Six Minutes in Haiti from Northland Church on Vimeo.

I have been reading facebook posts from a friend of mine who is already there in Haiti filming with NBC. One of the pictures of a pile of rubble has a caption that there are more than 50 people trapped in this supermarket that had collapsed.

There are possibly as many as 50 survivors believed to be inside this collapsed supermarket. Rescue teams are working to get to them!

As I was reading my bible preparing our groups daily devotions, I read a verse in Isaiah that seemed to be an answer from God.

Isaiah 42:6-8a (New International Version)

6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,

7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

8a “I am the LORD; that is my name! “

We are confident that God will release them from the dungeon’s that have been created from the earthquake.

I then thought of a verse my Dad quoted on an old video presentation of their missionary work in Venezuela

Isaiah 41:17-18 (New International Version)

17 “The poor and needy search for water,
but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the LORD will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
and the parched ground into springs.

I see the rivers of clean water in front of me here in the hanger waiting to be shipped. There are pallets of bottled water ready to go along with clothes and food. God’s timing is perfect, He is doing this, the water will get there when it is needed and so will our team.

As I discussed this with John Tardonia who I am traveling with, He shared a verse he had come across.

Isaiah 54:10 (New International Version)

10 Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

So clearly God is taking this time to prepare our hearts a little more before we go.

Five Ways to Get Involved

The entire Northland community is praying for the people of Haiti in this dark hour. Together as a congregation, we are also finding the most appropriate ways to respond to this tragedy and provide assistance. Northland is partnering with others, for others, to help in the best ways possible. So in the weeks and months ahead, we will work with those who have experience in disaster response or have direct connections within the country of Haiti. There are several ways that you and your family can come alongside and help.

1. GIVE toward relief work in Haiti. Bring a special offering to worship or GIVE ONLINE NOW. (Select “Local/Global Missions” and write “Haiti” in the notes field.) All money will be sent directly to our partners, including New Missions, Kids Against Hunger, Islego Mission, and others.

2. DONATE needed supplies to the people of Haiti. Harvest Time International will collect the following items at Northland at Longwood on Saturday, January 23 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.:

Blankets | Baby formula | Children’s diapers | Coolers | First-aid kits | Hygiene kits (soap, towels, etc.) | Medical supplies | Pedialyte | Powdered milk | Raisins | Rice | Rope | Tarps | Water-treatment tablets

3. SERVE with Harvest Time International. Sort, package and organize donations. All ages are welcome. These efforts will take place over the next few months at Northland at Longwood: (CLICK ON THE DATES TO REGISTER): Saturday, January 30; Saturday, February 27; and Saturday, March 27 from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Also, in partnership with Kids Against Hunger, you can help package more than 100,000 meals that will be shipped directly to Haiti. Hundreds of volunteers are needed for this effort. The meals you pack will be put directly into the hands of hurting Haitians. There will be two opportunities to participate at Northland at Longwood (CLICK ON THE DATES TO REGISTER): Saturday, January 23; and Saturday, January 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

4. GO with a work team to Haiti. There will be opportunities through our partnerships with Islego and New Missions. These agencies are not yet prepared to send in teams, but they are starting to make plans. If you are interested in serving on a construction/clean-up crew in Haiti in the next few weeks or months, be sure your passport is current and your shots are up to date. More information will follow as we work with our partners.

5. PRAY for the people of Haiti and for God to direct each of us on how we can best respond to this disaster. We will offer an extended time of prayer after each service this weekend at all locations.

A person with 20/10 vision can read a letter at 20 feet that a person with normal vision would have to come up to 10 feet to read.

Having 20/10 vision means that we will see beyond the normal and with God’s help we can see the deeper purpose in what we do. Our purpose should not be more money, more success or more power. I am not saying that these pursuits are wrong, I am only saying that they should not be our purpose, they should be our reward. No matter what you do the joy will only come from the love of serving others.

Having 20/10 vision will also mean that you see things that others do not. Take your time in every situation and with every decision and ask God to guide you. He knows what you need and will provide. For example if you go to networking groups, your purpose should be to meet people that you can have a life changing impact on.

I just came from a meeting at my wife’s Financial Planning office. As we discussed goals for the year, the obvious ones included numbers, how many new clients, etc. In the financial planning field the measure of someones success is PC’s standing for Production Credits. My wife meets her goals every year even last year. She is always genuinely surprised. But after 16 years of being married to her I have never been surprised, for over 20 years she has made her goals, I suggested maybe she should start setting them higher, but the real reason she is surprised is that she forgets about the goal and just focuses all of her attention on LC’s standing for Lives Changed. God has given her an amazing gift. I have seen her many times suggest a plan that is less financially profitable for her but better for her client. LC’s are what drives her. Most of the meeting we discussed how to find the deeper purpose in what we do as a Financial Planning company.

