Welcome to the Victory Blog

Update 2/8/2010

Yesterday (Sun, Feb. 7th) the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on the relief efforts of Pat Bradley of International Crisis Aid and our very own Missions Pastor Dennis Russell in conjunction with the US Marines and the Canadian Navy. Although we’ve written about much of this heroic story here, it bears repeating – all to God’s glory! Read the article online here.

Update 2/4/2010

Here’s the latest text update from Dennis:

12:30am
Today was a medium day for distribution but still a good one. We were able to get out enough food to feed 11,520 people for an entire day as well as 400 cases of water. We lost a couple of hours because of a military briefing we were invited to, but it was worth it. We were one of  3 NGO groups invited to the meeting, which included 3 four-star US generals, the US ambassador to Haiti, the head of USAID and all the top commanding officers of the US and Canadian armed forces – talk about feeling out of place! Apparently, one of the reasons we were invited was because the upper officers liked the model that we developed – by the seat of our pants I might add – so much that they have adopted it as the new standard for their future distribution operations. How cool is that?! I don’t know how many times Pat and I have looked at each other in bewilderment at the latest divine surprise.

Praying for Haiti,
Dennis

And, we just received this from Pat Bradley of International Crisis Aid who is working with Dennis Russell, our Missions Pastor, in Haiti:

Greetings to all!

I received the letter below today from the US Marines. I want to tell you that Dennis Russell has been absolutely invaluable to our work here. Without him I don’t think I would have accomplished half of what we together have done. He has much wisdom and insight. In this type of operational theatre are prices less. Victory World should be extremely proud of him. I can’t thank you enough for sending him and allowing him to stay an additional week. I do know the sacrifice you have made allowing this. Below is the letter:

Pat,

I would like to take a minute to thank you and Dennis for all that you have done as a part of International Crisis Aid (ICA) and Victory World Church over the past two weeks since arriving in
Haiti. As we transit ted down here with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, I tried to imagine what our role would be in assisting the Haitian people and prepare my men accordingly. Shortly after our helicopter arrived, I realized that there is nothing I could have done to prepare them because the majority of the problems we faced were outside of our control. For all the power the United States Marine Corps brings to bear, we remained unable to get the supplies to the people who needed it most. The first 24 hours on the ground proved frustrating and for the first time in my 16 years, I began to question our ability to accomplish our assigned mission. That was when God answered our prayers by gracing us with you and Pastor Dennis.

Over the next 14 days, I was amazed at the integrity, dedication and tireless work ethic you, Dennis and your organization have demonstrated (interested in becoming a Marine?). Your ability to locate the people in need and get them the supplies they so desperately needed has been nothing short of remarkable. The partnership that our Marine unit had formed with ICA and Victory has become the blueprint for success in this devastated region. Our ability to bring the resources ashore and provide the necessary security, coupled with your complete devotion to an efficient, honest and timely distribution has saved thousands of lives and will positively shape and influence generations in Haiti.

The fact that you were able to do all this with only a couple of workers on the ground is nothing short of a miracle. It sets ICA apart from other NGO’s and is something you should be proud of. I can’t help but wonder what else you are capable of and how many lives you will save and change in the future with continued support through donations. I have become such a believer that, effective immediately, my donations will begin to ICA through our annual Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). I am encouraging others to do the same.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t beg ICA you and Dennis to remain in Haiti for the foreseeable future and continue to set the example for the other NGO’s. As media coverage of the devastation dwindles, people must be reminded that the work down here is far from over. I will continue to pray that donations will allow you to remain here and continue your great work.

As for me, I am grateful for our time spent together and what we were able to accomplish. Please know that I will remain one of the biggest advocates of the ICA and consider your organization a true gift from God. I wish you the best and will stay forever in your debt for the magnificent example of humanity you and Dennis have shown us all.

God Bless,
Gunnery Sergeant Joshua Wruble
22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit

In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul writes, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (emphasis added, NKJ)

We all have an upward call on our lives…there’s something that God wants us to dream about, something big, something significant, something that makes a difference in this world. He wants us to be functioning in his purpose for our lives. We need to keep moving forward toward this calling. Although, we all have times when we stop looking forward and start looking backwards along the way, at some point in our lives, each of us has to make a decision whether we’re going to follow God’s call or go our own way.

