Don't Let This Opportunity Go Down the Drain

http://ixtapalucafryed.blogspot.com/2010/02/giving-disaster-relief-via-cam-intl.html

I know the dire situation in Haiti and the economy and the _______ (fill in the blank), etc., etc. have all garnered our attention and tugged on our hearts' strings and wallets to help out, but there is a massive disaster just a few hours from here that has garnered very little attention in the press these past few days.

Mexico City is in a crisis with flooding that has resulted in many thousands of lives and homes being uprooted and are literally wallowing in sewage. It is a horrible situation. That's the bad news.

The good news is CAM missionaries in that area are willing to minister and to see this catastrophe as a God-given opportunity to share the Good News with as many people as possible, and to demonstrate the Good News through some small care packages that will meet the needs of hundreds if not thousands of people. A package like this is a small token of Christ's love; but also a well-placed message and invitation to consider the Gospel message in a time of crisis. The areas affected have tens of thousands of people who've probably never heard the real message of the Gospel before and in times of crisis, they are more likely to listen than ever before.

Having lived through Hurricane Mitch in Honduras over a decade ago, I recall the outpouring of American churches and individuals who sent food, clothing, water and mostly monetary contributions to help those in an immediate crisis. However, one element often lacking in these humanitarian responses, even by believers, is the accompanying and explicit message of hope and life in Christ. It's great to help fellow human beings with their physical needs, but to do so without ever ministering to their spiritual needs, in my opinion, is a failed response. It isn't one or the other, but both that is needed.

I don't know much about the kind of help given in Haiti and how the Gospel message may have been included in the avalanche of humanitarian aid, but I know for certain that there was no such message with relief from the Red Cross or other large, secular aid agencies. Even churches often fail in this regard.

All of this to point out, here's a GREAT opportunity to ministry to some people who are in a real crisis, with missionaries already located nearby (living within minutes of some of the worst affected areas). Our co-workers are are ready, willing and able to distribute exactly the kind of physical response that is needed and that would be appreciated by the recipients, as well as including a very real spiritual message of the Gospel. They've already created and printed a tract designed for this particular crisis. They're ready to get to work on this opportunity.

What they're lacking is the support of many churches and believers to supply the funds so that they can purchase what is needed to assemble these outreach packages.

Anyone care to know more? Please visit the link above and read through the blog post. Also, look over Rod Fry's blog for entries over the past week. You'll get a better understanding of what has happened there and what the situation really is. Feel free to respond to Rod's blog if you have any questions or would like more information. If I can help you in that regard, feel free to let me know as well. I'm happy to help you find out the information that you need.

Don't let this opportunity go down the drain...the sewer system will eventually be repaired, the dirty water will recede, the clean up will carry on and eventually conclude, and the opportunity will likewise fade away. Now is the best time to respond. I hope you'll consider praying and giving toward this need and opportunity.

The Party

As many Americans like to do this time of year, we enjoyed a Super Bowl party yesterday. Of course, the main purpose of the party was to eat, enjoy fellowship, conversation and laughter. I think there was a football game on and I think we watched it. I think it was a good game.

Our 20 OHMS ministry team (very soon to be 21 OHMS) joined with us (O'Brien, Hower, McManus, and Smith families), as well as Jason, Kristin and Justin, and Paul and Grace Becker who were invited at the last minute when we discovered they had no other party to join for the evening. So...that was 12 kids (Cameron was staying in Queretaro with a friend) and 12 adults. Great party size.

For the most part the ladies and children took over the downstairs and the guys borrowed my mother-in-law's apartment to watch the game upstairs (she's in the USA so she'll never know...until she reads this post!). The guys made small talk, told jokes or at least tried to be funny, and in general, just enjoyed being together. The women sort of watched the kids, talked about babies and in general, just enjoyed being together. Other than that I really don't know for sure. I didn't go downstairs until the game was over which I thought may have been the greatest victory of the night. :-)

7 Observations of a Highly Effective Waste of Time (a.k.a. "a Super Bowl Party"):

1. The "American Beef - Angus Selections" hamburgers I bought at SAM's Club contained "carne de res" (beef) and "carne de puerco" (pork) and "especias" (spices). I'd never heard of Angus Pigs before but this is Mexico, and this is SAM's Club which also once sold me frozen "Fried Shrimp" which was basically shrimp-shaped breading with flecks of something inside that might have been shrimp and sort of tasted like shrimp (especially when dipped in cocktail sauce).
2. For some unknown reason, I skipped the American Beef Angus Selections Spiced Pork Beefburger (made in Mexico) and ate a processed chicken burger (also made in Mexico). It sort of tasted like...chicken.
   
