CHURCHES MOBILIZE TO SEND AID TO SOUTHEAST ASIA

ALL DAY [OCTOBER 1], people dropped off plastic bags of clothes and shoes, towels and bedding at Crossroad Calvary Chapel in San Jose [California], offerings of help and hope from the local Samoan community for the catastrophe in their native land almost too great to comprehend.

Another group is preparing for the orphans who will be left in the wake of a magnitude 76 earthquake in Indonesia.

Four near-simultaneous natural disasters—two earthquakes, a typhoon, and a tsunami—in the Pacific and Southeast Asia have washed away villages, leveled schools and office buildings, ripping apart, perhaps obliterating generations of families in a mere two days. But the damage is not confined to there.

The Bay Area's Samoan, Filipino, Indonesian, and Vietnamese communities are feeling the losses deeply, as their hearts mourn and their minds freeze on one thing: Are their loved ones OK?

"We all come from different villages, but the Samoans here have lost families and the villages where they grew up," said Foa Lepisi, a member of Crossroad Calvary Chapel, where people began dropping off relief supplies as soon as news of the devastation started breaking. "Six hundred people in my village are homeless."

As relief workers struggled Thursday to assess the damages, and neighbors helped dig out neighbors from the ruins in the hard-hit Samoas and Indonesia, where major earthquakes triggered tsunamis, Bay Area residents with connections to those areas struggled to decide how best to help.

"My heart goes out to these people now, but we will focus on long-term needs for orphans," said Dian Alyan, president and founder of the GiveLight Foundation, formed after a major tsunami in Indonesia in 2004.

Then, "there were 30,000 orphans," and Alyan's group was able to set up an orphanage in her native Aceh, Sumatra. ...

James Triguero, a member of the board of directors for the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce, said planning efforts are under way throughout the Bay Area for ways to help victims in the Philippines who suffered from torrential rains and flooding.

"We are trying to coordinate with the different communities all over the area," he said. "There are overten million Filipino workers a round the world," including many in the Bay Area.

According to 2008 Census Bureau numbers, 54,452 residents of Santa Clara County were born in the Philippines. More than 92,600 were born in Vietnam, and 3,073 were born in Indonesia.

No figure was available for Samoans in the county, although about 28,000 Samoans live in California, according to the Census Bureau.

People who live in the Pacific and Southeast Asia learn to live with natural disasters, but this week's catastrophes stand out because the damage was not in remote areas but in the region around the Philippine capital of Manila, Triguero said. "All of the government agencies are located there." ...

With everything happening so far away, "you feel so helpless," said Niki Livingston, of Salinas, who attended a special prayer service at Crossroad Calvary Chapel on [September 30].

"I'm from American Samoa, and we haven't been able to reach anybody," he said.

Linda Goldston
"Bay Area residents seek ways to help disaster victims in Pacific, Southeast Asia"
MercuryNews.com. October 2, 2009.

THE LOVE THAT BINDS

JESUS CALLS US TO BE ONE BODY. "For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, 'I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you'" (Heb. 2:11, 12, NRSV). We use these family titles, greeting each other as brother and sister because we have the same Father, and that makes us family.

Note that the Bible does not say that we are friends in Christ. We choose our friends, but we cannot choose family. This means that when a member of our church gets on our nerves or votes against our proposal in the business meeting, we still love that person, just as we love a brother even though he steals our toys, or a cousin even though she gets more attention. We still love them because they are family....

I have seen two churches survive conflicts that could have obliterated them. The people who stayed, determined to keep the church family together, are better for the experience. In order to survive, they developed a bond much like a bond between people who have survived a war together. They've fought for the family to stay together, to stay intact. They've worked toward peace and reconciliation for the sake of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Christ preached on unity and not division. He believed in marriage and how two people become one. ... When asked about divorce, Jesus responded: "The two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" (Matt. 19:5, 6, NRSV). We as a church family are joined together by God. ...

Let us be faithful to our church family, faithful to each other in times of adversity and change. Let us love those in the church family even when we can't stand them. There is a reason that these people are part of your life. Under all the struggles, there is a love that will stretch from this world to the next.

Christine R. Bartholomew
"Living by The Word"
The Christian Century
Reprinted with permission. September 22, 2009.

MICROCHURCHES—MAKING THEIR MARK ON US RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE

AS MEGACHURCHES DOMINATE the religious landscape, a countertrend is developing—microchurches. These are embryonic churches that germinate in unlikely places, from homes to schools to movie theaters.

They are catching on—a perfect fit for the mood of a recession, humble and personal places to worship in times of crisis.

"Transform it, and they will come," said Unity East singer Patricia Lacy-Akin [in Woodbury, Minnesota]. "You don't need all the stained glass and pipe organs."

They are appearing in decidedly un-sacred places. In Woodbury, a mosque and a Christian church have started in an industrial park, near auto repair shops. Another theater-based church worships in Rosemount. A small church meets at Mahtomedi High School.

The parishioners don't miss the trappings of older church buildings. "If you had windows, you'd just be looking outside," said Arlene Martin, a Unity East member from Hudson, Wisconsin. "In here, you are more focused."

Her husband, Don Anderson, said: "The location doesn't matter. It could be in the back of a barbershop."

Traditional churches emphasize a sanctuary setting—with fine art, soaring arches, robed choirs, and stained-glass windows designed to inspire awe.

Instead, they inspire a sense of isolation that turns younger worshippers off, said Carl Nelson, president of the Greater Minnesota Association of Evangelicals, which represents about 400 churches.

"The new churches are reaching a new generation of believers, who are more interested in seeing a church engaged in the world they live in," Nelson said.

What's wrong with steeples and pews?

They cost too much, say microchurch leaders. They question the wisdom of their mega-brethren who spend tens of millions of dollars for buildings—such as Eagle Brook Church, which built a $24 million building in Lino Lakes in 2006.

Money spent on buildings, microchurch fans say, is money not going to help the poor. "A lot of money goes into a church facility," Nelson said. "Some of them wonder: How can we fulfill our mission without these expensive buildings?"

In many cases, microchurches remain for years in places like movie theaters. "Some of them can fully afford a church building. But they are spending the money on their community and helping those in need," said David Bresette, manager of Marcus Oakdale Theaters, which hosts Unity East. ...

Bob Shaw
"Microchurches are gaining popularity and finding unusual homes"
TwinCities.com. September 26, 2009.