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January 31, 2012
Dear Friends,
In 2011, Merriam Christian Church set out to "FEED 5000". Our goal was to spread the grace of Christ by feeding hungry people. We delivered Meals-On-Wheels, we cooked and served dinners at the Johnson County Food Ministry , we delivered hot, home-cooked meals to the Merriam Fire Department, we took cookies to the Merriam Police department, we bought meals for families, we packed backpacks for kids on free/reduced lunches at Merriam Park elementary school, we paid for hot lunches for kids at three local elementary schools when they fell behind, we collected soup, and baby food, and potatoes, and granola bars, and ramen noodles, and jello for food pantries and the Johnson County Christmas Bureau, we took Thanksgiving food baskets to 50 needy families, we gave out Valentine's Candy to strangers, we bought lunch for the volunteers at Animal Haven, we cooked and served funeral meals, we took lunch to teachers and staff at Merriam Park, and on and on and on. All told, when the dust had settled and 2011 was in the history books, Merriam Christian Church had fed 16,944 people. That bears repeating: In 2011, Merriam Christian Church fed SIXTEEN-THOUSAND-NINE-HUNDRED-FORTY-FOUR PEOPLE!!! We are humbled to be able to serve God in this ministry and amazed at what God can do when we seek to put God first. We, who gather 100 people for worship each Sunday, went out and by seeking to serve God, fed almost 17,000 people.
We will continue to FEED 5000 in 2012. We will continue to deliver meals and pack backpacks and so on. But this year, as we continue these vital ministries, we will start to ask ourselves a more personal question. We have seen what we can do as a collective, as a gathering of believers, as church; we can go out and impact lives and change our world by feeding 16,944 people. In 2012, we turn our reflection inward and begin to account for what each of us does every day. As you go through your day, you have the opportunity to feed people around you; physically, emotionally, spiritually. Often we miss or ignore these opportunities, but now that we have seen what God can do in our midst, we will neglect these chances to do God's work no more. In 2012 we begin to ask ourselves: "Who have you fed today?"
So, friend, associate, reader, I ask you: "Who have you fed today?"
Mark
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December 14, 2011
According to a recent report on TMZ, Pastor Wayne Hanson, who runs Summit Church in Castle Rock, CO, and has connections to Tim Tebow's family (FYI: Tim Tebow is the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos) stated that the reason the Tebow and the Broncos are winning is because God likes Tim Tebow best. "It's not luck. Luck isn't winning 6 games in a row. It's favor. God's favor. God has blessed [Tebow's] hard work." Hanson said. When asked if Tebow would be winning games if he wasn't such a strong believer, the pastor replied, "No, of course not."
Oh, where to begin? There are times where I want to grab my brethren of the cloth by the misguided collar and shake some good sense into them. God is not tilting the field of play in the Broncos favor, because God does not care if the Broncos win a football game, God does not care if Tim Tebow scores a touchdown, God does not care if Denver wins its division, its league, or even the whole darn shooting match in the Super Bowl. Those insignificant things are not on God's radar. Here is what God does care about: God cares that Tim Tebow is trying to follow Christ in his daily life. God cares that Tim Tebow takes time to pray, and shows thanksgiving and humble recognition for God's presence in his life. God cares that Tim Tebow treats his fellow human beings, whether they be teammates or opponents, Chargers, Chiefs or even (gasp!) Raiders, with love, compassion, mercy, and caring. God cares that Tim Tebow is living a Christ-like life by caring for the sick or feeding the hungry or clothing the naked. God cares that Tim Tebow knows that he is loved by God. God cares that Tim Tebow shows that same type of love to others. God cares that Tim Tebow is seeking God out in his life. About completion percentages and yardage gained and fumbles occurred, God does not care. But about the things that matter: how Tim Tebow lives his life, how he seeks God, how he treats others, about these things, God cares much.