Unfortunately, most people don’t even know that this calling even exists, or if they do, they have no idea how to get there. But the key to moving forward is to have something in our lives that we’re shooting for, something that we’re going after. We need a goal…it keeps us motivated. Our upward call is the goal. So, how do we move forward toward the goal of our upward calling? We have to ask these questions:

1. What does God want from my life?The simple answer is that he wants our whole life. Unfortunately, a lot of people pick and choose certain parts of their lives to give to God and keep the rest for themselves. But, we cannot hear God or move forward if we’re not completely surrendered to him. We’ve got to give EVERYTHING over to him. Wherever we’re saying “me first” to God we’re not moving forward.
2. What does it take? What makes the difference between those who make it and those who don’t? One simple word: Discipline. Discipline means: “Achieving what you really want by doing the things you don’t really want to do.” We’ve got to build certain habits in our lives that move us closer to the heart and purposes of God. As John Maxwell has said, “In order to change your life you have to change something you do daily.” There’s no better time than now to start making those changes.
3. Why Should I do it? The people that get the answer to this question are the ones who make it to the upward call. The answer is Eternity. We are only here in this world for a very short time, but the things we do here can have eternal significance. Simply accepting Jesus is not the same as moving towards the upward call. It’s only the starting point. How much of your life is dedicated to something that’s eternal?

Are we going to give everything to Jesus? Are we willing to do the things we need to do but don’t want to do? Are we willing to let eternity be our motivation? Are we going to be a Moses generation that perishes in the wilderness or a Joshua generation that moves forward into the Promised Land? We may be entering a time of real testing and trial, but if we’ll connect ourselves with the will of God, we will move forward into our upward calling and change the world!

If you missed this timely and challenging conclusion to the FORWARD series, watch or listen to it here.

Update 2/1/2010

We received the following text updates from Dennis over the weekend:

1/31/10
9:23pm
Had our best day of distribution but also our worst day of challenges with our vehicles. Four of the six vehicles had engine problems or flat tires. Seems like a spiritual attack to me. Nevertheless, we were able to get out enough food to feed over 30,000 people for an entire day. We are starting to get the hang of this now. Ernst and Mark arrived last night and were a great help today! The Canadian military began removing the rubble from the orphanage and construction on the shelter continues. Even for a man of faith, it is hard to believe the transformation that is happening there!

Praying for Haiti,
Dennis

1/29/10
11:38am
Thursday and Friday, the supply lines were slow but we managed the following: 1) delivered 1,892 cases of food, and 2) began construction of the shelter for the orphanage.

11:16pm
Today (Saturday), we took a day to rest and refuel with regular meals. We feel it was a good call to take this day because yesterday we were running at 50%. We feel like by morning, we’ll be back to 85%. Pastor Dennis is sending in reinforcements by sending two more men from Victory. They should be arriving tomorrow.

We did get some good news today in a text from the gunnery sergeant who has been helping us. Apparently this is unheard of but it looks like we will temporarily have access to seven 7-ton military cargo trucks to help us distribute the big mother lode we found yesterday. Apparently the higher-ups in the Marines heard about us and our story and decided to bend some rules to help us out. God’s favor continues to amaze us more and more each day. Pleas continue to pray for the people of Haiti.

Blessings,
Dennis

Update 1/27/2010

All of the team, except for Pat Bradley of ICA & our Missions Pastor Dennis Russell, have returned safely home. Praise God!!

Here’s the text from Dennis last night:

God continues to show His favor! We are down to just me and Pat now but that did not slow God down any. Today, with the help of our steadily growing Haitian team, we were able to distribute enough food to feed 1,577 people for 10 days!! For the 2nd time, we were the only relief team picking up food as it was being airlifted in at the US Marines helipad. If we had not been there, the food would still be there at the landing zone. We are excited that construction will begin on the orphanage on Thursday. Tomorrow promises to be another great day!

Blessings,

Dennis

You know how you have to take and pass tests in school in order to keep moving forward from grade to grade? Well, the rest of life is just like that; we have to keep passing tests in order to keep moving forward. We really don’t know how much we’re learning until we take the test. If we don’t pass the test of life, we just have to keep doing it over and over again until we do.