“Lives Changed” should be at the top of our 2010 vision. We should always start with ourselves. God wants us to change every day to be more like Him. I just finished writing a book about how God can use our willingness to change can be the very thing that can make our marriages thrive. You can read more at www.TheAuthorOfMarriage.com.

If our lives are changing by the transforming work of God in our lives, then our impact to change others lives for the good will be more effective. So as you work each day this year, work as unto the Lord, consider each person you have the privilege of meeting with and ask God to use you to have a positive changing affect on them.

My 2010 Vision includes the following verses.

1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Philippians 3:12
[ Pressing on Toward the Goal ] Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Ask God to give you 2010 vision this year. It is your choice to believe that He has given you this vision and believe that He can bring it to pass. Press on toward the mark of the high calling and with that in mind set your personal marks and run the race as if to win. Visualize the finish line and run like you haven’t run before and most importantly “if you enjoy the run, you have already won.“ – James Price

So this year when my wife said we were going to a party with lots of people we didn’t know, In an uncharacteristic form I said “Ok!” And I started thinking about how we would dress. This would be the first time, that we would go all out. After thinking about it for a while, I decided I would be Tin Man and she could be Dorthy. I have always enjoyed finding more ways to use duct tape and so I made my outfit with 2 rolls of duct tape, attached in overlapping form to a par of jeans and long sleeve shirt. I then took a funnel and wrapped it in duct tape and did the same for some old shoes. The outfit turned out really great and so did the evening. We got to spend some time at that party in ministry conversation with a young couple that had been dating for a while and contemplating marriage. This conversation was God’s message to me that all I need to do is show up and He would provide the ministry opportunities. By the way, I have found that I can be very energized in a group setting if I get the opportunity to have some meaningful ministry focused conversation with someone else in the group. In past years I would have missed out on this type of ministry, simply because I call myself an introvert.

I am pleased to say that Dorthy has given me a new heart. I have become much more like her in the last 16 years. God sent her to me and it is because of her that others have been helped, encouraged and ministered to. God knew what I needed when he brought her into my life. I am so much better of a man and minister than I ever would have been with out her.

It is so easy for us to reject the ways of others and to allow our predefined identity to keep us from what God wants. He wants to use us and there is no room for the excuses of the introvert. Its OK if you are an introvert. This only means that you will always be energized and refreshed by solitude or quality time with a few special people. But its not OK to use this as a defense against what God has called all of us to do and that is to GO into all the world, first to the party in your neighborhood and then to the rest of the world. He wants us to tell everyone we see and meet that He is God and that He loves us and understands us, because He is our Creator.

Just in case you extroverts think your going to get away so easily, let me say that you can sometimes focus a little too much on the numbers of people you talk to at the party and not enough on the quality of conversation. The job God calls us to every where, every day is to look for opportunities to plant seeds that will grow into a desire to know God better. Every conversation does not need to include a full salvation plan, but there should be seeds planted.

Now back to the topic of Dorthy and the Tin Man, I am sure I am not alone when I say that it really takes a conscious effort to use the new heart we have been given and to pursue the understanding of our Dorthy. It is natural to want to stay the way we are and to see the differences as negative. We have to really work at seeing the differences as God’s design for unity. It seems to often cause the opposite of unity, but that is because we resist the change. We like who we are and we fight to stay that way.

I used to like going to the same place for vacation, the same restaurant or even like to sit in the same place at church. But God gave me a wife that does not like to go to the same places. We have had some of both over the years, but I have to say that there are so many things I have experienced that I never would have, if not for my wife. I am so thankful now looking back, so much so that I may have completely transformed in that area of my life, because of my wife. We often think that we are giving something up when we consider others before ourselves, but in reality life is more fulfilling when we open our hearts and allow God to use our spouses to change us.

If God wanted us to define ourselves and then stay that way then why does it seem that almost every married couple I know is completely opposite in personality. Why do you think we are attracted to opposite personalities if we are so happy with who we are. And why is it that once we are married to that opposite personality, we try so hard to change them. The attraction is by God’s design and change is the purpose, however, fights occur when we focus on changing the other instead of truly falling in love and desiring to be changed ourselves. It is true love that wants to imitate or become like the other.

So many books and studies have been done that focus on defining our differences and I believe they are very helpful to a point. If it helps us to understand how to love the other better, then the goal is accomplished. But if it becomes a defining and immovable structure of who you are then, you have missed the point. I have also seen these books do the opposite of what they were intended for. Instead of being helpful for understanding our spouses better I have seen them used to create a sort of measuring stick of our own self centered desires. I have seen some use it as a way of keeping a record of wrongs of their spouse.

My challenge to you is to embrace the differences, step out of your comfort zone, God wants to use you today.

Tin Man could have never survived with out Dorthy. She helped him find his heart. Are you helping your spouse find theirs?

Pictures of Dorthy and Tin Man may be seen on my facebook page.

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