Haitian Sunset

We love Haiti. I can, with full confidence that I am speaking for everyone, say that we love Haiti.  Okay, there are a few things we could do without.  The traffic stinks, the heat is a bit too hot, there are a lot of bugs.  But these are minor things compared to the gifts we are receiving here.

Painting team

Today we headed out to Chambrun with a few jobs in mind.  Our medical team worked the clinic.  We had a small team complete a project for NVM by taking photos of students.  There was a small team that needed to complete the hanging of a door.  And then there was a team that was tasked with painting the side of the school.  Although these were our tasks, so much more was taking place.  Here are some stories:

Relationships

Susie and Erica

One of the great gifts our team has received are the relationships that have developed.

Jimmy Lindley

Jimmy was one of the people we took home the other night.  He shared his story to Patty and we prayed for him that night.  The next night (Sunday) we say Jimmy walking the street as we were fighting traffic.  He would walk by us and we would all yell “Jimmy!” about as obnoxiously as we could, horn honking, us waving.  Traffic would start moving and we would pass him up, only to start again.  This went on for about four or five times of yelling “Jimmy. “

Patty was able to give Jimmy her backpack, and he was beaming.  They got to spend some more time today and as we dropped him off, he told her “I love you.”  The opportunity to encourage Jimmy, an amazing man of character and faith who is attempting to lead his family, and quite honestly…his encouragement to us seemed to far outweigh anything we could give him (as if you could measure such things).  It was a gift.

Adam, Chris, and Mo

Mo has been our translator most days.  Mo has been amazing, working hard for us every day, and also teasing different team members at different times.  As he got off the bus today, he gave me a hug and said he loved us.

Junior, Shelli, and kids

Junior was one of our translators on the first medical team that Grace sent.  We were able to see him today and find out what is new in his life.  He is back teaching at the university a couple days a week and was married back in April.  Junior has a deep love for his Haitian people and continues to search for the daily purposes for which God saved him from dying in the building the collapsed around him when the earthquake struck.

Tika...with clothes on!

And then there is baby Tika.  We have affectionately named her “Naked-Baby”. For obvious reasons, we will not be posting pictures of her , other than the one of her in the pink bathing suit outfit we gave her. Naked-Baby always seemed to be without clothes in Chambrun, and was just so cute as she played and interacted with our team.  She would allow so many people to hold her, to play with her, and was just about the cutest little kid we could see (as if it was possible to determine who was most cute).

The relationships are what will make leaving so difficult.

Sarah and Friend

Team Debriefs

Our team debriefs have been sacred time.  God shows up, and we share with one another…it really feels as if we are being the Body of Christ to one another.  The conversations tonight resolved around some of the changes that are taking place in us.  One person talked how something big is coming, how the concept is becoming more clear, and how the feelings around this sense of expectation has shifted from apprehension to excitement.  Another team member spoke of how little Haitians have in “stuff” in comparison, but how much faith and joy and other gifts they have to give.  We also learned that Haitians are very trusting.  In the clinic today some of our team were laughing in front of a patient and Melanie asked Mo to let the patient know that we were not laughing at her.  But Mo said he would not because Haitians don’t talk about another person behind their back. It was not necessary.

Ronaldo

We concluded tonight by praying for one of our team members who needed specific prayer.  God continues to show up in our debrief times.  We will certainly  need his presence tomorrow as we talk about coming home and the challenges we will face.

Two Other Details…

Land being cleared

-Some of us took the time to check out the Agriculture project that is in the works.  NVM is currently in process of clearing about 9 acres so that a cash crop of some sort can be planted and sold.  The Mercy Chef who is cooking for all the Campus Crusade students has also planted a small garden.  I think she has about a dozen different things in there.  The agricultural project is lead by one committee at NVM.  There are about 7 other committees that are functioning now as well with lots of opportunities to get involved.