So, the question is, are we going to move forward in the calling of God? God’s called every one of us to do something. If we’re going to keep moving forward, we’re going to have to get through some tests in life…we have to learn how to deal with them. In fact, there are three main areas of our lives that we will be tested on and have to pass in order to keep moving forward:

1. Purity Test - God has called us to live a life of purity. Holiness. It is not easy to live holy…inevitably, we’re going to be tempted in our flesh – lust of the flesh. Many of us, before we gave our hearts to Christ, spent a lot of time and energy feeding the lust of our flesh. And, even after accepting Christ, our flesh will fight hard to keep getting fed. Now, our bodies have three primary natural desires: food, sex and amusement/entertainment. God put these desires in us, but he also set up boundaries to keep us from being ruled by these desires. Most people are ruled by at least one of these…they may overcome one or two, but fall into the other. These things, if they rule us, will keep us from moving forward…even cause us to fall backwards. How do we gain victory over these things and keep moving forward? Go after God, fasting and prayer, turn our hunger towards him and be filled by him. If we’re going to keep moving forward, we’ve got to be hungry for God.
2. Possession Test - “Mammon” has tremendous power and rules over people’s lives until they learn how to overcome these things. In order to move forward, we have to pass this test. If our goal is to get rich for ourselves, we’re setting ourselves up for misery. We have to recognize that EVERYTHING belongs to God…we have to put him first. If our heart is all about things, we’ve fallen for another god and will not move forward. If we’re going to rule over money, we have to learn that it doesn’t belong to us – we have to do what God wants us to do with it. We have to be good stewards. It starts with tithing…giving God the first 10% and trusting Him to take care of all your needs with the rest. Whose kingdom are we building here on earth?
3. Pride Test - Whenever I get before the Lord and start examining myself, there’s not a day goes by that I don’t find that I have pride issues to deal with. I think most of us are that way. The number one virtue that we should be pursuing as Christians is humility. With pride, we are guaranteed to fall. If we humble ourselves, God will lift us up. If you want to know what humility looks like, read the Gospels; Jesus gives us the best picture of humility. We should ask ourselves these questions:
   • Do I esteem others better than myself?
   • Do I have a servant leader mentality?
   • Am I overly concerned about my reputation?
   • How much am I losing myself for the sake of others?

Listen to, watch or download this message in its entirety here.

Update 1/26/2010

The updates below are from text messages received from our team in Haiti from Sunday evening & Monday evening.

Day Six - Sunday
The days just seem to get better. We are getting more fatigued by the day but it is worth it! Today, we were able to distribute enough food to feed over 1,500 people 3 meals a day for 10 days!! We also were able to get out over 4,400 gallons of water. The divine favor and divine appointments are too numerous for us to count. Other than with my family, there is absolutely no other place I would rather be. God is good. (text sent by Dennis Russell, VWC Missions Pastor)

Day Seven - Monday
Another good day! We were initially disappointed when we found out that no relief was going to be airlifted today, but it turned out God had something else in mind. Not only did it provide for a needed physical break but it also allowed us time to find materials to build a shelter for the orphans. We finally found what we needed and so the Canadian Navy is going to begin construction tomorrow as we resume distribution. Dr. Christie was a mad-man today as he saw 224 patients! Better get some rest, we’re in for a BIG day tomorrow! (text sent by Dennis Russell, VWC Missions Pastor)

Media Update: We also received an email from Phillip O’Conner, a reporter from the St. Louis Times who is traveling with our team recording the relief efforts. Here’s the latest article he posted, regarding the Orphans in Leogane. Click the photo below to be directed to the St. Louis Times website…

The picture above is a snapshot from the St. Louis Times article written by Phillip O'Conner, a reporter on the ground with our relief team in Haiti

Update 1/23/2010
Just heard from the team in Haiti. Here’s the update of their journey so far.

Day One - Tuesday Evening/Wednesday Morning
The team departed out of Miami airport and arrived in Port au Prince shortly before midnight. Most of the team were taken to a safe house for the night while 8 to 10 of the team members spent the night on the tarmac watching the supplies. While there, they were able to make good connections with the Brigadier Commander and leaders of the Joint Taskforce that is directing all incoming aid through NPOs and the US Military.

Days Two/Three - Wednesday / Thursday
The team made it out of Port au Prince to the Grace International compound in Carrefore. Once there, they found the compound in good shape, were able to treat some injuries and assessed the food/water situation on the grounds. At the moment, with two natural wells, the food and water in Carrefore are in stable condition. So, the team moved just west of Port au Prince to Leogane - an area hard hit and slow to receive aid.

