It’s been almost 6 months since the major earthquake devastated the people of what was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The reporters have gone home. The concerts and celebrity fundraisers have ended. Much of the world’s interest has faded.

But things are not back to “normal” for the people of Haiti. (Not that what was previously “normal” would be acceptable either.)

So, what’s happening in Haiti now?

Fortunately, not everyone has forgotten about Haiti. Here are some great examples of what some people are still doing now in Haiti, and how you can get involved.

1) Cypress Meadows Community Church

A group of 14 people from my church are down in Haiti right now. They’ve been helping to rebuild a home and an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. We at Cypress Meadows have been supporting a church and school in northern Haiti (St. Louis Da Nord) for about 5 years now. The team that’s in Haiti now is trying to work out the logistics to get a water filtration system in St. Louis da Nord so people in that area will have clean water to drink, instead of the bacteria-filled water they drink now. You can read trip updates on their blog and pray for them and the people they’re helping.

2) Bridge 410

My church’s trip to Haiti was coordinated with the help of the wonderful people at 410 Bridge. If you would like to go to Haiti to serve or if you would like to send an entire team to Haiti, they can help you do that. If you can’t go, donate. Details are on their website.

3) A Home In Haiti

Shaun King, pastor of Courageous Church in Atlanta, has been out front leading efforts to provide tents to people in Haiti who lost their homes in the earthquake. aHomeInHait.org recently shipped 3,000 tents to Haiti. Now they’re moving on from Phase 1 which was providing temporary housing, to Phase 2 which is to provide permanent, sustainable homes, schools, orphanages, and more!

4) Fellowship of Believers

My friend, Dan King, is helping to lead a team of 48 people – most of them students – from Fellowship of Believers church in Sarasota, FL. They are heading down to Port-au-Prince in August where they’ll be doing a VBS with the children, interacting with local teens, painting an orphanage, distributing food to the poor, and doing other outreach and local ministry activities. You can read more about their trip and help support it here in The Haiti Diaries.

Do you have any more stories to tell of what’s happening now in Haiti? Share them here.

What are you doing to help the people of Haiti? If nothing, consider supporting those who are on the ground server.

That provocative statement is made by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola in their new book Jesus Manifesto. (Read on to see how you can save 40% or even win a free copy.)

Think about it.

If you’re a Christian, do you want the homeless guy who sleeps in your park to know Jesus, find his purpose, and get off the street because you love him? Or is it because having a homeless person sleeping in your park scares you?

Do you want the murder to find Jesus in prison because you love him?  Or is it because you don’t want another bad dude out on the streets when his sentence is up?

Do you want to reduce poverty because you really love people who are poor?  Or is it because you hate the world economic system that allows for such disparity in wealth?  Or is it because you resent your tax money going to government programs?

We can even look within the church…

For those of us who champion discipleship and spiritual growth, is it because we genuinely love immature believers and want to see Jesus formed in them more completely?  Or is it because we hate the people who just show up on Sunday and never serve, never put more than a couple bucks in the plate, act irresponsibly, smoke, drink, swear, screw around, and really don’t get it like we do?

Upon further reflection, all I can say is…

Ouch!

I’m guilty.

How about you?  When you examine your motives for wanting to change the world, is it because you really love people?  Or is it because you hate the unsafe, unpredictable, unfair world we live in full of unsafe, unpredictable, unfair people?

Jesus Manifesto is available on Amazon for 40% off today. Also find out how you can get a free copy of Jesus Manifesto by @LenSweet @FrankViola

[image by lab2112]

Today I’m reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of Addition by Adoption by Kevin Hendricks.  Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

In Addition by Adoption: Kids, Causes & 140 Characters, Kevin Hendricks shares the story of the adoption of his son, Milo, from Ethiopia.  The story is interwoven with 140 character Twitter posts (aka “tweets”) that give a glimpse into Kevin’s life as a work-at-home dad preparing for and then adjusting to the addition of Milo to the Hendricks household.

