Haiti

Dear Friends,

I know I said I’d update the blog. Sorry for not being diligent with that, but I wanted to send you one last email to thank you all for the prayers and support you provided over the past few days. Unless you believe in literally hundreds of coincidences in a matter of three days, it is undeniable that God guided and provided for us to love the Haitians we set out to serve. It is actually the first time in a while that I have undeniably seen God provide. There is no way that any of us can take any credit for what we were able to accomplish.

As some of you know, a team of six of us left the U.S. knowing we had to get supplies to an orphanage and medical clinic North of Port Au Prince. The five guys I was with belonged to Lespwa Worldwide – www.lespwaworldwide.com. Two of these guys had worked at the orphanage for the past four months and were still living there when the earthquake struck. Obviously they were able to get back to the U.S. (which is also a miraculous story) and they were returning with us.

We had reserved vehicles, but when we arrived at the airport the car companies had given them to someone else. I went desk to desk (eight rental companies) who did not have vehicles, said a prayer and went to the last desk which had one vehicle left.

We had a few contacts in Santo Domingo but we had no real idea of how we were going to get vehicles and supplies. Harvest Foundation provided amazing support and guidance. Without the help of Harvest we would not have been able to accomplish our mission. Their Dominican team was able to secure two huge trucks and drivers. We met amazing contacts at the U.S. Embassy, USAID, and the U.N. in Santo Domingo by just showing up. The U.N. flew one member of our team by helicopter to the orphanage in Haiti to deliver emergency supplies.

By Friday night, after surpassing hundreds of road blocks from which I’ll spare you the details, we had loaded the two trucks with gasoline, food, medical supplies, and many other items donated by the U.N. (p.s. – my faith in the U.N. has been completely restored. They were by far the most hopeful governmental organization I have ever met and it seems as though the work they did in Haiti was amazing.) Two armed Dominican security guards, two Dominican pastors who operate Harvest in the DR, and the six of us, left Santo Domingo at 10:00 p.m. with a slight idea of which direction to go. After seven hours of driving on mysterious dark roads and taking a few wrong turns into sketchy places, we finally arrived at the Haitian boarder, found the U.N. headquarters where there were hundreds of people camping in tents and took a 20 minute nap before people started getting organized at the compound at 6:00 a.m.

At first the U.N. official who appeared to be in charge told us that we would not be able to cross the boarder. Once again, we said a prayer and mysteriously a lady we met in Santo Domingo appeared and got us the clearance we needed to cross the boarder. As we left the compound in an U.N. convoy we soon realized that we did not even need clearance and as we crossed the boarder we counted over 100 eighteen-wheelers carrying supplies into Haiti. After a two hour bumper-to-bumper drive we arrived in Port Au Prince, drove through part of the devastated city, and then 25 miles to the orphanage and medical clinic where more U.N. troops met us to make sure the supplies were securely delivered to the orphanage.

The greatest thing, even more than having these supplies delivered, was seeing these people understand that the people of Lespwa and the Dominicans (who helped us get there) loved them. The staff at the orphanage and medical clinic knew the great obstacles that Lespwa overcame to get there. Their needs were met much more by the love provided than the physical supplies delivered.

There will definitely be opportunities to go to Haiti and help rebuild and serve. We’ll keep you updated with that information. Thanks again to all of you who helped us accomplish this mission! I’ll be back in the U.S. on Monday night.

Sincerely,

A.B. Puckett
www.GlobalConnectionsOnline.org

Christmas Poetry…

Since it is Christmas time, I thought I would share 2 poems I gleaned from Kester Brewin’s book Signs of Emergence.  I hope you enjoy them and they do what poetry does best–touches our souls…

Caesarean Sections
From Caesar, a census
Grim counting and recording
He rationalizes all he has fought over.
From God, a song
Divine harmony from angels uncountable
An irrational freedom and declaration of peace,
while…

Herod, the puppet king
His opulent palace, sick with ear
Echoing with insecurity and desperation at
Christ the true king
His pungent bed and mother’s arms sick with fear
Swaying with insecurity and desperation as
1000 mothers scream and 1000 innocents die.
This puppet flailing and the death throes of
destruction
Cutting down young life in fear that
A young life will cut him down
while…

In the temple, the priests declare peace
That all is settled.
That God has assured them of their place.
So they take their places at overloaded tables
Too comfortable to crane necks at wandering stars
and
Too settled for chilly hillsides.
But God is unsettled
Uncomfortable in this petrified home
And slips away unnoticed through the curtain,
while…

The bitter old mann stands at the gates of the earth
Waiting
Watching
Guarding the only entrance and exit to the citadel
planet.
The babies file in and the dead file out
And he watches them
Grimly keeping count……..