Pastor Hanson meant well I am sure. He saw an opportunity to talk about faith to a wide audience, to have an impact beyond the pulpit, and he lunged clumsily at it. I would hope in retrospect, Pastor Hanson would gladly point out that God is much more interested in the person that Tim Tebow is and not so much in the game he plays. I hope he would acknowledge that winning or losing on the football field does not garner favor in God's eyes, but how one lives their life and how one serves others can make any person feel like a winner. I believe that Tim Tebow is probably a good person, and that his faith plays an enormous role in his life. Tebow has inspired many people by wearing his faith honestly out in the open, and that is a good thing. Hopefully, a person as outwardly visible in their faith as Tebow knows in their heart what really impresses God: things like hope, faith, and love. And hopefully this silliness about God having a hand in football games ends, because as a fan, I can not tolerate the thought that God would love Aaron Rodgers and the Packers so much more than my beloved Vikings.
God Bless and Merry Christmas, Mark
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November 21, 2011
November 22, 2011
"We are going to Feed 5000 people in 2011. How does that grab ya? Jesus drew a large crowd and as the dinner hour approached, the disciples wanted to send the crowd away to eat. Jesus addressed them directly: "You give them something to eat." The story ends with an accounting that 5000 men, as well as women and children, were fed that day. Today, Jesus is speaking just as directly to us as the Body of Christ: "YOU give them something to eat." The recent economic struggles have placed great strain on families, men, women, and children, who are just existing on the margins. This Body of Christ is going to do something about that. We have heard the cries of the hungry and we will respond with food for their bodies and grace for their spirits." - Merriam Christian Church Newsletter, November 24, 2010
Dear Friends,
It was one year ago this week, in the presence of Thanksgiving, that Merriam Christian Church declared they would feed 5000 people in 2011. MCC saw a need in the community, and responded as the Body of Christ. We tried to respond as Jesus would respond: by feeding the hungry. In 2011 MCC has boarded buses to go out and feed strangers. We have served hot meals at an open-door kitchen. We have delivered backpacks and snackpacks to hungry children in our neighborhoods. We have treated the police officers to homemade cookies and the firemen to a home-cooked meal. We have fed hardworking public school teachers. We have provided meals to families suffering loss. We have graced service people with a gift of chocolate. We have collected soup and baby food and potatoes and peanut butter and juice boxes and granola bars and canned veggies and canned fruit and ramen noodles and jello for food pantries and meal assistance. We have delivered meals to people unable to adequately get out on their own. We have bought meals for strangers. We have fed a Thanksgiving meal to 50 hungry families. And through it all, MCC has sought to give with graciousness and kindness and love.
It had been an amazing year. MCC has fed almost 14,000 people so far in 2011. God's spirit has been moving and touching the people we have reached out to touch. MCC has been a conduit for God's grace to get out to the world. FOURTEEN-THOUSAND lives have been changed, even if just a little, because disciples desired to be a little more like Jesus this year. I am awestruck at what God can do when the Body of Christ opens up and says, "Use us for your will, O Lord." When I sit down this Thursday and contemplate what I am thankful for; it will be for everyone who have gone out this year and done these fantastic things in the name of Christ. As you sit down this week to break Thanksgiving bread, be thankful for opportunities to serve and resources to share. It has been quite a year, and I, for one, can not wait to see what God has in store next.
God Bless Mark
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September 13, 2011
September 14, 2011
This past Sunday was the tenth anniversary of 9/11. It is a day that is etched in our communal consciousness, forever marked in our shared history by that great historically grounding statement: "Where were you when..." In the generations before, it was Pearl Harbor or President Kennedy's assassination and now it was September 11, 2011. We remember the moment we heard the news of what was happening, that moment that caught in our breath and shook us to our core. We knew at that moment that our world had just changed. In the ten years since we have seen war and consequence, we have experienced fear and jubilation, we have tried to move on while forever remembering the loss and sacrifice of that fateful day. It is safe to say that in the ten years since 9/11 things have changed. Some for the better, and some for the worse (I will never be happy with having to take my shoes off at the airport). We have changed also. 9/11 was a day full of fear and death and that day gave way to days of anger and vengeance. That anger and vengeance led us across the world and into two wars seeking "justice" and "righteousness". The anger and vengeance reared its ugly head here as well, as attitudes and perspectives towards Muslims greatly shifted.
