2+2 = 1

2 + 2 = 1.   We leave for Haiti in 2 weeks and 2 days. It's hard to believe! When we enter the airport on the 13th, we are 1. 1 team with 1 desire to be used for the purposes of the 1 God. I like this math. It's simple.

Today we are both petitioning God and giving him thanks. We are humbly grateful that he has provided the funds for the travel expenses of all team members and some supplies to donate. We are petitioning him to provide the additional funds so we can work alongside a Haitian construction team to build a prefab house for a family that is currently living in a tent (as over a million Haitians currently are). If you are considering donating (or donating more) to this mission, that is what your dollars would go toward. Straight from you to a Haitian family. That's simple too.

Donate online here:  http://www.sanctuary-church.org/#/haiti/haiti

Our Haiti Team on KCRA!

This week KCRA-TV in Sacramento covered our upcoming trip to Haiti - check it out!

Learn more about this opportunity to bring help and hope to Haiti and make a donation here: http://www.sanctuary-church.org/#/haiti/haiti

And, a big THANK YOU to Walt Gray and Edie Lambert at KCRA!

A Beautiful and Haunting Haitian Poem

A member of our team found beautiful and haunting Haitian poem below. Read, enjoy and let us know in the comments section below what it inspires you to think about.

Each drop that sinks through the night
Is a cup of bitter coffee in our stomachs
Dew trickles from our eyes
streaks the gunpowder
that coats the jaws of dawn

Hawk strangles daylight
Pecks sunlight into pieces
Light flickers three times
Before the whole day dies

All four freedoms under arrest
Our dreams held in tin cans
Our silence breaks
Patience blisters among us

You watch for the storm
measuring out your hem
to the four directions
You weigh the ocean on scales
Thunder cracks three times in your palm

When wind breaks the law
Whose blade will gash its haunches?
When the ocean shakes its underskirt
Who will say it has no breeding?
When thunder comes beating the kalinda
Who will rise to dance?

By Emanyel Ejen (original in Haitian Creole)
Translated by Merete Mueller

Garage & Bake Sale THIS WEEKEND

Our team is leaving for Port Au Prince in just over a month and we are working daily to raise the $25,000 we need to cover team travel costs along with medical and other supplies for the orphanage and, if we make our goal, a prefab house for a family currently living in a tent. 

This Saturday and Sunday we are holding a huge garage sale AND bake sale at 5941 Shirley Way in Carmichael to raise money. Come on by and pick up something for the house, try a yummy baked good and meet some members of our team. 

One man's trash is a another man's treasure! Not to mention it's for a good cause! 

If you can't make it this weekend and want to support the team financially anyway, click here to make a donation either by check or online using PayPal. 

Haiti Elects A New President

Haiti is not only the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, but it is also home to a government that is considered to be deeply corrupt. This week, the results of the recent Presidential election were announced and with more than 60 percent of the vote, musician Michel Martelly, a outsider when it comes to the political class, won the vote. 

Read more about the election here: 
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/04/05/haiti.martelly/index.html?iref=allsearch

This is a significant moment in the history of a nation with a difficult political past. Will you join us in praying for a peaceful transition of Mr. Martelly to office and for his Presidency?

Preparing

So often we are caught up in whatever it is we think we can do for people who are suffering. As Americans we are almost programmed to think that when we go off to help it is us who are doing the saving or the transforming for other people. Of course nothing could be farther from the truth. This is something our team has begun to discuss as we prepare for this trip.

After our last team meeting one of our team members, Julie Soderlund, who is also a blogger for Girls On The Grid took some time to consider critically one aspect of her life. Last week she blogged a bit about this thought process and one step she's taking as she walks on this journey of preparing to go to Haiti. Below is an excerpt of her post, read it in its entirety here. 

"...I have been thinking a lot lately about our culture in this country and just how materialistic and self-indulgent it really is – and about how I participate so fully and wholeheartedly in that culture.

"That is at the core of why I am taking this baby step. When I first began to think about a shopping fast I thought that was not so shallow that it would be a hard thing to do. But now that I am staring my shopping-free existence in the face it seems daunting. No new dresses for the upcoming weddings we’re invited to. No new bathing suit to kick off the summer (not that shopping for one is that fun). No new shoes (and I really want some cute wedges). No Lululemon indulgences. The truth is that we are inundated with all kinds of temptations to buy things every day. In just the last couple of days I have received over a dozen emails from various retailers trying to lure me in with their deals – I am going to have to reach deep into my child of the 80s Nancy Reagan training and 'just say no'.

"I am not on some moral high horse here. I wonder if I really can consciously take steps to do something that is so counter to my environment and upbringing? It is so easy to get caught in the trap of thinking that the material things in my life will bring me the fundamental contentment and peace I seek. But that is a lie and as cliché as it is to say, ultimately all that stuff isn’t the source of real fulfillment. Sometimes you have to let go of something to gain what it is you really seek. 

"The reason all of this has been on my mind is because my husband and I are preparing to go to Haiti for a week to serve in an orphanage in Port Au Prince. In getting ready for what most assuredly will be an impactful and eye-opening experience we have been doing a lot of reading up on Haiti, which has long been the poorest country in the Western World. So often I find myself wondering how people in a country ravaged by a corrupt government, a weak (understatement) economy, massive earthquake damage get up and do it every day? I am not sure I know the answer to that, but I do know that the fact I am asking that question reveals just how jacked up my thinking and focus really is. Just because people don’t live in the wealth and comfort we enjoy in America does not mean their lives are without meaning, purpose and fulfillment. Clearly I have a lot to learn and hopefully this small three-month step is one toward where I really want."  

Have you been thinking about this or a related topic lately? Share with us about your journey in the comments section below.  

Help Our Team

In January 2010 our hearts heart broke as the world witnessed the devastation of the earthquake in Haiti. Some 230,000 people lost their lives, making it one of the worst disasters in history. Even before the earthquake, Haiti was perennially the poorest country in the Western world.

In 2011, Sanctuary Covenant Church in Sacramento is getting personally involved as a team of 13 people from our church prepare to serve from May 13 to 21 at Maison de Lumiere orphanage in Port Au Prince. Child Hope oversees this orphanage which is a base for rescuing abandoned children, feeding the hungry, educating, serving the community, training in life skills, and providing medical care.  We will come alongside Haitians and American missionaries in these efforts.

While 13 of us will be going to Haiti, many more people can be involved in this trip by giving, praying and supporting this team. You don't have to actually go to Haiti to give back.

Of course it takes resources to make a trip like this happen – and that is where you hopefully come in! Our team’s fundraising goal is $25,000 or about $1,900 per person. Raising this amount of funding would enable us not only to cover team travel costs, but also donate medical and basic living supplies, and build a prefab house for a family currently living in a tent city. Even in a country racked by violence and teeming with hundreds of thousands of children begging on the streets, infected with HIV/AIDS, or serving as slaves, love still transforms.

Throughout this journey members of our team will be posting updates, thoughts and other items of interest here and we're also on Twitter @esperehaiti. Learn more, donate and get involved at www.sanctuary-church.com.