Myths of disaster reliefAid groups address public stereotypes about overseas disasters

SEATTLE – As they rush to save lives in the wake of the Haiti earthquake,aid workers also must address myths about disaster relief among theAmerican public. Edward Brown, relief director for Christian humanitarianorganization, World Vision, debunks five myths around disaster relief.

1. Collecting blankets, shoes and clothing is a cost-effective way to help

The cost of shipping these items from around the country – let alone thetime it takes to sort, pack and ship them – is prohibitive and entails muchhigher cost than the value of the goods themselves. World Vision has reliefsupplies already stocked in disaster-prone countries as well as instrategically located warehouses around the world. World Vision hadsupplies pre-positioned in Haiti in preparation for hurricane season, whichallowed the agency to respond immediately to last week’s earthquake.These supplies are designed to meet international standards forhumanitarian relief and are packaged up and ready to deploy as soon as acrisis strikes. Cash donations are the best, most cost-efficent way to helpaid groups deliver these life-saving supplies quickly, purchase suppliesclose to the disaster zone when possible and replenish their stocks inpreparation for future disasters.

2. If I send cash, my help won’t get there

Reputable agencies send 80 percent or more of cash donations to thedisaster site; the rest is invested in monitoring, reporting and otheractivities that facilitate transparency and efficiency in their operations,as well as in sharing information with those who can help. Donors have aright and a responsibility to ask aid groups how they will be using thosedonations, and what will be done with donations raised in excess of theneed. Transparent and effective organizations will readily provide thatinformation.

3. Volunteers are desperately needed in emergency situations.

While hands-on service may feel like a better way to help in a crisis,disaster response is a highly technical and sensitive effort.Professionals with specialized skills and overseas disaster experienceshould deployed to disaster sites. Volunteers without those skills can domore harm than good, and siphon off critical logistics and translationsservices. Qualified disaster professionals ensure that help is deliveredeffectively, safely and efficiently.

4. Unaccompanied children should be adopted as quickly as possible to getthem out of dangerous conditions.

Hearing about the specific needs of children often sparks a desire to adoptchildren who seem to have lost their families. However, early in a crisis,children need to be protected, but should remain in their home countriesuntil authorities can confirm the locations of their family members andexplore adoption possibilities within their own communities and cultures.International adoption may be the best solution for some children, but itis too early to know for sure in the first weeks of a crisis.

5. People are helpless in the face of natural disasters

Even in the poorest countries like Haiti, people often reveal a great dealof inner strength and often show a resourcefulness that can save lives...While support and aid are necessary, the Haitian people are by no means helpless.

For more information on World Vision’s response, or on ways the public canhelp, please visit http://www.worldvision.org/, or phone 888-56-CHILD.

Why I Support NYCUP - Savina KimJohnson

After graduating from college, I volunteered as a NYCUP co-director Spring Break ’06 with my friend Marcella. We had both taken a week off work in our corporate jobs to lead college students through this catalytic experience (our co-workers raised eyebrows when we told them we were going to the South Bronx for our “vacation”).

I was once told that the poor is not a problem to be solved, but a portal to the heart of God. Because I serve a God who cares deeply about justice, to follow Him means to love Him, love others…do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him (Micah 6:8) – and invite others to do the same.

I support NYCUP because I believe it is one of the best service/immersion/internship opportunities out there. Through it, I’ve seen students grow in so many ways, including:

· Justice - by being placed to work in quality, faith-based, non-profit organizations that serves the under resourced in NYC

· Spiritual formation - through meaty Bible studies on poverty and service & deep theological reflections

· Leadership – because once you experience all this, you’ll be bolstered in faith to be a part of God’s transformative work in bringing change and renewal to the places of deepest brokenness

...that’s only a part of it.

NYCUP provides a robust context to live out these values and delve deeply into God’s heart by investing one’s time, energy, talents, and resources into His city. In the process, students are empowered to be agents of restoration and justice in areas of desperate need, and serve as the prophetic voice and life-giving hope in the midst of poverty and despair. I pray that God will continue to use NYCUP to raise up leaders who will advance his kingdom in his city.

