Hope Rises as the Water Recedes
As Gulf state residents recover from Hurricane Rita—and
continue to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina—BGEA’s
Rapid Response Team is ministering to those with spiritual
and material needs throughout the region.
Within 48 hours after Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the
Gulf Coast, chaplains with our Rapid Response Team were on the
ground, praying with the victims and listening to their anguished
stories. To date, more than 140 trained chaplains have arrived
and are working with local churches, governments, shelters, and
police, offering encouragement and counsel to many officials,
pastors, and police officers who themselves have been serving,
often with little rest, in hard-hit areas.
Perhaps the greatest impact of the Rapid Response Team has been
among those on the front lines of duty. These “first responders”
include law enforcement, firefighters, medical emergency personnel,
city officials, and the military, many of whom are now in their
fifth week of near-constant emergency and who have lost homes
and loved ones themselves.
In addition, BGEA has established a toll-free “Care-Line”
for these “first responders.” As chaplains minister
in the devastated areas, they are able to point people to the
“Care-Line” for on-going counsel and support 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. To read more about the Rapid Response
Team and for more info, go to this link.
(Courtesy: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)
Witnessing to Disaster Stricken - Keith Cook
With all the news about storms and disasters looming over parts
of our nation and world I thought it would be good to look at
how to minister in times like these. Servants of Jesus Christ
must be able to go to where the people are and they must be prepared
to help people who find themselves in many unique and often difficult
situations.
So far, On The Go has sent four teams of supplies into the Gulf
Coast Region. Our next GoCare Project scheduled for September
30-October 7, 2005. Our dream is to minister to physical and spiritual
needs of those who have been devastated by the effects of Hurricane
Katrina.
As you seek to be led by the Spirit you will find yourself needing
to arrive prepared to minister and comfort real people with real
problems. Keith has developed an evangelistic tool entitled: “Witnessing
to Disaster Stricken”. The following information is an excerpt
from the article. To view the entire article, please go to our
website at www.onthego.org. The article in it’s entirety
includes useful websites and tools which you can utilize as you
prepare to minister in disaster stricken areas. Here are some
simple suggestions for ministering to hurting people.
1. Be Alert
- Pay attention to outward signs of neglect, abuse, need,
or problems. Long before the physical storms have come many emotional
and physical storms have already hit.
2. Don’t Play God – Don’t
run ahead of God, or try to fix all their problems in the flesh.
Hear from God and follow His direction. Guard your heart and emotions.
3. Focus On First Things First
- Focus on one physical need and one spiritual need at a time.
People with enormous needs can be overwhelmed with too many options
at one time.
4. Get Real Help - Don’t get
in over your head. It is not a sin to use professionals and agencies
that will provide total ministry.
5. Do not judge them or on the
other hand condone any of their past actions or problems. You
just speak a word about Jesus or meet a need.
6. Make Sure You Minister –
If God has placed you in this situation you are there to minister
to them. Be bold and sensitive at the same time.
7. Be Realistic - Expect difficulties,
expect abuse, confrontations, questions, misjudging your motives,
and for them to even be suspicious.
8. Be Spiritually Prepared - Know
what you believe and what the Bible has to say about; sin, love,
forgiveness, tragedy, addictions, hope, recovery reconciliation,
and the consequences of sin and not getting right with God.
9. Be Smart - If you are sharing
as a member of a church group or outreach team remember to stay
close to your group. In any kind of helping hand or spiritual
counseling situation do not get in a situation where you are alone
with strangers or are in a dangerous situation
10. It’s A God Thing - Expect
God to show up and do a work in the person’s life. God will
and can work through you to help them physically, emotionally,
and spiritually.
Why not go today and seek the Lord and ask for permission and
direction to help those who are suffering right now. If you do
not know where to look to offer your assistance begin with your
local pastor. You also can contact other Christian ministries
who do these kinds of ministries. Our ministry has a whole department
called, GoCare, that offers help and hope in Jesus name. Every
outreach project we do has a GoCare worker on it to make sure
we take the cup of cold water with us as we take the bread of
life.
May God bless you as you go into all the world for Jesus. If
you are hurting right now and are in need please seek out help
using some of the resources listed on our webpage at www.onthego.org.
