Heading to Haiti Today

After weeks of working the phones, blogging about the need for relief and development, and raising funds for projects, finally I’m heading to Haiti today to help with cash for food, tents, tarps, meds and a security wall around the Shalom Zone.

Christa White, an anthropologist who speaks Creole and teaches IT at Drew, is joining me to represent Communities of Shalom at Drew; and together we are joining a mission team from Texas comprised of a doctor, psychologist, nurses, physician assistant, and other United Methodist volunteers totally 20 for a week in Mizak, Haiti.

Mizak, as you may know from previous posts, is a cluster of villages in the mountains with a total population of 35,000. 70% are living under the poverty level of $1 US per day. 63% are under the age of 18. There's no hospital or doctor. No educational opportunties beyond High School. No jobs or vocational training. There's no electricity, pluming, or water filtration. There's subsistence farming and agricultural livelihood, but limited nutritional food.

I'm packed for a week. Bringing protein bars, knowing rice and beans will be available for purchase). There may be a mattress on a floor on which to sleep, but I’ve been asked to bring a sleeping bag, and a tent to use and leave behind. I'm brining two tents to add to the tarps that have been donated.

The plan is to leave this afternoon after the Drew Faculty Meeting, fly to Miami for an overnight layover, and then head to Port-au-Prince tomorrow, arrive in Mizak in the mountains tomorrow evening, and stay for a week during Spring Break.

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry, Drew University; and International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book. In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives. Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth. When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A The...

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Not Afraid of Death by Julia Esquivel

In reading your blog, Michael, I immediately think of these two poems is poem by Julia Esquivel, from Guatemala, whom I had the pleasure of meeting years ago. Un abrazo, Ada Maria I AM NOT AFRAID OF DEATH I am no longer afraid of death I know well Its dark and cold corridors Leading to life. I am afraid rather of that life Which does not come out of death, Which cramps our hands And slows our march. I am afraid of my fear And even more of the fear of others, Who do not know where they are going, Who continue clinging To what they think is life Which we know to be death! I live each day to kill death; I die each day to give birth to life, And in this death of death, I die a thousand times And am reborn another thousand Through that love From my People Which nourishes hope! THREATEN WITH RESURRECTION They have threatened us with Resurrection There is something here within us which doesn’t let us sleep, which doesn’t let us rest, which doesn’t stop the pounding deep inside. It is t...

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