Garden

-The bus driving today was without incident.  Although a couple team members did have a lot of fun with a prosthetic leg that they found in the donated supplies.  The team did a name game exercise the first time we met one another by using an adjective that starts with the same letter as our first name.  The team agreed that “Amazing Aaron” should be re-named “Accident-prone Aaron.”  The team has thrown me under the bus…so to speak.

Throwing Aaron under the bus...

It takes a strong man to pull this...

Susie's the boss

Gary Painting...

Lynn and friends

Glove girl

Sunset from Pierre's roof

Expectancy was in the air as we drove the bus towards Chambrun this morning.  We were going to church!  As we turned on to the last road–a dirt road–we started to pick up friends who were walking to church.  The first young gal was named Lovely, and she definitely fit her name.  As we picked up more Haitians–moms with their children–everyone was dressed in their absolute Sunday best.  As we got close to the campus, we could see lots and lots of people walking from all over to come to church.  Pastor Pierre shared a story tonight of a group of people who live half-way up the mountain and walk three hours to get to church on Sundays.  God’s people were gathering for worship, and we had a feeling of expectation as we got closer.

Pastor Pierre at Church

The worship service was full of passion.  The singing was amazing.  And Pastor Pierre was dynamic.   Pastor Gary is the leader of the church, but was not feeling well and so Pierre needed to step in and speak the message.  He spoke from Lamentations 3 and the faithfulness of God.  We were amazed at his energy and passion for his message, and how he was able to slip back and forth between Creole and English.  The impact he left on us as a man full of the Spirit and encouraging to us was deep.

Pastor Pierre has a tradition of inviting guests up front at church to be introduced and to sing a song.  The team gave a big thanks to Mallory tonight as we stuck a microphone in her hand and tapped her as our leader.  She led our team in “Amazing Grace”…and Mallory was amazing.  Admittedly she was embarrassed, but everyone agreed…the girl can sing!

Children's Choir

Back to the house for lunch, and then back in the bus to drive through downtown Port-au-Prince.  This is the part of the blog where my words break down a bit.  As one gal on our team put it tonight, pictures just don’t come close to capturing what it is really like.  As we turned one right turn, the smell of humanity hit us like we had run into a wall.  Army Adam shared tonight that some of his army buddies who were here right after the quake had warned him that it was worse than the war zone in Iraq.  Adam was so skeptical…until today.  It is so much worse.

white house

And to think it has been six months since the quake and there are still people’s moms, dads, sons and daughters in many of these collapsed buildings.  There were many tears tonight and many expressions of the difficulty of grasping the enormity of it all.

government building

There is so much more to tell as each person is experiencing Haiti and experiencing God in unique ways.  There isn’t room to tell all the stories.  Here are a few additional notes from Sunday:

-We stopped for dinner at a hotel restaurant in Port-au-Prince tonight.  Two of our young girls were conspiring to find a way to pay for our translators meal (Clarice…amazing young man!) before they knew that we were taking care of his meal.

Storm Coming...imagine you live here

-The rain in Port-au-Prince seemed to pick up hundreds and hundreds of bottles and loads of garbage and wash it downhill.  It wasn’t even raining that hard, and yet the trash was immense that was caught in the flow of water.  It was quite a sight to see.

Soccer in the rain on the streets of Port-au-Prince

-We may have made a connection to a ministry here in Haiti that has access to antibiotics and needs clinics like the one at NVM to give them away…at dinner of all places.  They also distribute medications to other clinics, so many of the drugs that we have so many of and will never be used before they expire, could possibly be re-distributed to places that can.

-Aaron and the bus have developed, shall we say, a “special” relationship.  After driving in March without incident, Aaron has successfully taken out a window and driven in the dark with no lights–twice (and probably removed a side mirror for a red car somewhere out there).  Tonight he was once again driving in the dark except this time it was also in the rain. Well, just to add to the growing incident report, today we drove under an electrical wire in downtown Port-au-Prince that was hanging very low and we managed to rip the emergency door that was propped open in the roof straight off its hinges. Sigh…confidence is running low on driving the bus in Haiti.

