Not Beyond Change

Wawa sharing at Hershey Free Church

Looking at life in Haiti, it is easy to be discouraged.  I see many positive things, but there are life challenges too.  There are also many things that seem to be beyond change, but that is not true.  Nothing is stronger than God’s power.  Wawa said, “God keeps telling us, ‘I know what I’m doing,’ This is what keeps us encouraged.  I believe Haiti can change, because God is in it.”

That does not mean Wawa is sitting back and just waiting.  He is seeking what God would have him to do and partnering with God.  Wawa explained, “We are proud to be training students to lead, to change philosophy, to change churches, and to impact the community where they are located.  We have developed a team at STEP of professors and staff to influence students.”

Discipleship has indeed become the trademark of STEP seminary.  They do not want to simply transfer knowledge.  “It is not enough to know about God.  We need to actually know God,” explained Wawa. The professors are doing life together with students to develop disciples which involves meals and trips together so they can see how Christianity relates to life.  Students are then doing the same with others.  STEP is meeting life needs in the community through building projects, health care, and planting house churches.  More than 100 people have come to accept Christ as their savior through these house churches.  

Please pray for teachers, students, and graduates as they seek to transform the Haitian worldview.

Repacking Your Life Raft

If you have a commercial fishing vehicle, you need to repack your life raft on a regular basis.  Between inspection and repacking costs, it can be costly.  It can, however, be what saves your life.  AMSEA says, “life rafts live in a tough environment.”  They list exposure to sun, cold, rain, hail, salt water, vibration, and storing gear on top of it as part of the problem.

My question to you is, since the storm hit, have you repacked your life raft?  Our life raft includes community support, dealing with pain, allowing ourselves to rest and recover, and finding hope and a plan for moving forward.  The most important part is strengthening our relationship to God and allowing Him to rebuild our lives.

Life is tough.  It is not just hurricanes, fires, and tornadoes that wear away at our rafts.  We face personal loss, illness, pain, family struggles, discouragement, anxiety, and loss of direction.  We may have been struggling with these things and then be hit by a hurricane.  When our resilience is threatened, we need to repack our life raft.

Some ideas for this are:

1. Refocus on God.  Let your major concentration be on Him and not your problems.  Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

2. Find your strength in God’s love and power through faith. Ephesians 3:14-21 tells us about our powerful God who strengthens us “through his Spirit in your inner being” through faith so we may “know the love of Christ” and fills us “with all the fullness of God.”  We are assured that He “is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us”.  His love for us is not earned, but freely given.  

3. Connect with a local body of believers.  We are not meant to do it all on our own.  We need a support system, and we need to be connected to support others.  It is not just about us.  We need to care about the storms in the lives of other people too.  

4. Realize that storms are exhausting physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Allow yourself time and opportunities to rest and recover.  Don’t just keep pushing at the same hectic pace.

5. Allow yourself to grieve rather than just burying pain and not dealing with it.  Talk to God and others.

6. Don’t get stuck.  Realize God has a plan for your future.  Figure out what you need to do to move forward.  This might mean finding someone to help coach you through a difficult time.

7. Recall how God has cared for you in the past and note ways He is caring for you now.  God uses our experiences to enable us to help others, so don’t be surprised if you find someone you can help later through how God worked in your struggles. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Don’t allow yourself to drown because you do not take the steps needed to survive.  Take the time and action needed to repack your life raft.

What She Really Needed

The teams meshed well together

Maureen is a homeowner we are helping in Newport, NC.  She has dealt with a great deal of loss in the past 4 months.  When her son died, One Harbor Church was there to support her immediately.  The pastors have been a great comfort to her, and families from church brought her meals for a couple of weeks.  

Rob and Maureen

This week, teams came together from ReachGlobal Crisis Response under the direction of Rob Passer to replace her roof that was destroyed by Hurricane Florence.  Rob traveled up from Texas to teach the group how to roof, and this was a particularly difficult roof to start with.  The teams from New Jersey and Ohio meshed quickly.  God protected AJ when a shovel fell off the roof barely missing his head.  

Maureen told me, "These teams have been such a blessing to me."  She showed me photos of her son, and we were able to pray together.  She is leaning on God for support.  She shared with Arnold, "The best part was the team prayed with me morning and afternoon.  I know they cared about me."

So many hands working well together

 If you too would like to help but are unsure how, check out

https://www.efca.org/hurricane-florence-response .

