I’ve also seen a lot of coverage from Haiti today. A piece in The Boston Globe really caught my attention. They ran a photo essay called “Haiti Six Days Later”.* I got my answers to my questions about achieving equality as I tearfully viewed these images.

This is when superpowers become servants, when the wealthy become paupers, when the weak become strong.

This is when race ceases to matter.

We are all equal when we set aside our differences for the common good.

We are all equal when our actions demonstrate that we all speak the same language.

We are all equal when the mighty humbly serve the weak.

We are all equal when we share our most valuable, treasured resources with those in need.

We are all equal when we experience the world through the innocence and faith of a child.

We are all equal when, at the end of the day, everything is stripped away and we begin to understand humanity.

We are all equal.

*Please view The Boston Globe article to view all of these amazing photographs.

Dear Sponsor,

As a faithful sponsor, I want to update you about the unfolding situation in Haiti and ask for your prayers.

Haiti is devastated in the aftermath of a 7.0 earthquake that struck last Tuesday. Over three million Haitians are in dire need – thousands have lost their homes, many have lost loved ones. The massive quake left the area in ruins with hundreds of collapsed homes, schools, hospitals and churches.
World Vision had prepositioned emergency supplies in place so that staff members were able to distribute within hours of the quake to survivors and hospitals in desperate need. World Vision now has more than 800 Haitian staff as well as a dozen international disaster response experts responding throughout affected areas.

World Vision also is rushing 18 metric tons of basic relief supplies to the quake zone. We are focusing on distributions for families, especially food, clean water, and emergency medical care. World Vision has worked in Haiti for 30 years but the country’s infrastructure has been devastated, and the magnitude of this catastrophe is enormous.

If you’ve already given a gift, thank you. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of our donors. This will certainly be a marathon. Our commitment to Haiti extends beyond our immediate response to this disaster. Please continue to run this race beside us. Your gift today multiplies 3x in impact to help Haiti. 18-month old Navensky Charles suffered a broken shoulder, leg and arm before being rescued from his collapsing home.

Thanks to US government grants, your gift today will multiply 3x in impact to provide the people of Haiti with food, clean water and shelter as well as helping rebuild for the future. As of this writing, we are thankful to report that all World Vision sponsored children in Haiti are safe. The epicenter of the quake primarily affected the capital city of Port-au-Prince. World Vision sponsorship communities are located outside the city; therefore, our sponsored children seem to have been spared. We are thankful to God for that good news. However, we will continue to monitor the situation since aftershocks continue to strike the region.

Please join us in prayer as we continue to lift up the children, families, and communities who have been affected by this disaster. Together, we can be the hands and feet of Christ, bringing hope and healing.

In Him,

Rich Stearns
President, World Vision U.S.
“And let us run with endurance the race that God set before us … by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.” Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

If you are interested in supporting World Vision’s efforts in Haiti I also suggest visiting my friend Charles Lee’s website today. He has posted information about the Love Haiti Challenge, a $10,000 matching grant through his organization and World Vision. You can find his article HERE.

Also, all next week my friend, Matthew Paul Turner, will be blogging from Uganda where he is traveling with the World Vision team. Follow him via Twitter and his blog, Jesus Needs New PR for updates on World Vision’s efforts in Uganda and updates on their work in Haiti.

I used both my Facebook status and Twitter yesterday to share information on mobile giving for Haiti disaster relief organizations. I had a few people ask me how mobile giving worked and if it was safe, so I thought it would be worth posting a bit of information here.

Relief organizations began sharing text/mobile giving information almost immediately after the earthquakes devastated Port-au-Prince this Tuesday. The response to mobile giving has been tremendous on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. A a result, over $5 million has been raised to assist with Haitian relief efforts in the last 48 hours. This has been the largest mobile giving effort to date.