Dogs take cover in the rain

Tonight’s drive home, in the dark, in the rain, with nothing more than a strobe light on the roof, was without incident until we turned the very last corner before Pierre’s house.  We were met with a giant truck blocking the street to the house.  Round the block I go…which is not as easy as it sounds.  This will require the very narrow right turn that I had to take the night before, which once navigated (barely), had a burning fire where my right tires need to go.  Great….how much character am I going to add to this bus?  I am not sure it can take much more.

Well, the van is parked safely (exhale) in the driveway.  What tomorrow brings, I guess God only knows!

Hands

There was a bit of excitement and anticipation for our team this morning.  The task of helping Mierta move into her home, a home so many hands from America, the community, and now our own have helped build…fell to us.  After the move, our next task was to run a mobile medical clinic.  We were excited.

medical clinic

Medical Clinic

First stop was the camp to pick up a table and chairs for Mierta’s house.  When we arrived, there were five woman who had walked a LONG way to have the children seen at the clinic, only to find the clinic is closed on Saturday.  Our team made the good decision to see these ten patients, and good thing, too.  Most of the children were extremely sick with pneumonia.  While our medical team was busy in the clinic, we were off to move Mierta.

Moving Day

Mierta’s home was constructed with the majority of the work completed a week before the earthquake.  Pastor Pierre was out of the country when the earthquake hit and because of the demands of the disaster response, Mierta’s house has been missing the final details.  Well all the details were finished today, and it was moving day.  Mierta had her Grandmother with her who was very, very sweet.  She was 83 years old, and was very concerned to move a small bucket that we figured out held all of Mierta’s money.

The new home was only about ten yards away from the old home, but this was an event worthy of ceremony.  While Mierta pedaled away on her cart, we pulled a chair to the front porch for Grandma to have a seat.  She began to brush off the seat, but would not sit.  We couldn’t understand what she was saying (even our translator couldn’t tell), and she wandered off.  Pretty soon we see her emerge from the old house having put on a very dressy outfit.

Here was an 83 year old woman who was sitting on her mud floor in her old house, and didn’t feel worthy to sit on the chair of the now concrete floor she will be living in without her best clothes.

We were led in prayer by our elder on our team (Brian) as we asked for God’s protection and blessing on their new house.  It was a special day.  It was moving day.

Prayer at Mierta’s House

While part of the team was sweeping out and attending to the final details of the house, the rest of the group was playing games with all the kids.  Significant relationships had been built, made most evident when we gathered to pray.  We all joined hands to pray at Mierta’s, and Erica had first one, then two, then three…eventually six kids all were grabbing on to her as we prayed.  Apparently she made quite the impression on the kids as the only girl kicking it around with the boys on the soccer field.

One person in our group debrief time summed up the experience in three words: God was there.

Diane and Baby

IDP Camp Medical Clinic

We saw the Body of Christ in action as we gathered around Adam as he performed “surgery.”  Let me explain…Our medical clinic began by finding the elder of the camp (who was a very large Haitian named “SEXY.”  I didn’t think I would be writing this in a blog…I digress) and asking him to hand out fifty slips of paper that were numbered.  We were going to see fifty kids, and only kids because we didn’t have capacity to see all the people that needed to be seen (which is a really tough thing to do).  So we started seeing the children, and there were lots that had all kinds of issues…scabies, all kinds of lung infections, fevers and so forth.  One young child came in with his grandmother.  As the grandmother sat and after the child was seen, she began to explain that she had all kinds of pain from when some concrete fell on her during the earthquake (possible  broken rib).  Try and present a need to a care provider and have them say “no.”  (We did see one other adult…a man who had stitches in his left arm that should have come out about three weeks ago…it was healed over and nasty infected…how do you say no?).  Back to the grandmother…we learned she was in her 80’s.  She never saw a doctor because she could not afford to, so she said.  That was when we also discovered that she had a very infected boil in the small of her back.  This is when Adam and the surgery began.

