Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald are back in the States after their time in Haiti!

Who Will Help the Church?  Such a question sets the context and motivation for this ministry, with the recent Haiti Earthquake tragedy seminal in promoting the purpose for this ministry.

Here is how this ministry is introduced… in their own words…

Churches Helping Churches was created to address the immediate and long-term needs of churches when disaster befalls a country, region, city, or people in the spirit of Galatians 6:10—“…let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Our help complements the initial waves of humanitarian aid that pour into a country in the wake of a disaster. Many countries have relied on networks of local churches to be a primary conduit for the flow health care, humanitarian aid, and even education. Rebuilding churches is a means of restoring infrastructure in a country through which aid can flow into local communities which so desperately need it.

Both throughout history and following specific tragedies it is often the local church that cares for widows, orphans, and the poor. It is the church who performs the funerals, grief counseling and spiritual follow up with families of victims. Rebuilding local churches helps address the practical and spiritual needs of a country, one person, one neighborhood, and one community at a time.

When the magnitude of a catastrophe can be described as “biblical,” it is the local church that reminds people that another biblical concept is even more powerful: hope in Jesus Christ.

You can find more about this ministry of ChurchesHelpingChurches… HERE… and you can donate to help the Church rebuild in Haiti… HERE!

To give you some context of their time in Haiti, here are a couple of videos.

This is how Driscoll describes the following video’s on Facebook…

In the background you can see the church that was holding choir practice last Tuesday.

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Filming a destroyed church down a dead end when the water truck went dry & the crowd became a mob.

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USA Today have also published an article on the contents and the context of their trip.   An extremely troubling section of this article was the following…

Driscoll and Macdonald also saw a glimpse of what lies ahead for many young girls. His posting on line:

If u want a phone, cigarettes or a teenage girl you can get them here in Port au Prince. Like the American who said he’s on a relief mission and bought a hungry girl despite our confrontation.

I asked Driscoll more about that scene in a brief phone interview with him last night, minutes after his return last night to the USA.

We were downtown loading up our film crew. There were no police, no medics, to be seen by a huge park with hundreds of people camping out with no where else to go. There was a little cart with a red umbrella and a man selling cell phones and cigarettes — and a few young girls.

“You want to buy loving?” the guy asked me. I said, “What in the world are you talking about?”

But there was another guy there, who claimed to be a translator for a relief agency, who was negotiating a price for a girl. I asked him what he was trying to do. He said, “Oh, she’s a friend of mine. We’re just trying to connect.”

That’s ridiculous. A young girl. A man 20 or 30 years older. I told him this was unacceptable. MacDonald confronted him, too. But there were no police and you could argue all you wanted but the girl took his money and they walked away.”

I encourage you to read the full article,which you can find HERE.

Subsequently, as Driscoll also affirms in this article, and on his Facebook page, he states the following…

We are sending the photo of the American guy picking up a girl for sex to the relief org he said he worked for.

Such a present reality is sad-beyond-words!  Such may also underscore the loss of internal order as a result of the Earthquake

This is how Driscoll describes his oddest moment there…

Oddest moments in Haiti -naked people bathing with buckets in the street, the boy trying to sell our photo guy cocaine at the seminary, and the French soldier who got off the plane and dropped his machine gun pointing at me. French soldier fail.

To give one an insight into how the impact of such an experience has had on the man, this is how he has described his present context…

Emotionally wrecked putting together a special sermon on Haiti for Sunday like nothing I’ve ever done.

If you’re interested in this special sermon, this is how this message is described in the USA Today article…

So, if you’re within sound or reach of Driscoll or MacDonald this Sunday — and more than 80,000 people are part of their church networks, millions more download Driscoll’s sermons or tune in the MacDonald’s radio show — expect harrowing stories and a challenge from the pulpit that won’t mince words. Driscoll says,

We’re not going to compete with existing aid groups. We just want to use our influence to help churches effectively mobilize to raise funds for relief…

People are desperate. Young girls are ripe for the worst you can imagine.

Therefore, in closing, be encouraged to remember these men in prayer, as they prepare to speak of unspeakable things, in light of the impact that they can have for those who have no voice, but who are presently suffering beyond imagining in Haiti.

In light of the tragedy in Haiti, and Driscoll’s present impact in this context, let us join in prayer with Driscoll as he petitions our God…

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Play Your Part!

For the Fame of His Name

Man of Spin

H/T: Justin Taylor, Resurgence

Postscript: To further add to this picture, Driscoll has recently affirmed the following on Facebook…

Dear Mars Hill on Sunday we are taking a special offering for ChurchesHelpingChurches.com for Haiti.  Come ready to give generously twice.

The plan for Haiti is coming together well. First staff, first places to support, orphanages, schools, churches getting prioritized for where to begin. Thank you for all who have given & the churches taking special offerings Sunday. We are moving as fast as we can. One week ago this hr the call came & we started even discussing starting churcheshelpingchurches.com

Prepare to be wrecked. You will see it all. You will bawl. You will worship. I pray you will give generously. We are taking our Haiti photo & video footage & recording a documentary type sermon for Mars Hill to be played across every campus Sunday then posted online. Pray I can emotionally get through it one time for the filming.