I can not honestly remember if I had an informed opinion of Islam before 9/11. I really don't recall it being of great priority. But in the moments after the attacks you could feel a perceivable shift in feelings toward Muslims. All of a sudden, Christians were writing letters to the editor and protesting in front of proposed mosques. All of a sudden message boards online were filled with "experts" on Islam spouting random varied pieces of the Koran as justification for why we should fear and hate all followers of this religion. All of a sudden, people who presumed to sit under the grace of God were casting judgment and condemnation on these "others". One-billion people who were faithfully trying to understand and connect with God, some in the only way they knew how, were suddenly lumped into the "crazy fanatical bin" with a small, small group of lunatics. This great travesty would be akin to all Christians, you and I and every sweet, loving, caring grandmother you have ever sat next to in the pew, being lumped in with the KKK and their fanatical actions. How would you feel to be lumped in with these extremists as "examples" of your faith?
9/11 is a day that we must remember not only because of the loss, but because of the great sacrifice of that day. The 418 first-responders who gallantly rushed into the burning towers to try and save strangers. The young men and women who have stepped forward to serve their country in the ten years since, leaving behind family and home to go to Iraq and Afghanistan. The families left behind, who pray every day for safe returns; who rejoice tearfully when those prayers are answered, and who crumble when they are not. The last ten years have shown us great sacrifice, and that sacrifice deserves more than what we have given it. That sacrifice deserves people who are willing to talk and listen with those whose faith is different from ours. That sacrifice deserves Christians who are willing to put the tenets of Jesus first again in their lives; tenets like "Love your enemy" and "Turn the other cheek". That sacrifice deserves Christians who are willing to follow Christ beyond the hour of Sunday school and the hour of worship; willing to follow Christ even when it is hard to do so, even when it goes against our human inclinations, even when it forces us to confront our feelings of anger and revenge. The sacrifices of that day and every day since deserve more from us; how will we respond? How will the next ten years go? What choices will we make that will do honor to those sacrifices. The choices are ours to make. Let us go forth from this point and do better, live like Jesus, honor these sacrifices, and let us never forget that fateful day and how it changed our world and us.
God Bless Mark
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July 05, 2011
"What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God" - Micah 6:8 We live in an unjust world. That is just the reality of it. Our world is not perfect, it is not just, it is not fair. As I write this I am watching throngs of people flock to Facebook to protest the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial. People are outraged as they perceive that justice has not been done and once again injustice is allowed to exist. In the eyes of the public, a small girl is dead and no one has been held responsible. It is not fair, but then our mother always told us, "Life is not fair"'; that is just how it is. That is the world we live in: one where injustice abounds. Not to say we don't have glimpses of justice, righteousness, love, grace, fairness, mercy, etc, but those come from people who are swimming against the tide. Left to its own devices our world is an unjust place. Until... The world is an unjust place, until God's kingdom is fully established, at which time God's justice and righteousness will correct all the ills, sins, and errors of our world. THAT will be a glorious time. But what are we to do until then? Do we sit patiently and just wait, lamenting the injustice of our current world and dreamily anticipating the coming justice of God's kingdom? No. We are called, encouraged, nay: directed to "do justice" by Micah 6:8. In a world of injustice, we are to be the harbingers of justice; actively seeking out ways in our lives that we can bring some justice to bear on unjust things. There is injustice all around us. It is time for us to stand up once again and pick a battle. Where will you fight injustice today? Will you volunteer at a local Salvation Army and help families that can't find work? Will you give money to community food banks so that kids who don't get enough to eat in the most prosperous nation on earth can get some food for the weekend? Will you decide that from now on you will tip waitstaff (a group that is unbelievably underpaid in our society) a MINIMUM of 15% (More if they do a good job)? As you sit and rant against the injustice you believe has been enacted in this prolonged public spectacle of a court case, what will you allow this moment to move you to do? You will not be able to bring young Caylee back to life, you will not be able to enforce human justice upon her suspected killer, so what WILL you do? You are responsible to DO justice in your life; where will you seek to accomplish that task. There are small ways that we can bring a little justice into our world. It is not enough to live your life complaining of the lack of justice in this world, we all know that life isn't fair (thanks mom). You are responsible for doing something each day to combat the little injustices you come into contact with as you continue your journey through life. There will be larger injustices that you can help with (Joplin, flood ravaged places, Haiti) but in each of our lives there are daily injustices we see and come across. You are called to DO something; to do justice. What will you do today?