Adam did a masterful job of removing the infection and packing the wound.  He was clearing the lead man.  But just about everyone else on the team played some role.  Chris assisted…Lynn was giving supplies…Mallory was cleaning up…Aaron was keeping kids away while Gary patrolled outside…guys were running security, Shelli and Thomas were digging meds, needed tools and supplies out of totes…I think some were praying…it was truly the Body of Christ at work as we cared for this elderly woman.

As she got up to leave, she gave Adam a big smile and a huge thanks and said it felt much better…another patient cared for!

Diane's baby

A few other notes:

-One of our, shall we say, more experienced team members got to go back to being a grandpa as he sang and rocked a baby girl named Tiki to sleep on the front porch of Mierta’s.  It was beautiful to see.

Bob and a Beauty

-A mom who was eight months pregnant and was absolutely beaming after seeing her little baby on an ultrasound.

Aaron and Baby Dashka

-One of our medical staff (Adam) is a big, quiet, tough Army guy.  He is not married and does not have any kids.  And yet some teammates observed him caring for a young child, rocking her to sleep as they administered a breathing treatment.  Amazing.

-One of our younger teammates was blown away by her ability to connect with a young gal, for two hours, without speaking the same language.  When she left, she gave her hairband to the little girl, and the girl was beaming and so excited.

-Patient #51.  A mother who did not have one of our 50 slips of paper held her baby for nearly three hours.  She stood right next to 6 foot 5 inch Brian and was not moving until we saw her child.  The child mostly slept, waking up once to nurse.  We thought the child might be dead at one point because it simply did not move.  We would later learn that Mom was pregnant standing there the whole time.  Her child had a terrible ear infection.  I think we all learned something about perseverance and how a good mom cares for her child.  We were more than happy and willing to slip her in as patient #51.

Those Eyes...

I simply take notes at our evening debrief times and the most amazing stories come out.  The team is doing great.  All remain healthy and hydrated.  The temperature was 99 degrees today with at least 70% humidity, which puts the heat index at about 130 degrees Fahrenheit.  Staying hydrated takes gallons and gallons of water!  Here are a few stories from today.

Melanie

Melanie, our nurse practitioner, gave her first ultrasound today!!  She was more than just a little excited.  A 19 year old girl is 6 months pregnant with her third child.  The girl didn’t know was pregnant as she was breast feeding another child.  Melanie has a deep passion for life and helping this Mom see her child was a tremendous joy.

Bueno Bob

Meet Bueno Bob and his painting entourage.

Besides running the clinic today, our other assignment was to prepare Myerta’s house for her to move in tomorrow.  This included hanging the front door, painting big portions of the house, and installing a gate in the front porch.  The day was amazing…not only did the work get done, but kids nails got painted, soccer games took place, a game of ultimate Frisbee was played, duck duck goose, the hokey pokey, kids were held, hands were held…it was amazing everything that happened.

At one point, Bob found himself alone painting,  Before long a couple of the littlest children came over to Bob and wanted to help.  So Bob put them to work with the paint brushes the rest of the team abandoned.  Pretty soon other kids wanted to help…and then some of the older ones.  Before long, Bob found himself supervising probably eight kids painting Myerta’s house.  We like to call him Bueno Bob and his Haitian entourage.

Myerta's house

Dashka’s Mom Paints with Us

When the first Grace medical team was here in late February and early March, we met a young Mom who had a very sick baby girl named Dashka.  Dashka is looking great and growing so fast!  She is beautiful!  After lunch we decide to paint some shelves that are inside Myerta’s house.  Diane communicated to  Dashka’s mom, without the benefit of spoken language, that we needed to clean the shelves and asked if she might have a rag we could wipe the shelves down with.  She not only went and brought us a rag, but proceeded to paint the shelves with us.  When other team members needed a break because it was so hot in the house, she kept painting right along.