If you’re one who is still wondering, “What’s the point of Twitter?” or you have people asking you that question, Addition by Adoption goes a long way… not to explaining the answer but to exemplifying an answer.

Most of the content of the book is made up of Kevin’s tweets over a 2 year period.  It’s filled with funny little one-line stories anyone whose every parented a 3 year old can relate to.  It’s got emotional tweets about adoption & the conditions in Ethiopia.  Some of the tweets also tell the stories of how Kevin raised money to help the homeless and for clean water using Twitter.

Sampling of Tweets

Here’s a sampling of some of tweets included in Addition by Adoption…

Up to #14 on unofficial adoption waiting list. Excited, but trying not to get too excited. Phone rang today and made me wonder, is this it? No.
October 9, 2008

Me: “OK, Lexi, five more minutes and it’s going to be naptime.” Lexi: “No! Two more minutes!” Me: “Er… OK.”
January 22, 2009

Potty training continues in the Hendricks household. Today’s lesson: The boy who cried wolf retold as the girl who cried poop.
February 4, 2009

We met our wide-eyed little boy today. He’s very tiny and loves to watch everything going on. Quiet and cute. Made up for bewildering arrival.
March 20, 2009

I want to celebrate my 30th birthday with clean water for 30 people. If we do it I’ll shave my head: Bald Birthday Benefit.
May 15, 2009

We hit $600 so on June 13 I’m bald, but who says we can’t hit $5,000? Insane? Yes. So what? Now we’re up to $640.
May 22, 2009

Lexi, pushing Milo on the riding toy: “You want to go for a ride, Milo? Hold on, I have to get all the crap out of the way.”
October 9, 2009

In addition to being funny & interesting, I recommend Addition by Adoption for three reasons.

1. It puts a spotlight on the importance of adoption.
2. It demonstrates the power of social media.  The book is derived from tweets & is being promoted exclusively through blogs and social media.
3. Kevin is giving a portion of the proceeds from every book purchased to charity:water, a wonderful non-profit that brings clean drinking water to people in developing nations. Kevin’s goal is to raise $5,000.

Discussion

Which of these 3 aspects of the story resonates most with you?  The importance of adoption?  The power of social media to help others?  Or bringing clean drinking water to developing nations?  Why?

Get a Free Book

If you’d like a free copy of Addition by Adoption, all you have to do is

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a meaningful comment to this post that contributes to the conversation (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

One person will be randomly selected the afternoon of Tuesday 4/20 to receive a free copy.

Pre-Order Now

Right now you can pre-order Addition by Adoption.  If you do…

• you’ll save a buck
• twice as much money will go to charity:water
• you’ll get the book a couple of weeks early
• Kevin & his daughter, Lexi, will sign your copy.

But you must pre-order by Tuesday April 20.

Today is One Day Without Shoes.

Millions of children around the world have no shoes.  They often have to walk for miles barefoot to get food, water, go to school, or to the market.  This often leads to sores, infections, and other debilitating injuries.  According to the One Day Without Shoes website:

We are asking people to go the day, part of the day or even just a few minutes barefoot, to experience a life without shoes first-hand, and to hep spread awareness of the impact a simple pair of shoes can bring to a child’s life.

The One Day Without Shoes event was started by TOMS Shoes.

If you haven’t heard about TOMS Shoes, they don’t just talk the talk they, um, walk the walk:

TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.

They’ve given away more than 100,000 pairs of shoes. Here’s an awesome video that shows the impact they’re having:

I’m in!  How about you? Will you go today without shoes?

If you do, people offline will notice your bare feet and ask you what you doing.

But how about online?  Here’s a fun way to spread the word:

Twitpic your feet.

Post a picture of your bare feet to Twitter and Facebook.  Post a link to the pic in the comments here.  You might even Twitpic yourself barefoot throughout the day.

Here are my ugly feet.

To be honest, when I first received a copy of The Search for God and Guinness I was not all that excited about it.  I love God and I like beer, but I am not a big reader of biographies, preferring “more practical” books on leadership, spiritual issues, or social media.  So, it sat on my bookshelf for several months.

