A Culture Of Umbrage: Hillary Rosen, CNN And Outrage

I’m not a huge fan of Hillary Rosen. She gives off the kind of air that exudes puckered embitterment. You get the feeling that she can be a little crunchy around the office.

Before she was a “Democratic Operative” she was president of the RIAA. (Recording Industry of America) Like any good trade organization they are constantly involved in self congratulatory activity that gives off the appearance off accomplishment. A capitalism treadmill; lots of activity but getting nowhere.

It’s true they are the organization that certifies when an album is gold and platinum. A job that most certainly isn’t in demand as it used to be. A job whose main qualification is the ability to count. The same skills required for a puppet on sesame street.

A few years ago, Ms Rosen was part of the genius pool that decided that it would be awesome to sue the individual users of Napster. A scorched earth policy that accomplished nothing but bad PR for the music industry and some high blood pressure from unsuspecting parents being sued for their kids online activities. A dramatic misreading of the American people.

She seems to have done it again with her statement about working moms. Declaring that Ann Romney “hasn’t worked a day in her life” she poked a political dragon in the butt. The judger has become the judged. She has been thrown under the bus by her own political allies; A bus driven at break neck speeds by her political opponents.

As you can see, I’m not a huge fan of Ms Rosen, but I think this entire episode is a ridiculous distraction from better things.

Of course what she said was condescending and naive. My wife chose to stay at home to take care of our 4 children and our family is forever blessed because of her sacrifice. She works harder than me on any given day or night. To her Ms Rosen’s comments are insulting.

I couldn’t disagree with her more vehemently. I’m just wondering if it really requires us to devote a weeks worth of lead stories, talking head segments, and op-ed pieces in every major news outlet.

One more time our national dialogue has been hijacked by a culture of umbrage.

While we’re having this war of semantics outrage over working moms in America, I stood next to the grave of a dead mom in Haiti. She left behind 5 kids with no Father to care for them. She was 42. Her grave was fresh, only a couple days old. It was less than 20 feet from the shack her kids call home. Buried in the back yard, like a dog because there was no money for a cemetery. Watching the toddler playing on the dirt pile next to the hole brought a flood of emotions to me. He just didn’t know. How could he?

Her name was Carmene Pierre. She loved her kids. They loved her. Her 5 kids will now be raised by their sister in her early twenties. Carmene was a working mom, and on behalf of her and countless other moms like her, wouldn’t it be better if we we were fighting for those moms too?

While I’d love to be outraged at the comments made by Ms Rosen, I’ve only got so much time and outrage to go around.

Instead I choose to be outraged that Carmene suffered and died due to high blood pressure; something that would have easily been medicated in a developed nation. A year from now Ms Rosen will be gainfully employed and this political catastrophe will be long behind her. A year from now Carmene’s children will still have no mother and live in a shack next to her grave.

I’m outraged that Hillary Rosen is a border line house hold name, and Carmen Pierre died in anonymity. I’m outraged that national news networks are devoting time to a pretend “war on moms” with metaphorical casualties when there is a real war on mom’s in places like Haiti with actual casualties.

What kind of crazy messed up world do we live in where the name of a left wing democratic operative who can count is more known than Carmene Pierre? I’m outraged by the amount of time and effort given to Hillary Rosen and zero given to Carmene Pierre.

Outrage is such a useless emotion if it doesn’t fuel action towards addressing the cause.

Because I can’t do much, it’s tempting to not do anything. But what a waste of outrage. I asked myself, what could I do? What can we do?

Say her name to Jesus. pray for her children.
Share her name here in the social networking platforms of Web 2.0
Write her name in the memo line of a check/ donation.

Her name matters more than politics. Let’s use it.

Conduit Mission is committed to raising the funds to building a house for her children. The rainy season is upon us, and Hurricane season is right around the corner. It’s going to cost $12,000 to build this house. It’s going to be concrete blocks with stable footing to withstand the elements. Constructed in a way to more easily withstand an earthquake.

Long after Hillary Rosen and this week’s political debate is gone, this house will stand as a testament that we can do better things. And the kids inside, will grow up educated, fed, and cared for by their sister along with the support of an amazing local church.

They don’t know the name Hillary Rosen, and I hope they never do.

If you can help.. Go to www.conduitmission.org click on donate and put Carmene Pierre House in the memo. We’ve already had over $2,000 committed. We can do this.

Or you can go to http://www.crowdrise.com/haitihouseproject/fundraiser/Craigfelker and support my friend Craig Felker who is running the Nashville Marathon. He is raising money that will go towards this house as well.