Mark
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June 20, 2011
June 22, 2011
Often times as a pastor, I encounter people during some of their worst times. Pastors get called in when there is a death, or a tragedy, or an unexpected diagnosis, or just when a person has hit bottom. During these times, I listen to folks struggle to understand their journey. They are confused, hurt, shattered, and alone and they cry out from their souls to God. Regardless of the faith a person walks every day, in moments of calamity we all search for the presence of God. Questions abound: Where is God in this? Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this? Why is God doing this to me? Impossible questions without definitive answers. As people sit in waiting rooms and living rooms and wrestle with these thoughts, I try to help them see the presence of God is small ways, places it is easy to overlook in the midst of chaos. It is in just such a place that a friend of mine recently encountered God and she wrote about it on Facebook. Her words touched my heart and moved me to tears, and so I share them with you, that perhaps when the next moment of crisis hits, you may take comfort in her observations. Thank you to Katie for these heartfelt observations.
"I saw God in the ICU this weekend. At first, it was difficult for me to spot him because I was so so caught up in the what if's that I couldn't see that God was at work all around me. I saw him in a group of about 30 family and friends who'd been camping out in the the waiting room for 8 days. Their area was filled with pillows and blankets and surrounded with coolers and baskets of food. I saw them rejoice and hug each other when one person left their loved one's room & told everyone how she had made eye contact with them. I saw them hold hands and hug and say that they loved one another. I watched a family come together and cry together as they held vigil while they waited for the woman who gave them life approach the end of her own life. I sat & held my best friends hand while her mother clung to life and asked why God was punishing her. I saw her mother make it through the night and wake up to write a love letter to her husband. I saw 2 sister's come together and vow to help each other through and mend their broken relationship. I saw a peace come over a broken and bruised woman in a hospital bed when her husband was wheeled into her room and took her hand. I saw God using each and every one of us to show the love and comfort he intends to show us every day. That's how God works. Through other people. When terrible things happen, it's hard to look past that one horrific event and see God surrounding us. It's hard to accept that sometimes blessings come through tear drops and healing comes through pain. I saw God in the ICU."
God Bless, Mark
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May 23, 2011
Well, May 21st came and went, and no rapture occurred? What are we still doing here? We were promised by a Christian radio station owner, Harold Camping, that May 21st was the big day! Jesus was coming back to take his followers away, and everyone else was going to be left in a sink-hole of devastation. But alas, this did not come to past. While the world waited with baited breath for this latest doomsday prediction to fall flatter than a bad souffle, some well-meaning folks from a local independent church placed a tract in my door, which proclaims that I had better hurry up and "accept Jesus as my personal savior" OR else I was going to join so many other lost people burning in the fires of hell. I am not sure where to begin.
