Day 66 - Baseball Caps (Give) and One Year Anniversary of Earthquake

We had a delayed start to school today due to blowing snow.  My wife, who works for a different school system within the same county, got the entire day off!  On the one hand, I thought, "Not fair!"  But on the other hand, a two hour delay gives you a bit of extra time to sleep in while you still get to put in a partial day of school - enough to keep us from having to make up a day later on.  So, no complaints.

I walked into my 7th grade writing class and several students immediately asked if I was giving anything away today!  Fortunately I had thought ahead and brought some baseball caps that were given to us during our small group white elephant gift exchange - one hat advertised "Toyota Trucks" and the other "Indiana University Football".  A couple of the guys claimed the two hats happily.

Predictably, the students did a bit of complaining today about having to come to school on "dangerous" roads and how they would have liked to sleep even longer than they did.  On a day when the anniversary of the Haiti earthquake was recognized by all the news outlets, it just served to remind me how very comfortable our lives are and how much we take for granted. 

If you want to read a gripping first hand account of the earthquake's aftermath, take a moment and look at Matt and Stacy Ayars' blog here.  They lead the Emmaus Seminary in Cap Haitien.  Matt and Stacy felt the earthquake when it happened, even though Cap is 100 miles away, and within a few days they visited Port-au-Prince itself.

And if you are moved to help in some tangible way, you might want to check out Beka Mech's blog here.  She is a stateside missionary with OMS and I got to know her when she became a part of our mission team to Haiti in October.  She has first hand experience with several projects which OMS sponsors in Haiti.

There is so much need!  And still so much suffering...

Think what could be accomplished if American Christians took their Bible literally!  When I was in seminary, arguments over whether or not to take the Bible literally always cracked me up because we argued over the wrong passages.  Instead of wondering whether Genesis 1 is to be taken literally, why didn't we argue over something like 1 John 3:17?

 "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?"

Or James 2: 15-17?

"Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

Do we take the Bible literally?  It has been pointed out that last year, Americans spent $20 billion on ice cream.  Ice cream!  It's one thing to take our blessings for granted ... it's another to squander them on ourselves.  (And I say that as a big fan of ice cream myself!)