Haiti: A Peace Offering

Wow, it's been a while (I love posts that start with that...)

I have been working on a project for my church since about Christmas. This project has been taking up most of my attention recently and, let's be honest, projects for me are rarely quick endeavors. Speaking of which...

Last week, I was planning on finally sharing a wrap-up of my Haiti experience but, over the past month, I have been force to admit that I really don't know how to share the experience in a meaningful way. That's incredibly lame, I'm sorry. The truth is that I have some pretty complex feeling about Haiti, what ministry means there, and what the trip in November trip meant to me personally.

I was so very well supported that I recognize that failing to really offer something tangible to my supporters is a let down. It's really not something I want to excuse, but I hope you will still find some grace for me. Believe me when I tell you have, literally, pages of journal notes and outlines, several word documents and a couple of photo galleries all dedicated to trying to tell you what happened to me in Haiti. But I haven't been able to get a handle on what it all means.

So, again, I'm sorry for breaking all those promises to "share something soon," I feel very bad about that.

Please know that I deeply appreciate your support. Because of all the prayer, God is continuing a deep work in my heart, several Compassion staff members and pastors were encouraged and many children were loved. At least three children were sponsored as a direct result of this trip.  Additionally, there was so much financial support, that I was able to give two gifts of $350 to two of the projects that we visited. That represents a half of a year's salary for many Compassion families in Haiti.

Selfishly, I held back from sharing many of my photos because I wanted you all to see a "finalized" project.  Now that the project I had envisioned has been temporarily shelved, I would like to share some of the many photos I took.

Thank you again for your support and your grace.

The Apparent Project

I'm loving this today:

New Blog: Haiti Hope

An honest and critical look at Welcome to Love reveals that things are getting a little confusing around here. When you walk into a particular business or event, you have expectations about what you experience is going to be. You don't go to a book club to learn about a "business opportunity" and you don't walk into a coffee shop expecting to get fast food (well, unless it's a Starbucks, but I digress).

But that's been happening around here, a Haiti post here, a Compassion post there, a book review & music review may even make it through the filter. This is confusing.

My apologies.

So, as part of some exciting new things taking place over the next few months, I am migrating all of my postings about Haiti to a new blog: Haiti Hope.

Welcome to Love is going back to its roots, my personal search for a deeper understanding of love, grace, and what it means to be a follower of Christ in the present day. I consider Compassion International a part of "what it means" so Compassion is still going to be a rock star around here. Be watching for some structural/visualchanges as well (more than normal!).

For it's part, Haiti Hope will be primarily dedicated to historical research, current events (political, economical, and social) humanitarian efforts and, most importantly hope for Haiti's future. While I admit that my religious, political and social worldview makes bias inevitable, I am not lobbying for any particular agenda. My goal is simply to gain a better understanding of Haiti and share that with you along with ways that you can get involved.

Come on over and visit!

Pray for Every Nation: Haiti

I am guest posting about Haiti today at The Feminine Intellect as part of the "Pray for Every Nation" series:

I didn't know anything about Haiti until I decided to go there. It was 2002, I was 17 years old and it was my first mission trip. The only thing I knew wat that Haiti was poor. 

It turns out that Haiti is the poorest country in the western Hemisphere. 

Read more.

Aristide and the Endless Revolution

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president of Haiti, was
oustered from office by a rebel coup-d'etat in 2004

Last week, on the two-year anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake, I mentioned a documentary called Aristide and the Endless Revolution. I finally watched it last night.

The "Aristide" of the film is Jean-Bertrand Aristide, president of Haiti from 1991-1996 and 2001-2004. The majority of his first presidency was spent in exile, being ousted from office by a coup-d'etat a mere six months after his election and returning to to serve from 1994-1996. His second presidency in 2001 ended three years later in yet another coup-d'etat let by a rebel army made up of gangs armed with military weapons. The film explores the events leading up to and after both coup-d'etats.

Whatever the cover may say about Aristide and the Endless Revolution being a "well-balanced" look into the events surround Aristide's two ousters, this film does not paint the US or France in a favorable light. It suggests, among other things, that the gangs that tore violently through northern Haiti in 2004 were Haitians trained in the Dominican army and armed by the US military. Prior to this, in 1994, almost all foreign aid was cut off from the Haitian government which made it nearly impossible to maintain any kind of stable infrastructure and many people, including members of the United States government, claim that it was this instability that made the 2004 coup possible. Additionally, interim leaders during the coup were linked back to the US CIA. Aristide even describes his flight from Port-au-Prince as a "kidnapping," claiming that US and French officials threatened continued violence and the death of Haitian citizens if the president did not leave the country.

Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly
was elected president of Haiti in April of 2011

This is all disturbing and puzzling to me. Make no mistake, I love this country. I cannot imagine a better, more privileged life than the one I lead here. Still, I am intensely aware that the US's intervention in the political processes of other struggling countries often results in questionable actions. I know that we have made decisions that have damaged other nations in order to protect our own interests; whether or not this is justified is an ethical dilemma that every US citizen must face.

But regardless of whether or not these allegations are true, the reality is that, until Haiti can internally stabilize it's democratic process and eliminate the influence rebels and gangs pose to the government, it will always be subject to the interests of foreign governments. Though it may be recognized as an independent republic, Haiti continues to be seen by the international community as a broken country.

The real issue here is not aid, it is respect, and I don't know what it will take for Haiti to crawl out of the shadow cast by two centuries of tumult.

Haiti: Looking backward

As I review the two years that have passed since Haiti experience a magnitude-7 earthquake, the millions of dollars in aid that has been delivered and the thousands of hours spent by volunteers and relief-workers, I must admit, I am disheartened. Two years have passed with very few measurable successes. Millions of citizens are still displaced, living in temporary housing that has long since become unsafe. Much of the promised aid has been clogged in the bureaucratic pipelines. A deadly cholera outbreak has taken nearly 7,000 lives and the number of abandoned children is steadily growing.

With two formerly ousted leaders, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and Jean-Bertrand Aristide returning to Haiti during the controversial presidency of newly elected Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly, along with accusations against UN appointed peacekeeping forces, the political and civil discord is likely to continue for some time.

Haiti is, as they say, a hot mess.

But this year, instead of talking about what is going on in Haiti's present, I thought it appropriate to take a look into Haiti's past. See, we as the "benevolent" saviors of Haiti have no hope of making sense of the situation in Haiti, let alone develop a successful plan for recovery unless we understand the history of this tiny, conflicted country.

In July 2002, I visited Haiti for the first time with a mission team from my church. We sent two more teams during 2003 and were planning more trips when Pastor Joseph, our contact in Haiti, warned us not to come. It wasn't safe, he said. Remembering the Haiti that I had visited two years prior, I recalled that it didn't feel particularly safe then either. I had no idea what had happened to make things suddenly unsafe, something about riots and political unrest.

I was 17 and had trouble understanding my own government.

During my last trip to Haiti, I spoke to a Haitian man about the recent presidential elections and as during that conversation, he brought up Haiti's tumultuous political history. The conversation stuck with me after I returned and I started looking into some of the events of the past 20 years in Haiti. It's a fascinating and disturbing study.

I discovered that, in February of 2004, less than a year after our last mission trip, a rebel army took control of the northern part of Haiti, including Port-au-Prince, resulting in the a violent coup d'etat. Reports surrounding this event are rife with speculation, accusation and conflicting reports and general political unrest. The ousted president, Jean Bertrande Aristide was exiled to South Africa.

Not safe, indeed.

In 2005 Baraka Production released a documentary on the 2004 coup called Aristide and the Endless Revolution. If you're interested in watching the film, it is available for $13 on Aristidethefilm.com (I haven't watched it yet). The trailer is below.

One Word 2011: Review

Last January, as a follow to choosing One Word 2011: Trust, I went through a series of posts about what that meant in the present and what I thought it meant for the future. These posts ruminated through a variety of different subjects (money, culture, insecurity, depression, vision).

It was a haphazard mix of things that God was turning over in my soul, observations about the world, and things that scared the crap out of me. But in every area, God was asking me the same questions: "Do you trust the call I put on your life? Do you trust me to take you somewhere new?"

This culminated in a list of "I am going to," statements. Looking back, I think these are too much like the resolutions that I am trying so hard to avoid, so I'm not going to repeat this practice this year. But, because God deserves mad props for this, here is the best one:

"I am going back to Haiti."