Why Do I Support NYCUP - Brooke Adams

I support NYCUP financially and prayerfully because, quite simply, it changed my life.

I attended the Spring Break Plunge in 2005, during my sophomore year of college. I had planned to come for the week, learn a few things, serve a few people, and go on my way. I was planning to go to Scotland for the summer to visit some friends. Then God changed my plans.

He called me to return to the Bronx for eight weeks that summer. I resisted. I shouted and stamped my foot. And then I went.

At NYCUP I learned hard lessons: how the color of my skin impacts my relationships with those around me. How my sins affect my community and hurt my brothers and sisters in Christ. At my internship, as I became frustrated with what I perceived to be a lack of organization and objective for the summer camp we were trying to run, I learned that in the Latino community in which I was working on the Lower East Side, my supervisors placed more value on the relationships I was developing with our teenagers than on how smoothly my creative writing class went. I learned the hard lesson that I would sometimes mentally "check out" of my internship during the day, until I could leave the projects and return to the NYCUP house, where I felt safer. And I realized that the kids I was beginning to love couldn't leave at the end of the day. And that broke my heart, and made me pay more attention.

When I went back to campus I began taking urban studies and education classes in addition to the literature courses required for my English major. I wrote a photographic essay for an urban studies class on structural racism: how the literal fabric of the city reflects the value the city places on its residents. The route I chose to document? The walk I had taken every day that summer, from the Astor Place subway stop to Avenue D. As you walk, the landscape changes: from a corner with three Starbucks on it, down a street with mostly white young professionals. Then the houses become more decrepit. Halfway to the East River stands a police station that occupies a fully city block. More faces on the street are Hispanic or African-American. And then you run into a dead-end: the projects. The sense of appalled injustice I felt every day I took that walk stays with me, and it motivates me to act. I support NYCUP because I encountered God's call to justice there, and it changed my life.

Brooke Adams is a graduate of Vassar College, Class of 2007. She and her fiance, Simeon, met at NYCUP in the summer of 2005.

Ntandose Hlabangana: Why Do I Support NYCUP

I went to a small university in West Virginia called Salem International University for my undergrad and coming from Zimbabwe I was exposed to schools and campuses that had Christian Student bodies or groups like Scripture Union (like what Intervarsity represents) that participated in missions around the country, enjoying fellowship while reading the bible, worshiping and helping each person in the groups together with those not in these groups grow in their walk with Christ or minister to those that didn't know Christ. I arrived at the University only to realize they did not have one of these. I was bothered for the longest time then I became complacent to the point where I chose to accept the lie that I couldnt do anything. Yes, I found a small church with loving people that took me in and I now consider as family, but I still did not do anything about our campus. I would minister to those that I associated with but I still had the urge to want to reach out to more people but still didnt, because I allowed fear to hold me back. I wish I could say that I left Salem having started a christian student group, but unfortunately that wouldn't be true. I graduated from Salem and moved to Pittsburgh where i re-discovered my childhood passion to reach out to the less fortunate (hence my starting an organization back home to build orphanages and provide funding for tuition to those dependents of HIV/AIDS victims as well as the underprivileged.

NYCUP has reached out to students providing them the opportunity to serve in the ministry, while growing in their walk with God and being brought to awareness of the injustices of this world, as well being involved in missions that show God's love to communities. I will be studying International Law in particular because I have a passion for preservation of humanity and human rights and NYCUP does so through their fight against human trafficking and modern day slavery amongst other things. To sum it all up, NYCUP has become a source that enables and or teaches students to grow and live their lives not just by hearing the word but doing it and practising it in their everyday lives on and off campus by being involved in different missions that not only affect their campuses but communities, nations and the world as a whole. It stands for what I believe in, which is that anyone can make a difference and it starts with one person, which ive come to understand from the first time I arrived in the US when I was in Salem. And it would be humbling to be a part of this ministry.

Feed 500 Reflection: Transformed to Love

On Saturday, November 21, I met two men—Anthony and James. The first thing you need to know about these men is that they are made in the image in God, which, if you boiled it down to its essence, means that traces of divine glory and beauty can be found in every single person. The other characteristic thing about these men is that neither of them have a home.

