Haiti Relief 2010

I wrote this for a new magazine starting up on the West Coast called Loaf. The title was borrowed from Rollins and his post about his new tour coming up. Haiti. Two months ago I could not have pointed to it on a map. Today, I’ve had a complete overload of history lessons, French/Creole, foreign […]

Before I jump into Rachel’s post, here is a good story about the pastor that Chris sent me. Pastor and I went to the bank today and we bypassed the lineup outside and went straight in- pastor saying that we’re just going to ‘information’.  Then inside the bank there’s about 15 people lined up and

The last two days we have pulled ourselves out of bed at 3am to continue the journey to Haiti. No delays with flights and we arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic around 3:30 Monday afternoon. Pastor Lopez met us at the airport and drove us back to his home in the city. We were so

I will keep this collection of photos updated constantly here. A nurse here was telling a story of when she went grocery shopping with pastor, and how she was going from aisle to aisle picking out things she needed. He was standing at the edge, talking to employees, pointing at his watch and bored out

nurse: we have a conference call with an organization tonight, is that ok for you to talk to them tonight? pastor: i still have my mouth, so i will talk to them. aid worker: what if we built the new houses with wood? pastor: wood houses eat trees, we will build them with stronger cement

us: we have to be to the airport for 10pm (it is currently 9:30 and takes 30 minutes to get there) pastor: (he calls over a third party) Bob, did we get these guys to the airport on time yesterday? bob: yes pastor: then why are they asking?  we will get them on time today.

us: so pastor, what is the plan for tomorrow pastor: tomorrow? it’s today now. tomorrow will take care of itself. it’s in the bible, i’m not going to add to that. us: so should we spend all the money on tents? pastor: well, you can, but then you will have dead people in the tents,

Humanitarian aid is something that has been going on for a long time.  Everyone seems to be involved with it for some reason or another.  Many people are involved in it for selfish reasons, and many have pure motives but will stick hurt things and others still may actually be helping.  The situation in Haiti

Chris is blogging occasionally here if you want to read some from his perspective, he’s much more eloquent than I. Nurse: “How is Johnny.” Pastor #1: “Johnny is dead.” Pastor #2: “God is good.”  I don’t write that  to be crass.  We were sitting there at dinner with some new guests and they had just

I’m fascinated with their optimism, as you might be able to tell by the titles of my last few posts.  I just can’t even fathom it.  I consider myself to be mostly optimistic, but this is a huge learning curve for me.  I don’t even know where this fits into my theology.  I’d much rather

“God saved those two houses over there” says Pastor Martinez has he points to what looks like every other heap of ruble through Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti, as we drive through its city. This perspective on life, death and God’s will has basically summarized my experience with the people of Haiti so

An opportunity has presented itself to go to Haiti for a few weeks to work with Emmanuel International.  I am going alongside of my friend Chris Lewis who has been working closely with them over the last few years.  We’ll be working with different food distribution centers making sure everything is relegated properly and the