Or maybe God will speak to you to do something we haven’t thought of. God is creative like that.

The Story of Conduit Mission in Haiti

Give A Dam?

On Christmas 2004, a quarter of a million people died in a Tsunami in South Asia. Just a few months later in Kashmir and earthquake killed another 80,500 people. And just a few months after that, Hurricane Katrina would kill 1836 people right here in the United States. Along with the death was a swath of destruction and suffering that would last long after for the “lucky” survivors.

I didn’t really do much because.. well.. I didn’t give a damn.

Actually that’s not entirely accurate. It wasn’t so much about giving one, as it was building one. I had built a dam. 

In the book of John Jesus said that rivers of living water would flow from with in us.  A river. When water is flowing, moving, it creates oxygen in the water. Oxygen, the most basic requirement of life. A river full of life.

I had inadvertently reduced my Christianity to a set of policies, programs and procedures. If you were an unbiased third party looking in on my life you would have concluded that Jesus had become man, lived a sinless life, died a brutal death, resurrected on the 3rd day just as the scriptures foretold so that I could go to church and build a successful company. My entire identity as a believer was wrapped up in my career and church programs.

I had a company. I had clients. I had youth ministry. I had used these things as building blocks to contain the Spirit as opposed to outlets for Him.


The key evidence that the Holy Spirit is present isn’t tongues or prophecy, it’s Love. Paul makes this clear when He says that Love is the Fruit of the Spirit. Jesus told us in John 15 that He had called and ordained us to bear much fruit. My lack of response for those around me going through suffering that I couldn’t imagine, was a lack of love, a lack of fruit, and a lack of the Spirit.

I dammed what God wanted to do through me.. and I had dammed it with? Me.

I lived behind the seeming safety of a dam that I had slowly built up over the years. Don’t get me wrong, behind every great dam is an awesome lake. Great for entertainment, fishing, boats, and fun. If you live near the lake or come to the lake you can enjoy it. If you live downstream, you’re dammed.

But I started having this nagging feeling. Is this it? Is this what Jesus came for? I’m at church almost every time the doors are open, I even sit in the front row and underline stuff in my bible. I was clearly missing something.

In 2007, while watching Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie on CNN talking about the work they were doing in Burma, India and other places on behalf of people in abject poverty. I sat there thinking.. man If I were rich I’d totally do what they’re doing. Maybe when, some day if, something I had said to myself before. But for some reason, that night, that time.. it was different. I realized, what kind of a jerk do I have to be to see and know what’s going on in our world, and do nothing. Jesus at that moment awoke a possibility in me.

Holocaust Survivor and Author Elie Weisel said “the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference.” And there I sat there in a stagnant pond of my own indifference. But that night, something changed in me. I didn’t know what I would do, I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that “nothing” wasn’t the right answer.

From that moment Conduit was born in me. And over the next few weeks I began to ask myself a lot of questions. What if we could provide a simple pipeline to transfer resources from people with plenty to people in need. A pipe, it’s simple, no moving parts, yet serves a profound purpose. Could it be that simple?

That same year, Conduit became it’s own 501c3. We were about to find out.

We didn’t realize it but what we had done was open the floodgates ; the ones the Lord spoke of in Malachi. The floodgates, speaking of water.. so much that we couldn’t contain it. We’re not designed to be a reservoir, we’re designed to let it flow on through us. The idea being conveyed isn’t so that it pours over the sides and makes a mess all around. Rather that it will be plenty for us as we turn on the faucet for those downstream. All these years, I had read Malachi and connected the floodgates in Malachi with financial blessing. But water is never a picture of money in Scriptures. On the other hand it is very often a picture of the Holy Spirit.

In 2007 we saw just over $12,000 flow through Conduit. The next year it was over $30,000. In 2009 It was over $60,000 and then it came rushing over $260,000 in 2010 and as of December $243,000 so far this year. To date $611,000 in cash donations have gone through Conduit. This doesn’t include the value/ cost of in kind donations of airplanes, fuel, supplies, medical equipment, etc that has gone through.

And soon, it wasn’t just our money it was our talents, our abilities, our time, all flowing through the Conduit. It was the Holy Spirit that was moving like a rushing river and the financial gifts were just part of the flow. We were using our talents, our gifts, our creativity, our lives. All flowing from places with plenty to places in desperate need.

