#fonkoze

Lecia Beck, a seminary student at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, created a blog to share about what she has learned and is learning from her experiences in Haiti.  The original blog can be found at http://soumonsa.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2016-01-27T07:57:00-08:00&max-results=7.

Kay koule twompe soley soley men li pa twompe lapil.     A leaky house can fool the sun, but it can't fool the rain.

While I live in a beautiful, luxurious residence hall with hot running water and climate-controlled comfort, there are ways in which I live in a leaky house.

We all do.

Our houses leak when what we believe about God is not true to God's character.  While I discovered that there are many ideas about God that I do not agree with, I never had a great way to articulate that.  Taking Systematic Theology last fall helped, but it was in a conversation with someone who has no seminary degree that I learned a way to explain it to others.

"If it is not true for a poor single mom in Haiti, then it isn't true."

This simple lens was a gift from For the Love by Jen Hatmaker through Erin Murphy, executive director of the Haitian Timoun Foundation.

If we say that we believe something about God, is it something that is true for a Haitian mother struggling to raise her children?

Before I returned to Haiti, I spent a week interviewing many people who have seen their lives transformed after a trip to Haiti.  This made me ask the question: How has your time in Haiti changed how you see God?

Lauren, a young teacher, has been travelling to Haiti since she was a senior in high school.  In her time there, she has made many Haitian friends, getting to know people and care for them.  On the Sunday after the earthquake (January 12, 2010), she went to church with a friend.  While there, the pastor said that he was not going to talk all about the earthquake, but knew that it was a sign of God's judgment on Haiti.  Lauren knew that was not how God worked.  While many find comfort to say that terrible things were God's will, she knew that this was not the case.  For this pastor, Haitians were a nameless, faceless group, but for Lauren, these were her friends.  

For Karen, going to Haiti was like meeting family she did not know.  She felt so welcomed.  At church, she had heard that the gifts of "God are free" for all people and that "all means all."  She loves her Haitian family because it helps her to remember who "all" includes and has widened God's love.  

When I talked to Erin, we talked about how she liked the security of a schedule, which really represents control of her life.  In Haiti, it is important to learn to go with the flow as things do not always go according to schedule.  Perhaps giving up that bit of control in Haiti helps us also be able to give up some of need to control and trust God more.

My favorite program to visit is Chemen Lavi Miyò.  From Fonkoze's website: Chemen Lavi Miyò (CLM), or “the pathway to a better life,” provides Haiti’s poorest women with the tools and support needed to pull themselves and their families from ultra poverty into self-sufficiency, with hope and vision for their futures.  For me, visiting with women, I see stories of resurrection and an invitation to join in God's mission.  I can say, "The kingdom of God is near" and know that God does indeed bring about new life.

This is Fedna. She is 30 and has been in the CLM program for 5 months, and has 3 goats and 1 pig. Her five children live with her - 4 are in school and the baby - Fednal - is 3 months old. Her house is under construction. She hopes to have a business and continue to grow and help her children.

Fedna’s new home

Fedna’s old home

Fednal

She is using her water filter

Meeting with Christian, her case manager

She is already doing advance math

From HTF Executive Director Erin Murphy to her home congregation, Epiphany Lutheran Church in Suwanee, GA.

Since 2010, Epiphany youth and adults have led and participated in a summer camp for the poorest children in the Jacmel area of Haiti sponsored by the Haitian Timoun Foundation (HTF). That camp has grown to include participation from multiple congregations around the country and has served between 250 and 350 Haitian children each year. This summer, after years of dreaming, HTF and its partner Chemen Lavi Miyò (Haitian Creole for "path to a better life" or CLM) made plans for young people and their adult guides to walk alongside and partner with CLM for their summer camps. Last week, Epiphany's team of eight youth and two adults, along with 19 others from Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota and Haiti, served as monitors at four different camp locations throughout the central plateau region of Haiti, collectively serving almost 1,000 children over a three-day period.

Epiphany, your team of servants poured themselves out in the hot classrooms and grassy soccer fields in Mirebalais. There were physical challenges to overcome - camp days extended eight hours and temperatures hovered just below 100˚F - and each of us found our emotional fortitude tested as we loved on the children who attended camp each day. These boys and girls, children of the members of CLM's ultra-poverty eradication program, are living at or below poverty levels that many of us have only read about in National Geographic. Their parents - their moms, alone, in most cases - have been struggling just to provide a meal for them every few days. Many of the children have never attended school, and they have never heard from loved ones or from strangers like us that their lives have value. They did last week. We showed up each day with smiles, hugs and words of hope and dignity. We told the children and their mothers that their lives matter. We told them that, even though they are young, they have the right to food, clean water, safe shelter and education. And we moved beyond words to action. The theme of the camp was Timoun Se Lavni Demen - Children are the Future - and  we sang, we danced, we played, we learned, we ate, all of it TOGETHER, in solidarity with our Haitian brothers and sisters. One of the four Haitian college students serving with us last week begged us, through tears, to never stop showing up for our partners in Haiti. He told us that he never heard words of encouragement as a child. He's 23 now, and said he cannot hear enough that he has value and rights and a future.

In this Sunday's Gospel text, we hear Jesus say "I am the bread of life." He goes on to explain that the living bread - Jesus - is the bread that will sustain us for eternal life. You will hear from our team in worship this Sunday, as they share with you their stories of hope and transformation from this past week. I know you will hear and see glimpses of Jesus's vision for the world - that ALL may have life.