Thanks for Helping Us Help Haiti

The benefit concert for Northwest Haiti Christian Mission with Remedy Drive was a blast. It started with an email listing a few open dates for the band and fell together more quickly than I could have imagined. That seems to be the trend with the whole experience.

I knew there'd be a bit of a 'built in' crowd because we were doing it on Wednesday night instead of our regular worship time with the students.  I hoped to convince a couple other youth leaders to bring their groups as well, but wasn't sure - we churches aren't always the most prone to changing plans at the last minute. As it turns out, there were several congregations that were willing and able to do exactly that! We had groups here from Scottsbluff, Gering, and Alliance and people from all over the valley that made it to the show.  (My brother and a few friends even came up from Laramie.)

All because I'm such a great publicist/promoter... Ok, that's definitely not it! Maybe it was because everyone out here loves Remedy Drive... That's definitely more likely than the first claim, but I think there was something more happening. We were able to bring people together because we were doing something that matters. This wasn't just about the music - although Remedy Drive and Gabriel Tyce Bruton were great. It was about the church bringing hope to the hopeless. It was about Jesus opening doors and mobilizing His rescued people to be a part of the rescue of others.

I walked into the newspaper office hoping for a little blurb in the community calendar. The benefit concert ended up as a front page article. That turned into a TV interview with the local news station (which was followed up today by another short interview that should air tonight). The response from the community has been great. We raised just over $2300 Wednesday night for NWHCM - in addition to about $10,000 given to WestWay to send to NWHCM over the past couple weeks!

I'm feeling sort of like the little kid who gave up a few loaves and fish at the lake one day. Jesus took them and turned them into a whole lot more! He's pretty good at that... Don't just stay feeling helpless because you feel you don't have much to offer. Give the 'little' you think you have and watch what He can do.