Now some choices are small and inconsequential (what to wear, what to eat) but others are of more weighty importance.  Some of our choices are life and death.  And like everyone else we have the one most critical choice: to either worship God and give our lives to following Him, or keep going on our own way.

In recent news one ship kept going its own way, and the results were disastrous.  On March 10^th of this year a cruise ship by the name of Star Princess passed by a Panamanian fishing boat.  The engines of this small fishing boat had gone dead, and the young and inexperienced crew of three couldn’t get it started.  They had been adrift in the ocean for 15 days, and saw the cruise ship pass by.  They waved frantically with the last of their energy for a response from the ship.  Three passengers who had been bird watching saw the stranded boat and notified the crew.  But something happened, and the cruise ship passed on by.  As a result two of the three fishermen died, and the boat was finally found after being adrift for 28 days.  In the aftermath, investigations are underway.  This is a tragic ordeal, and hopefully things are hopefully being sorted out in such a way that it never happens again, and if there is negligence on the part of any party, that it is corrected.

It makes me wonder of the present tragedy that our church is facing.  We live in Canada: a blessed and prosperous country.  Yet there are people every day that we pass by.  We have the light of Christ, and the news of salvation to bring to a lost and hopeless world.  But do we care about sharing our faith?     Connected to this, there are the poor in this world that scripture says we have a responsibility to take care of (Mat 25:40).  I hope that we are not a church that goes our own way, or makes our choices based on the reality of our own selfish pursuits or convenience.  I also hope that we don’t find our motivation for ministry using tools of guilt, fear, law or obligation.  It’s important that we use God’s word to build our relationships.  We can know and love God, and fully understand the glory of who He is.

John, on the island of Patmos saw the reality of God’s kingdom as of heaven opened up to him.  He saw the magnificence of heaven explode around his senses as the angels and elders worshiped:

“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.”

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
   to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they were created
    and have their being.”

                                                (Revelations 4.8,11 NIV)

This kind of display helps us to understand that God is the center of the universe.  We are not.

Yes we have a freedom of choice.  The problem is that as broken and finite beings, it is also exceedingly difficult to make the right choice.  When it is up to us to choose, we sometimes subtly begin to shift our thinking until the purpose of our choice is us, and that somehow pleasing ourselves is our entitled right.  This is simply not true.  As followers of Christ we are simply not the center.

 I don’t know specifically where you are at on planet earth at this given moment as you read this, but take a look again at what true reality of this world is.  We know that Christ is in control, and He is high and exalted.  As we think about the vision of John, I hope that we see the hope and glory of Christ, and truly want nothing more than to be a part of that worship, and to call others to join in.  Let us love our God knowing that there is nothing greater than to choose him.  Out of that let us be loved by him, and by that love share a heart of compassion for the world around us.

Lorn Gieck
Associate Pastor of Music & Arts

You can follow him on his twitter account: @rgwilson9 .

Or, you can just click here to visit his twitter page.

No entrance fee

WHERE :
cornerstone church
315 lenore dr.

WHEN :
june 17th. 2012: fathers day
starting at 10:30am

THE DETAILS :
live music, prizes and great cars
rc cars and bouncy castle set up for kids
drinks, hot dogs and hamburgers will be available for purchase (youth fundraiser)

However, having them in your home is another issue altogether. The children come in groups of two or three with one of their adult chaperones. We provide sleeping space and some food as an exchange. This time because we were hosting them on a Sunday night we had them in our homes for two nights as their rule of thumb is to take Mondays as a day off from traveling and performing. They arrive at our homes Sunday night after the performance and clean-up are finished. They leave Tuesday morning after a full day off when they do laundry, school work and sleep in. This gives a little more time to visit and to play with them. The first questions our guests asked my wife was whether or not we had children. They love to play with other children on a day off. They were disappointed when she said no but happy when she said we have grandchildren that they will get to spend some time with.

