While making progress in these two countries, we also look ahead.  (I do this at the risk of sounding like a prophet of doom.)  We can’t predict the future, but if the past means anything, more natural disasters at record-setting levels are on the way.  Some say global warming, others say the end times, and still others say pure happenstance.  But whatever reason you believe it’s happening…it’s happening.  And churches are being devastated.

God is using CHC to make a pivotal impact on churches in Haiti and Japan, all made possible because 400 churches took an offering immediately after these crises.  Churches from the US, Canada, UK, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, and even Haiti were an integral part of our response.  By God’s grace, we hope to see thousands of churches rally together to help the suffering church.

What We’re Asking

Would your church join our global fellowship by committing to take an offering at the next crisis?  We don’t ask for a dollar amount.  We leave that up to the Lord.  But we do ask that in the event of a disaster that you put the opportunity in front of your church family to help their brothers and sisters in distress.  Please consider making CHC a part of the missions strategy of your church.  And together, “Let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10)

Shigeru Suzuki is the senior pastor of Sendai Bible Baptist Church, a surprisingly multicultural church in northeast Japan.  During a recent car ride, he shared his personal reflection on the disaster.

“After the tsunami, I preach more boldly.  I preached Revelations before but I didn’t feel it.  Now I feel it.”

“People are more open to the gospel now.  They are curious and ask questions, even at the gym.  Now, two gym members are attending my church.”

“I don’t like that the tsunami happened, but I love what He does through it.  I feel it was needed – not just for non-Christians but for Christians.  There is an awakening and renewal in the church.”

”God has a great plan.  This is not a curse.  This is a blessing.”

CHC’s pastor retreats aim to minister to and equip pastors, who have experienced devastation.  Suzuki sensei and his wife are regular participants in these retreats.  He states, “It’s only now as we look back, we see how much that the retreats helped us get through this time.  We didn’t realize how we really felt until we attended the first retreat in June.”

CHC is privileged to play a small part in supporting churches and pastors.  Our next and final retreat will be held in Sendai on February 23-24.  Please pray for Suzuki sensei and other pastors as they continue to lead their churches through this disaster.  Pray that this New Year would be a year of renewal.

I have never been more excited for the vision and future of Churches Helping Churches.   However, I am also filled with sadness because my involvement as Executive Director will now come to a close.  I have submitted my resignation from Churches Helping Churches, effective March 1st.  This decision was born out of much thought, prayer, and counsel.  It has been my privilege and honor to serve in this ministry under this board.  I can honestly say that I’ve grown as a Christian, minister, person, and have come to love Jesus more during my time here.  Though in a different role, I will continue on-mission as the goal of my life forever remains the exaltation of Christ!

The board has graciously extended me the invitation to continue serving the organization as a board member.  I’ve accepted and have also had the unique opportunity of helping find my replacement.

Introducing Bruce Poore: Bruce brings with him an impressive mesh of experience from the business and ministry fields.  Most recently, Bruce worked at the executive level for companies like American Express Canada and GE Money Canada where he managed employees, products and business processes. He also spent time as COO of Muskoka Bible Center overseeing financial planning and a wide range of business operations.

His heart for ministry grew in his early 20s when he and his wife began serving in the local church leading the college and career program. They remained active in ministry – teaching children and adults throughout the years – which eventually connected Bruce and Sharon with Walk in the Word and Harvest Bible Chapel.  Bruce and Sharon helped launch Harvest York Region in 2005 and also supported the Harvest Bible Chapel plant in Muskoka, Canada.  Recently, Bruce was serving as an elder at Harvest York Region and as a board member for WITW Canada.

Taking these next steps as Executive Director of Churches Helping Churches, Bruce will again reference the verse that has meant so much to him and his wife over the years (Habakkuk 1:5) and wait to be astounded by God’s plans for him.  Bruce and Sharon have three wonderful adult children and will be based in Elgin, IL.

Organizational Update: This week marks the second anniversary of Churches Helping Churches.  When CHC was born, we had a crisis of our own.  Within a month of inception, we were $1.5 million, a God-inspired vision, two influential leaders, and a website.  Generally, donors give towards specific projects, but the early days of CHC seemed to defy those rules.  It was a unique place to be for an NGO. 

For the past 24 months, we’ve poured ourselves into the design and execution of effective programs, consistent with the vision that people gave towards.  Haiti has been a complex set of knots created by the disaster, further exacerbated by poverty.  Japan has its own unique complexity – disaster coupled with culture challenges.  By God’s grace, our programs are well underway, and I hope you’ve been blessed by the stories that have come out of them.  In Haiti, we expect eighteen new buildings to be completed in Haiti the first half of this year.  This will mark the completion of our engagement there.  In Japan, we are holding our final pastors retreat (February) and have awarded grants for church resource recovery.  Stay tune for stories on these projects.