Brothers and sisters, hear me clearly, these well-meaning but misled folks are giving Christianity and the church a black eye. They make us look bad. When they do this stuff, it reflects poorly on Christ's followers. We need to stand up against this poor theology and narrow thinking so that the world knows that not all of Jesus' followers are lumped in with these charlatans. When Harold Camping and his end-of-the-world group go coast-to-coast spreading this false message, and purchase billboards in major U.S. cities (I guess they didn't feel charitable enough to warn foreigners of the coming apocalypse) they make Christians look like cheap sideshow carnival barkers, saying any ridiculous thing for attention. Harold Camping no more knows the date the world will end then I know the proper ratio mix for rocket fuel. How do I know? Because Jesus, the same Jesus who told us He would come back, told us in Matthew 24:36-44 that no one, not even Jesus knew when God's kingdom would arrive. That is why we were encouraged to be watchful; to not sit back and just wait. Harold Camping is making us look like foolish prognosticators who selfishly search for hidden codes and secret numbers that will give us the inside track to eternity. That is not our role. Our role as Christ-followers is to spread love, hope, joy, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and on and on. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus to this hurting world, not to be a kooky fortune teller throwing out cheap predictions for a dollar. You now have to work even harder to spread grace and love to this world, to counteract the eye rolling and pitiful glances this self-centered act will cause.
And then we have the tract people: folks leaving little slips of paper in public restrooms and on restaurant tables, and handing them out on street corners on the plaza. Could anything be more antiseptic and impersonal then a person who doesn't have time to get to know you and learn about your life so they will just drop a poorly worded, cheaply printed piece of paper behind to tell you about how wonderful and fantastic God is? Except, the piece of paper doesn't proclaim God's beauty and love, it states emphatically that you, whoever has picked up this left-behind-piece-of-paper, are certainly condemned to a life burning in the fires of hell forever and ever if you don't drop to your knees right now and beg, BEG God to forgive you - HURRY before it is too late and you are left staring up from the pits of sulphur for eternity at all of us good people who are sipping lemonade in the halls of heaven, feeling grateful we weren't you. Tracts boil God down to a festering, malevolent punisher who is out for blood. And that is not the God I know and love. You can not get across the love and peace and hope you receive from a wonderful, caring, creative God through a piece of paper left behind. It takes personal contact, personal involvement, and personal sharing to let people know about the God who has touched and changed your life. If you want to tell people about Jesus; tell them what His love and example meant to you. Tell them about the grace and mercy you have encountered in some of your worst times; about the peace and comfort you have felt when in the midst of struggle. To do that takes commitment and relationship, two things that tracts eliminate. Get to know people, listen to their story, share moments of life with them, and then the words of salvation and restoration carry much more weight and impact.
Go out today and live your life like someone who knows what forgiveness feels like. Live your life like someone who has felt mercy and love. Live your life like someone who is trying to be like Jesus, reaching out to the hurting, the searching, the least of these. We will draw many more people to God's love and grace by living like this than we ever would through half-baked predictions or little scraps of paper. When we do these things, when we live our lives like a people of God, when we try to walk in the steps Jesus left us, we become a shining light to a dark world.
