Allen Hunt's Blog

Natural disasters and catastrophes, especially those on the scale of the cyclone in Myanmar, the earthquake in China, and the much smaller tornadoes in Oklahoma, always raise difficult and painful questions. Why does this happen? Where is God?
We have 3 ways to answer:
1)There is no God. These things just happen. We live in a tough world. Things happen randomly and haphazardly. Get over it.

2)An all-powerful and all-knowing God caused this to happen. We do not understand His ways, but He must have some kind of plan that is beyond our grasp. That plan includes causing large-scale death and disasters.

3)We live in a broken, fallen world. We humans are sinful and our knowledge of God, or even the grandeur of the universe, is flawed and limited at best. We cannot explain how and why some things happen. But we do know this: God is love, and His heart breaks at the pain we experience in this lifetime. One day, all creation will be brought to completion and perfection by the God who set things in motion in the first place.

Number three is the answer of most Christians in most places throughout history. We do know that God is love. Scripture teaches that. The Church seeks to embody it. We each have experienced it. Jesus is that.
As love, God calls us to respond to the need with compassion and grace. Natural disasters are out of our control. But we can control how we respond. When Jesus saw people in need, He responded. He went to them. He generated resources to assist them. He had compassion for them. And He acted.
And we who follow Jesus will do well to follow His example. Ministries and believers are responding to these disasters based on the model of Jesus. Feel free to assist them with your prayers, your time, and your money.
World Vision (see the ad link on our home page) is doing excellent work by God's grace in Myanmar. Setting up villages and safe harbors for children separated from their families. Offering basic supplies to people in need. Sharing generously.
Catholic Charities and United Methodist Commission on Relief are also on the scene and assisting in China and Missouri and Oklahoma.
These folks need your help. Please be generous.

http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=1712646

My wife and I are deeply passionate about protecting all God's children, the born and the unborn. So we find various ways to express that passion.

We pray, we give time, we give money. And a few years ago, we gave our used Honda Odyssey van to a pregnancy resource center (PRC) in our area to share with a client facing an unexpected pregnancy and financial stress.

Last week, we received an email from the PRC director, serendipitously updating us on how that one van has been used by the hand of God. True providence. Too good not to share.

Excerpts below:

I wanted to share with you that your donated Odyssey has become some what of the Lord’s instrument for salvation and practical help, somewhat of a Heavenly Chariot.
The first mother who was gifted your car, lost her baby at 24 hours old, one year ago, February. As we made funeral arrangements and sat with this young lady at the final visitation with her little one, at the Funeral Home, she tearfully asked about Heaven. Beyond sharing the Gospel that day, an elementary school level, Christian story book, was purchased for her to explain to her five year old where their baby was: in “Heaven”. This book also shared the Gospel. Within one week the grieving mother surrendered her life to Christ.

Though she did not drive off into the sunset in your car, she did wind up at My Sister’s House, in her state of Grief and long term brokenness. After nine months she wound up living with her mother up north. In the meantime her car was impounded as she left it in a place she should not have. She and I spoke as soon as two weeks ago and she is well, also sharing her mother was saved during that time.

What amazes me is that God seems to be upholding your hearts desire for the purpose of that car . . . .
Just Sunday I went to visit a client's newborn baby girl. The young mother, age 14, is being raised in a home with her 17 year old sister and her 15 month old baby boy. The single grandmother (no older than 38), working near to 72 hours per week, has been having transportation difficulty. I nearly fell out of my chair as she shared that she had just purchased a great Odyssey from her place of work, the car impound. She stated clearly that the car once belonged to one of our clients' mother but the mother had moved, so she had purchased the car since it was up for sale.

Our Hope is that yet another story of Salvation will come about from those Heavenly Wheels you donated several years back.

She's gone. To Mexico.

Elvira Arellano has been arrested and deported. I shared her story on the show this past Saturday. After one year in "sanctuary" at Adalberto United Methodist Church, Elvira left, drove to Los Angeles, spoke at an immigration rally, and was arrested shortly thereafter.

The government did its job. The ICE agents enforced the law in a peaceable and reasonable way.

And the Church and its pastor, Rev. Walter Coleman, did its job. Offering grace and compassion to a woman in desperate need. Coleman offered Arellano sanctuary for a year in the church. He now is providing a home for her son, Saul, 8, who has been left behind in the USA. He is a citizen here; his mother, Elvira, is not.

He's here; she's gone. To Mexico.

Rev. Coleman did the right thing. He offered hospitality to a stranger in need. Just like the innkeeper did for Joseph and Mary. Just like Abraham did to three men, who turned out to be divine. Christ-followers remember the Lord's words: "When I was a stranger, you welcomed me..."

Those words make all the difference. The Church is in the welcoming business.

See also http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8R4VU400&show_article=1