So, here’s how it works:

1. Find a REPUTABLE organization accepting mobile gifts.
2. The organization that you choose will give you a word to text to a specific text number (think American Idol voting).
3. The gift amount per text is determined by the organization. Most are between $5-$10.
4. Shortly after your text is sent, you will receive a text asking you to confirm your mobile gift. The photo in this post shows an example from my cell phone.
5. Once your confirmation reply is sent your donation is complete.
6. You will see your donation on your next cell phone bill. No checks! No credit cards!

If you are interested in donating to assist with the humanitarian aid efforts in Haiti, here are a few of my favorite organizations that accept mobile gifts:

• Red Cross – Text the word “HAITI” to 90999 to give $10
• Compassion International – Text the word “HELP” to 90999 to give $10
• Doctors Without Borders – Text the word “DOB” to 90999 to give $5
• Yele Haiti Foundation – Text a message to 501501 to give $5
• William J. Clinton Foundation – Text “HAITI” to 20222 to give $10

What organizations am I forgetting? What are your thoughts about mobile giving?

*Banner Photo: Associated Press

This Christmas, the Owens family is honoring the memory of their son by bringing leg warmers back. Say what?! Yes, leg warmers. Not the Olivia Newton John kind, but adorable, soft baby leg warmers that do more for little legs then make them look cute. Here’s what Karen said about them on her blog:

We are so stinkin’ excited to announce our Babylegs for Kids campaign! What are Babylegs you ask? They are the amazing leg warmers that our little fighter wore his entire life and what many parents of medically fragile children have come to know as a necessity. Having a child with tubes is difficult, but trying to find clothes for a child with tubes can be even more challenging. Babylegs provide a great way of keeping their little legs warm without having to have them in pants.

During hospital stays, many parents find it difficult to keep their little ones warm while dressed in the yucky hospital gowns. Bundling them up in nice warm pj’s is often impractical and unsafe, particularly for children who need to be frequently examined by the hospital staff or children with lots of tubes and wires.

Let’s help keep those chubby little legs warm this holiday season! We will be accepting donations of new Babylegs up until December 21st. You can use the contact our family button on the sidebar of this page to email our family to find out the mailing address. You can purchase Babylegs at babylegs.com.

What a great way to honor our little fighter! Gavin loved his Babylegs and we did too!

Please consider donating a pair of these leg warmers to help the Owens family give back to the A.I. duPont Children’s Hospital.

Gavin wearing his Babylegs.

They can be ordered from the Babylegs website for $15 (and are currently on sale buy one get one free AND free shipping) and can be shipped directly to: Adam and Karen at P.O. Box 985, Boyertown, PA 19512. Also, Babylegs has generously agreed to match all donations, which means you can give four pair for the price of one!

You can see all of my 12 Days of Christmas Giving posts here.

A special thank you to Adam and Karen Owens for allowing me use a photo and artwork from their blog. I can’t even begin to tell you how honored and privileged I feel to be able to share your story. It’s my joy to give to you. Praying for you both!

This photo is from a Kenneth Cole ad campaign from a few years ago. I loved it. It’s so good that I actually wish they would bring it back. At the time it was somewhat controversial, and I never really understood why. In fact I bought one of the “We All Have AIDS” t-shirts for my then 14-year-old daughter. She loved it too. To me the message is simple and accurate. If one of us, one of God’s children, has AIDS we all do.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received! Matthew 10:8

We are called to serve the weak, sick, and unrepentant. It doesn’t matter how the virus was contracted, all that matters is how we respond. It matters whether or not we choose to respond.

I choose to serve.

I choose to love.

What do you think of this slogan? What do you think of World AIDS day?

I had the pleasure of hooking up with Craig Gross and Jason Harper while they were in Detroit today for a Jesus Loves You tour stop. Today’s event was in the city at Citadel of Faith Covenant Church Pastored by Harvey Carey. It was great worshiping with the people at Citadel and seeing first hand how God is using their congregation to change the landscape of Detroit. Pastor Carey is a powerful leader and Citadel is an amazing place. God is moving there. In fact, during the service we were also blessed to see 33 people make a decision for Christ and another 55 make a decision for church membership.

