to carry food and water from the distribution points to her tent. I met a grandmother who mourns the loss of her daughter while caring for her grandchildren in a tent city.
 
And all of these people are sustained on little more than the knowledge that Jesus will take care of them. It's a lot for me to  process.
 
How will we support what God is doing?
 
— Adam McLane

 

By Patti Gibbons on February 13 2010 | 1 Comments

Redemption

By Patti Gibbons on February 13 2010 | 0 Comments

We encountered Rudy in a field Hospital run by US-AID in Jimini, Dominican Republic that we stopped to visit on our way to Haiti on Friday. Rudy was working in a building in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck. He was trapped for about 10 minutes before he was freed. While he clearly survived, he broke his femur and required surgery.
 
We thought his choice of song was amazing. Rudy taught himself English by watching MTV, and we thought Redemption Song by Bob Marley was fitting for the situation. The woman next to Rudy is his girlfriend. Since they lost everything in the earthquake they have no idea where they will go or what they will do when he has healed.
 
This is a nation crying for redemption. Today we encountered many believers crying out to God for redemption. While the media has focused on the devastation a major spiritual revival has broken out in some areas. One pastor told us today, “Many young people have come to the Lord as a result of this earthquake.” 
 
It turns out there was more than the earth quaking on January 12th.  
 
— Adam McLane 

By Patti Gibbons on February 13 2010 | 0 Comments

Safety

By Patti Gibbons on February 12 2010 | 1 Comments

I'm sitting on a balcony overlooking a beautiful bay in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic. The air is thick with humidity. Though it is nearly midnight the temperature hovers in the 70s. Just when the humidity builds to the point where I begin to sweat a cool evening breeze or brief shower cools me again. In the distance I can hear unfamiliar calls of birds in the trees and others splashing and making noise in the bay a few hundred yards from our hotel. 

If this weren't just hours from a major disaster area I can see myself vacationing here.

Today has been an amazing day in ways far more interesting than the meteorology, botany, or zoology. 

Our team met for the first time in the Miami airport as we waited to board our plane to Santo Domingo. We instantly began to gel as each of these leaders rested knowing that Seth Barnes was in charge and they were not. That is a wonderful weight off of all of our shoulders.

Tonight, after an amazing dinner and time of sharing our stories, we got down to business and talked about the nuts and bolts of this trip as we know it right now.

Here's the crazy thing. All of the apprehension and fear surrounding this trip has been replaced by the opportunity the Lord has put in front of us. Fears about coming here — out the window. 

What has descended on each of us is the obvious reality and weight that maybe God didn't just call us here for something we're confident about and capable at. What if God used our competencies just to get us thousands of miles from home, just to get ahold of us in a new way? Something each of us are wrestling with, in our own ways, is this central thought. 

Will we respond in ways that are helpful to the opportunity presented to us?

To answer that I need to examine myself. That one question spurs so many more. What does it look like for me to be helpful? What difference can I make with only a week? Am I even open to God opening my eyes to something greater? Am I willing to allow this to be a galvanizing moment in my story?

Or am I sold out on the relative safety of the life I live and love? 

For me, the question presented to our team tonight is a dangerous one. I have to be honest in acknowledging that I'd rather just muscle through this week in Haiti and go home mostly unchanged than be open my hands up to receive all that this trip could bring. 

So, while all the lead-up to this trip had to do with thinking through safety issues of my body— just maybe God's going to rock me to the core and force me to examine the safe harbor I reside in?

Our journey is just beginning. But in so many ways our journeys are just entering a new chapter.


— Adam McLane


 


 

By Patti Gibbons on February 12 2010 | 1 Comments

Relationships Unfiltered

By Andy Root on February 11 2010 | 0 Comments

In this Andrew Root liveBlog youth worker Megan Koepnick and I discuss change in congregations and how the youth ministry might be a vehicle for such change.  Listen below or on demand.   


 


 

By Andy Root on February 11 2010 | 0 Comments

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