When in finally cracked it open I was sorry I waited so long to read it.

In the Search for God and Guinness, Stephen Mansfield tells the story of the Guinness family starting with Arthur Guinness, founder of the famed brewery, and continuing through the Guinnesses of today.  While the book recounts the amazing rise of one of the must successful breweries in the world, what makes the book and the Guinness family fascinating is the accounts of their character, faith, and generosity.

Because of their commitment to excellence and innovation in brewing the Guinnesses became exceptionally wealthy and influential.  But rather than selfishly squander it on themselves, they were exceptionally generous with the pay and benefits they gave their workers and they demonstrated an unusual commitment to improving the conditions of the poor in Ireland and Great Britain.

Favorite Quotes

• Clearly, this was the understanding at the time: gin destroys lives while beer is healthy and safe, enhancing rather than eroding good society.
• “We must exhort all Christians to gain all they can and to save all they can; that is in effect to grow rich… to give all he can to those in need.” John Wesley
• Arthur Guinness was the founder of the first Sunday schools in Ireland.
• October 25, 1886, the stock offering sold out within an hour.
• A Guinness worker during the 1920s enjoyed full medical and dental care, massage services, reading rooms, subsidized meals, a company- funded pension, subsidies for funeral expenses, educational benefits, sports facilities, free concerts, lectures, and entertainment, and a guaranteed two pints of Guinness beer a day.
• In 2005 the British people voted the widget (the small plastic capsule that allows a can of Guinness to be properly nitrogenated) the greatest invention in the previous forty years.
• A company should be measured by the culture it creates… what is encouraged to grow, the behavior and ways of thinking that are inspired.
• Guinness demonstrated the good that righteous wealth can do.
• A man’s profession was where he demonstrated to the world who he was.
• Don’t just sell your product – sell your product’s culture.
• “Gentlemen, find out the will of God for your day and generation, and then, as quickly as possible, get into line.” Prince Albert
• Whatever else you do, do at least one thing very well.

Personal thoughts

Stephen Mansfield concludes the narrative portion of The Search for God and Guinness with this line.

That part of the heritage will only live when men absorb it from the Guinness story and embed it in fertile fields of their own.

Clearly, he wrote this book not just to tell a fascinating story but to inspire leaders today to follow in the Guinness tradition.  These two sentences sum up that tradition.

What distinguishes [the first Arthur Guinness’s] story is that he understood his success as forming a kind of mandate, a kind of calling to a purpose of God beyond just himself and his family to the broader good he could do in the world.

[The Guinnesses] knew how to brew beer, yes, but they also knew how to care for their employees, how to invest wealth for social good, and how to create corporate cultures that would change the course of nations.

In an era where there is immense distrust and cynicism towards corporations and wealth – to the extent where a significant portion of the population considers them inherently evil – I found this account of success and generosity inspiring.

I highly recommend The Search for God and Guinness, especially if you lead or own a business.

Action Steps

As the CEO of a small business and a person of faith, I came away from God and Guinness with a renewed passion to do 4 things.

1. Do what we do exceptionally well.
2. Create a culture of excellence, innovation, faith and generosity.
3. Be more generous with our employees.
4. Be more generous with in our community and the world.

Discussion

Do you believe wealth is inherently evil?  Or do you believe in “the good that righteous wealth can do?”  Do you believe companies have a responsibility to invest in their employees and make their communities better?  If so, how?

Get a Free Book

If you’d like a free copy of God and Guinness, all you have to do is

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a meaningful comment to this post that contributes to the conversation (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

One person will be randomly selected the morning of Wednesday 3/10 to receive a free copy of God and Guinness.

A lot of people have been talking about going to Haiti to help with the relief effort.  The response that I’ve heard from a lot of people sounds a lot this reply Anne Jackson received on her blog after she announced she is going to Haiti:

I love your heart, but I have a question: What value will you add to the effort? What particular skills do you have to offer? From what I’ve heard from aid workers already there, what they need is people skilled especially in specialized health care. With already overcrowded air/sea ports, how will it effect legitimate aid efforts if all of us with soft hearts but no skills came pouring in the country?