But this house on Hazelwood is what really brought us to Citadel today. Craig and Jason are in the middle of a multi-city tour to promote their book Jesus Loves You. Instead of signing books at Family Bookstore or speaking at ticketed events they decided to take a gamble on the unconventional and are using their stops to demonstrate the love of Jesus rather than just talk about it. (Do you see why I love these guys!?) Tour stops include Folsom Prison, the Atlanta Gay Pride Parade, and the Las Vegas Strip. Today’s stop in Detroit was all about showing that Jesus loves the disconnected and included giving this house to a deserving family. Here is what was shared on Craig’s website about the winner:

The winner of the house was Thereatha Baker. Here is part of her story:

Due to the lose of her husband, which was the primary income of the house whole, she can not afford the rent where she is now. The landlord is selling the house and she has to move at any giving day with no money for first and last months rent. It’s been a trying time since her husband’s passing and with all the bills that due, there’s no money to live off of nor to put food in the house. If she pays her rent she has no money left to pay bills or buy food with that being all the money she has for the month to live off of. It has been by the grace of god she as made it this far.

While we were taking a tour of the house after the service we were given a little insight on the challenges that are facing the neighborhood. Lisa Johanon, Director of Central Detroit Christian Community Development Association and member of Citadel, explained that her organization is starting to see the effects that extreme desperation is having on the neighborhood as poverty increases and further disconnects the community. She shared stories of drug sales, auto theft, carjacking, and homicide – all happening in a five block radius within the span of a week. Yet, in that desperation these guys from the other side of the country were there to pray for the house, the family, and the community. And in that bleak, dark block of abandoned homes there was hope. My favorite part of the day was when an elderly neighbor excitedly yelled down the street at us, “Are you the winners, are you the winners!” A voice of hope.

So, here’s my question Detroit Church (and yes, I’m referring to the suburban church too): Why does it take two guys from the West Coast to put a woman and her children into a new home? According to Lisa there are 83 vacant homes in the neighborhood surrounding Citadel. 133 Detroiters, each with stories as heartbreaking as Mrs. Baker’s, applied for the Hazelwood home. What do we need to do to meet the need – both the housing need and the need to rid the community of the risks that come with abandoned property? What can we do to love our disconnected neighbors?

Check back tomorrow for a re-post of my Jesus Loves You book review and an interview with Jason Harper.

Here is how the people of Just One describe themselves on their website:

JustOne is a non-profit organization that was formed to stimulate greater global awareness about extreme poverty and to provoke compassionate ideas and intelligent giving in order to provide sustainable relief. We are a collective voice for the victims of social injustice––the one(s) living in geographical and situational poverty; the one(s) orphaned through death, disease and desertion; the one(s) trafficked into slavery throughout the world.

Here is how they describe Laundry Love:

Laundry Love Projects (LLPs) are regular opportunities to help people who are struggling financially by assisting them with doing their laundry. Relationships are built, and LLPs become small communities of common concern in which participants often find that they receive assistance and benefit with other areas of their lives.

Please consider starting a Laundry Love Project in your community. Find out how on the Just One site. You can also follow Laundry Love on Twitter. If you have five minutes, check out this video that demonstrates the impact that a few loads of laundry can have on your neighbors. You’ll be inspired.

As I was listening to all of the positive comments on the clip all I could think was, “Huh, and they did it all with out a mission’s committee, coordinating tee shirts, or volunteer weenie roast with a side of fellowship.” Imagine that. Maybe the lesson for us is to stop thinking about the elaborate rescue plan and just get out and love the city.

(Mini rant over. Sorry! I’ll be back to normal tomorrow *wink*)

Here is what the conference site says about this event:

The focus of this particular Idea Camp will be “Being Present with the City“. We hope to re-imagine what it would look like to be fully present in one’s city. Instead of approaching cities with a mentality of the Church “conquering” or “taking-over”, we hope to embrace our cities by first listening, learning, and loving our neighbors.