He watches
He waits
He shivers to shake
The tired cold from his limbs
For he must stay awake
For the one they say will attempt a salvation.
He keeps one eye on the horizon
On the distant reaches of the future
Where from surely his nemesis will ride with
armies
And demand entry:
The battle of the gates of the earth
So heighten awareness and tighten security and
all the while…

He does not notice the infant God
Slipping in among the embryonic ranks
Of those awaiting entry.
Become powerless
To slip the trap of the powerful.
A Trojan baby
Now inside the citadel planet.
Waiting, hiding, growing
Evolving an inner salvation.
(The original subversion)

THE GREAT REVERSAL
Walking with the crowds
Carried along by the pressing forward.
Each one eager to get ahead
But each one starting the same:
Born as a baby, and from then on, struggling towards
meaning, power and influence.
Be someone
Be remembered
Make a big impression.
Leave some indelible mark in your 3 score years
and 10.

From birth, a struggle to find eternity, to burst
through life with such dazzling intensity, that
everyone will remember forever:
But walking the other way, picking out a route
against the crowds, a solitary figure passes me…
passes all of us–all straining away innocence, to
be someone,
And he passes us, a quiet chaos in the crowd.

Christ, eternal, omniscient, creator, beyond time,
source of wisdom and beyond petty claims of
influence … in very nature God, slips into reverse
and walks back past us–away from Kingship,
away from power, and away from influence, away from
eternity, away from wisdom … towards infancy.
Calmly stepping into the body of a tiny child.

And even as this baby grows, figuring out how to con-
trol the body he himself designed, he still walks the
other way, realizing that life cannot be found in the
struggle for permanence, but in giving it up.

This Great Reversal subverts me.  Tired of pressing
forward, I realize I need to turn, for what I have
been searching for has just walked past me the
other way.

Articles, Prayer and some Slam.

About a week ago, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court arrived in Kenya to present charges against the Kenyan Government for crimes against humanity, in reaction to the government’s involvement in the post-election violence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/world/africa/06kenya.html?_r=1&ref=world

Pray that these charges prove a turning point in Kenyan politics and in the socio-ethnic fabric of the country.  There is a real chance here for justice to be served.  Pray that the minds and hearts of the leaders turn to the wellbeing of their people, not to their own payroll.  It is through patience and prayer that we will persevere in the face of overt and unmitigated evil.  Let us seek to be peace makers in this process and not react with anger and aggression for that will only perpetuate the problem.

There is already evidence that tribes in Kenya are arming themselves in preparation for the elections in 2012.  Pray for this country and for those on the ground, working to sow peace and reconciliation.

Books that I’m reading this very moment:

The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier.

Becoming the Answer to our Prayers by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.

Go and shake the complacency of capitalist culture; serve the poor and do so with glad hearts; seek justice and peace; add your small voice to the growing current that rages against the dying of goodness, don’t wait till tomorrow and do not fear systems larger than yourself…as shane claiborne so poetically put it, even grass can crack concrete.

Kenya: Seeking a new Constitution

For those interested in the drafting of a proposal of a new Constitution in Kenya, check out some of the details here:

http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/kenya’s-draft-constitution-proposes-power-balance-between-pm,-president-2009111338051.html

We, in Kenya have great hopes and some fears about this current process.  We hope and pray for unity, understanding and peace throughout this entire process.

dead aid…

I found myself this week reading Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo.  I found it rather ironic to be so drawn to a book that basically said Affluent Non-Africans giving aid to the countries of Africa are perpetuating the problem.   I am a white person who works with a Humanitarian Aid non-profit, and yet I whole heartedly agree with the entire book.  This is why we are insistent at Global Connections that we are RETHINKING Humanitarian Aid–because trillions of dollars have been given in aid, and it’s hard to find improvement.

Moyo, a native of Zambia, points out that increases in Aid (specifically massive influxes of cash into governments) correlate with corruption, dependency, civil war, the destruction of social capital, inflation, exports, and elimination of the middle class—basically it enhances everything that impedes development.

So why are we still doing it?

Because we FEEL bad.  So we continue to give alms.  Now, alms are good, helping a friend in an emergency is good.  But what if the emergency has been going on for 30 years? Many of us have personal friends who continually need emergency help, and you pity them, so you continue to give.  Rarely are the big changes made that need to happen, you realize it has gotten worse, your aid hasn’t helped, in fact…..it’s made it worse.

This is a difficult series of questions to ask: Is the help I’m giving dead?  Do my charitable acts do more than make me feel better? Has my gift demoralized the recipient in a way that doesn’t allow them to use their own innovation and skills in this situation?  Please note, we’re not talking about helping someone out of immediate destruction, or never lending again.  And the money talked about in Dead Aid is billions and billions of dollars.  But it is important to figure out if we give to relieve our own guilt.