 Email respond@efca.org to volunteer or to send a team.

Maureen and the team

A Heart of Compassion

He felt the pain of those forced out of their homes in North Carolina by Hurricane Florence, because he too was homeless and living in a local shelter.  He was concerned for the people of his community, so he came and asked how he could help them.  Injured in Vietnam and currently facing cancer, he was limited in what he could do to help.  That did not stop him.  ReachGlobal Crisis Response and One Harbor Church where he attended provided him with blank note cards.  He had been keeping a journal of Scriptures and quotations that provided him with material to quickly write notes of encouragement to local homeowners. 

Limitations did not stop him from reaching out to help others, because his heart had been touched by the things that touch God’s heart.  If you too would like to help but are unsure how, check out

https://www.efca.org/hurricane-florence-response .

 Email respond@efca.org to volunteer or to send a team.

Evangelical Free Church of America EFCA ReachGlobal
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Could It Be You?

Miss Mary lost her husband to cancer in January.  Now her home of 50 years has been appraised as a total loss.  A family from One Harbor Church is here helping.  Even the little children are doing their part.  A team member from ReachGlobal Crisis Response has been able to listen and pray with Mary.  Even the most resilient people need someone to listen as losses pile up in their life, to care, and to pray with them.  Maybe you could be that person listening or the one in the yard picking up debris.

Go to www.efca.org to volunteer and give.

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EFCA - Evangelical Free Church of America
EFCA ReachGlobal

Changed Perspective

Valerie sharing with Pastor Donnie from One Harbor Church

Matt and Valerie built their home in North Carolina 2 ½ years ago.  When they heard about Hurricane Florence, they boarded up their windows, moved things out of the yard, and left for Charlotte.  Neighbors went to their home when the flood waters came since it was on higher ground.  When they returned home Monday morning, they found that the water had risen to 8” in their home.

Valerie shared, “We did not expect flooding.  We’re not in a flood zone.  So that really was not even in my mind as a possibility.” “We came in and everything looked the same.  It just smelled bad or it was all wet.  It is amazing what 8” of water can do to a home, but I want to grow as much as I can through this.  I don’t want this to just be about fixing the property.  I want it to be about God being glorified, and I want us to grow through this as much as we can.”

Not much left

Matt (center) is helping gut a house for Brandon and Tracey

Matt explained that they had just read through Romans 8 that morning.  “It talks about how if you pursue the passions of the flesh, that leads to death.  If you pursue the passions of the Spirit, it leads to life.  I started to think about that as I walked by the mound of stuff outside- all our possessions we’ve been piling up.   It has been super easy for us to just follow along with this American dream where we constantly find the next thing on Amazon and order it.  You know, it has been this constant pursuit of more stuff, and God just showed us.  We’ve had this house for a little over 2 years, so there was a lot of stuff in here.”  It was all now gone.  “It has been an eye opener.”  

“This has just changed my perspective on how we need to be missional no matter where we are.  Whether it is just in our neighborhood, having dinner with some friends, or over this past week.  If you’re on a job site, you don’t have to be working the whole time.  You can stop and pray with someone.  That means a lot to them.”  Even their non-Christian neighbors are saying, “Hey, I will be praying for you.” “Something in them is telling them there is a higher being.  I think tragedy like this is a good eye opener for Christians and non-Christians.”

Valerie gutting for Brandon and Tracey

Valerie never thought too much about people who had been through disasters before this.  She explained, “After going through this personally, I have a new outlook on people who are going to go through this in the future and people who have dealt with it in the past.  My heart just hurts for them, and I feel I can relate to people in a way I couldn’t before.  I think it is going to make me a more compassionate person.”

As they reach out to others impacted by the storm to gut houses and be there for them, they are bringing glory to God.

Send your team. Email crisisresponse@efca.org
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Reassured

Norma has lived many years in her home in Morehead City, North Carolina, but Hurricane Florence hit with a vengeance.  A roof leak destroyed her entire bedroom and bathroom and half of another room.  When volunteers from One Harbor Church first arrived to help, she was unsure and anxious.  As the day progressed, her attitude changed completely.  Braxton noted, “By the end, she was laughing and joking and praying with us!” 

Send your team. Email crisisresponse@efca.org
#EFCA #reachglobalcrisisresponse #hurricaneflorence

                              Photos by Photography by Chalice