zach pippin

After lunch on Friday we drove over to Carrefour, the epicenter. All of the destruction we had seen up to this point paled in comparison to this city. Port au Prince had collapsed, damaged, and undamaged buildings. Carrefour had piles of rubble and severely damaged, barely standing buildings.

Carrefour is the hometown of our Haitian-American team member, Junot. One of our stops was by the collapsed stack of concrete floors that was his mother’s house. With two last tents in hand, we walked around the city. Junot inquired around trying to find the neediest families.

The first was an elderly woman who he found. We gave her the tent, but didn’t have much time to talk. Then we turned a corner. What we saw there was the most memorable moment for all of us on the team. There was a woman holding an infant. The baby couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. The woman was his grandmother. She had pulled him out of his house, the sole survivor in his family.

A few of us got to work setting up a tent for her while Junot talked to the people there. Junot broke down into tears while holding the baby, and after talking to the grandmother plans on adopting him. For now, all we could do was give him and his grandmother that tent and a few baby clothes to replace the heavy coat that was over-heating him.

On our way out of the city we took a suitcase full of small survival kits and threw them to people on the streets as we passed. After they were all gone we found a first aid kit. We weren’t sure if it was our team’s or meant to be given away, so we gave it away. The woman screamed with joy as she opened it.

If you are seriously interested in adopting a child out of Haiti please contact me immediately at zpippin@gmail.com

If you know me at all, you know that  my favorite band ever is Angels and Airwaves. You’d also know that this past weekend was the release of their third album, LOVE, and that I’ve never been more excited about any other album in history.

A few months back AVA announced that the album would be released on 14 February 2010 for free. About a week ago fuel.tv announced that they would release it  two days early. So Thursday night I was waiting for the stroke of midnight, hoping that the album would drop. It didn’t. I then read that it would be released at 6pm. Ok, that’s not too bad…..Pacific time. Well, that sucks. At 9pm on Friday I was supposed to be in another city for Casey’s birthday.

Around 2:30 in the afternoon I noticed a countdown on the download site. It ended at 6 EST. Wonderful! I could just wait for the download, listen to it in the car, and Charity and I would arrive at Casey’s without missing much. 6pm came, but the album didn’t. Turns out the countdown, which hit zero, was lying. I was not a happy camper at all.

Charity and I hopped in the car and took off towards Casey’s. Snow had been falling for about 2 hours by then, but it was only just beginning to stick. As we drove, however, it worsened. We decided to turn around, and by the time we got back there was already a good inch or so on the roads. South Carolina roads that don’t get salted. We decided to head over to the 312 to hang out with our friends. We ended up having one of the greatest nights ever.

While sitting on top of a small, snow covered mountain (aka dirt pile in a quarry) looking at the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen in our city, Bryn said something to me that put everything into perspective. If that incorrect countdown had not been on the site I would have left earlier. I would have been in the middle of nowhere when the bad weather kicked in. I would have missed the fun times we had with our friends. She said that by having to wait for LOVE, the album, that God was showing His love for me.

^{Matthew 27:3-4} Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, ⁴saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

So, these veres came up in my reading through the New Testament during #NewThru30. Some questions came to my mind that I had never thought before. I figured here would be a good place to ask them. I know many of my readers are much smarter than I, so please, let me know what you think.

-Did Judas not think that Jesus would be convicted of His charges? Because it says he changed his mind after Jesus was condemned

-Did Judas hate Jesus or was he just disillusioned, looking for an easy buck while making his exit?

-If Judas had known Jesus was going to be sentenced to death would he have still handed Him over to the authorities?

So, here’s the first of my posts inspired by Passion 2010. John Piper gave an awesome sermon based on the question “Is God a megalomaniac?”  I can’t come close to doing it justice. Some of his points included God loves God more than He loves you, if He didn’t that would be sinning because it would be placing someone above God, He made us for the purpose of glorifying Him, our pinnacle of joy comes in giving God glory, and God showed His love for us by creating us with the purpose of giving Him glory and deriving joy from that.

So, here’s my attempt at putting in in layman’s terms for my family group at Passion:

We make cars to serve our own desires. We do what it takes to keep them running.  Cars are functioning at their best when they are serving the purpose for which they were made, otherwise we would have made them differently.  We “love” them, but our primary purpose for cars is for them to serve our needs.

I know that doesn’t even come close to doing it justice, but somehow it made sense to us sitting in a circle there. God does love us, but He values Himself and His glory above us. God did create us, however, to be at our best when we are acknowledging that. To quote Rev. Piper “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”  How then could that not be love towards us?

Pslams 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

[ps, I apologize in advance if I have butchered the theology of this, it's just my best attempt to unpackage Piper's sermon]

Some of yall may remember a Bible study some friends and I did last fall along with Elevation Church called B90X. It was long and tough, but rewarding. Well, the good folks at Elevation are at it again. This time the study is called New Thru 30.

We’ll be going through the entire New Testament in 30 days. There will also be a 5 week series which you can view on Elevation’s website starting January 10. The reading schedule and study guide can be found on the New Thru 30 website.

Whether you’re a B90X veteran reader of a newcomer, I encourage yall to do this study along with us. Please feel free to send me any insights you have while reading it. [I'll be looking for guest bloggers every week this year]

Just another friendly reminder to be patient. I’ve been wanting to get a new camera for a while. I had a small budget and was looking for one on ebay. I had it narrowed down to a particular model. It wasn’t quite as good as I wanted, but it fit the budget. Every time I bid on one, however, I would lose. I’d either get outbid at the last moment or forget that the auction was ending.

I didn’t let that get to me. I trusted that for every deal I missed, that just meant that God had something better in store for me. Sure enough, a few weeks later I received a graduation present from my parents. It was a camera better than anything for which I was hoping. I finally knew the reason I was missing all of those auctions.

Of course, this lesson can translate to other areas of life. Have patience. Trust that God has the best intentions for your life. Things may not turn around in a few weeks like they did for me. It may take months, even years.  I can’t promise you’ll be happy with the results, but have patience. Things will work out for the best.

Romans 8: 28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Living where I do in my city, I have an endless flood of homeless drunks behind my apartment building leaving behind a sea of King Cobra bottles and Icehouse cans.  Last week, as I was cleaning their disgusting refuse from the area I hope to turn into a garden, I found an old army style duffle bag. It contained a ratty old shirt and a rusty can opener. Following the example and advice of my roommate Marcus, I figured I’d try to do something nice.

So, whilst said manky duffle was in the wash, I set off for the store. With a small budget in hand, I picked out what I thought to be several good essentials to restock the bag. Some warm socks, sweatpants and sweatshirt for the impending winter, along with a fleece blanket. Some healthy, non-perishable food and juice. A mess kit and silverware with which to eat it. I simply put these items into the sack and returned it to where I found it.

The next day I was more that a bit perturbed to see that not only had the contents of my “care package” been dumped out onto the ground, but they had also been covered with a fresh layer of empty alcohol containers. It irked me how they could be so ungrateful. Then I had a somewhat rebuking thought, “How often do we do that to God?”

The people of Israel complained about their food in the wilderness when God provided for them. We have houses that shelter us, keep us dry, warm, and safe. Yet we want bigger ones. We have little devices that let us communicate to people across the country, but we want better ones [guilty].

Point is,  whether we like to admit it or not, there are many times when we act like drunk homeless people. We’re ungrateful for the blessings given to us. I’ll challenge myself with the same thing with which I challenge you, be intentionally grateful. Try to think at least once a day about something for which you are grateful.

Pslam 107:1
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”