One Man Cannot Lift a House

Below is an article that I found encouraging. Its rather long, but good. Thought I would share...

This article was originally published by IDENTITY
Nov. 15, 2011
by Palmer Chinchen

One man cannot lift a house. That’s what Malawians say when they are ready to build a new nyumba (home) for their family. They rally the people of they village to come together to make mud bricks. The clay (dothi) is dug from a damp pit near the swamp and carried in brick-shaped wooden hoppers from the pit to the home site, where the clay will dry before being stacked into a kiln and fired. The hoppers are toted with a jog, so the mud will settle and form a solid brick. It’s back breaking, exhausting. One man can make a few dozen mud bricks, but thousands are needed. It would take him weeks, on his own. Physically he is unable, One man cannot lift a house. But when the community responds, they will do it in a day. And everyone knows, when it’s time to build their home, they will remind him, one man cannot lift a house. And he will come, he will carry mud for them too. I’ve spent about half my life in Africa, and that’s one of my favorite things Malawians do. They never leave a man to build his home alone, but together -- out of the mire and clay -- they lift a house. On this side of the Atlantic we don’t think much about needing the village, because we try to do it alone.

One of my great passions is to see an end to extreme poverty. It sounds audacious, but I think it was Jeffry Sachs’ writing that first convinced me it can be done. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University (The End of Poverty), says by the year 2025 we can end extreme poverty. Some call Sachs the smartest man in the world – I think they’re right. He has used his “shock economics” to turn fledging economies around.1 And he‘s convinced that if affluent nations and people pool their resources -- and it only takes one percent of our wealth -- we can end the plight of the poorest of the poor. The effort, however, must be massive and concentrated.

As we talk about ending extreme poverty, I would advocate that we point our attention toward Africa, and here’s the reason. Bono has famously said, “There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames. When the history books are written this generation will be known for the Internet, the war on terror and what we did—or did not do—to put the fire out in Africa. We must engage as individuals and communities to confront these issues.”2 Bono is right, the world’s landscape is peppered with dire places and people, but the most desperate are in Africa. I was doing an interview with a radio station in Ohio when the host opened it up to callers. As soon as he did a man phoned in and said, “I’m calling to say I disagree with you Palmer. I don’t think people need to go to places like Africa to meet the needs of this world, we have enough problems right here in Ohio.” “Really?” I asked, with skepticisms heavy in my voice. “In Ohio are women chain to trees and sold into slavery, because that’s what happening in Sudan? In Ohio do starving parents trade their toddlers for a bag of maize in the dry season, because that’s what’s happening in Malawi? In Ohio are eight-year-old boys forced to carry guns and kill their own families, because that’s what’s happening in Uganda? In Ohio do babies die every thirty seconds from malaria, because that’s what happening across the continent of Africa? The fires are burning in Africa, that’s the reason our passions, abilities, and resources must be poured out there. I believe the reason we have been unable to put out the fires in Africa is because we haven’t fought them with enough fire hoses. If your house is burning, one hose will not put the fire out. But what if you doused the flames with a hundred hoses? That’s why we must collaborate, and make our efforts massive and concentrated. And we don’t have to give or do enough to make poor countries or poor people rich; we simply have to do enough to help them get their foot on the first rung of the economic ladder. When countries get their foot on the ladder of development they generally are able to climb upwards. But if a country or person is trapped below the ladder and the first rung is too high off the ground, they can’t even get started.

And here’s where it begins, with individuals giving their their lives away to change what’s broken in this world. It starts with one farmer in Ohio show a farmer in Malawi how to irrigate more effectively. It starts with churches, and circle-of-friends, and communities adopting one village to give them clean water. It starts with countries caring about other countries and putting medical facilities in every region. It starts with one person.That one person is you.