For more information on past and future events of On The Go Ministries,
please email info@onthego.org. For information on how to be an
active part in our GoCare Division, please email gocare@onthego.org
or gocaregulfcoast.org . To view the entire archived file of “How
To Minister To Disaster Stricken,” visit www.onthego.org.
(Courtesy: Keith Cook, Keith Cook Evangelistic Association, On
the Go Ministries)
The Valley Responds – Steve Wingfield
Steve Wingfield was instrumental in calling together our community
leaders to get our combined and coordinated initiative started.
From a meeting on September 6th and a visit to Mississippi on
September 13th, the burgeoning "The Valley Responds"
effort has grown significantly. The following information has
been taken from an excerpt at the following web address. For a
complete article, please go to http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05090090.htm
.
We also contacted most of our former encounter crusade General
Chairpersons to invite them to do something similar in their respective
communities. Most were already engaged in their own activities
but our most recent event location of Watertown, New York has
chosen to embrace our Long Beach, Mississippi focus.
“The residents of Long Beach are resilient people but they
need our help,” said Wingfield. He added that “while
the task is daunting, it can be done. “It’s a lot of
work, but we’re going to do it the same way you eat an elephant,
one bite at a time.” After visiting the area Wingfield said
“We’ve just gotten back from the new Gulf War.”
The city and its people have really been hit hard, they’re
under attack and they will need all the help they can get.”
In this special Shenandoah Valley-to-Long Beach connection, the
two communities (Harrisonburg, VA and Long Beach, MS) both called
“The Friendly City”, will complement, and not compete
with other efforts that are being led by many churches and national
organizations such as the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. In
efforts to coordinate how to move forward to implement the most
effective response, communications have been ongoing since the
storm hit, with Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Rapid
Response Team who have been working on The Gulf Coast with disaster
relief, and members of “The Valley Responds”.
For more information on Steve Wingfield and the Shenandoah Valley
response efforts, please go to the following website http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05090090.htm
. For more information on past and future events of the Steve
Wingfield Evangelistic Association, access our website at www.stevewingfield.org
call at 1-800-729-2239.
(Courtesy: Greg Culbertson, Steve Wingfield Evangelistic Association)
Lessons We Can Learn from Katrina and Rita by Wesley D. Paul
I first heard some of these insights in a recent address by Max
Lucado. I appreciate his insight and timely words. I have added,
subtracted from some of the original thoughts as God has guided
me.
Firstly, Katrina teaches me that disaster
doesn't discriminate, it strikes everyone. Katrina is a
greater leveler. Why? Why does God let it happen? Because we still
live in a fallen world. This is not a perfect world. Sin has not
only corrupted the human race, but it also has affected all of
creation. Therefore, all of creation groans for redemption (Romans
8:21-22). As long as we live in this fallen world, we will face
disasters, disease and decadence. We will all face the storms
of life one day or another. How can we make it through the storms?
Our security is not in the leaves. Don't put your hope in the
leaves. You and I need a Savior.
Secondly, life doesn't consist in the
abundance of our possessions. This truth was amplified
by the loss of homes, automobiles and other precious possessions.
The victims of Katrina didn't rejoice over finding or saving their
material possessions. Instead, they rejoiced over the members
of family and loved ones that were found or reunited. The search
and rescue efforts focused on people. People matter. So what are
you living for? What is your life made up of? Is your life the
sum total of your goods? Some people live to work, work to shop,
and shop till they drop. In the final analysis, what will matter?
People. Invest in people and take them into your heart, into your
home and love them. Seek and save people. The crowd that Jesus
addressed in Luke 12th chapter didn't get it. He told them a story
of a rich farmer whose life consisted in how much he possessed
(Read Luke 12:16 ff.). He kept building bigger barns to store
his possessions. It was an effort in futility. What are you spending
your money and resources on? Are you building God's Kingdom or
your kingdom?
Thirdly, We learn a lot about people.
Some rose to the occasion with kindness and compassion, while
others pillaged, looted and raped. The editor of to the source
states correctly when he writes, "In the first hours of Katrina's
fury, families and local churches snapped to action. America's
most robust first responders remain its families and its churches.
