Haiti Report #4

January 23
Report #4

Hello all, this is what I received from Douglas tonight:

Today was a day that was beyond description. After meeting with Pastor Marky Kessa and Pastor Thomas Bernard, we headed together for Port-au-Prince. We were unprepared for what we would see there. The newscasts and other things we have seen on TV just do not do justice to the destruction and the death that we saw there.

We saw thousands of people living in what I would call refugee camps wherever was an open space, such as a soccer field, or even a cemetery. Most of the people have lost about everything that they have. Their only hope is to find food and water during the day at one of the locations that is passing it out.

I can’t even begin to count the number of buildings that were flattened like a stack of pancakes. We saw so many we almost became deadened to it and didn’t even take any more pictures. One can only imagine how many people are still buried in the rubble—surely many thousands. In at least five places people are still digging through the mess looking for their lost loved ones.

We passed refugee camp after refugee camp in the area around Carrefour on the way to Jacmel. Helicopters were taking some of the more critically injured to the huge hospital ship anchored a safe distance from the shore.

This evening we arrived in Jacmel only to see an equal amount of destruction. People spending the night out in the streets for fear of more earthquakes or aftershocks. We visited a camp on the soccer field here where thousands of people were preparing to spend the night. We then went on to one of Marky’s churches where about 100 people were preparing to spend the night. The faith of these people is an inspiration to us. Like Paul and Silas when in jail in Philippi, they were singing hymns and praising God for His goodness in Christ Jesus.

Aid in the form of water, food and shelter is still urgently needed here. My observation is that while we did awesome work bringing our US Marines here, the response of the international community has been rather weak. So much more is needed and could be done. Please support the efforts of LCMS World Relief.

We are overnighting in Jacmel.

Doug

Haiti Report #3

January 22
Report #3

Good Morning,

This is Deborah writing on Douglas's behalf. He called this morning to give an update.

They arrived in Jimani last night and spent the night in a big house that someone has lent to the relief effort. There were many doctors and nurses staying there also. They all slept on the floor. He said that missionaries Pastor Ted Krey and Walter Ries looked totally exhausted so please keep them in your prayers.

They crossed the border into Haiti a little before 6:00 this morning. It was a great blessing that the cousin of the vicar who works with the mission in Dominican Republic is the commander of the police station at the border. He has been a great help to them. They are currently waiting for Marky Kessa and others from the Lutheran Church in Haiti to meet them. They have heard they are on their way. They will meet and then decide what to do from there, they are less than an hour from Port-au- Prince.

He noted that there are many semi-trucks full of water, food and gasoline going back and forth across the border so help is getting to the people.

God's blessings to you all and please keep Douglas and the team in your prayers!

Deborah for Douglas

Haiti Report #2

January 21
Report #2

Good morning,

This is just a quick update as we prepare to depart Miami for the Dominican Republic. A couple of the team members arrived last night and I believe others will be meeting us at the Miami airport. Some of those we thought you were going to come are now not going to accompany us.

Our flight for Santo Domingo departs at 12:20 PM. Thanks to the help of some people in Fort Wayne I have about two suitcases full of medical supplies to take with me.

I hope I will be able to send and updates from the Dominican Republic, but that is certainly not guaranteed. Internet is somewhat precarious there, especially the place where we will be staying by the border. From Haiti it will be impossible.

Thank you, for all of your prayers.

In Christ,
Doug

Sent from my iPhone

Haiti Report #1

January 20, 2010
Report #1

Greetings from the Fort Wayne airport!

I will do all that I can to keep people informed about the progress of our visit to the Dominican Republic into Haiti. I believe that communication will be possible while in the Dominican Republic, but once in Haiti, we will probably not have access to anything other than a satellite cell phone that some in our party may have with them.

It looks like everything is a go for a smooth flight from Fort Wayne to Chicago and then from Chicago to Miami. I will spend the night in Miami, and then depart for the Dominican Republic around noon tomorrow. In Miami I will meet with the other members of our party.