Just asking.

It might be better to take the money you need to raise for the trip and donate it all to a medical relief effort already on the ground, or someone with hard skills like Compassion or Samaritan’s purse. Or for rebuilding efforts by organizations like Habitat for Humanity.

That’s a very reasonable response.  Good questions.  In fact, that’s the that’s the general consensus I’ve been hearing from the government officials & big charities who are leading relief effort.

But, I’d like to share with you a series of tweet from Shaun King, lead pastor of Courageous Church in Atlanta, who has been very involved in coordinating help to the people of Haiti.  These were posted Thursday.

Setting out my SoapBox. About to step on it for a few tweets. 1st my opinions then quotes from leaders on the ground in Haiti

ALL OF THE EXPERTS ARE DEAD WRONG…..

When the earthquake 1st hit, thousands of you immediately wanted to go and help BE the solution, be the hands & feet of God…

But you were told by the experts NOT TO COME. You were told to wait until some magical time when things were much better…

The experts were wrong. Some probably meant well because they didn’t want you to get hurt or be in the way, but let me tell you what…

Is missing in Haiti -passionate, hard-working, unskilled, loving, non-experts. They are in SHORT SUPPLY. I mean RARE.

Consequently, the MAJORITY of supplies are sitting unused & the teams of unskilled non-experts I am advising are regularly…

9 days later, regularly the first people to have ever visited orphanages and disaster sites. They ALL tell me that we should have…

# IGNORED the experts. Let me tell you a story that will kill you. The caretaker of the Notre Dame orphanage told @SpenceNix …

She heard dozens of dying babies trapped in the rubble scream & cry for 5 whole days before they all died. 55 babies died. Nobody ever came.

One more tweet from me then I want to type you a quote from our team on the ground…

It is NOT TOO LATE. If you feel CALLED to go to Haiti GO. GO! GOOOO! It is tough work, but GO! I will help you.

Next tweets are direct from our teams on the ground….

“The growing feeling here in Haiti is that the BIG ORGS & government don’t really care. It’s like they are here b/c the world is…

“focused here. If they care, little passion is ever displayed. Seems like a job or obligation. Even my sponsoring organization….

“(name of large Christian org) pretty much just set up a tent, gave us a vest and stickers and said go. No support. No passion. No questions

“Large amounts of supplies are just sitting in boxes everywhere. I have seen them there for days while hurting people & doctors …

“Need them. This has opened my eyes wider to the wastefulness of large charities and benefit of small, nimble, passionate groups..

“I have been in Haiti for 6 days and I still have not seen one large Red Cross presence. I honestly think social media has….

“Saved more lives since the earthquake than all but 3-4 great organizations here now. Passion. Relationships. Technology has changed …

“the game. We saved so many lives today and it was just us doing it bro.” <<<<<End of quote.

Now Shaun is just one guy.  What his contacts have experienced may not be true everywhere, but it’s a perspective more people need to hear.

Passionate, hard-working, unskilled, loving, non-experts are making a huge difference in Haiti.

You can too.

If you believe God is calling you to go to Haiti like Anne, I hope you too will listen to God not the “experts.”

Tomorrow Jennifer and I will host our 12th Annual Steinbrueck Oktoberfest.  What started as a church small group activity in our first apartment back when we were newlyweds, has grown into an epic party that tests the capacity of our average-sized home.  One year I think we topped 150 people.

While I love hosting Oktoberfest and have a great time every year, there is one thing I really hate about it.

But first let me tell you what I love about it and why we do it.

We love people. I believe there is an epidemic of loneliness in our society.  People don’t talk to their neighbors.  Most are not involved with charities or community groups.  Fewer people are involved in church.  Oktoberfest is an opportunity for us to reconnect with people we don’t see that often.  But more importantly it’s a chance for others to hang out with some friends and maybe make some new friends.  I love seeing people of different background get together. I love seeing my soccer friends talking with my church small group friends and my neighbors hanging out with my extended family.  Relationships are essential for a rich life.

