Helping with our Heads not Just Our Hearts: Reflections from time in Marsh HarbourI’ve just returned from a week in Marsh Harbour. It’s impossible to describe the devastation. So many people are displaced and have lost everything. The island will be years rebuilding. It's an emotional experience as there’s so much discouragement and yet encouragement. It was cool to see so many banding together helping each other out. People around the world are bringing supplies. I heard so many dramatic stories. One family I talked to ended up with 22 people staying in their home during and after the storm because they had one of the few houses that wasn’t either flooded or missing a roof.
With so many people wanting to help, here are a few thoughts on how to maximize your gifts. One, make sure what you send is actually needed. We can make two mistakes here, oversupplying good things and supplying useless things. Let me explain. We stayed at a church last week, one of my ad hoc responsibilities ended up being unloading pallets, trucks, and vehicles as they brought new supplies in. While some are great ideas, like toothbrushes, there was a mountain of toothbrushes. My guess is Marsh Harbour won’t need toothbrushes for years. Then there were a few who obviously cleaned out the closet and sent their old clothes down. While that solid black wool suit may have looked sweet in 1979, it’s simply not needed in the Bahamas at the moment. Get a local contact and meet actual needs, not what you think is a good idea. Two, make sure what you send has a distribution channel. The church we served has suddenly turned into a distribution center. It’s great, if you have people to work and distribute! Imagine your church suddenly, overnight, becomes a distribution center for basic goods. Now imagine the staff and many key volunteers are not available because they have left the area or have their own homes to manage. What happens to the goods? I unloaded and organized a tool closet while I was there. I found piles and piles of goods that were useful, but not being distributed. It’s volunteer run which means not having continuity everyday. It’s difficult to manage. Three, it’s best to work with organizations already there. Let me recommend three. Samaritans Purse has an incredible and huge operation. I loved what I saw and it seems they have plans to maintain a presence for a while. They are working with local churches and community organizers to assess and help. Mission of Hope is doing a great job. Their goal is to come alongside churches and partner stateside churches with churches in Bahamas. One other org that is hard at work is Team Rubicon. These are “muck out and dry in” specialist. They send teams in to clean and tarp. They have a big presence and have done a ton of work. The rebuilding is going to take years and years. Please don’t send junk to them. Think about it, you send something and think, “if they don’t’ need it, just throw it away.” Ok, but consider that they don’t really have trash service right now and you took up cargo room on a plane or boat that could have been used for something useful. Let’s help with our heads, not just our hearts.
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I love being outside. As I type this I’m sitting on my back porch watching the remnants of the flames in our little fire pit which admirably served their purpose for roasting (burning) marshmallows with the kids earlier. I’m just wishing all the HVAC units in the neighborhood would cycle off at the same time, just for a few minutes. Our relatively quiet little neighborhood is still noisy, but I’ll take it. I love the outdoors. I’m amazed when I stop and look around at all that’s going on seemingly effortlessly. Trees are growing, grass is growing, weeds are fighting for supremacy in the backyard, the steady progress of the moon making it’s way across the sky, and the nice breeze this evening. Though quiet, there’s an enormous amount of energy to keep just my little backyard moving along.
Our church is studying the book of Colossians and we came to a profound verse this morning: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. - Colossians 1:17.” The world continues to work because Christ continues to hold it together. Hebrews 1:3 says something very similar: “he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Factory vs Vineyard I came across an illustration that struck me as I was preparing to teach these verses. There’s a stark contrast between God’s creating work and man’s work. Picture a factory. They are noisy, active, maybe smoky, and full of lots of visible activity. Now picture an orchard or vineyard. You can hardly hear a thing walking through an orchard. Yet think about all that’s going on. Though God’s creative work, energy is being transferred from the sun, soil, and rain to make the fruit grow. I can barely see a little tangerine tree in my backyard even now. It’s hard at work to grow fruit, it will take almost a year to grow! Slow and steady wins the race in citrus growing. The Lord chose agricultural analogies to talk about growing in the faith. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 comes to mind. We tend to like factory type of growth that has easy metrics and obvious progress. I know I tend to be output and outcome driven, but Jesus described life as being connected to the true vine, not a conveyer belt. Growing crops takes time and patience. The Lord’s process of growth works. It’s proven itself over and over again. You can’t dig up the seed everyday to see if it’s growing. Plant, water, and wait. |