Thank You

It is just before the US Thanksgiving holiday and I thought that this would be an appropriate time to thank all those you have contributed to help fund my mission trip to Haiti in January. The time is coming quickly and I am starting to prepare for the trip, which can be difficult with all the other things going on.

I continue to watch the activities that are going on in Haiti through various news and blog outlets. Between the earthquake rebuilding, attempting to establish agriculture capabilities, cholera outbreak, and the upcoming election Haiti has a lot of activities.

On this day I see hope for Haiti. I think it will be a long time before a sense of normalcy returns to Haiti I pray for the Haitian people and celebrate efforts to help move them in a healthy direction.

I am continuing my study of Creole as well. Right now I am on lesson 13 of around 34, so still a long way to go. I wish I knew some local native Creole speakers so I could get some sense if my pronunciation is actually close. Even so, I still wonder how much value it will be to be able to ask someone if they would like to drink something tomorrow evening at the restaurant on St. Joseph's Street. I wonder if there even is a St. Joseph's street.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I wish you and yours a relaxing, contemplative, and happy time.

Speaking of Haiti

S, K, and I spoke at the First Congregational Church in Sutton, MA this morning. Not sure I kept it together as well I would have liked. My experience is Haiti last March is still very vivid and I am able to very easily transport myself back to that time and re-live each and every moment and emotion. It is a pain sometimes, but it does point out how real that experience is to me.

While I had written about 3 pages of text that I was meant to share, I quickly went off script. I do hope I got most the message across, it is all a bit of a blur to me. Not quite sure how long I was up there. It felt short, but time has a funny was of passing when you are speaking to an audience.

Overall I think the talk went well and we showed the video from last years trip after the service as we chatted with a few people from the congregation. The church was very gracious to invite us to speak and I am truly grateful for the opportunity.

I met a gentleman who served in the South Pacific during World War II. We spoke about how you can still live past traumatic events. He was still able to go back to a couple days during the war were all but a few men (about 130) were lost in a battle. These were men that he considered brothers.

We learned some interesting things about the church as well. It was established in 1720, so it has been around quite a while. Their pulpit has a bullet hole. This happened way back when the town was under attach by the local natives. That same pulpit also almost went up in smoke once when the church caught fire. It was saved by a group of men who ran into the burning building and carried the pulpit to safety.

It was a good experience and I hope some from the church decide to join us on the trip. I think it is a worth while experience to participate in a trip like this and it definitively changes your life.

Haiti Trip is a Go

Just found out tonight that the trip to Haiti is a go, even though it looks like we will have far fewer people than we would like. So if you are interested in helping out in Haiti there is still room. As you can see to the left the fund raising continues. I have not yet reached that half way mark, so if you are willing to help I would surely appreciate it.

This Sunday, November 14th, I am planning to help out in a service in Sutton. I am meant to speak at the about the mission trip to Haiti last year. This will be the first time that I have spoken about the trip in a public forum like this and I am hopping I can keep it together. Last year's experience is still very real to me. It was a great experience, but that doesn't mean it is always easy to think back on it. If you are free this Sunday, please come and join us.

There is other fund raising continuing for the Haiti trip as well. We have been put in contact with an organization called Spirit of Hope. This is an organizations "founded to fund individuals and groups that give direct service in Haiti". We are hopeful that they will provide us with some funds to help build the school in Haiti. Another person that is going on trip is working to organize a fund raiser in December up in Nashua, NH. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun as it is being held at a club. Details are not yet firm, but you can be sure when they are I will let people know.

I did read an interesting blog from Hope for Haiti Foundation. It speaks about the level of schooling typically available in Haiti. The more you read about Haiti the more you see how much need in Haiti there was even before the earthquake. It really boggles my mind how easily I was able to turn a blind eye to Haiti for so long. It makes you wonder what else we are missing.