From there we will get to Santo Domingo, and then by land to the border with Haiti. I understand that along the border the LCMS missionaries have two teams that are working there. One team is a medical team, and the other is there for logistics and spiritual care. Thousands and thousands of Haitians are streaming across the border from Haiti into the Dominican Republic for food, water and medical care, thereby straining very much the Dominican resources also.

It's about time to board the plane here in Ft. Wayne so I'll sign off for now but will try to get something more back to you later on in the day.

Please keep our trip in your prayers.

In Christ,
Doug

Sent from my iPhone

Assessment Team Visits to Haiti

From January 19 to January 27, I have been a part of an assessment team working on behalf of LCMS World Relief and Human Care and LCMS World Missions. Reports from the trip to Haiti will be posted soon at this site. In the meantime, you can also check a couple of sites, such as the LCMS World Relief Website and the LCMS World Mission Website. You are also invited to visit the website of Concordia Theological Seminary. I'll soon post some of my own pictures and videos from the trip with my reports.

The "Conservative" Nature of Two-Thirds World Churches

Writers on the status of Christianity in the 21st Century, such as Dr. Philip Jenkins in his book The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South, have pointed out that Christians in the "Majority World" tend to be much more conservative in their approach to Scripture than those churches from North America and Europe that first brought them the gospel. I commented on this reality in an article on the Future of Christianity that I wrote back in 2004. As Jenkins' title indicates, believers in the new center of gravity of world Christianity are much more likely to be "Bible believing." That means they will take the Bible more seriously in terms of the theology it presents, as well as the moral issues it teaches.

Recent actions by two Lutheran Church bodies have resulted in scathing criticisms that are coming from, in one case, a Lutheran communion in Kenya, and in another case, from the Lutheran Churches of the Baltics. These churches have paid a price for their faith, and I suspect that they find the mental and theological gymnastics that are being toyed with by certain church bodies reprehensible.

You can read, in their own words, the following documents:

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN KENYA ON THE CHURCH APOSTATE

MESSAGE FROM THE MEETING OF THE BALTIC LUTHERAN BISHOPS

Churches in the "Majority World" certainly must look with wonderment at the way in which churches in the U.S. and Europe seem to be playing footloose with the Scriptures and the faith handed down to them. Not only are more and more missionaries coming from the Global South to the U.S. and Europe, but churches from the Global South and other areas where the church has experienced persecution are more and more exercising theological leadership.

Interesting times!

The Questions of Majority World Christians

There is a great article by Todd Johnson that helps put some numbers to the tremendous global shifts that are taking place in Christianity worldwide. It is "Christianity in Global Context: Trends and Statistics."
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=2719604

We simply must take stock of the fact that Christianity is not a western religion. But it also means more, because it means we must begin to look at how our theological resources in the west can be brought to bear on the questions being asked by Majority world Christians. While the questions may seem strange to us, or perhaps resolved or unimportant, they are issues of importance to our fellow Christians in other parts of the world.

Twenty-five years ago I remember leading a home Bible study in a low-income barrio of Guatemala City. The topic of discussion, which I didn't even plan on addressing that evening, revolved around the eternal destiny of the Mayan descendants of our hosts! Was it true that God simply condemned them to eternal punishment because it took so long for the Christian message to reach Mesoamerica? While we may be able to provide answers, doing so in a way that takes seriously the perspectives of relatively new Christians is a challenge. Mark Noll mentions the same question in his new book, The New Shape of World Christianity. I guess it's never been such a pressing question for me. After all, my family has been Christian for generations. Bohemia has been evangelized since the martyrdom of Prince Wenceslaus in 929, and Germany even earlier. But newer Christians are asking different questions than we might be asking.

Another factor that shapes the kinds of questions newer Christians in the Majority world are asking is the struggle to just get by day-by-day that they are experiencing. In many cases, Majority world Christians are struggling just to survive. To a hungry man, or a sick woman with no medical help available, the question of God's immanent involvement with our world is of pressing importance. If God can act, why not ask him to and expect him to, even in surprising ways?

It's not that we don't have answers to these kinds of questions; it's just that we sometimes find other questions more fascinating. Once I have finished Noll's book, I'll post a short review.