Our conversation will center around the posture, ethos, and practice of faith communities that intentionally partner with cities to co-create tangible expressions of love and hope. Our presupposition is that God is already at work in the cities that we live. We must work together with our city stakeholders to bring the kind of change God desires.

Being present in the city is such an important conversation for missional churches to have. I continue to be impressed with the type of dialogue that comes out of the Idea Camp. I’m especially impressed with the balanced mix of church and community participants. Being present in the city requires working with the city. I look forward to hearing the conversations that come out of these partnerships.

If you aren’t familiar with Idea Camp, well you should be. Idea Camp is described as a “free, open source hybrid conference designed to help people move from the realm of ideas to implementation.” Learn more about Idea Camp by joining their Ning community.

Photo Courtesy of Peter Nash

If you weren’t aware, TIME Magazine has moved into the neighborhood, purchasing a house in Detroit to spend the next year experiencing and writing about the culture, politics, and economy of the city. As a Detroiter, I’m fascinated by this project and have enjoyed reading the blog posts written from an “insider’s” perspective. In today’s post, “Ditchin’ Religion,” blogger Darrell Dawsey responds to the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s purchase of local billboards communicating anti-religious messages. In his article, Dawsey affirms the organization’s campaign and makes a case that Detroit’s large number of churches don’t appear to be doing much good in the fight to improve the local community. Dawsey claims,

“You can’t walk two city blocks here without passing somebody’s church, most of them open just long enough for Sunday services, choir rehearsals and the occasional gospel brunch. (As as kid, I used to hear even church-goers compare the many churches in town to the many liquor stores and wonder aloud what good either really did for us.) Meanwhile, in almost every neighborhood where these churches abound and thrive, the rest of community continues to crumble.”

And, although he paints with far too broad a brush, I think that to some extent, he’s exactly right.

At this year’s Willow Creek Leadership Summit Harvey Carey, Pastor of Detroit’s Citadel of Faith Covenant Church, opened his talk describing his move to the city from Chicago to start Citadel. When he arrived he was met with open opposition from the local Pastor’s for several reasons not the least of which being his desire to create a diverse congregation that bridges the urban-suburban racial gap. Carey’s story received an audible gasp from the Willow Creek community but those of us viewing from our metro Detroit satellite location weren’t surprised. We’ve been jaded by both the powerful, politically savvy Ministerial Alliance and the eight lanes of highway that represent one of the nations most epic racial and class divides. Stories like Carey’s are all too common to us. And thus, for the most part, Dawsey’s point is proven.

As Detroit continues to fall into economic upheaval the opportunity for the Church to stand in the social service Gap is unprecedented. So where are we? While there are several ministries alive and well in the city, places like Detroit Rescue Mission or Mariner’s Inn, most are grossly under funded and lack the resources to provide the vast scope of services needed to really impact the community. And while many suburban churches have taken pity on the city most of their efforts, as well intentioned as they may be, are often more like pet projects than long term, relationship building, strategic, missional efforts. The type of projects designed go beyond the Chick tract to meet physical, relational, and spiritual needs while doing the messy work of service.

I will admit that Dawsey’s piece initially rubbed me the wrong way. At second glance however, I realize that my issue is not with him or his accusations against the Church. My real issue is that we, the Church, are neglecting an opportunity – a responsibility- to meet the needs of our city. We’ve left a mile wide opening for folks like Dawsey who are skeptical of the Church and denominational religion to call us out and many of us deserve it.

So, the real question becomes: What do we do about it? For the next week I’ll be posting about what the church can do to be present in the city. These will be posts that will hopefully challenge what we are being called to do in response to urban issues like those facing Detroit. This is a message for everyone in the church, even if you don’t live here.

Leave a comment about Dawsey’s post or about being the Church to the city. I look forward to reading your thoughts.