We love Jesus. Through Jesus we can be forgiven and free from guilt.  He gives us a sense of purpose beyond ourselves, guidance for this life, and a sense of peace that He loves us and has our best interests at heart.  He invites us to have an ongoing relationship with Him.  It’s not about church, it’s not about religion, it’s not about rituals, it’s not about trying to follow rules or act like you’re perfect.

Jesus did not hang out with the religious leaders or isolate himself within a church.  He went and hung out with ordinary people.  He even loved people who were considered outcasts like the poor, those with contagious diseases, prostitutes, tax cheats, and immigrants.  He didn’t hang with them to preach to them or tell them to shape up, but because he genuinely cared about them no matter what their current situation and wanted to show them that they matter to God.

Oktoberfest is an opportunity for Jennifer and I to hang out with people who have not experienced God’s love in their lives and show them that we care about them and they matter to God.

This year, we’re also raising awareness and money for our friends at Springs of Hope, an orphanage in Kenya for kids who have lost their parents to AIDS.  For those who are coming, we ask you to consider donating what you might spend on dinner and entertainment for a night out.

Oh and, ah aure, we also like beer and brats and watching our friends make fools of themselves doing the chicken dance.

The one thing I hate about Oktoberfest is…

we can’t invite everyone we’d like to.

After Aryn, our 3rd child was born, we decided to scale things back a bit (tomorrow we expect “only” about 80 people).  At the same time, we continue to make more friends, particularly at Cypress Meadows Community Church where I serve as an elder and Jennifer serves as director of early education.  If we invited all our Christian friends, we would probably have to rent out Ruth Eckerd Hall.

It’s even more awkward now that I’m connected with so many people through Facebook and Twitter.  There are lots of people who have been to Oktoberfest in the past who we didn’t invite this year.  I feel if I tweet/post about it, people who weren’t invited will resent it.  At the same time, if I didn’t tweet/post about it, it would feel like I was trying to hide something because it’s a big part of our life this week.

If you are one of those who didn’t get an invitation, chances are you’ve already experienced the love of Jesus in your life and you’re already connected in community.  I hope you understand why we want to make room for those who haven’t and aren’t.

If you are coming to our Oktoberfest tomorrow, awesome!  We’re looking forward to seeing you!  I hope you’ll keep in mind why we do this and be intentional about stepping outside of your circle of friends to meet some people you don’t yet know.

In The Careless Society John McKnight takes a look at the service economy in the United States and how its rise has led to the decline in community.  His claim is that automation and outsourcing has resulted in fewer people producing products and more people earning a living by providing services.  In order to continue to prosper, we must continue to expand the service sector of our economy.  And in order to do that, people must be convinced that they would be better off using the professional services of an expert rather than relying on themselves, their family, or people in the community.

The service economy has expanded into the area of social services including marriage counseling, birth control counseling, financial counseling, legal counseling, education, child care, elderly care, and on and on.  McKnight argues, “Removing the mask of love shows us the face of servicers who need income, and an economic system that needs growth.  Within this framework, the client is less a person in the need than a person who is needed.”

Additionally, McKnight provides examples of where professional services may have been counter-productive and actually made problems worse.  But for economic and political reasons we continue to reach for professional services to solve those problems.

“The Careless Society” reads like a doctoral thesis, it takes considerable focus and mental energy to follow. For those willing to put forth the effort, it’s an interesting look at many of the problems our society is facing.

But the real gem in this book is the last chapter titled “Christian Service.”  It rocked my world by proposing a revolutionary alternative to serving others.

In this chapter, McKnight looks at the way Jesus turned the world upside down by exhorting his followers to become servants rather than lords.  But then right before his death, Jesus turned the world upside down once again when he said, “No longer do I call you servants…  I call you friends.”