Of all of my "I am going to," statements, this is one that I actually believe was a promise from God. He made me this promise in January. In July, I was invited to visit Haiti with Compassion International...with 3 weeks to raise $1500. By September, God had completely funded my trip and plane tickets with $700 to spare, and, on November 14th, I was in Haiti.

Tomorrow, I am going to share some thoughts about the upcoming year and One Word 2012: Surrender.

Links to last year's posts are below (each post links to the following post).

The Highlights
I'm Not THAT Person
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
A Culture of Affluence
A Curveball
What's Your Angle? Part One
What's Your Angle? Part Two
Continuing the Journey

What I'm listening to: Arcade Fire

Happy Veteran's Day!

My (first) flight leaves tomorrow at 2:30 PST. I'll be in Ft Lauderdale on Sunday morning and fly into Haiti with the rest of the Compassion International team on Monday! 

If I can magically access a wifi signal in country I'll be posting on Twitter and updating the blog with pictures. But I have some posts scheduled in advance about another I am currently on, not as exciting but still challenging!

In honor of my impending trip, I took a break from Christmas music to listen to Arcade Fire's Haiti. I was going to break out some Wyclef Jean, but this is a bit more my style.

Haiti

Haïti, mon pays,

wounded mother I'll never see.

Ma famille set me free.

Throw my ashes into the sea.

Mes cousins jamais nés

hantent les nuits de Duvalier.

Rien n'arrete nos esprits.

Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see.

In the forest we lie hiding,

unmarked graves where flowers grow.

Hear the soldiers angry yelling,

in the river we will go.

Tous les morts-nés forment une armée,

soon we will reclaim the earth.

All the tears and all the bodies

bring about our second birth.

Haïti, never free,

n'ai pas peur de sonner l'alarme.

Tes enfants sont partis,

In those days their blood was still warm

Translation:

Haiti, my country,

Wounded mother I'll never see.

My family set me free.

Throw my ashes into the sea.

My cousins never born

haunt the nights of Duvalier.

Nothing stops our spirits.

Guns can not kill what soldiers can not see.

In the forest we lie hiding,

unmarked graves where flowers grow.

Hear the soldiers angry yelling,

in the river we will go.

All stillborn form an army,

will we soon reclaim the earth.

All the tears and all the bodies

bring about our second birth.

Haiti, never free,

I am not afraid to sound the alarm.

Your children are gone,

In those days their blood was still warm

P.S. Happy birthday to my big brother, Matt!

Oh, the Joys of Traveling...

I took the day off to get my (FIVE!!) vaccinations that I need for my Haiti trip. I wasn't super excited, obviously, especially when I found out that I left my checkbook at home, 30 minutes away.

Not happy.

Fortunately, I ran into my friend Chelsey at the Health Department, and her baby, Ellie, smiled at me. Babies make everything better.


Then, I found out my friend Shellie was going to be giving me my injections, which made the whole thing more fun, if getting five injections is ever fun...

I have so much more respect for infants now.

(forgive the wonky perspective!)

Haiti Update: Send some love!

Things are gearing up as November approaches! I have my ticket to Florida (finally) and am making cards like a mad woman. Thank you again for all of the encouragement and support. I am amazed by the number of people who have voiced their support and are praying for me.

Thank you!

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can read more about my trip to Haiti with Compassion International here.

May I share with you a bit of this trust-building journey I'm on? Back in January, I made a list of "I am going to"s (and pretended that they weren't resolutions). These were not intended to be my promises to myself, the world or to God, but rather a commitment to live confidently, to trust, in the promises that God has given me. One of those was the promise that I was going back to Haiti.

I had no idea how I was going or when but I believed God was going to make it happen. I found out that Compassion was sending their first teams to Haiti (since the quake) in July about 3 weeks before I needed to come up with the $1500 fee. It was like God dropped a crumb in front of me and asked, do you trust me for the rest of the cookie?

With the quaking faith of a shriveled and underdeveloped mustard seed, I watched people pour their love, encouragement, and support over me over the next three weeks. Friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers, harbingers of God's promise.

It's a frightening thing, to do something alone. But may I just say how much more frightening it is to need help doing something? I am terrified that I'll reach out and nothing will be there, so I just make the most of it on my own. But God pushed me to reach out, to put my faith and trust in Him and in others and, yes, I quaked.