I was participating in an event called Feed the 500, a day of ministry to the City’s homeless, coordinated by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s New York City Urban Project (NYCUP). This day was key in making me realize two things—first, that every human being truly is beautiful and deserves to be cared for, and second, that ultimately, the one reason I can love is because I was loved first.

We trickled into the NYCUP headquarters in Washington Heights, and the hundred student volunteers from around the City broke into teams making sandwiches, writing notes of encouragement, and stuffing brown paper bags with our freshly-made meals. Meanwhile, I was pleased with how gratifying this all was. We were being so nice, taking time out of our Saturdays and feeding people who didn’t have a dining hall into which they could swipe their meal cards. I surveyed the tables lined with rolled-up paper bags, and I said a quick prayer that these meals would change someone’s day for the better.

All that was wonderful until Jonathan Walton, the director of NYCUP, asked each student to take two lunch bags and begin our mission for the afternoon. One lunch, he said, was for the person without a meal and the other was for us. Apparently it was so that we would sit with the person receiving the meal and eat with him. Deep down this is not what I wanted to hear. I longed to not have to get my hands dirty, to be able to hand the poor and needy a lunch while remaining warm, safe and cozy in my fifty dollar Columbia sweatshirt. But that was not what I got.

Before we left, Jonathan reminded us all why we were doing this in the first place. As a group of Christians trying to live out our faith, “we love because he (God) first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Because God loved the people of His creation so much, He died for all the selfishness, hatred and pride in our hearts and rose again so that we could be with Him. These words moved me. If there is a God who loves me without limits so much so that He would die for me, surely with his help I can love the people around me without limits as to how comfortable I am, how safe I feel, or how much time they carve out of my afternoon.

With those words in the back of my mind and with bags of sandwiches filling my arms, my group left Washington Heights for our assigned strip of the city. It was not long before we encountered two men on a park bench. One was bent over, asleep, and the other was organizing his few belongings into some trash bags. A little hesitant at first, my friends and I approached the man who was awake and said, “We’re from the New York City Urban Project… would you like something to eat?” He agreed, and we spent the next hour and forty-five minutes talking to Anthony, hearing of all sorts of things from how he had run three marathons to how he had messed up his marriage and lost his wife, his money and the custody of his child. James, the man who had been sleeping, woke up and began eating several sandwiches, saying a few grateful words here and there and explaining to us why it was hard for him to stand up straight and even hold on to his food. I was filled with so much happiness when both of them laughed from time to time, for I saw a little glimpse of the beauty infused into them, and I imagined God laughing with joy along with us.

It’s easy enough to ladle soup into a bowl and hand it to someone, or even to write a check to a homeless shelter. I’m not trying to diminish the importance of either of those things, but, as Jonathan would say, what would it look like if we actually cared about the people around us and spent time actually loving them? New York would be a very different place if it wasn’t so uncommon to see students, professors, doctors, and lawyers using the resources we have and not just caring for people in the workplace but in all the different places we find ourselves daily. If you feel that’s impossible for you, like I often do, turn to Jesus. I guarantee you He will transform your life and fill you with his power to love.

- Rebekah Mays, Barnard IVCF

River of Grass

I hear the whispers from the river of grass telling the sleeping manatee it's time to breathe, the flamingo it's time to switch feet and the crocodiles and alligators that though one's skin is lighter than the other there's no need for low self-esteem, prejudgment, or feelings of inadequacy and even if the latter's snout is round instead of thin they are invited into the harmony that exists between the red mangroves and the residents in its roots, the blades of saw grass that cut no creatures passing through and the frenzy of feathers and fauna that call this clash of habitats --- home.

This is the Everglades --land of the seminole and then the soldier, the colonies and the colonized , the live-ins and the passers-by all trying to do what the Everglades do so well -- live in a balance like an egg on end and if untouched would stay that way with not so much as a problem or conflict because the mud and leaves, mosquitoes and trees are a living picture of mucky perfection that we keep trying to suburbanize or gentrify into something that will generate profits when anything man-made will definitely be of lesser value.

