Friday, May 27, 2011

Our friend, Bruce, from S.Dakota sent a copy of his recently published "coffee-table" book from his last visit to La Gonave. Brief, beautiful and thoughtfully done. It will sell for &20.00 US, funding to be used for various projects on LGN.
I will teach Haiti Mission at UMW School of Missions in June and have his book and our "prayer angels" to help fund projects on the island.
Needs are great I am so inept at teaching, leading and letting our Haitian friends go it alone. Solidarity is what Haiti needs not solitude. Liberation-from begging, starving, scratching, wishing, and half-helped.
Joe and I are now alternating each 3 months to the island to visit well sites, industrial projects and meet with scholarship students. Visits are like being with "best friends" as we "take up" where we "left off" the last visit. Phone calls and emails fill the gap as do Haiti Presentations (fund raising), committee meetings, family celebrations and grand babies. We are selling our motorcycles since we can't find riding time.
Preparing to teach at School of Christian Mission, I had to brush up on recommended Haitian History, liberation theology and Christian mission. I was side-tracked by "Readings in Christian Ethics", books on The Coming of Global Christianity plus "praxis & faith" with some "evangelism" for dessert. What a feast of information to wrap around our years of Haitian experience. Except for Reinhold Niebuhr, they make me think " we can do that!" But then...I wonder, why aren't we - why can't we? Then I begin to "feel" very Haitian, like "the universe hates us!" --a phrase from my granddaughter.
Thanks to the delete key you miss the long paragraph related to needs of the Association for Peasants Industry on Sud La Gonave, need for wells and repaired cisters, and scholarship support and sponsors for university students from the churches on La Gonave. Between the mega and multi tornadoes wrecking the midwest states and the moles wrecking my drowned yard, the clouds have invaded my attitude!
We live on our hill, watching finches fight, hummingbirds play tag and bluebirds make families while coyotes come begging for scrapes, geese quietly parade the perimeter and groundhogs pose for a photo shoot and survey the traffic on the distant highway.
I wrote a "journal entry" titled "Always Alternatives" a short time ago about alternative resources for mission. In the article I refer to para-church and specialized church organizations that "fill the gap" for denominations to meet the needs of the millions of "needful" people in the world. How missions work is confusing for many, particularly those we "help". We are always looking for alternatives to make life better than it has ever been.
Our Annual Conference in June (for which I forgot to register) has a planned "Bishops 5K walk" and funds will sponsor the SAMVEYE Orphanage in Anse A Galets. They have 11 children who were orphaned by the earthquake and plan to raise them, educate them and give them a good life. A World Vision nurse and her husband who also works for World Vision are doing a good thing with little support. I'm working toward a faster 5K but time is going quickly!
Feb 25th of 2012, Kansas East will host a Global Mission Experience, to try and connect our Kansas Covenant to projects of the Haitian Methodist Church. We look forward to some good conversation about missions in Haiti, plus reunions with some friends not seen for a time.
With Regional School of Mission, plus KEC and Nebraska, then KEC Conference and Global Mission Experience I hope to gain some "smarts". The reading, conversations and interactions focus my prayer on wisdom and ways of encouraging a self-sustaining lifestyle on La Gonave.
What I need now is an "attitude alternative". Bishop Willimon says, "For Wesley...the good news of Jesus Christ had ethical demands. Work is our faithful, grateful, necessary response to Christs "work" on the cross." There is much work to do, faithfully, gratefully and absolutely necessary for my attitude improvement. Blessings.