It really was a perfect picture of the life that Jesus had called us to. Streams, creeks and tributaries of His Spirit; Mostly young singles, college kids, and married couples coming together and giving the gifts, talents, financial rivers joining together to create a larger, more capable river.

Those streams bring life all along the path that they cross. Life beside the stream, life inside the stream flowing until it encounters another stream, and then another river, and soon the streams have created a much larger more capable river.

When disaster struck Haiti, we were flowing with what would ultimately be over $200,000 in financial aid, and tens of thousands of dollars more in medical, food, and other in kind donations.
When a Tsunami struck in Japan we were flowing with almost $10,000 in supplies sent through Samaritan’s Purse.
When a flood destroyed much of Nashville, we were flowing with work crews, with tens of thousands of dollars, with weeks of rebuilding.

When tornadoes struck the southeast we were flowing with truck loads of supplies and aid for the victims in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee

The Conduit has flowed to Togo, Africa. It has flowed to Uganda, Africa. It flowed with Ben Holeton spending months in Haiti overseeing our building projects there. It is flowing to India with Eric and Tisra Fadely and their 4 children who are leaving in the very near future to oversee the work of Sarah’s Covenant Homes in India. (working with special needs orphans)

The Mississippi River starts not far from where Shannon’s dad lives in MN. And it’s a small, tiny little river. But the further it goes, the more rivers, creeks, join up, and by the time it reaches the gulf it’s a massive force of carrying life to the people all along it’s banks and far beyond.

Which describes what conduit is becoming. Conduit flow has quite literally been an agent of change here and around the world. In Mon Orge, Haiti. Voodoo priests shutting down their businesses. Single moms finding hope in Christ and not in the next man to come along. Dozens of weddings as marriage is not only taught but celebrated.. In short, the entire community is changed from the inside out. And then those new streams, creeks and tributaries are joining to make the river even more capable.

When you build a reservoir. You’re building a lake. You can have all kinds of fun on the lake. But no matter how far you go, you end up where you started. Jesus offer was to follow Him. A lake denotes recreation. A river on the other hand; that’s for adventure, for discovery, for.. LIFE!

He told the woman at the well that she would never thirst again. It’s not a promise of everything going smoothly, that there would be no suffering, that there would be no risk or no danger. But it was a promise that we could, like Paul, say we’re content. we’re fulfilled

My hope is that you’ll join in with us. In assuring your life is fulfilled. That you never have to experience the dryness that I did.

And why consider bringing your abundant life with ours? With conduit?

Why Conduit? We’re nimble. We ramp up quickly. When disaster strikes we can and do move very quickly. When the Tornado’s struck the Southeast our first truck was on the ground in 24 hours. When the floods hit Nashville we were out in waist deep water rescuing people and their valuables while the rain was still falling. 95% of the money that has come in the past 4 years has gone straight to the projects on the front lines.

I’m excited to tell you one more reason .

Historically our ability to raise large sums of money has come from our relationships with the Millennial generation through social networking. Research has shown that this generation will give on average only less than a hundred dollars a year, and that they are significantly more likely to donate if there is a matching donation involved.

That’s why tonight we are very excited to announce the launch of www.doubledonations.com

We are providing an opportunity for their smaller streams of revenue to join with larger revenue streams through doubledonations.com Your gift tonight will be doubled through our $10 army over the next year.

Our goal is much larger than $50,000. We want to awaken the possibility in the hearts of the millennial generation to the power of giving,

And this is what we hope to awaken tonight in you.

So tonight I’m asking you to not give a dam, but to consider removing your dam if you’ve built one up. And if you’re already someone who has experienced this abundant life, to consider joining your stream, creek, tributary or river with our river. As you bring life to those in front of you already, and then joining with ours bringing life to many more down stream.

My challenge is to have conduit born in you. To have this dream come alive in you like it did me.

So tonight my hope is that your rivers, your tributaries, will connect with Conduit. That the rivers in your heart will be opened up. And together we can bring life to a world in need.

www.conduitmission.org

 

Mobile phone: Weapon against global poverty – CNN.com

Mobile phone: Weapon against global poverty – CNN.com.

I’m completely fascinated by this idea.  I’ve been in the most remote places on earth and the difference.. even between now and 2 years ago, is that there is cell phone coverage everywhere.

Laying on the ground in a tent in Northern Togo Africa there were 4 bars of service on my iPhone.  I had to poop in a corn field,  shower from a bucket behind banana leaves, get water from a well, but I could text my wife or update my twitter.