Erica’s Cheering Section

As the day wore on, the feeling started to shift.  We came as people who were going to do something for the Haitians.  We were going to finish the house, and we were going to paint finger nails, etc.  By the end of the day, it felt more like a family reunion.  One story sticks out a bit.  Erica is a high school student who is a pretty good soccer player.  She joined in with the boys, most who don’t wear shoes, and played soccer for a huge part of the day.  In the afternoon, a number of the younger girls clearly didn’t feel like they could play, probably long-time victims of the boys exclusion.  But they learned Erica’s name, and every time she would touch the ball, they would yell from atop the grave pile “ER-I-CA!  ER-I-CA!”

If only she hadn’t of blown that wide open goal I set up for her.  Kidding!!  I am only kidding.  She was awesome.

Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey, or something fun

The True Haitian Experience

At the camp in Chambrun today, we had one of the guys ask if we could take the translators back with us to Port-au-Prince with us because all the other vehicles were gone.  I said sure, not problem.  Back in March we always took the translators with us when we ran the clinics.  I didn’t know there were going to be close to forty people!  We tried to count, but it was hard because we were packed so full.  Our best guess was about sixty people were on our bus. Did I mention it was a mini-bus?  We had a good laugh thinking about getting pulled over in Hamilton county with that many people on our bus.  We got to live the joke that Pierre told us last night…”How many people can fit on a tap tap?”  We think the answer should be “at least five more.”

Tap Tap...

...it got more than a little crowded.

Jimmy

One of the translators told a couple of our teammates his story on the bus ride, and it was powerful.  We prayed for Jimmy tonight.  Jimmy lost his mom about three years ago, and then lost his dad and grandfather in the earthquake.  He also lost his house.  Jimmy is 27 years old, has eight younger siblings, and a daughter.  They live in a tent in one of the IDP camps…all ten of them together.  He works as a translator at the camp.  Pastor Pierre met him a few months back and invited him to come to a training conference with him in Jamaica.  It would cost him $1,000 US dollars, so Jimmy dismissed it because he would never have the money.  Pierre challenged him to have faith in God.  A few weeks went by and Pierre ran into him again, and asked why he had not heard from him.  Jimmy thought it was just not possible because of the money, and Pierre reminded him to have faith.  Well, Jimmy’s friends began to hear about this opportunity, and, wouldn’t you know that God provided the entire sum.  He went and experienced an amazing conference in Jamaica.  He is now also a worship leader in his local church and has so much hope for his future because of his experience of God’s faithfulness.

God Lives Here

One of our team members summed up his experience in Chambrun as he wrote in his journal last night with three little words:  God lives here.  After spending time in Chambrun, meeting the people, seeing the hope and joy, seeing the potential, feeling the love and faith…his only conclusion that he could come to was simply…God lives here.  I think our whole team would have to agree.

After a good night’s sleep in the air conditioning…and can I just say, whoever invented air conditioning (does anyone know?  Please comment and let us know) holds a special place in our hearts.  Never again will we take this amazing modern invention for granted.  It was wonderful to sleep in cool air.

Pastor Pierre and Aaron

Our first task after breakfast was to sort through all the supplies that we brought, plus a whole bunch of other supplies that previous teams had brought.  9:00 AM and everyone was sweating.  One personal highlight was Gary trying on random 4X clothes that I am pretty sure will not fit any Haitian.  Pierre said that the people will tear them open and use them as blankets.  Haitians certainly are industrious.  We loaded up the newly sorted supplies into the bus and off we went.

Gary sorting clothes

There was one slight incident on the way to Chambrun.  Aaron was our trusty driver…he was awesome in March.  July however didn’t start so great…during a right turn, he learned the valuable lesson of always driving with the door closed.  The team in the back were asking for air conditioning…Aaron delivered with a newly blown out window.  It sounded a bit like an explosion when the glass blew out.  We are pretty sure a red car is missing their driver’s side mirror.