Remember, God Loves You, Mark
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May 02, 2011
At 10:00 PM on Sunday, May 1st, 2011, my father-in-law called me to say that I should turn on the news; Osama bin Laden was dead. I switched over to CNN and NBC and watched the President come out and announce that indeed, bin Laden had been killed by US military forces. I opened up Facebook and watched in wonder as friends and family members took to the internet to express themselves in this moment of patriotic celebration. Osama bin Laden was an evil man, who perpetuated great crimes of suffering and death on thousands of people, and the events of Sunday night revealed that human justice had been doled out. The people of America breathed a collective sigh of relief and threw up their arms in jubilation that our generation's "bogeyman" had been destroyed. As an American, I was proud of our service men and women who have given so much in the hunt for this man. I was remorseful for those who lost loved ones in 9/11, that perhaps they had received a moment of peace in their long journey. And as a human being, I was grateful that a truly evil presence had been removed from the world. But as a Christian, I was saddened by the misplaced anger and hatred that began to emerge in ever-virulent posts. I saw members of the Body of Christ expel venom and retributive anger with terrifying ease. A numbing pall washed over me as my brothers and sisters in Christ arrogantly claimed to know the mind of God, and proclaimed dastardly retribution, in God's name, upon this person. I saw people who claim to be followers of Christ post comments that have nothing to do with Jesus or his teachings. "Burn in hell", "Glad the bastard is dead" and "He got what he deserved" were thrown up on Facebook as regurgitory exclamations by the same people who routinely post Bible scriptures and sermon quotes. These careless expositions were emotionally thrown out as we proudly claimed credit for God's divine justice, as if Americans somehow hold a unique place in God's kingdom as avenging angels. All that could come to my mind was the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:44; "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Where had our compassion gone? Where was our gentleness and our mercy? What had we done with the grace we had received from God? Had we become the very hatred that we had loathed in our enemies for so long? Yes, Osama bin Laden received appropriate human justice. He was a murderer and terrorist and a nation that had been held hostage by his twisted movement sought him out and delivered a verdict of death upon a man who had spent his life dealing in it. But as a follower of Christ, I mourn the death of another human who had obviously never experienced the mercy and grace I have been so blessed with in my journey with God. As a follower of Christ, I recognize that God will dole out God's justice as God sees fit, and I have nothing to offer to that proceeding (Job 38:2 - Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?). And as a follower of Christ, I also recognize that while there are those who feel Osama got what he deserved, he actually got what we all "deserve" (Rom. 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death...). My hope in all of this is that Christians in America take a moment to separate patriotic pride from Christian imperatives. As an American I am proud and relieved that an enemy of our state has fallen. As a Christian, I pray for this man's family, friends, and followers, that the hatred and evil that he espoused and the pain they are experiencing now is overcome by the mercy and grace that I know is present in a loving and just God. I also pray that God's peace and comforting presence will continue to break into the world, that the day of God's kingdom might come when all of God's children can be done with hatred and wars and evil (Rev. 21:4 - Death will be no more, there will be an end to mourning and crying and pain, for the old order has passed away). As the posts exploded on Facebook Sunday night, a small presence of people began to come out, pressing on us all to not let our compassion and mercy be overwhelmed by vengeance and bravado. I leave you with these words, written by a young mother that my wife and I have known for several years, and who truly touched me with her profound expression of the tension that existed that night: "[tonight] I will think about the families that lost loved ones and how they have suffered. I will think about the pain that ran through my bones on 9/11. I wont try to make sense of it, I wont try to understand everyone's ideas of God, or what he thinks or says is right... I will feel the peace that a Mother who lost her child to this mess feels tonight...even if just for a second."-Molly May the peace and grace of God be known to all of God's children, Mark
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April 12, 2011
April 13, 2011
Spring has sprung, baseball is in the air, temperatures are rising, flowers are blooming, and all of creation groans back awake as the earth rises from its winter slumber - time to catch that Easter fever! Easter is upon us again, a time of renewal and rejuvenation when our attention as Christ-followers focuses on the transformative miracle of resurrection. There are many great events within Christianity: the crossing of the Red Sea, the battle of Jericho, the feeding of the 5000 (A personal favorite), turning the water into wine, the baptism of Jesus, the calming of the storm, but it is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that is the pinnacle of our faith. Jesus Christ dies on the cross, taking the sins of the world to the grave, and three days later is raised by the power and love of God for all of God's children. Now that is an event!