Thousands of local parishes donated hundreds of millions of dollars
and countless hours of volunteer time as they reached out to others
in need. This response of strength and love masked the flatfooted
bickering of politicians and exposed the vulnerability of our
over-secularized culture."
We also see the dark side of people in the midst of this tragedy.
While some raped, looted and pillaged, others abandoned their
responsibility. More than 40 were found dead in a nursing home
because its owners failed to care and act with concern. The prophet
Jeremiah reminds us that the heart is deceitful above all things.
In light of our human condition, we need a Savior. We need someone
to save us from our sinful and base nature.
Fourthly, somebody has to clean up the
mess. It is a disaster zone: water, land, homes, streets,
everything is a mess. A massive clean up effort is underway. If
people are going to inhabit the land again, the mess has to be
cleaned up and the city must be put back to order. Katrina's mess
can be cleaned up with human hands. What about the mess that Sin
has brought into our lives? Who will clean that up? Sin entered
the universe and has turned our lives upside down. Some have been
living in a disaster zone, everything is a mess in their life.
The mess has to be cleaned up. Who will clean up our mess? Jesus.
Yes, he will, if we let him into our lives. It doesn't matter
how messy things have gotten. He will rescue us, clean us up,
and help us live again.
With Jesus, there is no bureaucracy to deal with. Yes, FEMA might
fail you, even churches may fail you, but not Jesus. Our security
system is not in the leaves, it is in Jesus! He is our Savior,
our Healer and Redeemer. Why don't you point people to this Jesus?
(Courtesy: Wesley D. Paul, Wesley Paul International Ministries,
email Wesley
)
FUTURE PEN ARTICLES
We will be correlating the data for the next PEN Newsletter.
In order for events and articles to be included in the upcoming
PEN Newsletter, we have set Wednesday,
December 14th at 12:00 noon central time as the deadline.
We will try to run as many articles as possible, but we can not
guarantee that your article will be included in the upcoming PEN
Newsletter as there are over 300 ministries participating in the
PEN Network. In order for your ministry event to be included in
the next PEN Newsletter, we will need to receive the following
from you by the deadline.
1) Subject or Title Heading
2) Brief Description of Event, Article, or Training Opportunity
3) WebLink to an article or webpage describing full detail of
ministry event, article, or training opportunity
Below you will find a list of qualifications for data that will
be included in the PEN Newsletter.
1) The PEN Newsletter will not include any information regarding
Fund Raising for your ministry. This is not the role of this newsletter.
2) We will attempt to include brief articles from as many ministries
as possible. Articles must be Evangelistic in nature. Most Evangelistic
Projects, Training Opportunities, and Conferences will be listed
in our upcoming events section of each newsletter.
3) All other information will be included only upon a space availability
basis. We will rank importance according to PEN guidelines.
4) All correspondence must be done through emails. Please try
not to call our office or fax your articles to us, as it will
be more time consuming to retype information in for each of the
newsletters.
5) The PEN Network and On The Go Ministries / Keith Cook Evangelistic
Association are not responsible for mistakes or miscommunications.
6) All articles received must have Subject/Title line, Brief
Description of Article, Information, Evangelistic Event, or Training
Opportunity, and Weblink to your ministry event or webpage that
contains actual information you want communicated. Full articles
that will be included in the PEN Newsletter will only be that
of official PEN related articles.
We look forward to working with you so that others may know how
they can be more actively involved in your ministry. Again, please
remember that we can not promise to enter an article on every
ministry that submits information, but we will make an attempt
to include as much information as we possibly can, yet keep the
newsletter concise and informative as well. In order to list an
Upcoming Evangelistic Article, Project, or Training Opportunity,
please send your articles with your Subject or Title line, Brief
Description, and Weblink to the following address: Laurie@onthego.org.
While On The Go Ministries / Keith Cook Evangelistic Association
serve as editors and producers of this electronic newsletter and
materials, the PEN Network maintains all rights and responsibilities
for the PEN Newsletter.
PEN Newsletter Editor - Keith Cook, keithcook@onthego.org
PEN Newsletter Assistant Editor - Laurie Wilkerson, laurie@onthego.org
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