In addition to maintaining our programs, Bruce will focus on organizational development.  Among his top priorities are:

• Recruit churches.  We had 400 churches give so far.  We hope to see thousands of churches take up an offering for the household of faith immediately after a crisis devastates a region.
• ID high risk areas.  Maplecroft, a risk management company, released a list of the Top 10 Countries Exposed to Natural Disasters, categorized by economic risk.  We’ll need to create our own prioritized list of regions and develop networks of churches before disasters hit.
• Connecting churches to one another.  This is a weakness in our current work.  How can we connect churches better with one another?  Immediately after a disaster, volunteers from other countries have had varying levels of effectiveness and impact.  But how can we involve local churches beyond financial contributions?

Please join me in welcoming Bruce Poore to Churches Helping Churches.

Because He lives,

Tom

January 2011 started off with a bang when we hosted a huge rally in Haiti on the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake. What an amazing time of remembrance with over 40,000 of our Haitian brothers and sisters gathered together, thanking God for His protection and continued provision, and celebrating the hope that so many of the men and women there have found in Jesus Christ. While there is still a long road of healing and recovery ahead, people left with a renewed sense of God’s love for them, and a feeling of hope for the future of Haiti.

This year Churches Helping Churches continued our involvement in the long-term recovery effort in Haiti, providing transitional shelters for existing church congregations, and working with U.S. structural engineers to develop seismic/hurricane-resistant permanent church structures. The church buildings we’ve developed can be fully assembled almost entirely by local Haitian congregations using simple hand tools. That’s almost unheard of! As construction of our first church began in Haiti last fall, I was amazed at the dedication of the hard-working local church members who tirelessly volunteered for weeks until the church building was done. I am pumped about the buildings we’ve helped make happen. But in the end, the building is just a minor part of this story. The greater blessing will be a congregation who has grown in their capacity to trust Jesus and partner with Him as they serve the local church.

As the first church building was dedicated to the Lord last fall, there was praise, singing, dancing, and believers on their knees in prayer as over 1,000 church members gathered together. Work is going on right now on our next two structures in the Port-au-Prince area. After these churches are completed, an even larger round of building is slated to begin in February and March. I can’t wait to see how God will use these buildings within the communities!

March 2011 brought the deadly earthquake/tsunami that nearly leveled parts of Eastern Japan, shaking the Japanese people to their core. Who can forget the images that came out from Japan in those early days? Churches Helping Churches was on the ground within days. We set to work, partnering with several Japanese churches and a local relief organization called CRASH Japan. We began hosting Churches Helping Pastors Retreats, grief counseling retreats designed to both treat and train pastors for post-trauma recovery through gospel-centered, Biblical counseling. The pastors who attended showed up feeling run down, overwhelmed, and exhausted, having worked non-stop since the disaster struck. How precious to give them the gift of rest, and to serve, encourage, and equip these church leaders with Christ’s love.

As Haiti and Japan both continue to be rebuilt out of the rubble, we continue our dedication to supporting the local churches and church leaders. The year 2011 has come and gone, but the work we’re doing in Haiti and Japan is the timeless, lasting work of our Heavenly Father, giving us reason to praise Him even during hard times. Just as the Apostle Paul challenged the Corinthians, we should also be challenged in the New Year by II Corinthians 8:11 “Now you should carry this project through to completion, just as enthusiastically as you began it. Give whatever you can according to what you have.”

Because I have seen God’s word in action during disaster recovery, my confidence in Scripture has grown.  The Bible doesn’t shy away from pain as I am often so tempted to do.  Rather, God’s word steps into our pain and says so much about crisis.

I still remember my first time in a disaster area.  I was in Haiti in a makeshift circle of pastors, meeting outside a perfectly strong church building.  They wouldn’t go into the building out of fear.  Occasionally during our conversation, someone would muster enough guts to mention a promise of God from Scripture.

So what Scriptures do people think about?  Which parts of God’s word do people turn to?  Here’s a common oasis.  One of the most frequently visited passages in the Bible is Psalm 46.  This passage is usually recognized for verse 10 “Be still, and know that I am God”, but what makes this verse all the more meaningful is its context.

Verses 1-2: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

“Earth gives way” sounds like an earthquake; “mountains be moved into the heart of the sea” sounds like a landslide; “waters roar and foam” sounds like a tsunami or hurricane.  It’s in the midst of natural disasters we are commanded to “be still”.

If you’ve ever been to a disaster area, or even if you just imagine the scene from the images you’ve seen in the news, meditation is the last thing you feel like doing.  But it is in the midst of utter chaos and destruction, God says, “The remedy is still the same.  It’s me. When the world is caving in around you, I am your refuge and help.  I am your salvation.  Know it.  Cherish it.  Fear not.  Be still.”  This stillness is the resting place for those who know Jesus.

Here are some other passages:

1 Peter 4:12-13, ¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Isaiah 43:1-2, ¹But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.

Romans 8:18-23, ¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.²²For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Psalm 119:71, ⁷¹It is good for me that I was afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes.

Ester 4:14-16, And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” ¹⁵Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

How does God’s word comfort you in your trials?