There is so much upside to this.  This article does a great job in communicating the benefits on how it helps in the fight against poverty.   It allows for us to maintain nearly constant communication with our people who are on the ground working on behalf of the mission.

A hundred years ago a missionary got on a boat, and left.  It could be months, even years before anyone back home would know what was happening.  Even if he or she died, it could take months for the news to reach home.  Now I can send a It allows me to send an “i love you” text to my children a hundred times a day if I want.

It’s allowing for commerce to be conducted, businesses to be started, and connectivity to happen for anyone.   This is all amazing, and exciting to watch unfold.

I’m also intrigued by the idea of how it plays a role in our future.  During the great tribulation period spoken of in Revelation 13 it tells of a time when the entire world would be under one government.  There is a prophecy indicating that   “It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave” to receive a mark in their right hand or on their head before they could buy or sell anything.

It’s not just talking about a currency but a financial system.   I’m particularly struck by what it looks like when I hold a cell phone in my right hand against my head.

I’m not for a second suggesting cell phones are evil.  (although there are times I wonder how much of a benefit all this connectivity is) I am simply saying that there is a global system that is proliferating right now into the furthest corners of the globe that would provide the capability of this type of commerce.

He is coming, just like He promised.  Our redemption draws nigh.   Let us be those servants who are found working on His behalf.

 

 

 

 

Revelation13:16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.

Danny Pye At Conduit

http://darrentyler.podomatic.com/swf/joeplayer_v18c.swf

Danny Pye was held in a Haitian jail without charge for 5 months without charge.

For more information about Danny you can read here.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/16/florida-missionary-released-haitian-jail/

Danny spoke at Conduit on September 25, 2011. The above is the audio of his talk.

Jailed Haitian Missionary Danny Pye Coming To Conduit Sunday September 25, 2011

http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnnewsplayer/cbnplayer.swf?aid=21980

We are so blessed to have Danny Pye join us at Conduit this Sunday September 25 at 1030am. You can find directions and information at http://www.conduitchurch.com

Danny was held in a Haitian jail for almost 6 months without ever being formally charged with anything. His wife was 3 months pregnant when he was taken to jail. She was left to care for their ministry and the orphans that are a part of their ministry. He survived physical abuse, hunger, cholera, and of course the desperation and loneliness that went along with such an ordeal. Conduit was blessed to play a small part in the ordeal when we were able to tell his story to Jay Sekulow at ACLJ. Jay and his organization http://www.aclj.org sprung into action at the highest levels of government and Danny was freed days later.

You can hear his story of survival and persevering first hand.

Also, would you mind spreading the word? Donating your Facebook status, twitter updates, or for that matter stand out on the front porch and yell to your neighbors?

Conduit April 11- The Hope Of A Nation

In 1791 Saint Dominque was the richest European colony in the world making many French wealthy through gigantic sugar plantations and coffee-producing estates. With a new nation being born just to its north Revolution was in the air in a country that would become known as Haiti.

A half million slaves who were the driving force of this enterprise started doing a head count and realized they outnumbered owners by 15 to 1. Those are overwhelming odds by any ones standards and certainly a confidence booster when planning a revolt. The slaves from Africa combined forces and overthrew their euromasters and sent them packing. 

Over 200 years later this nation born from freed slaves is the 148th least developed of the worlds’ 179 countries. The average annual salary is $240- about 66 cents per day. 50 percent of the population lacks access to potable water and barely 10 percent uses electricity. For those 10 percent that have access to electricity it goes off every day for several hours. 

What I saw on the ground was a nation in the throws of poverty. There is no public garbage service and so it is strewn around everywhere. There are piles of it, mountains of it, rivers of it and streets of it. There were literally streets that seemed to be paved with it. An interesting juxtaposition against a heaven whose streets are paved with gold.

This nation of former slaves was built on the backs of a people who had no idea what it was like to be free. As slaves it was not in any interest of the owners to educate their property Thus it was that a half million men women and children with no education, no resources and no God set out to form a nation. 

With no formal training many of the former slaves retreated to the nation’s interior where they farmed small plots with little outside investment. They settled into subsistence farming techniques that continue to this day. It’s those very farming techniques that have played a huge role in stripping the land and have prompted an ecological crisis. In a year like 2007 when 4 major hurricanes blew through it is cataclysmic. 

It is recorded that Haiti is the first nation that was ever established by a group of former slaves. This is not entirely true. Israel holds that title. Israel had been living in slavery for 400 years under the brutal Egyptian government. Like our brothers and sisters in Haiti, Israel was the economic engine for the prosperity of their owners. 