The Everglades are out there but what if we could get a little of the everglades in here because the parrots and the blue jays certainly speak different languages, and frogs and toads come from different backgrounds, and the cattle egret and snowy egret are the same species but different ethnicities and all of them seem not just to survive but to thrive in a place where we don't look hard enough to see the life inside.

I hear the whisper of the river of grass telling Miami-dade to take a break and turn down Beyonce and little Wayne, take a trip to everglades and listen to the crickets and owls sing because we might find that our songs aren't music at all.

The Exalted Shall be Humbled

The folks from Westboro Baptist Church, headquarters of the infamous “God hates fags” movement, have been in the New York City area for the past several days. It was a big weekend for them, protesting wicked Catholics, rebellious Jews, Obama the anti-Christ, and of course, the heathen gays. On Thursday, they decided to stop by the Jewish Theological Seminary to explain that God was fed up with Jews who refuse to repent of their apostasy and that he will soon wipe them from existence. Obama, too, wishes for the destruction of the Jews, as would be expected from the anti-Christ.

So, why did I and some of my Christian friends show up at their protest with signs trying to counter their demonstration? They’re trying to provoke a reaction, right? And wouldn’t any counter-protest serve to legitimize their views to some degree? Who takes them seriously, anyway? They believe that Christ and the anti-Christ have somehow set aside their differences to annihilate the Jews.

These are all fair points that I had to consider, but as a Christian, I had a much larger stake in this protest. They were representing Jesus in a way that his followers simply can’t allow to go unchallenged. The God of Westboro is primarily one of judgment. He applauds only those who have achieved a high moral status by following the right rules, holding the right doctrines, and condemning the right groups of sinners.

Contrast this with one of the stories from Luke in Chapter 18. The passage begins, “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable…” (Luke 18:9). The story is about two prayers from two very different people, a priest and a tax collector. First, the priest thanks God that he is not like all the sinners he sees around him, like the tax collector beside him, and then lists a couple of ways in which he is particularly holy.

The tax collector, however, could make no such prayer. People in his profession were known for extracting far more than the government actually required of its citizens so that they could reap the benefits. They went unchecked by the empire, and were thus common symbols of greed, corruption, and Roman imperial oppression. His prayer was simple. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). When he finishes his parable, Jesus says, “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

One of the main criticisms raised against Jesus by the religious establishment of his day was that he spent time hanging out with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners, and this is why I had to try to correct Thursday’s misrepresentation of him. Westboro isn’t just a group of off-the-wall religious fanatics—they represent something larger, the idea that God is interested in the morally upright. He is not. People who followed what they believed to be God’s law couldn’t stand Jesus because he accepted many people that they always rejected. God is instead interested in people with humility and the willingness to listen.

Don’t get me wrong. Just a brief glance at several passages in the Bible would reveal that God is clearly a judge who will punish wrongdoing, but the manner of that punishment makes known His true character. The Torah sets up a system of laws showing the Hebrew people right from wrong and punishing them when they choose the latter. Sacrifices were always required to make up for infringements, which makes sense. A holy God, perfect in every way, could not be in the presence of imperfect beings by definition. Some change on the part of the imperfect had to transpire, and sacrifice was the usual method. But God wanted to commune with his creation more than anything, which is why he sacrificed himself in order to be with his creation. He had nothing else to gain from such behavior. And so Christians celebrate. We are undeserving, but blessed.

When we see ourselves or others living in ways that violate God’s law, we can’t condemn anyone because God did not condemn anyone. Instead, we attempt to show people the God who can be trusted to provide us the right way to live because of His sacrifice.

So, to all whom the church has ever excluded—Jews, homosexuals, or anyone else—we welcome you. We hope you will spend time with the Christians at Columbia as we try to follow the Rabbi who is teaching us to live with true humility and love. As for the Westboro crowd, if they wanted to join us, we would welcome them, too. For now, I can only pray that God grants them the mercy they so want him to withhold from everyone else.

The author is a Columbia College senior majoring in history. He is the president of the Veritas Forum and a member of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.