Days Four/Five - Friday / Saturday
Yesterday the team discovered an orphanage in Leogane with 85 children. Their structure was completely destroyed by the earthquake and they were without food and water. The team provided them with enough food and water for a week and are currently looking for shelter. There is a group of 40 Canadian military traveling with our group and they are ready to help assemble a shelter, but are in need of supplies. Anything from a tent structure, to tarps, wood, cots - anything to construct a temporary shelter to protect the children and get them off of the ground.

Yesterday, the team was also able to make contact with the US Military and a local drop off area for helicopters carrying loads and loads of food and other goods. The problem that they are having is that the UN doesn’t have trucks to help transport the goods or personnel to provide distribution. The team asked if they could bring a truck, would they release the goods for distribution and the answer was, “Yes!” After driving off trying to decide where they could rent a truck they drove by a huge moving-type truck on the side of the road being loaded with fallen debris. They stopped and negotiated rental of the truck - and, at this moment, the US Military is loading the truck with some of the backed up food and other goods for distribution. The team is now praying for wisdom on where to set up the distribution point to meet the greatest needs of the people while also keeping their team safe. They will continue to use the truck over the next few days to help get the backed up goods transported for distribution by our team and other NGOs in the area.

The US Military loading aid onto the truck our team rented
to get food distributed to the people of Leogane, Haiti

Points for Prayer:

• Ask God to provide the right contact for getting shelter for the 85 orphans in Leogane.
• Ask God to provide wisdom and direction for the food distribution as well as on-ground contacts with other NGOs who can help get the food out to the people.
• Continue to pray for the safety and stabilization of the country and that God’s peace and provision would prevail.

Update 1/20/2010

Prayers just keep getting answered…

Our preliminary team arrived safely in Haiti around 11:30 last night. They didn’t get to sleep last night, so please pray for supernatural rest and energy for them. They did feel the tremor from the earthquake this morning, but they are all okay. Today will be recon and assessment in preparation for the next team going in.

We are in preparation for a Saturday or Sunday departure for a medical team.

For more information, or to see how you can help, visit our Haiti Earthquake Relief page - every dollar, every item, every prayer matters. Thank you.

In this series, we’re trying to find and identify anything that’s keeping us from going forward in this new year. We want to address these things. This week, I’m asking, “How do we move forward in the midst of crisis?” I mean, terrible things happen in life. Anybody who’s seen the news about the devastation in Haiti can have no question about this. And, the truth is that no matter who we are, we all experience crisis at one point or another in our lives. It can be relational, physical, financial or otherwise. It can be large or small. But the question is: how do we get ourselves in a position such that no matter what comes our way, we are able to keep moving forward?

The answer, of course, lies in Jesus. Only through him can we find the strength and peace that we need. Then, with this understanding in place, we start moving forward by doing the following:

1. Evaluate - to Appraise or assess something. To think it over, to ponder it, to consider the situation. Ask why these things are happening, even before you start moving forward. There may be a real reason for the crisis. How did I get here? If you don’t evaluate, you’re going to go out and do the same thing all over again.
   • Evaluate the past in what you want to change.
   • Evaluate the present in what you can do.
   • Evaluate the future in what is God calling you to.
2. Plan - everyone needs to plan. A person without a plan is at the mercy of someone who does. If you don’t have a plan for your life, someone else does, and it’s probably not a good one. It’s a whole lot better to go into a crisis with a plan than to wait until you’re in the midst of crisis to try to come up with a plan.
3. Act – too often, when we get in crisis, rather than continuing to move forward, we get paralyzed by things like fear, anger, unforgiveness, discouragement or disillusionment. But we can’t let these things stop us. We’ve got to keep acting on God’s Word…keep moving forward.
4. Focus – how do we stay focused in the midst of a crisis? It’s not very easy, but that’s exactly what we need to do. We mustn’t look left, right or back, but look forward. We have to keep our gaze on what God’s Word says; above and beyond what our circumstances say. Focus on where God is taking us, not where we’ve been. Focus on the answer, not the problem.
5. Trust – every single outstanding character of the Bible is known for their trust in the Lord. We can find trust over and over and over again throughout the Bible. Unfortunately, whenever we face a crisis, we have a tendency to forget how essential trust is. We will be severely tempted to stop trusting God by the circumstances in our crises. But remember this: we go through tests to learn about trust. Every test has a trust issue involved.

Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become. ~ B.F. Westcott

(To listen to or watch this message in its entirety, click here.)