The girls are orphans who live in a Watoto home with a mom who creates a new family experience for up to eight children per home. It is a wonderful thing that Watoto is doing. If you don`t know much about them go to their website: www.watoto.com. It is very impressive what they are accomplishing. However what I have noticed is that these girls crave a father-figure`s attention. Give them a bit of time to get to know you and they want all the attention you can give them as a man. The girls sat on each side of me Sunday night with a book asking if I would read to them. Monday night when I got home I had to leave for another meeting but I promised the girls I would see them before they went to bed. I arrived home around 9pm and was tired. I said hello to the girls then turned on the TV to watch the last bit of the hockey game when all of sudden two girls are right beside me. One takes the remote out of my hand and turns off the TV while the other one grabs my hand and says, “Come play with us.` Obviously you deny what you want in order to play with two girls that you may never see again.

Later, God spoke to me about what had transpired in my home. Their hunger for my attention is exactly what God wants from me. God wants me to desire Him in the same way they wanted my attention. Play with me, read to me, talk to me or just spend time with me was their heart`s desire. God wants me to have the same heart desire for His attention. He is always available. He is always waiting. He is never tired or busy or wanting to do something else with someone else. He constantly watches me. He is always available to me. Crazy to think that I`m the one who gets too busy or too tired or too distracted or would rather spend time with someone else and ignore the creator of the universe but its true.`

The other lesson was a bit more pointed than that one. I arrived home and the auntie who was staying at our place asked me how my day had been. She was standing in my kitchen washing dishes and cleaning up. I told her how I rose at 5:30, started my day with a breakfast meeting at 6:30 and ran a full day before arriving home at 4:30 only to head out to another meeting at 5pm. Honestly I was whining about how hard I was working even though it was not that hard of a day. (in my defence I was also battling a cold…I know I know its not much of a defence). This woman, born and raised in Uganda spending her life rescuing, raising and rebuilding the lives of orphaned children listened to my sad lament. Once I was done this was her response to me. She stood in my kitchen with her arms extended at her side gesturing to the house I live in and said this in response to my complaints, `Pastor Russ, to whom much is given, much is required.`

That took guts but it was like the voice of God Himself speaking through this wonderful African woman saying to me don`t you dare complain about your life. Look at how much I have blessed you. You have more than you will ever need. You are blessed to the extreme. Don`t you dare complain about what I have called you to do.

I got in my car, drove to my next meeting but I couldn`t shake the image of this wonderful African woman being bold enough to confront me about my complaining in regards to serving God. I am blessed. I have an abundance. I have nothing to complain about. My God is a good and generous God. I am trying to live with this as a constant awareness in my day to day life.

I can`t wait for the next time Watoto shows up. I know God will use them to speak to me again.

As my time at Cornerstone comes to an end I realized that I will miss hanging out with these people every week.  I have always enjoyed the kids, but the volunteers have been a blessing to serve with as well (some may argue they are just big kids!).  My prayer is that with the transition our volunteers will continue to serve, they will continue to bless families and the future CE Pastor with their commitment and consistency to our kids and their devotion to serving God.

So I just recently had my first chance to go to Haiti. It was actually my first mission trip ever, and as much as you hear the stories and see the pictures, you still don’t quite understand until you put your feet on the ground and see it with your own eyes. The fact is, when I arrived in Haiti, it felt like I’d stepped into a totally different world. Of course that is a bit of an odd saying, because I haven’t really left the planet. What really happened was the experience of something different than what I am familiar with. I became aware of the amazing diversity with which God’s creative energy spoke the world into place. There are different people, cultures, plants, and animals. And God said his creation was good. As unfamiliar as Haiti may seem from my perspective, I have to admit it was a beautiful place.