COLLABORATE AND SHARE My challenge to the church – Christians everywhere – is to collaborate and share. When we begin to pool our resources, and abilities, and passion we can make right what is wrong in this world.
Share Everything In Robert Fulghum’s memorable essay, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, he makes a list of all the life-long lessons he learned in kindergarten. My favorite lesson on his list is, Share Everything. In the Bible, Luke writes of a moment when a frustrated man approaches Jesus and pleads, “Jesus, tell my bother to share with me!” 4 In response Jesus tells this story: A man has a huge harvest, more than he will ever be able to eat. In fact, he probably has enough to last the rest of his life. But instead of sharing, he builds bigger barns. He doesn’t need it and still he won’t share it! And then something highly unexpected happens… he dies. Jesus’ point is, share! Share everything. It’s just stuff.I don’t know what it is for you that God is telling you to share, but you know. We all know.

Share What You do Best God gifts each of us with unique and beautiful passions and abilities. Use them for God. I was recently in Malawi with Steve, a US Airways pilot from my church. He led our team that spent two weeks loving orphans of AIDS. Steve brought stacks of Xerox paper. In every village where they cared for children, Steve spent his time teaching kids how to build and fly paper airplanes. Share what you do best. Dustin is twenty-four and repairs motorcycles for a living. So when I was recruiting dirt-bikers to ride the jungle trails of Liberia to give away 2,000 pairs of shoes -- that people of The Grove left behind on our Barefoot Sunday -- I called Dustin first. He said yes in a heartbeat. Last summer Dustin and nine others, spent two weeks sloshing down muddy trails on dirt-bikes, in the middle of rainy season, to give shoes away to people recovering from a devastating civil war. Share what you do best. Jack is an architect in Phoenix. Sometimes he draws churches. When I told Jack I was heading to Haiti with a team to rebuild a pastor’s house and church, after the earthquake, he said, “I’ll draw the building plans for you.” “Ah, that would be great Jack,” I answered, “but I’m sorry to say we don’t have money to pay an architect.” “No Palmer, I’m not asking to be paid, I want to make my drawings a gift to the people of Haiti,” Jack explained. But Jack didn’t want to draw the buildings in Phoenix, he said he needed to meet the Pastor and hear from his people. So Jack flew to Haiti with us and sat under tarps on Bellevue de Montagne listening to the dreams of a people hoping to put their country back together again. Now, with Jack’s drawings in hand, we start building their dreams this Christmas. Share what you do best. I think your life shines brightest when you are sharing what you do best.

Share Your Life Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower… take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.” 5 That’s the really hard one, sharing your life. But that’s the call of the Christ follower. He wants more than “belief,” more than a “decision.” He wants more than your money – sometimes giving money gets us off the hook -- or your things… He wants your life. On this side of the Atlantic, we are a blessed people. Like the man who built barns, we have a lot, we know a lot, we can do a lot. And when that’s the case, the God of the Bible says, Turn your blessing into a blessing for others. That’s how he said it Abraham, “I will bless you… and you will be a blessing… and all people on earth will be blessed through you.” 6 God said that to Abraham, now he says that to you… because one man cannot lift a house.

Notes:
1. Jeffery Sachs The End of Poverty. New York. Penguin Press. 2005.
2. Bono, quoted by Scott Morrison (speech, Parliament, London, England, February 14, 2008).
3. Mark 2:1-12
4. Luke 12
5. Matthew 16:24-26
6. Genesis 12:2-3

Expanding Ministry in the D.R.

Hello again!

This fall I have ventured into the world of architecture and construction. Strange, considering I have no knowledge of either field. As our ministry in the Dominican grows, our facility and capacity needs to grow as well. What a wonderful problem, to have so many people wanting to serve the children that we have run out of room! Each year we send on average 300-350 participants to the D.R. who serve in a number of ways. More people are constantly signing up to go - which is great! So now our goal is to fit and feed them all.

We are expanding Casa Bethesda (COTN-DR ministry site). The expansion is broken into three important phases:

- Phase 1: Kitchen renovation. A new, industrial sized kitchen will enable us to cook for our increasing number of guests, and provide great on the job training for COTN teens studying Tourism.

- Phase 2: Dining Hall. A dining hall will provide a great location for our guests to eat, and will keep them out of the hot Dominican sun.

- Phase 3: Additional housing. This new building will provide beautiful living quarters for our participants who serve with us for longer periods of time.