This week, we hosted our largest Churches Helping Pastors retreat to date, serving 60 pastors and wives impacted by the Japanese tsunami. Because we’ve been ministering to these pastors on a regular basis, they are now comfortable sharing openly with each other.

Pastor Adrian de Visser headlined our December conference. He has committed his life to the people of Sri Lanka, a primarily Buddhist nation that remains devastated by the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. “When we watch the news, we understand your pain,” Adrian said. “We went through the same thing.”

Not many people can make such a claim. But in this case, the similarities are astounding. A massive death toll. A nation of non-Christians. Very few resources. An unending line of need. And pastors who have dedicated their lives to sharing the Gospel.

After the tsunami, Adrian quickly realized the Buddhists he was ministering to deeply struggled with sorrow, guilt, anger, blame and jealousy, with a strong focus on their previous lives. He says physical reconstruction was the easy part of his early ministry. As suicide and addiction rates spiked, Adrian turned his efforts to the ministry of counseling. He would go into an area, reach out to those in need, listen to their pain, and pray with them – focused not on their conversion, but on loving them as Christ would.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” he said.

After Adrian’s message, the Japanese pastors responded with tears – and repentance. They felt a sense of renewal as they approach a new season of ministry.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)

Our first completed church structure in Haiti continues to welcome more than 1,000 worshippers week after week in Carrefour, Haiti. Now, Churches Helping Churches is preparing for the next round of building in the region.

Crews are currently lined up to work through December and January to build the next two structures in the Port-au-Prince area. After these churches are completed, an even larger round of building will begin in February and March.

We remain committed to completing 50 projects – both renovations and new buildings – in 2012. What a privilege to be a part of such an amazing project. Please pray for our crews, who will be working hard through the holiday season to build their new houses of worship.

In Haiti and now in Japan, CHC has deployed three major programs along with some minor programs. First is resource recovery and housing for pastors, which jumpstarts ministries again after the disaster. Second is Churches Helping Pastors, a grief counseling retreat to both treat and train pastors for post-trauma recovery through gospel-centered, Biblical counseling. Third is reconstruction, rebuilding structures that were lost or damaged.

While our Japanese pastors have immense needs as they recover from the tsunami disaster, they rarely voice them. In Japanese culture, asking for help, especially from strangers, is not socially acceptable. However, during our Churches Helping Pastors retreats, we have been able to develop relationships that create an environment of safety, and more importantly than that, of family in Christ. That environment is helping us to more effectively serve our Japanese brothers and sisters in Christ. Below are the last of the resource recovery projects before we head into reconstruction.

The threat of radiation is still very real in Japan. Plants and concrete still show high levels of radiation, and food and water is still at risk. Fighting radiation is expensive – removing soil, cleaning playground equipment with anti-radiation gel, providing Geiger counters to measure levels of radiation. It has pushed one church to the brink of bankruptcy, and the pastor’s family has taken out loans and used their own life savings to keep the church afloat. While they wouldn’t accept any monetary assistance from CHC, they did agree to let us purchase about 100,000 yen worth of purified water, since they can’t drink the local water.

Another pastor in one of the churches hardest hit lost his computer in the tsunami. It was one of his most practical assets, for communication, research and sermon preparation. CHC was able to provide about 170,000 yen to replace his computer.

In another region, a church leader suffering from depression and other trauma-related issues needed assistance with church operating expenses. With hospital bills mounting, CHC stepped in to provide 150,000 yen per month for three months, for a total of 450,000 yen, while the church gets back on its feet.

When the tsunami hit, it washed away the brand-new car of one pastor who serves as a key leader for his region. Later, he found it floating in a body of water. It was a total loss. CHC replaced the car and restored his ability to serve his congregation.

God’s command to help others in the household of faith also makes it easier to accept help when it’s offered. “So then, gas we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10 ESV)

In the face of great adversity, Pastor Adrian DeVisser has committed his life to serving the poor and exploited of Sri Lanka, a small island off the southwest coast of India. The country, plagued by civil war for decades, was devastated by the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. It killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries. Seven years later, Sri Lanka and its people are still recovering.

Pastor DeVisser sees God at work in the midst of disaster. It’s why he believes these circumstances provide a huge opportunity to reach people with the Gospel.

That’s why he founded a church. A vocational training center. An orphanage. A home for women in peril. A home for girls redeemed from sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

It’s why he has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build more than 250 homes for those who lost theirs in the tsunami, providing food, bedding and basic necessities to thousands. He continues to support psychological training for church and lay leaders in his country.

It’s also why he will serve as our keynote speaker at the next Churches Helping Pastors retreat in Sendai, Japan on December 1 & 2.

“The Tsunami was a great tragedy in our country, but I think it’s not the end,” he said. “God will use it for his glory and to draw his people to Himself.”

This will be our biggest Japanese retreat yet. Pastors have been more responsive than ever to our invitation for counseling and fellowship with other pastors.  We’re excited to see how Pastor DeVisser will minister to our Japanese partners in ministry, and thankful for the opportunity to bring him to Sendai share his experiences.