As I read in Genesis 1 it’s interesting to read about the details in which God created the world. We see details of order and of purpose. Plants and animals are created in such a way that God envisions this natural ongoing rhythm in the continuance of each species. Genesis 1:11-13 says “Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.” That as He put plants, trees, fish, birds and animals into the world they would continue to reproduce and fill the earth with more of the same. The same is true with human beings. God said to man in verse 28 to, “be fruitful and increase in number”.

This begs the question, what kind of fruit are we producing? It is inspiring to be in Haiti to worship with our Christian brothers and sisters there. They are very expressive in their worship. Hands are raised, songs are sung loudly, there is clapping and movement. Haitian worship is exciting and engaging in ways that are different from ours. I’m certainly not going to say its better, especially after understanding from scripture that God’s creative diversity expressive itself in different ways. Maybe we are just different. But what I was struck by was the fact that the whole community is engaged, and thus modeling and passing on the passion of worship in very tangible ways to the next generation. They achieve expressive passionate worship because they are constantly being shown how to do it. The adults teach the children by their actions.

Our worship culture is a bit more subdued, but we also need to be aware of what we will produce. Our challenge as worship teams is to help lead and model appropriate responses while we worship our God. I recently read the book Revolve: A New Way to See Worship. In this book Pastor Nelson Searcy says that, “If you serve on the worship team, remember that congregation members will take their cues from you. In fact I’ve found that they will give me back about 10 percent of what you give them.” What he’s saying is that we actually have to work a lot harder than our brothers and sister in Haiti in order the help teach and model biblical patterns of worship in response to our great God. It might feel like an exaggeration at times, but we are serving God, and we need to understand that our comfort is less important than our ability to lead and bear fruit in our ministry.

So as we go into the summer, let’s think about the fruit of our worship ministry, and of what we are producing. If we are lifeless and passionless in our worship, then we will be raising up a generation behind that will be just like us. Instead let us take up the challenge to love our God deeply, and to lead others to know and honour Him in their lives. The Cornerstone Church worship ministry should be full of men and women that are models of faith that worship in Spirit and Truth and like Paul can have the boldness to say: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9). Let us continue to challenge each other and look forward to bearing the fruit of the next generation of worshipers.

Lorn Gieck
Associate Pastor of Music & Arts

Some of us went to the beach for the afternoon, and walked in the water among the jelly fish. It was concerning at first, but nobody got stung.

We went to the church service this evening, which was inspiring, seeing the Hatians pour their hearts into their worship. Lisa also prayed for the team, and for safe travel home.

All in all it was a less busy, but good day to end our trip.

As we get ready to head home in the morning (or shall I say in the middle of the night), we are reflecting on this journey. For myself, it was a very fulfilling experience to come to Haiti and serve God here by showing His love to these people in a very practical way.

I will be glad though to be home again with my family, but I know that I will always treasure this experience, and will see things from a new perspective.

Lori Fehr

We’ve got one more day of work tomorrow, and it’s been very gratifying to see the building projects that are being accomplished.  The tech center came a long way while we were here.  We poured a lot of floor, built stairs, platforms, columns, and walls are starting to come up on the second level.  Today was another pouring day and we were able to convince the Haitian crew to use wheelbarrows instead of doing by buckets.  That made the process so much faster and easier.  Teaching process and technique seems to be a very significant part of the training process.

VBS was a success today.  Jonnie was leading the large group portion of the program.  He is amazing with the kids and really knows how to pump them all up!  It is so loud when the kids get going together.  The kids were amazed at the magic tricks, loved the face painting, and always love getting sent home with a special treat.  Things went very smooth with that program today.  Our team enjoyed the kids reaction to the magic tricks, but really got a kick out of the translator’s  reaction, he was astounded by the magic and it just came out in his expression.

Mannie was the name of  that magic loving translator.  Darrell and I were chatting with him earlier about music and worship.  In addition to translating Mannie is one of the key worship musicians here.  He has a passion to serve God, and humbly use his gifts in the church.  I’d also like to say he’s very talented and plays the keys very well.  I’ve really appreciated getting to know him through the worship training times, playing music together, and just through informal conversations.  These personal kind of connections are the things that help you see the hope in Haiti and the passion for God in the church here at Haiti Arise.