When you consider this it begins to make total and perfect sense why one of the first things that God would do is to park them in the desert and give them The Law. It comes into focus why God would tell them to farm the land for 6 years and every 7th year to give the land a break. (Lev 25:1-2) It makes sense why He would take the time to tell them to go outside the camp and bury it when they have to go to the bathroom (Deut 23) It’s clear why He would tell them to stay away from certain foods that we know today have the dangers of carrying disease. (Lev 11) 

It wasn’t a God trying to set up some sort of cosmic buzz kill system but rather a merciful God that knew what it would take for a people to coexist in a new land. It makes you wonder if Israel would’ve found themselves in the same condition as Haiti if God hadn’t taken the time to give them an education. 

Many experts believe Haiti is not beyond hope. It has a relatively small population and is in a stable region. By some accounts there is about $1B in foreign aid immediately available that could be invested in hospitals, schools, health care, electrical systems and vital infrastructure. And yet that isn’t happening. 

John Currelly, an agronomist with the Pan American Development Foundation in Haiti says “If you had covered these mountains 100 years ago with high-producing fruit trees and various other perennials, this country would still be richer than Canada. Haiti is extremely productive and has a tremendous recuperative capability … The land itself, if left alone, comes back very quickly.”

But the land has never been left alone. Its riches once fueled an empire, just as poverty now powers its collapse. And so what to do? 

The government has failed dramatically if not spectacularly. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a sense of hopelessness when I first arrived. How could these people in this country ever thrive? Billions of dollars of foreign aid, a UN force t visible everywhere that operates on a $580M annual budget and the direct involvement both militarily and internally from the United States have not helped. Where is the hope? 

At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s in Jesus. More specifically it’s in Jesus IN you and I and our brothers and sisters in Haiti. I had been asking where is God in the face of such suffering but the proper question is “where is the Church?” When I looked in that direction I saw hope manifested in a man like Gerald Lafleur who leads the church appropriately called Restoration Ministries. 

I saw hope in Pastor Rodrigue who along with his wife open their home 3 times a week so 75-100 kids can eat a meal that is more than a dirt cookie or stale rice. 

Sebastian (is sponsored by Bucky and Kimmie Elliot through Conduit.) is being taught principles like giving and mercy and love. 

Farrah (sponsored through Conduit as well) is being taught that her body is her property and to break the cycle of single mothers with children from multiple fathers who will never marry their mothers. 

Vlo (sponsored by Philip Peters through Conduit) is being taught to be a man to not get a woman pregnant and walk out on her. 

Dashka (sponsored by Theresa Swain through Conduit) is being taught that abstaining from sex outside of marriage is the ONLY guarantee they have of not contracting an evil disease such as HIV/ AIDS. 

They’re not only being fed physically but spiritually as well. These well fed children will grow up, and it’s my belief that they will grow up to be part of the revival that awaits Haiti. 

This is all being done in the confines of a local church in a local community. It’s all being done because of folks like you and I. THE Church, made up of believers all over the world, are coming together and bringing real hope to this ravaged nation. It will only be done if all of us will man up, do our part, stand a post. 

Jesus, when He sent out the 72, told them to pray for laborers. He said that the laborers are few. Living in Nashville where there are 1,000 churches that’s kind of a foreign idea. Coming home from Haiti I saw exactly what He was talking about. 
If you’re not already involved with what we’re doing through Conduit, I would ask that you prayerfully consider getting involved. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I just want your prayer support, it’s my hope that we already have that. Sebastian, Farrah, Vlo and Dashka already have laborers, I wonder if you would consider joining us. 

You can click on this link http://www.unitedcaribbean.com/haiti-childsponsorship-programme.html and see some of the kids that are still waiting to be helped. By donating through Conduit 100% of your gift each month is tax deductible and 100% of it goes directly to Restoration Ministries where 100% of it goes directly to serving the child spiritually, physically and emotionally. $30 a month. Many of you are already involved in a ministry like this, but if you’re not, prayerfully consider joining us. 

(If you wish you can donate directly to Restoration Ministries but their accounts are in Haiti and you do not get the tax deduction)

Blessings,
Darren
CONDUIT RETURNS TOMORROW NIGHT. 7:30PM AT JOURNEY CHURCH IN BUILDING 8 AT THE FACTORY IN FRANKLIN. WE’VE GOT SOME AWESOME VIDEO, PICTURES, ETC FROM OUR TRIP TO HAITI.