Close to Home

We find ourselves in between two very disastrous realities. Below us we have 210,000 gallons per day of oiling being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico. Above a city is figuring out what to do after what has been called a "500-year flood" swept away lives and livelihoods in a matter of a few hours.

But why should we care and what does it really have to do with us as Christians? Both are natural disasters in their own way. Both effect the environmental state of things heavily. Both bring suffering into the lives of people, both believers and non-believers. Both have the potential for shutting down industries as we know them, at the very least for a season. As such, both bring furthering ripples of suffering into the lives of many.

Homes devastated by flood waters

Nashville

The list of reasons could go on, but hopefully that's more than enough to start moving people into at least considering action. The human element of suffering is enough in itself to sale the case. Nashville is a days trip from us. While people there try to figure out what part of their lives to throw away and what parts to attempt salvaging, we could be a force of help and hope by simply giving a weekend of our time. Organizations like Samaritan's Purse allow smaller groups like ours to show up and hit the ground running with minimal to no expenses incurred on our part. So, the question continues to change from "why should we help?" to "why shouldn't we?" The obstacles of finances, finals, school, logistics and most everything else is out of the way, meaning we're faced simply with the substance and content of our hearts.

My hope is that we can send multiple teams throughout the summer for a few days at a time to help rip out houses, disinfect for mold, minister the gospel, hand out water, and do anything and everything else that the hurting people of Nashville and the surrounding areas need after a disaster of this sort turns things upside down for them.

The Gulf

Oil in our Gulf threatens the environment as well as the livelihood of many on the Gulf Coast

The oil spill is a bit different, initially that is. It will eventually, if things go as predicted at this point, hammer hard our coast's job market, tourism, and the likes. For now, however, the main concern is environmental. Dr. Russell Moore has a great article concerning evangelicals truly being conservative and evangelical in such a matter (check it out here) so I won't bother repeating it all. Simply, if God is the Creator of this world, if he set man in it to have dominion over it and thus bear his image, and if we claim to be in Christ's new humanity instead of the old Adamic line (which forfeited, in many ways, the role of having dominion via sin) yet we associate anything regarding the environment and the stewardship thereof as a liberal agenda pushed by celebrity politicians such as Al Gore we are not nearly as conservative as we claim nor as evangelical as we'd like to think; in fact, we're downright liars or hypocrites. God's eye is said to be on the sparrow; the earth is the Lord's; you shall have dominion over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The pile of verses that hold us accountable to do something could go on and on.

So, for these reasons and others we will be organizing teams to help bring hope in the midst of such crisis and despair. Sending two of our people to Uganda is simply not enough for a people who have been redeemed by the one who is about new creation, claiming to "make all things new." We will send, but we will also go.

We will be joining him this summer on these two fronts to do just that.