So here is Jesus, after spending his entire ministry telling people to become servants, in his very last hours he invites his followers to an even higher calling – to become friends.  McKnight writes, “Friends are people who know, care respect struggle, love justice, and have a commitment to each other through time.”

Why friends rather than servants?  Perhaps it is because He knew that servants could always become lords but that friends could not.  Servants are people who know the mysteries that can control those whom they give “help.”  Friends are people who know each other.  They are free to give and receive help.

How are you treating those around you?  Are you lording over them?  Are you serving them in a helpful but impersonal way?  Or are you becoming a friend to those in need?

Pollster and author George Barna posted a thought-provoking article this morning on the health care reform debate going on in the U.S.  He takes a look at how Americans want to address heath care and how Jesus dealt with the sick people he encountered.

First, according to surveys, the vast majority of Americans think health care deficiencies should be solved by the government more than any other entity or group of people.

Two-thirds of adults look to the government to solve issues related to poverty – including health care deficiencies. Just one out of every five adults believes that solving poverty is an individual duty, and a mere one out of 25 people assigns that task to non-profit organizations, and another one in 25 assigns it to churches.

Second, Americans help those who need health care, but only at arms length.

the most common responses are for people to give money, food, and clothing to someone else to get the job done. In contrast, the most personal responses are the least common. Relatively few Americans talk directly with the needy, tutor them, build homes for them, visit them, befriend them, or engage in other types of personal activities to address the issue.

Barna concludes that the predominant attitude in America  towards helping those without adequate health care is “it’s not my fault and it’s not my job, so let the paid professionals deal with it,” oh, and don’t raise my taxes to do it.

Barna then cites 7 principals that underlie Jesus’ health care strategy as found in the Bible.

1. Jesus healed people because He believed that good health matters.
2. Jesus invested Himself in their healing because He loved and cared for people.
3. Jesus healed everyone who presented a medical need because He saw no reason to screen some out as unqualified.
4. Jesus healed every kind of illness He encountered.
5. Jesus pursued them because He saw Himself as a servant.
6. Jesus allowed them to disrupt His schedule because He realized that people’s pain and suffering was their top focus in life.
7. Jesus expected His closest followers to heal others.

Jesus personally attended to the health care needs of the poor and disenfranchised and he called on his followers to do the same.  There’s nothing in scripture that says government programs can’t be part of the solution, but Jesus never passed the buck to the government when sick people were standing in front of him.

My first thought was, “Yeah, well, if I had the gift of healing and through God’s power could instantly cure people with blindness and leprosy (or if I at least some medical training), I would be more personally involved in helping those who need health care.”

Maybe there’s something to that.

But I also know that I have the same 24 hours in a day that Jesus had and a lot more financial resources than Jesus.

So, what’s your response to those with insufficient health care?  Who do you think should be helping them?  If you think it’s primarily the government’s responsibility, how do you square that with how Jesus’ approach?  And if you oppose a government solution, what are you doing to help those with health needs?

You can read the full article here.

Last week in a post titled “We’re Back! Now What?” I wrote about how small amounts of money can make a huge difference in the lives of people in Kenya and told you 2 year-old Isaac’s story:

When we visited the school, we found out one of the boys there has a 2-year-old brother with a severe hernia.  It’s so bad the boy can no longer walk.  Unfortunately, the family could not afford a hernia repair surgery.  Cost?  $50.  It just so happens that one of Jennifer’s friends who is a nurse, gave $50 to put towards whatever we thought would help the most.  Arrangements are now being made for the surgery, and within a few weeks this little boy should be able to run around like a little boy again.

I got an email from Molly today with an update on Isaac and 2 pictures.

I posted the first picture of Isaac and his mother to the right.  The second one shows Isaac’s scrotum swollen to the size of a grapefruit because his intestines have fallen through a hole in the intestinal lining.  For several reasons I decided not to post it publicly.

Isaac was admitted to the hospital today and is schedule to have the hernia repair surgery tomorrow.  Please pray the surgery goes well and he makes a quick recovery.