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Please pray for the children and staff in the Abandon Baby Unit.  The Abandon Baby Unit is located inside University Hospital, which has collapsed. Our contact, Shannon Sedgwick Davis, has given us the following information…

These children are most likely still in the back in a 15×30 room. They have no water, food, and now, I fear, none of our staff has been able to get to them.  Some of the children my have tried to run but many are crippled.  All  of them are very ill.  Many have terminal conditions.  One of the little girls, Emanuella (we call her Nanan) has been in this room since 2002.   I am truly afraid for them.

At this time many of our staff members are unaccounted for.  We have spoken to our In country- Director Rapheal Chenet.   The roads are impassable all of our vehicles were rendered useless.   There is no phone service.

The Abandoned Baby Unit is inside the HUEH (the University Hospital near the collapsed Palace) on Rue Mgr Guilloux.  There are in the very back of the Pediatric section very close to the morgue.

Here are the children’s names…

Send Prayer & Money to Haiti,

Be the church, then Go to church
Most of you are aware of the earthquake in Haiti.  The Park Church hasn’t had it’s first meeting yet but I am asking you to be the church before we meet.  Join us in sending money to Haiti.

CNN Reports, A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting what its ambassador to the United States called a catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.Several eyewitnesses reported heavy damage and bodies in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where concrete-block homes line steep hillsides. There was no estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening, but the U.S. State Department has been told to expect “serious loss of life,” department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.”

What we are doing, please join us…

• Some of you have already started tithing to The Park, thank you.  We are writing the first Park Community Church check to relief work in Haiti.
• We have a friend flying out to Haiti on Saturday.  I will be updating information on the city as we are asked to help.  (click the city button in the left column to register for the city) We may need you to help load a plane of supplies this Saturday. If you want to help sign up on “the city” for updates.
• World vision is on the ground and accepting donations… http://www.worldvision.org/
• Children’s hunger fund is sending aid… http://www.chfus.org
• Pray

We begin meeting this Sunday @ the rose theatre.  We will give you updates on how you can help this Sunday during our service.
In His Grip,
Scott

I am a next+gen pastor, leading ministries from cradle to college.  My background, and bulk of ministry experience is with teenagers.  Our church has a sort of buffet line of ministries.  We have pursued a great deal of programming to reach different types of families.  Our youth ministry is built around a city wide youth outreach and small groups meeting in homes based on school zoning.  For the past nine years we have effectively pulled hundreds of teenagers into our church on Wednesday night.  From all outward appearances we were “successful.”  So you can imagine my surprise when our youth pastor suggested we cancel the Wednesday night service.

We typically take Friday’s off, so when Stuart, our youth pastor, called and asked to meet for coffee i knew he had something serious to talk about.  I bought the coffee and he started to talk, “it’s just not working anymore. I think we should cancel Wednesday nights.”  By not working I was wondering if he meant the consistent growth, solid volunteer team, or the production excellence?  As we talked he explained while from the outside everything looked great we were not being effective in reaching teenagers with the gospel.  As we unpacked the present reality we realized there were in fact some major holes in the Wednesday night service, and the actual philosophy behind our large group gathering.  600 kids in one service makes a youth pastor feel good, but is it actually effective?

We canceled the rock show and don’t plan on looking back.  After it was all said and done our Senior Pastor walked up to us and said, “well, Stu, you just canceled one of the largest youth services in the city.  feel good?”  Maybe we lost our minds, but I think we may be finally figuring this thing out.

So now the LORD says, “Stop right where you are! Look for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’ –Jeremiah 6:16

My Dad rededicated his life to the Lord when I was in 6^th grade, he promptly decided I should do the same. I resisted throughout high school until the Lord began to soften my heart @ the age of 17. I accepted Christ and within one month began teaching bible study. The following Christmas he gave me a new bible. The black leather Nelson Study Bible said on it’s dedication page, “Scott, read this, study this, but most importantly trust it to be the inspired word of God. – Dad” For nearly 20 years I have preached and taught out of that bible. Some mornings when I feel I have lost my passion for ministry or clear direction for God I pull it off the shelf and begin to flip through it’s pages. Of course the words are live and active but on those mornings what I see are the lines marking passages where God has spoken directly to me. Almost every page brings back a different memory, I am reminded of God’s calling and the passion with which I once spoke. The reminder of God’s leadership in my life awakens me and fires me up. For some reason those pages remind me of a legacy reaching back thousands of years where the same God who spoke to Noah, Moses, Joshua, Elijah speaks to me. I love this passage by the prophet Jeremiah, I have been stuck on it for weeks. “Look for the old, godly way, walk in it.” I have bible software, other bible translations, and even a bible on my iPhone, they are all great. But, when the morning is longer than it should be and I need to reconnect I go for my Nelson Study Bible.

We are often impressed with things new and improved. Every week a new ministry strategy comes across a blog or a new conference fires us up to be postmodern, relevant, cutting edge, re-modern (I just invented that one). New ideas have their place, but they can carry us beyond the legacy of our forefathers into a land of practical and out of a land of spiritual transformation. As you minister this week consider the Old, Godly way. Remember the great legacy of church leaders, apostles, prophets, and kings with which you are a part.

I am not much for camping but I know if you lose your direction all you need to do is find true north and you can find home. You may be in a world of policies not people, silos not service, or management not ministry. If you have lost your way, “Stop right where you are! Look for the old, godly way, and walk in it.