And once a year we celebrate this occurrence with a week's worth of activities designed to turn our hearts to the magnitude of this happening. We start with Palm Sunday, a celebration of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We join in the throngs of people who cheered Jesus' arrival, knowing that this same crowd will turn on him in less than a week. We then have prayer times in the chapel each day form 11 AM - 1 PM. Times for reflection and communion with God. On Thursday we celebrate Maundy-Thursday with a service remembering the last Supper of Jesus and his disciples. We break the bread together and are thankful for the table that welcomes us all. On Friday, things turn darker as we gather for Good Friday, and remember Jesus being arrested, beaten, and killed for the sins of the world. And then Sunday morning arrives, and with it our Sunrise Service, where we greet the first light of the new day with the news of the miracle; Jesus has risen, he has risen indeed! Finally we gather for our Easter celebration where we trumpet the saving grace of God and rejoice in a risen Savior for us all.
Take time this next week to be a part of all that is Easter, from the Palm Sunday procession to the Easter morning brass. This is the high holy time for Christians, the center of our liturgical calendar, the beginning and ending point of our theological being. This is the apex of our year and we must treat it as such. We are not Christians because of potlucks and committee meetings, because of bible studies and Sunday school classes, because of early or late worship times; we are Christians because God raised Jesus Christ from the grave and defeated death and sin forever. As a Christian, take time this week to reconnect with this amazing event and to refill your spiritual batteries for the long year ahead. Hallelujah He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
God Bless Mark
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March 28, 2011
March 30, 2011
On March 16th, I, my mother, and my daughter boarded a plane in KC to begin a journey that finally culminated on this last Friday. We flew to Chicago, Miami, and Pot-au-Prince, Haiti, where we then boarded a 16-passenger dual propeller plane for a 30 minute low altitude trip to Pignon, Haiti. Pignon is a town in northeast Haiti, in the mountains, that is surrounded by villages and rural countryside. We saw gardens, and farms, and livestock, and dirt roads, and more livestock. We also saw people. Lots and lots of people. And children. LOTS and LOTS of children. Haiti has over 9 million people, and 50% of them are under the age of 20. We saw villages and schools and churches and we dug wells.
We were in Haiti with an organization called Haiti Outreach, a unique group that is focused on community development and management in Haiti. While other groups give away resources like water for free, Haiti Outreach is working with villages to develop, maintain, and manage water resources. When Haiti Outreach agrees to dig a well in a community, the community commits to forming a management group, assigning responsibilities around well maintenance, assessing community members, size, and needs AND most importantly the community sets up a payment structure for the well. Haitians paying for water. This is a revolutionary concept that has never been attempted in this poor island nation, but guess what? It is working. When Haiti Outreach (and other organizations) used to give away water projects for free, they discovered that 50% of the projects (wells, irrigation and water systems) fell into disarray. Even after being re-repaired and refurbished, by multiple organizations and under various models, the projects held constant at 50% breakdown/failure rates. So, about nine years ago, Haiti Outreach stumbled upon the crazy idea to ask the Haitians to pay for their water service. People told them it would never work, that it was wrong for charities to charge for services, that the Haitians would never accept this model. But the Haitians did accept the idea, in fact they embraced the opportunity to pay for clean water. It wasn't wrong for a charity to charge, when that charity is committed to the process of community development. And it did work, to the tune of 99% success rate; 99% of all the water systems put in under this model in the last nine years continue to operate/function. Not only do the wells get fixed if they break down (because the community has set aside funds raised through payments for repairs and upkeep), but Haiti Outreach is discovering that when the people pay for the well service, the wells aren't breaking down because everyone takes on the responsibility of care for the well. Haiti Outreach actually stumbled upon a truism that those of us committed to mission work often overlook and forget: "If you give a man a fish he eats for a day, but if you teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime." In our rush to "help" we easily forget this age-old proverb that is as truthful as any gospel. Thank God for Haiti Outreach and their willingness to truly apply this concept on the ground in Haiti. They have had so much success with it, that now they are expanding to try this process with building public school buildings and entire community wide water systems. If this works, in ten-to-fifteen years we may not recognize Haiti for the transformation they could undergo. If you want to learn more about Haiti Outreach, check out their website at haitioutreach.org.
God Bless, Mark
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