3. 12 children under the age of 9 can make a tremendous amount of noise and leave "food boogers" in the strangest places. I found half-chewed orange colored chips of some kind stuck on my Sunday "sermon" notes in the living room. Shouldn't have left those on the coffee table! Actually, at the end of the night our house was much cleaner than I expected which was a welcome surprise.
   
4. Most kids REALLY like those little sausage fingers called "little smokies" and which taste like...you know...I have no idea what they taste like. I ate some, but the flavor certainly isn't sausage. They had a hint of plastic flavor and were sweet. Anyway, kids love 'em. Make just about any food that looks fun to eat and has a sweet sauce all over it, and kids will love 'em. Maybe next year we'll use the same sauce and wrap up some veggies in cellophane and cook 'em until they look like little smokies. Come to think of it, I bet they sell these in the frozen section at SAM's Club already.
   
5. Right after I predicted that Peyton Manning would probably pass for a TD and go for a 2 point conversion to win the game by one point, I said, "This would be a good time for an interception." Literally one second later, the Saints intercepted Manning and scored the final touchdown of the game. I was impressed. (I did not predict the onside kick.)
   
6. We don't get all those Super Bowl TV ads down here and watching the half-time show might be against the rules of my church membership, so aside from filling up plates of food at half-time, we watched snippets of Mr. Bean on A&E.
7. Jason told me that this was the first Super Bowl he'd ever watched completely. Oh, and it was also the first American football game that he'd ever watched completely. Quite a night for Jason!

Massive Flooding

You can't tell how profoundly large the flooding is in this homemade video, but it's likely that this flooding in southeast Mexico City has displaced many thousands of people, possibly tens of thousands. The neighborhoods affected are home to probably several million people. I'll try to give you more accurate figures as I find them.

Our CAM co-workers Rod & Myra Fry and Jim and Shari Cottrill live very close to this area and are working to assess the situation and how they can best respond to it. No doubt this tragedy is presenting them...you...us...with an opportunity to touch many lives with physical assistance with a view toward helping them with their spiritual needs as well.

The affected area is about 3 hours' drive from here.

I will post Rod's video and also include a link to his blog that contains this same video as well as more information on what has happened there. I hope you'll take a look, pray and consider how the Lord may lead you to respond. Thanks.



BLOG: In The Shadow Of Volcanoes

Flood Day Today - No Classes

We've noticed that many of our Facebook friends have mentioned having "Snow Days" at their schools this year. Today, we had a "Flood Day" as our co-op classes were canceled due to excessive rain and flooding.

This is unusual for us here because we normally don't see even a drop of rain in the month of February. I can't remember ever seeing even more than a few sporadic clouds in any of our prior 4 February months that we've lived here in San Juan. We've seen rain here since January 30th and since Monday it has been fairly steady and at times heavy. The weather people mention "El Niño" as the cause. I'm not sure about him or "Mother Earth." I prefer to just stick with "act of God" since He is the only real "Weather Man."

Anyway, streets are flooded all over the cities in this region, the highways are treacherous due to standing water, excessive speed (it's chronically incurable here), poor maintenance (bald tires aren't flat so people drive with bald tires), and variable levels of driver competence. Our family that comes from the camp to co-op classes knew they couldn't get through the muddy road. The rest of us realized the driving, streets and highways were laden with water and risk. So..."Flood Day" it is. Ahhh...a cup of hot coffee...blueberry muffins...leisure reading of the news. Life is better when it rains!

I believe the rains will finally taper off tonight and hopefully we'll dry up enough for the shower to drain properly (it always backs up when there's heavy rains) and the local phone lines will dry out so that the land line phone will work once again. The lines obviously need repair somewhere in the system, since our phone always stops working and acts like it's off the hook when we get heavy rains. So glad we have a dry home and that last summer we had a new coat of sealant applied to our roof. It's already cracking a little but is holding back the moisture just fine (as far as we've noticed).

The Mexican Drug War

Saw this chart today. This year there have been 1,000 drug war deaths in Mexico in the first 34 days. Last year it took 51 days to reach the same number. There's a drug war death every 48 minutes in Mexico as the war worsens.

My brother-in-law and his family minister in and around Ciudad Juarez which is the epicenter of deaths, including at least 16 youth killed at a party last weekend (with no known link to drugs (hard to believe)...and may have been "just a message"). Pray for Ken and Esme and their 3 little girls today if you'd be so kind.

So far our area is in a small region relatively untouched by the violence with only a few exceptions. Praise God for that!