We also had another chance to do some house dedications.  Today we went and prayed for two different families who had been blessed with housing projects through Haiti Arise.  One widow shared with us her very difficult journey.  She had a beautiful house, but after her husband died, and after the earthquake she was left with nothing.  Despite these setbacks she resolved in her heart to trust in God.  And now today she was able to give testimony to the fact that God cares for her.  She has six kids in a small three room house, not much by our standards, yet we were able to share in her joy today.  These are the things that Haiti Arise is doing in the community. They are meeting practical needs and makes me blessed as part of our church to be a part of this partnership.

Ok, maybe the blog was not so short.  Tomorrow is our final push.  You can tell everyone is getting tired and are starting to get ready to head home.  Pray we have a great final day, and make the most of our work and our worship with this final opportunity.  May God be glorified in us as we work in Haiti, and I trust we’ll bring a piece of that glory home with us to bless our country as well.

Pastor Lorn Gieck

So, we became aware of some new dangers today.  Breanna and Johnna discovered just how aggressive, disgruntled face paint recipients can be.  Although there were clear rules and translators available, B and J were swarmed (and not in a gentle, take your turn fashion).  Later, Breanna and Johnna handed out jelly beans at the gate.  Apparently this is a high risk activity that quickly required the guards to intervene as they were pinched and pushed and grabbed  etc.  Luckily the guards were able to save B and J before serious injury.  Joanne has a new respect for hens with new chicks.  She got a little too close to the babies, I guess, or so Mama Hen thought.  It’s just a good thing that Joanne was carrying a stack of plates that she used to shield herself as the chicken flew at her chest.

I have had an amazing experience working in the elementary school and doing a little teacher training.  I spend most of my school time working with a 2^nd grade teacher in his classroom.  Johnny is a wonderful teacher and I am so impressed with how much he does with so little.  His class has 32 students ranging in age from 7 – 14.  Johnny is 21 years old and has been teaching for 4 years.  The classrooms have one solid front wall and half walls dividing the classrooms.  They do a LOT of reciting and memorizing (loudly) so you may be able to imagine how loud it is in the classrooms. French is the language taught in school here. I brought French books for Johnny’s classroom and I’m quite sure that the students have not seen books before except for the little reciting books that they have (very small print and no pictures).  It has been so much fun to watch them get so excited about having books to read.   Sometimes, we read to the children under a mango tree.  I read a book in English and Johnny reads the same book in French.  The children are very sweet and really affectionate.  It doesn’t take long to become pretty attached.  I will definitely miss them when we leave.

I just have to say that we have such an amazing team.  What a huge blessing to work alongside a group of faithful servants of God.  This is an incredible, growing, stretching, humbling, eye opening, and fun experience.   God is very evident in this place!!!

Linda Sawatzky

In the afternoon we got to do a house dedication with Pastor Marc. The lady whose house we went to, Sister Luc, is one of the cooks at Haiti Arise. Her house was completely destroyed in the earthquake. Haiti Arise has built her a new house and she moves in on Saturday! The house is beautiful. She even has a little rock garden up front. We prayed over her and the house and Marc gave her the keys. It was one of the best things I have ever witnessed. I had tears in my eyes the whole time. She was so thankful and made sure to give every one of us a hug before we left.

After supper we got to go to the future South Campus. What a back drop that land has! Mountains and palm trees line the amazing fence that the Cornerstone men helped to build. One day I hope to come back and see the finished product.

Before bed we will have our daily card game with Roy, the building superintendant who runs the show at the tech school. This is another one of my favorite times. These people have become our little family away from our families.

The end of our trip is coming so fast, it is bittersweet for me. I have fallen in love with Haiti.

Johnna Koroluk