The damage

We arrived in Chambrun and it was hard to recognize the campus if you were here just four months ago.  There are so many new buildings (3 tents, dining hall and kitchen, new bathrooms and showers), and other ones under construction (2 children’s homes, a warehouse, a hospital).  The kids were in school, there were 60 campus crusade kids, and a Dutch group that were all on campus.  We spent the better part of our day in two groups.  One group helped run the medical clinic and sort/organize the pharmacy.  The other group went to hang a front door on a newly built house in Chambrun.

Thumbs up

At our team meeting this evening, Pierre asked the group how many people can fit on the back of a tap tap.  A tap tap is a small pick-up truck that is used as a taxi.  You tap on the roof when you want to get out.  Some of our teenagers rode in the back of Pastor Pierre’s pick-up truck and became very aware of what many Haitians go through as the attempted to keep a door, a door frame, two soccer balls, 5 adults, and half-way through the trip a Haitian, all in the back of their own pick-up truck. American’s have so much personal space, and like it.  This is not a privilege that most Haitians enjoy.  After the group was stumped for a few moments, Shelli chimed in with the right answer…“always one more.”

After lunch

One last note.  One of the guys (Ted) went into the hardware store with Pierre to purchase the door.  It was interesting to observe that these men sit around all day hoping to sell a door, and Pierre shows up and is very willing to buy a door.  And yet, they didn’t jump up and ask to help them.  Almost the opposite actually, it was almost as if it was a bother that they came in the store.  Contrasting this experience was one later in the day where he interacted with a group of young boys from the school.  They were so engaging, one of them Ted is convinced will be an excellent salesman someday.  He shared with the group, and we all affirmed, that the youth in Haiti are so much the hope for this country.  Pierre and Nehemiah Vision Ministries are doing some amazing work, and it starts with the hope in the next generation of kids here in Haiti.

Hope for the future of Haiti

IDP Camp

Food under tent

Bricks

Our team loading on the plane. Yes, we are that team that all wore the same shirts. It came in really handy when we landed in Haiti!

Today was our travel day.  Our team was right on time to the Indy airport…4:30 AM!!  We barely made our flight because the folks at the American Airlines counter were a little slow, but the last of our team squeezed through  before they shut the door.  Our flights were smooth, our transitions were uneventful, it was a great day of flying.  Things were a little interesting the last few thousand few coming into Port-au-Prince, we did land safely, and were greeted with a very lively band.

Our team in the Miami airport. Do you see the bunny ears?

There was one interesting story that took place in the Miami airport.  An Indian woman approached one of our team members (okay…it was Lynn) who was a little off to the side, asked if we were with a missions group, and proceeded to open her life up.  The woman had been beaten by her husband (accepted practice in her culture) and when she said something to the authorities, her husband left her.  She was having trouble believing in God and didn’t want to give up on her faith and wanted to know some verses or stories.  Ummmm…yeah.  Lynn was just chillin in the airport and suddenly this woman opens her life up and is asking for encouragement.  And Lynn has been to India and understands some of what the woman was expressing…she was the perfect person to minister to her in that situation.

This band was playing in the airport when we came in. The maraca guy could really shake!

God has so much planned for our team…I can’t wait to see what he does this week.

A busy Haitian street on our way from the airport to Pastor Pierre’s house.

After a delicious meal, getting settled, a brief team meeting and orientation with Pastor Pierre, we are ready to retire to the air conditioned rooms where we will be sleeping.  Did I mention it is hot here?  God bless the inventor of air conditioning ,and for its presence in Haiti.  Someone said the heat index here on Sunday is supposed to be 122.  I don’t know if it is true,  but I wouldn’t argue against it.

More to come…

On January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti. An estimated 230,000 people died, with over 1,000,000 left homeless (source). Our hearts were stirred, and Grace people responded in a big way.

Six months later, Haitians are still hurting, hungry, and homeless. Did we forget? Was our Haiti response a passing feel-good fad?