So, at the risk of gushing (do you pronounce that guh-sh or goo-sh?) or sounding hyper spiritual, thank you all, even the ones who have prayed and never told me. Even if you have just thought in passing, "Hey, it's nice that that girl is going to Haiti," I appreciate your good juju.

(In love) He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Eph 1:5-10

Reminder

If you would like to send some love to Haiti with me, I am going to be taking down a suitcase full of cards and letters to share with the kids that I meet.

A few guidelines:

• Keep it simple, I'm not sure what kind of translating resources will be available.
• Keep it fun: brightly colored paper, stickers, activities (simple, again)
• Keep it personal: Include your name (first name only is fine) and a little piece of "you," ex: include a coloring page and another page you've already colored!

[[[[Sorry I'm having trouble uploading the pictures!]]]]

Bon Fêt!

My little darlin' is turning 11 this year. 

Eight years ago I saw her lying on a crowded table at Creation Northwest in a little plastic pouch. "Her favorite activity is singing," it said. I could see her in my head, a gorgeous eyed, dark skinned three year old with crazy braids all over her head, singing as she bounced around her little Haitian hut. I have no idea if Fabiola lived in a hut, but in my head she did. A little one with a mud floor.

I thought, at that time, "This girl is special and she needs me." That might have been true, I think that God did bring me to that table and put this girl in front of me. But I think that He wanted to teach me something new about "benevolence" and "charity" through that little three year old girl. He wanted to teach me about the lies of poverty and why I too hated the poor. He wanted to show me that merely giving wasn't enough, that true Christ-like love is found in respect, hope, and partnership.

She stole my heart with memories of Haiti still fresh in my mind, and I thought, "One day I'm going back there and I'm going to meet this little girl."

Now, eight years later, not only am I going to meet her, but I'm going to celebrate her birthday with her.
Bon Fêt, cheri! Bon Fêt!

Labor Day Weekend: Compassion, Haiti, Coffee

This is so very overdue, it's embarassing! But I spend Labor Day weekend in Portland doing my favorite things, meeting new people, talking about Compassion & Haiti, and drinking stellar coffee and I really wanted to share it with you.

Saturday: Jill  & Coava

After anticipating visiting Coava (koh-vah) for 2 months, I admit I was a little intimidated when I walked in. See, Coava shares a building with a bamboo workshop (the smell of bamboo sawdust and fresh roasted coffee is intoxicating) so they have two counters and some of bamboo furniture on display that made the whole thing feel more like a workshop than a coffee shop.

Source

I wasn't sure exactly what to do, it wasn't a displeasing feel, like I said, it just threw me. And, let's be honest, I'm still new to the world of "third wave" coffee, and always feel a little bit like a putz asking about brew temps, extraction ratios and varietals.

Fortunately, my baristas, Jeremy and Justin, were incredibly kind and willing to hold my hand (figuratively, we had just met, after all) as they each brewed me a lovely cup of coffee, Guatamalen Xeucalvitz (shoo-kahl-veets) and a Honduran bean (the name of which escapes me at this moment) respectively. They were both really interesting (the coffees...though I'm sure the guys were very interesting themselves) but the forgotten Honduran was my favorite. Oh, and I got to see the Kone in action (it's on my Christmas list!).

But the best part was getting to meet Jill  (and her two adorable girls!) from Compassion Family in person. We drank coffee for over an hour, talking about family, Compassion, Too Small to Ignore, and the weird places God takes us. It was a huge blessing getting to talk to such a seasoned Compassion vet and getting to meet a "virtual friend" in real life :) And I got a free compassion cause-band, you're all jealous aren't you?

Jill, I forgot to take a picture!! :(

Sunday: Beaverton Foursquare and Java Nation

After a mind-blowing breakfast at Tin Shed with my cousins, I headed off to Beaverton Foursquare Church, or "B4" as it is known by the locals to talk to Mark, their missions pastor, about Haiti.

I loved Mark. His enthusiasm washed over me as we talked for nearly an hour about their vision for Haiti, Mark's job description, their team dynamics and the logistical processes and the challenges they face during their Haiti trips. Mark concluded the conversation by inviting me to join one of their teams, offering to help work out logistical challenges or train people at my church, and actually calling one of their team leaders (who was on vacation) and giving him my name.