The continent of Africa is massive.  And it’s filled with the most incredible natural resources.  Many of the people who live there have more creative innovation in their pinky than I can dream of—surviving famine, HIV/AIDS, drought, life on $1 a day requires incredible entrepreneurship.  So, we must ask: are our attempts to help equally creative and innovative, or do we just have money and pity?  People do not need our pity.  Maybe Rethinking our approach would be to Aid in Celebrating triumphs, struggles, innovation, economy, micro-enterprise….or maybe I’m just looking for a party.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  Dr. Howard Thurman.

progress…

thought you guys may be interested to see the progress at the children’s centre. most of you know that we are building new dorms. they have been in the works for a while now – and it looks like we are finally rolling! thanks for all you guys support with this project. Once this gets finished – then we will be able to get the baby centre started as well.

no more clothes lines...

construction fence...

back boundary of property...

stacks of wood....

view from the front to the back...

one more view...

storage room for supplies...

Empathy at a Distance…

Last week I was reading an article from www.fermiproject.com written by Shane Hipps and it helped give me a better understanding of the age we live in and a condition called “empathy at a distance.” In it Shane says,

the electronic age is marked by empathy at a distance. This is a condition that emerges when our TVs and computer screens flood our living rooms with images of planetary suffering: from September 11 to the Tsunami to Darfur to all the other ongoing famine, genocide, wars, and starvation in the world. While this allows us the opportunity to extend compassion to these far-off places, it actually has the opposite affect. There is an immediate outpouring of support followed by a detached, clinical numbness. The end result is apathy and inaction. This is not our fault; it’s not because we are bad people. The human psyche isn’t designed to withstand all the weight and trauma of global suffering without shutting down.

Numbness and exhaustion are natural reactions. This experience of horror and empathy, followed by shutting down and feelings of helplessness, is the condition of empathy at a distance. And it didn’t exist prior to the electronic age. The reason this matters is that the spiritual habit of empathy at a distance also finds its way into our local communities. It becomes increasingly difficult to muster local activism and genuine concern for others when global suffering has already cauterized the nerves of compassion.

Without being physically present in these places we can so easily lack true empathy for the injustices that are happening halfway around the world. Even still, we are often left numb to the very real needs of people much closer–people in our very city or on our street. The reality is that it isn’t until we walk “across the tracks” or spend time with someone who is homeless or someone who is being oppressed in a way that we will never fully understand, do our hearts regain a spirit of true empathy. This is why we do what we do at GC.

May we, today, take a step toward empathy. May our hearts feel the warmth and suffer the pain of feeling someone else’s hurt as it breaks free from a feeling of helplessness caused by empathy at a distance.

KENYA: WFP food appeal for 3.8 million in need

Read up on the Drought/Famine in Kenya.

IRIN Africa | East Africa | Kenya | KENYA: WFP food appeal for 3.8 million in need | Children Environment Food Security Health & Nutrition Natural Disasters | News Item

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FOR THE KIDS – 2009…

LCC FULLY FUNDED FOR ANOTHER YEAR

We are very excited to announce that the Limuru Children’s Centre will be fully funded for the upcoming year! Thanks to very generous supporters such as you, over 300 children will receive love, food, education, and housing. For The Kids 2009, combined with the LCC Sponsorship Program formed earlier this year, has raised over $60,000 – the entire operating budget for the year!

We would like to again show our appreciation to our donors and supporters that do so much for our children. Without you, none of this would be possible – THANK YOU!

If you have not yet donated, there is still opportunity to show support for the children - Donate Now.

“THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE PHYSICALLY”

These words were uttered at least once by every member of the team at some point this past weekend. The adventure was absolutely exhausting and MUCH more than we ever anticipated. We are happy to report that everyone crossed the finish line injury-free. The ride was a complete success!

The first day was grueling – 77 miles with the final 13.7 miles entirely uphill on a 7-9% grade. Not one spot leveled out for even 100 feet. In 90 degree heat. We are talking energy output of 8,000-9,000 calories. It was the equivalent of riding 166 miles on flat land for the day. It was called Thunder Ridge.

The second and third day were less grueling but still very challenging. A few major ascents were mixed in to the rolling terrain and the team was able to draft for some time. The Blue Ridge Parkway proved to be full of amazing scenery and we recommend it as a bike ride or drive if you ever have the chance.

All in all, it was a ton of fun and a success in both fundraising and adventure. We are already looking forward to next year, see you then!

Check out our website for links for more pictures and video:

For The Kids 2009

faces…