Susie, Aaron, and Shelli are leading a trip to Haiti that leaves tomorrow. They’ll be sending us their reports and reflections from this still-shaken land six months after the fact. On July 29, pastor Chris Shore will be leading another team to Haiti.

Please continue to pray and follow what’s going on in Haiti.

On today’s Follow the Leader, I talk to Susie Bennett and Aaron Elliott, senior directors on the Outreach and Leadership Development team at Grace about what they take to do on airplanes and leading groups on short-term trips. Leave a comment to let us know what you think…

Billions of people world-wide will be tuning in to watch the World Cup final game between the Netherlands and their yet-to-be-determined opponent on Sunday, July 11th.  In fact the world’s attention has been focused on the country of South Africa for the last month during this long and drawn out world kickball tournament (sorry, a friend’s description that will certainly raise the ire of any true-blooded futballer). 

While South Africa is now at the center of the soccer universe, a perhaps less-well-known fact is that South Africa is also the center of the HIV-AIDS universe.  South Africa is the country with the largest number of infections in the world.  Zooming in a bit, the province of Kwazulu Natal where some of the world cup games were played is also the region that purportedly has the highest reported concentration of HIV infections on the planet.  Almost 4 million adults and children in Kwazulu Natal live with HIV.

But this of course is not the end of the story (we hope and pray).  Grace’s strategic partner, Loving South Africa, is focused on changing those statistics (people) until Kwazulu Natal emerges from this fateful rank of the world’s highest concentration of HIV infections.

And you can be part of that story!

Kick HIV

Loving South Africa and the Carmel Dad’s Club are sponsoring an event this Sunday, July 11th to raise funds and awareness to end the AIDS pandemic in Kwazulu Natal.  For just $5 you can watch the world cup final on a huge tv screen with other screaming fans, attend soccer clinics, learn more about Loving South Africa, and buy South African BBQ from vendors.  Bring your family, friends, and neighbors – don’t just watch the game at home!

Here’s the link for more info: Loving South Africa Kick HIV

The following is an e-mail from a small group leader at Grace that got forwarded to me. I was so encouraged because here is a leader who is leading, and it is so evident that they are living missional, and inviting others to join them.  I changed the names so as to keep this anonymous.  Enjoy.  From Aaron.

Good Morning Small Group:

Why are Elizabeth and I involved in:  Safe Families for Children, The New York City Relief Bus, Lighthouse and Guardian Ad Litem?  Why do we, within our neighborhood collect food for the Hamilton County Food Pantry?  Why have we taken in a 4 month old baby and now a 16 year old mom and her 4 month old baby  — all through Safe Families for Children?

When we came to Grace, Shake the System was the sermon series.  That sermon series coupled with the Justice Seminars opened my eyes to another aspect of the gospel that had been unseen.  I have learned that there is more to the gospel than leading people to Jesus.  Nothing more important than that, but more than just presenting the gospel and asking people to pray the sinners prayer.

Grace has scheduled another Justice Seminar.  I have cut and pasted the details for you.  Consider getting this on your busy calendar and attending.  Like the t-shirt for the New York City Relief Bus said, “Danger, serving on the New York City Relief Bus will change your life.”  There is danger involved in going to Justice Seminars.  For me the danger is being blown out of my cocoon that insulates me from the injustices of the world and what God expects from me.  For me it was safe to be in the cocoon.  I hope I have begun to live more bravely and living less safe.

Justice Seminar – Will Samson, author of the book Justice in the Burbs, will be speaking at Grace on Saturday, July 24 from 9 a.m. to noon on how to move from apathy and ignorance to concern and awareness regarding social justice issues in our world.  This discussion will be a great way for you to continue to engage on the topic of bridging the gap between people you serve and Grace’s suburban context that is often unaware of the poor and disenfranchised of our world.  The seminar is free and you can register at http://gracecc.org/serve/local-outreach/justice-seminars.