For some unknown reason, I have been entrusted with the responsibility of leading this charge. Thank you Jesus for providing so many amazing volunteers to help! Architect John Drake of Green Apple Architecture has given his time to develop floor plans for phases 1 and 2. (photos below). In addition, architects Justin Towart and John Aprati also spent countless hours volunteering their time to create the plans for phase 3. We couldn't do this without them! Other important players in this project are Gregg and Jo Hopkins. (see my Dec 2010 post for more on them). Gregg and Jo are generously helping in the fundraising process by sharing this expansion with their networking circle so that we have the resources needed.

I can't say it enough - thank you to all who are helping! Please join us in prayer as we complete this mission. Please pray for funds to come in, and that our newly remodeled mission site will be a blessing to those serving, as well as the children being served. If you would like to give directly to the Casa Expansion Project, you can easily do so by clicking here. Thanks for reading!

Malawi, Africa trip - August 2011

Below I have some photos and a wonderful video of our trip to Malawi, Africa. We went with a team of folks from Summit Church to run a camp for special needs children - similar to our trip to the Dominican. This time we took the children and their care givers out of their villages (many for the first time ever) and brought them to a resort where we held a camp to teach them about how they are loved by Jesus. Enjoy!

Check out our MALAWI TRIP VIDEO :)

Container arriving to the D.R.

hello everyone!
In June we sent a container full of supplies and donations to the Dominican Republic. It was full of supplies for Casa Bethesda, school books and food for our children. COTN staff member, Fraser Ratzlaff, had the privilege of being there when the container arrived. Check out the video!

CONTAINER ARRIVES

Our trip to the Dominican Republic

Here are some pictures from our trip with Summit Church to the Dominican Republic. Our team consisted of leaders and students from Summit's High School Student Ministries. We held a day camp for the special needs children of COTN's program. We had a great time playing all sorts of games with them.


Also, check out our DR TRIP VIDEO :)

Cleaning the DR

Well, it has been an eventful couple of weeks. We had our Band Together concert, and a good time was had by all. Last week we were able to get the AWESOME donations from Clean the World. The children in the Dominican Republic will be so blessed when their supplies arrive. Clean the World generously gave us:
- 15,063 bars of soap
- 15,300 hotel bottles of shampoo
- 7,900 hotel bottles of lotion
- 5,400 hotel bottles of body wash
- 18,500 hotel bottles of conditioner
How amazing? Check out the pictures!

We are praying that we can send a container to the DR this spring. Please pray with us! We have enough donations to fill a 40 foot shipping container but we need to raise $6,000 to send it. I'll keep you posted. Stop back soon for more!

Band Together: A concert for Africa

Join us at the concert as we raise funds for the COTN FL office!

The COTN office in Florida is looking forward to an exciting year in 2011 - sending Venture teams to serve in our countries, gathering donations and shipping them oversees, and much more. Come out and support the office by enjoying a fun concert. Tell everyone.

Movin' on up

Thank you to all of the people who have generously given to my ministry at COTN. I am at 58% of my support goal for 2011! Thank you, also, to those who have been praying.

That's not all the good news. Thanks to Kristina Miller, one of these amazing donors, I have been introduced to an organization called Clean the World. They collect unfinished bars of soap from hotels across the country, sterilize and reshape it and donate it to those in third world countries who need it. This then prevents many life threatening illnesses that can be easily avoided with a simple bar of soap. It's a fantastic organization and you should check them out. Well, Clean the World has agreed to donate about 15,000 bars of soap to COTN! We will be sending these bars to the Dominican Republic in our spring shipping container. Hopefully we will then be able to send a container and get more soap to Africa as well. They dropped off the first batch today! .. Most excellent.

In addition to the support raising and soap collecting, I have had a great deal of time to work on new standard operation procedures for Casa Bethesda. Please be in prayer for the development of these new S.O.P.s so we can begin our Hospitality internship program and train our students! I am very excited for the ways that this can encourage and empower our staff and students. High fives all around, thanks for reading my update. Happy 2011