I also loved B4 for many reasons but especially because they really, truly love Haiti.  There's is the kind of missions ministry that excites me, the kind fueled by partnerships rather than benevolence. They've made a three year commitment to supporting Foursquare Haiti in order to equip them for their own mission. They've erected buildings, provided medical care, taught vocational skills, dug wells, and sent missionaries. I talked to Jim, a retired irrigation engineer, one of those awesome hard-working guys who will never really "retire", who designed an entire plumbing system.

But, even more telling, every person I spoke to gave me an email address or phone number, they've got some good people over there at B4.

After spending far too long at the very disappointing Ava Roasteria, though I should say that the balsamic hummus and pretty patio almost made up for the less than enthusiastic barista and the glut of noisy students (bah humbug!), I remembered Java Nation, a stuffy little coffee shop tucked away in a strip mall off of Highway 217 in Beaverton. So, I whiled away the steamy afternoon drinking coffee from Kenya and learning about density and genetics. This was my second trip to Java Nation and I'll definitely be making a third...and fourth...

Monday: Stumptown and home.

I debated making a stop on Monday morning because I was in a hurry to get home but the siren call of Stumptown made me make the 2 mile detour to Belmont. See, I've never been to a Stumptown coffee shop, I've bought Stumptown beans but I've never drank it from the source. The busy little coffee shop was a bit chaotic, so I wasn't inclined to stay. I decided to go for the medicine-bottle/red stripe cold brew and a bag of Gajah Aceh (remember the Gajah Aceh from Broadway Coffee??) rather than rush my coffee experience. And, to be honest, I always feel a little guilty drinking good coffee from a paper cup.

The cold brew left me, well, cold. Sadly, so did Stumptown. I like my coffee shops really chill; I like my baristas friendly and slow. Maybe it is because I'm such a chaotic go-go-go person, but hectic coffee shops and super efficient baristas are a bit of a turnoff.

I realized too late that the real place I wanted to visit was the Annex next door :( So my first Stumptown coffee shop experience was a bit of a bust, but there will be more in the future and, in the mean time, I'm enjoying my beans!

Last but not least, be it ever so humble, there's no place like...

*sigh* I miss Portland.

Haiti Update!

Thanks so much for supporting and praying for me as I get ready to go to Haiti with Compassion International. It’s such a powerfully humbling feeling when someone believes in the call of God in your life, thank you!

August and September have been filled with alternating waves of excitement and stress as I pull together details for the trip. Occasionally I “forgot” that God has already opened the door for me on this trip and is not going to make me walk through it alone, though it's helpful to remember why I'm going...

(SO EXCITED!)

Nevertheless, I’ve really appreciated your prayers and encouragement.

So, here is the condensed version of the past few months:

Shortly after registering for the trip, I realized that, one, the trip was scheduled after a three day weekend (Veterans’ Day) and, two, there is a Foursquare church in Haiti, that my church supports and, three, that there is a team from my church going to visit Foursquare Haiti early next year (Haiti twice in one year? Yes, please!). I thought that it would be an incredibly opportunity for me to take the extra days to visit the people at the church and lay a foundation for the next trip.

Though this still sounds like a good idea to me, from the beginning, the details have been a nightmare. Haiti has not known for exceptional civil services like public transportation or safety even before the Earthquake. So, even after sending countless emails to Compassion and the coordinator at Foursquare Haiti and even visiting a church that sends teams to Haiti every month, things have still not come together. Worse, it is actually creating more work for the people I am supposed to be serving and I am not comfortable with that.

So, this time around, I’m not going to be visiting the church. I am disappointed but I still feel that this is a better decision, given the circumstances. The good news is that I will be able to really focus on Compassion projects I will be visiting. So, once again, thank you for your prayers, they have come in handy!

I am hoping you might help me once again. Don’t worry, I’m not asking for money! I am hoping that you will be willing to write a letter or card that I could share with a special child that I meet in Haiti. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular, just a few short lines of love and encouragement, even a pretty card or a drawing would be a huge blessing to them. If you are able to do this, please contact me!

Also, if you are currently a sponsor or are interested in child sponsorship I'd love to hear from you. You can leave me a comment OR visit the For Sponsors section.

Thanks again!

