If you are free tomorrow at 11AM, please consider helping moving a refugee family from Iraq here in Austin. Call Matt Kirk at 512.905.9036 to let him know that you can come. This is a family truely in urgent need.
A number of you in our For the Nations breakout session at www.verge2010.org asked if the presentation that we used would be available. Well, HERE it is!
Use it and mobilize!
- French (only for Thursday)
- Burmese (both days)
- Vietnamese (both days)
- Spanish (Wed. only)
Come join us on February 1st at 7pm at the Austin Stone offices to learn about one of the most successful ministries in Turkey! Jim Bultema, who heads up the St. Paul Cultural Center in Turkey, will be in Austin for one day only to talk about his work in Turkey and how you can get involved! Jim is coming across the world to meet and talk with people who have a desire to live and work in Turkey. Do not miss this awesome opportunity! Check out the links below to learn more about the St. Paul Cultural Center. We would love for you to join us for an awesome night!
When? February 1st at 7pm
Where? Austin Stone offices -1033 La Posada Dr. #210, Austin, TX 78752
On Friday, President Obama signed a bill (H.R.4462) into law allowing charitable monetary donations given for Haiti relief from January 1, 2010 until March 1, 2010 to be deducted from taxpayers' 2009 tax return.
If you are still interested in donating toward The Austin Stone's Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, click here. Paypal has waived all transaction fees, ensuring that 100% of your donations will be directed to the immediate needs in Haiti.
On Monday (Jan. 25), a plane full of doctors will be heading to Haiti to help orphans stranded there. This is a dire situation, as you know, and the children need medical attention and basic food/water supplies. There is a chance that these orphans will be released from Haiti and could end up in the Austin area. In the meantime, the doctors will be flying down to help care for them while they are waiting.
Let’s fill the plane with much needed bottles and LIQUID formula. HERE'S HOW:
· Bring baby bottles (new only!) and LIQUID formula to church TOMORROW.
· Drop of your baby bottles (new only!) and liquid formula at the UHAUL truck in the front of the High School.
Church, let's do this!
This is a great way to partner with another church in Austin and help serve Haiti!
Hill Country Bible Church is organizing shipments of supplies along with a couple of medical teams they are sending out this Saturday. The flights they have chartered are able to carry up to 13 tons of supplies along with a team of 9 people.
The current need is for volunteers to help here in Austin anytime between this morning at 9am until Friday at 6pm:
If you are able bodied and willing, you are qualified - and if you have a pick-up truck, you will be really loved! You can come for a little while or all day!
Email go@hcbc.com to let them know you would like to help. They will contact you as soon as the supplies come in and the volunteers are needed.
ASCC Family serves Haiti relief in creative ways
Christie Neville and her children (Luke-7, Kiki-5, & Nate-2) spent their MLK vacation by setting up a lemonade stand and raising over $250 to contribute toward the relief efforts in Haiti.
You can read more about their story on KXAN's local news site here: http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/making-lemonade-out-of-lemons-for-haiti
Recently ASCC Partners Chris & Erika Snapp, Cara Jane Welch, Robin Inks, and others from Makarios responded to the earthquake by bringing supplies to a hospital on the border between the Dominican Republic, where they live and serve, and Haiti.
Check out the Makarios website to hear more about their trip, what they will be doing in the future, and how you can participate.
Please check out these opportunities to support the relief effort underway in Haiti. We will continue to provide further means of involvment as the opportunities develop.
Relief Teams
In this first phase of relief, teams are being assembled to provide the skilled assistance needed for basic rescue and care. If you are trained as a disaster relief responder, a medical worker, or if you can speak/translate Creole. Mercy Works is assembling teams that will begin deploying this Monday and every subsequent Monday indefinately. Fill out the application on their site and email it to the contact provided if you are interested.
Fundraisers
While some organizations are asking for goods to be donated, the most helpful means of support in the first and critical phase of relief is money. This allows the aid organizations and ministries to purchase the needed supplies as close to the area of need as possible and provides the needed funds to deliver these items as well. We have listed a couple of opportunities to participate in giving funds over the next week.
Benefit Concerts/Shows
Dominican Joe all-day, Haiti disaster relief fundraiser - this fundraiser will be all day Monday, January 18th with live music from 10:45 am until 12:00 pm. Check out the website for more details.
Hope for Haiti - a benefit show hosted by Music for the City, will be at The Parish at 7pm. The show is $10 and all proceeds will go directly to Real Hope for Haiti. Check out the website for [KEEP READING]
Now that daylight shines on the city of Port Au Prince and the rest of Haiti, the evidence of the devastation caused by the massive earthquake is mounting. As time passes, we are also recieving more updates on ministry partners and friends currently living in and around the city. The cellular network is still down in most areas making communication difficult, but we have recieved news that the children (including Amos, Aaron and Jamie's son) and staff of Real Hope for Haiti are safe. You can read more on Aaron Ivey's blog about their situation.