-Sarah Elizabeth

To Haiti, With Love

It's been about a month since I announced that I would be going to Haiti in November with Compassion International. I was working within a tight timeline to come up with the money for the trip but God came through in an amazing way; I am beyond blessed by those who decided to help me out financially. But even more, I have received so much encouragement from friends, acquaintances, mentors, even strangers; thank you.

God has already paved the way for this trip to happen, so I should have no more worries but, alas, control freaks are prone to worry; God continues to peel back my layers.

I would love your prayers as I work through these worries. The greatest of these worries is logistical issues. I may have the opportunity to spend some time with a church in Haiti that we support through my local church before I meet up with the Compassion team. This would be an incredibly blessing for me personally but it would also be a way to build up the relationship between our church and theirs.

It is hard to get around in Haiti as a foreigner. As a young women and a foreigner, especially an American, it's not safe for me to travel alone, so I have to find a way to get from A to B and from B to C, it's a bit of a challenge.

I'm not sure if this is just a bump in the road or if God is closing this door, either way, He's got it.

Thanks!
Sarah Elizabeth

Build Up

"If I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church." 1 Corinthians 14: 11-12

Two thoughts:

First: I know this is primarily talking about the value of speaking in tongues versus prophesying, but I think there is a broader principle illustrated here: It is important to God that we have fellowship or "connection with one another and in order to have fellowship you have to be able to understand each other. This can apply literally to language but I think it also applies to those who seem to "speak a different language" (think of the last time someone tried to explain something to you in "techie" or gushed over a particular song or book that you hated).

This is written to the church so does it have any application to how we talk to people who don't consider themselves Christian?

Second: Striving to building up the church is a manifestation of the Spirit! I don't want to be guilty of taking this out of context, the verses before and after this one are talking specifically about prophesy and there is some pretty widespread "dogma" about prophesy. But can we think broadly and conceptually for a minute rather than relying on some inherited understanding of "spiritual gifts"?

I love theology, I promise. But sometimes our theology can get so systematic that it stops making sense. It gets so rigid that it stops being useful for most "real" situations in which we find ourselves. So forget Spiritual Gifts 101 for a moment and think about what it means that God prefers a gift that builds up the whole.

What does this mean about how we view one another?
...how we view particular ministries?
...how we choose to spend our time?
...how we choose to express love?

The God who sees me

Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away. The angel of the LORD found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.

The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”

...thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the LORD, who had spoken to her. She said,

"You are the God who sees me."

...then Abraham prepared food and a container of water, and strapped them on Hagar’s shoulders. Then he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush. Then she went and sat down by herself about a hundred yards away.

"I don’t want to watch the boy die," she said, as she burst into tears.

But God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, “Hagar, what’s wrong? Do not be afraid! God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants.”

Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy as he grew up in the wilderness. --Gen 21:14-20

God's faithfulness to Hagar, one who had been cast out and abandoned by God's own children, is, I think, one of the most beautiful examples of compassion and love in the bible. I was reminded of this kind of love when I read about Jesula, a homeless, pregnant woman in Haiti who had also lost hope.

"Forty-year-old Jesula was a homeless woman who slept each night at a church in Delmas, Haiti. She became pregnant by a man who abandoned her before her son’s birth, and she could not even afford to visit a doctor because she had no money.

Jesula felt desperate about her situation, but she could not find a way out. During the day, she wandered the streets of Delmas or visited old friends in the hope of getting something to eat. Usually she was disappointed in her search. In the evenings, she would head for the New Jerusalem Church where she slept using a pew as a bed and rags for blankets.

Having no one to turn to, Jesula grew more concerned for herself and her soon-to-be-born child. In her situation of hardship, she felt she was going to lose her mind..."

Read the rest of Jesula's story here: Homeless No More

Walk.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18

Coffee + Haiti

I've been on a bit of a coffee high since my visit to Broadway Coffee in Salem, OR. I squealed and gushed and generally made an idiot of myself but have had some pretty awesome coffee over the past week.

Rather than wonder if coffee is one of those "excesses" that I am trying to strip away, I'm embracing the love and I've even found a legitimate reason to do so.

The beauty of coffee is that it is not just a delicious, mysterious, and often capricious muse for dorks like me. Green (unroasted) coffee is also a valuable export for many of the poorest countries in the world: Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, El Salvador and, yes, Haiti. While this could potentially be a good thing, it is important for people to work as advocates on behalf of coffee growers, especially those in poorer nations, to ensure they are not being exploited. 

Fair Trade coffee was a step in the right direction but the label can be very misleading. "Fair" is a relative term and there are always gray areas, that is to say, just because something is stamped "Fair Trade" doesn't mean the farmers who grew and harvested that coffee are being fairly compensated. 

This is why people like Land of 1000 Hills Coffee make me really happy. I don't know anything about the coffee market so it is important that I trust the people buying and roasting the coffee that I buy. 1000 Hills Coffee is as close to the plantation as I've been able to get (so far!). Up until the last year, their efforts have focused primarily on Rwandan coffee but they've recently started selling coffee from Haiti as well. After much anticipation, I received my first bag of Cafe Marmelade Haitian Bleu today!

Now, as I understand it, Haiti has been exporting coffee for some time but it has never been known for being exceptionally great coffee. Good, not great. But I am encouraged that there are people out there who believe in Haitian coffee and who are dedicated to refining growing and harvesting processes and promoting Haiti as a legitimate source of gourmet coffee. Various web-rabbit-trails have yielded the following organizations:

***Please note: I know very little about these people aside from the fact that they sell coffee and some of it is from Haiti. In fact, if you can offer any experience or insight, it is most welcome!

Eco Cafe Haiti via Clive Coffee (I'm definitely visiting Clive the next time I am in Portland!)
Coffee Haitian
Singing Rooster
Just Haiti
La Colombe also sells a Haitian Coffee

To Haiti With Love

Back in January I talked about my One Word for 2011: Trust. It was and has been a rough journey but it's good! Each day is a new challengeopportunity for me to learn to trust God's promises and His faithfulness and, occasionally, trust actually wins over doubt.

One of the specific areas that blazed brighter than the rest was going back to Haiti. It was one of those impossible promises that has been seemed more and more impossible as each day went by. Still my heart longed for Haiti and for my little almost 11 year old hanging out in the mountains there.

God is as faithful as I pretended to believe He was, and, God willing, I am going to be going to Haiti with Compassion Internation in November. I wrote more about the trip here.

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" Psalm 34:8

One of the things I learned in the woods was that it is not enough to know God is good; we have to sense it, like we would sense anything else in the world, taste it and see it. We have to touch Him--to feel the warmth of his body--and see his face. Because, when we see His face, we not only trust Him, but we are changed.

"...but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2

I have a theory. I believe that looking into the face of the needy, if you really see them and let their stories touch you, then it  changes you. I think that this is because God appears in His purest form in the lives of the hurting and the broken. So when you look at them, you are looking at God.

I know God is everywhere, I know you don't need to go to the third world to find God or even a hurting person. But for me, in this moment, this is it.

And I'm stoked.

I'm unbelievably excited to see how God is showing his glory in Haiti and to see the work of Compassion in action. I will be blogging updates about the journey to Haiti as well as the trip itself, but I would love to share this trip with you personally. If you'd like to hear more personal updates, send me an email.

If you would like to help support me financially you can send checks or money orders directly to me or online use Paypal.

Sending money with Paypal is actually really easy:

1. Go to Send Money at http://www.paypal.com/ or click here. Select "friends and family" under "My Payment is for" in the Send Money Now section and click next. 
2. Enter thesaraheffect@gmail.com in the "To:" box and your own email address in the "From:" section and 
3. Log in to your paypal account and finish the transaction.

Before you click "send money" make sure you put your name in the "message" section so I can say thank you!

If you do not have a paypal account, it only takes a few minutes to sign up for one and you can pay for items with a direct transfer from a bank account or a credit or debit card. If you use your bank account or paypal balance there is no charge, if you are using a credit or debit card, you can still send money this way just make sure that you specify that the recipient (me) is going to cover the 2.9% fee.

If possible, I prefer this method simply because July 27th is just around the corner! If you'd rather send a check or money order you can mail it to:

Sarah Brewer
305 3rd Ave SW
Ephrata, WA 98823

Haiti: Prize Worthy

The 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography was awarded to Washington Post photographers Carol Guzy, Nikki Kahn and Ricky Cariot for their compelling coverage of the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti.

Congratulations to all of you and thank you for providing such a clear, honest look into the this horrible disaster.

You can view the photographs here.

Disclaimer: many of these photographs have graphic content.