During this first wave of relief, the best things that you can do is to pray and give financially to those who are already on the ground and able to provide medical care and distribute the needed basic life-sustaining supplies such as food and water.
Some prompts for prayer:
• Pray for coordination and efficiency in the immediate recovery efforts. The first 72 hours following the earthquake are critical in searching for those who may be trapped in rubble, treating the injured, and preventing further loss of life.
• Pray that damage to the airport in Port-au-Prince would be miraculously limited, enabling aid agencies to rush necessary emergency aid to the country.
• Pray for the safety of people now living on the streets.
• Pray for hope. A sense of despair can lead to rioting, looting, and further destruction.
• Pray that those affected would work together and be filled with supernatural patience and compassion.
• Pray for justice [KEEP READING]
As many of you have probably already heard, a major earthquake (~7.0) hit 10 miles south west of Port Au Prince, the capital of Haiti. The earthquake struck just before 5 pm and initial reports indicate heavy damage.
One of our ministry partners in the capital, Troy and Tara Livesay with WorldWide Village and Heartline ministries, posted an update on their blog that they are safe and accounted for. You can follow their updates as they are posted.
We have not yet made contact with our partners, Real Hope for Haiti in Cazale, Haiti. Cazale is located near to the capital, but is in a remote location. Communication is currently difficult due to the heavy volume of calls on the digital phone network.
We will begin preparations regarding how to best respond in serving our neighbors in Haiti and will continue to post opportunities, from donations to possible relief teams, as we learn more.
In the meantime you can do two things:
PRAY!
- Pray for the staff and children of Real Hope for Haiti.
- Aaron Ivey (one of our worship pastors) and his wife, Jamie have a son, Amos, that they are waiting to bring home from Cazale and have yet to hear any updates on his status.
- The ministry of Real Hope for Haiti rescues and cares for many children that are on the brink of death from malnutrition.
- Their clinic is one of the only sources for medical treatment for many of the surrounding villages, pray that they will be able to treat those in need.
- Pray that Christ would shine [KEEP READING]
Ramesh Landge is He is the Executive Director of Cooperative Outreach of India. We want to give you an opportunity to hear from Ramesh and his wife Gloria (who works in leadership with World Vision) and informally interact with them about issues ranging from church planting, to holistic development, to training missional leaders, and so on. He has been a friend of mine for almost 10 years now and his ministry influenced me early on in my own.
When: Jan. 19 (Tuesday), 12PM-1:30PM, Equipping Room, ASCC office, bring your own lunch
Who: Anybody at ASCC who is interested in church planting or holistic development
What: Ramesh runs an impressive holistic ministry in India. They work in the areas of house church planting, health, children, women's empowerment, crisis response, and agricultural development.
RSVP: Please RSVP by email to me no later than the end of the work day this Friday (Jan. 15), to let me know that you are coming, so I know how many people to expect.
This is so exciting! God has raised up #1 and #2 GOERS of the 100 People Network. And they are twin sisters! They are leaving THIS SUNDAY for 2 years of Christian service in East Asia. They are going to a "village" of ~1 million people where there is little evangelical Christian presence.
Here is their story, in their own words:
So my sister and I are flying half way across the world (11,700+ miles) to live in a city of about a million people in East Asia. These people don't look like us, speak like us, or act like us. We will be foreigners in an instant, strangers in a strange land.
Why would anybody do something like this? Well, here's our best shot of explaining:
Hudson Taylor. Jim Elliott. Moses. We hear these names and think ‘what great people' - and so they were. But at the time of their lives on this earth they were neither spiritually elite nor super human. In fact, they were normal, scared, flawed human beings like us. Only at some point, they decided to take God at His word. They decided to believe Him.
My sister and I became Christians our freshman year of college, and have been following Jesus for about 5 years. What we have found is that it's pretty freaking scary living this way. There are promises in the Bible we are meant to take to heart and trust in. There are ways of living that look at others' needs more than our own. There are calls to give up your life, to bring hope to the world, and to believe He is who He says He is. It's hard.
And I think it [KEEP READING]
March 12-20th
This March we are sending a team to work with our local partners in North Africa. Team members will have the opportunity to serve refugees, the poor, and the disabled with the love of Christ in this predominantly Muslim nation. If you would like to learn more about joining this team, contact us by email.
This team will fill up fast and the deadline for applications is set for January 15th, so please respond quickly if you would like more information.