Reflections on Holy Week

            Here is a brief story from Maundy Thursday proving that God is truly present in Haiti.

            The Maundy Thursday service was nearing its end. Having started around 6pm it was now nearly 9pm. The whole congregation stood in a large circle around the altar with our wafers and small cups of wine. Pere Val tells us to “drink the blood and eat the body.” As soon as he commanded us to do so, the power shut off. It hadn’t gone off once the entire three hour service, but it did so now, at this exact moment. Everyone remained calm and ate and drank. The only lights that flickered were the two candles on the altar, reminding us that, indeed, God was still in the room. As soon as Pere Val began the post-communion prayer, the lights returned.

Coincidence? I say no.

            Today is Good Friday. Sometimes people die. Sometimes things die, cruelly and unjustly. And sometimes, these deaths are long, drawn out, and painful. They are full of abuse and torture. People turn on each other; people turn on there own saviors; people deny their best friends.

But God has given us the promise of redemption. Sometimes, I feel like that might be the only gift he ever really has given us. But even if that’s so, it is more than enough.

Water

            Today, I went to Crochu again. This time, the nutrition program was distributing 100 terra cotta water filters donated by a woman in Atlanta. These clay filters will act as purifiers for up to ten years.

            The people of Crochu, like so many other people in Haiti, need clean water. There is not a single well in the town because the road to get there is so rough no well-digging truck can make it up the mountain. There are only two springs from which all 8,000 residents get the water they drink, clean, cook, and bath with. Having visited one of the springs and seeing children bathing naked next to women washing dishes next to little girls filling buckets to take home to drink all next to the fat, muddy pig wallowing in his own feces, it is a true miracle that Crochu hasn’t been completely decimated by the cholera epidemic. They have, in fact, had a large number of cases.

            Water is one of the most important things we need to stay alive. In fact, I would go out on a limb and say it is the single most important thing besides the air we breathe. One can survive weeks without food and sleep, but without water, we are lucky to make it forty-eight hours. The incredible importance of water is notable in all other living creatures. Just picture the Nile River Delta. In the middle of the Sahara Desert there is a magical strip of emerald green.

            A few years ago, I began to develop a theory about water. It became fully apparent to me during a twenty-mile hike in and then out of the Grand Canyon, a very hot and dry place itself. I wrote down my reflection two days later:

Written on May 26, 2010 traveling to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

            The vast size of this area is absolutely stunning. You see the Grand Canyon from the top and it blows you away, but then you descend into it and you truly realize how truly massive it is. You would look back down at the trail at an area which you had just been at about 10 minutes earlier and you can see the other hikers and they are barely noticeable. Then you eyes will pan out and you would see it all: the Pre-Cambrian rocks of the Inner-Canyon, the Redwall, the Supai, the Coconino, the Kaibab and you realize just how small you really are. And then you realize that this is a canyon which has been carved in 5 million years time (nothing in geologic years) and it has been done by a single force: water.

            Water, the essence of life. Especially in this area of the country. Many areas get 10 inches of rain a year. Nashville got 13 inches in one day! Water is the combination of two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. And it is in everything that lives. It is the one unifying force that binds us all. Without it, we die. And in our globally weirding world, we are starting to fight over it. People are starting to die over it. It kills people via flooding and hurricanes and tsunamis. It is the single most powerful thing on this planet. It is the source of so much erosion. It is the source of so much life. It is what makes the Earth a hospitable place. Without water there is no life. Water is everywhere. Water is God.

            I wrote this as a naïve twenty year old. I would thus like to slightly correct my statement that “Water is God.” I believe that God is IN water but it is not the only thing he is. I now would like to propose a new theory.

I believe that hydrogen is the physical manifestation of God.

It is the most simple element, with an atomic number of one. It is contained in all living (organic) compounds. It has the potential to be humanity’s next great source of energy (i.e. the hydrogen car). And, when you try to split a hydrogen atom…well, let’s just say its explosive. Hydrogen is everywhere.

            Water is God’s greatest gift to life. But it can also kill us if we do not take care of us. Today, we are polluting it with chemicals, toxins, animal waste, human waste. All of these added elements make the water impure. Seeing the smiles today of the hundred women who received the gift of pure water, I was reminded just how important water is. In it, we are baptized. In it, we can be reborn. With it, we are given life. With it, we are saved.

Seeds

This Lesson taken from today's Daily Office:

John 12: 24
"Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Two weeks back, I went out to the new Lespwa Timoun facility and helped plant some seeds to grow corn and three types of beans. And, if the rains continue the way they have, we will have a healthy harvest just in time for me to depart for the US. It would be really incredible if I could eat some corn I myself planted.

The new garden at Lespwa Timoun

Perhaps the craziest thing to me about the passage above, about seeds in general, is that they have to die before they can become a plant. No, this cant be true, right? In fact, after some brief scientific research, I found that seeds, when dormant, are neither live nor dead. They are simply in a state of being. In order to grow and flourish, they must sacrifice their state of being.
They must sacrifice their state of being.

Sometimes we are presented with realities and situations that inevitably force us to make a sacrifice. And usually these sacrifices go against everything we want.
"I mean, do I really have to walk to class?" asks the lazy student when his school changes parking policies to reduce it carbon footprint.
"You mean I actually have to pay you to live in this awesome apartment?" asks the oblivious trust fund young adult to her landlord.
"You mean 'If [I] wish to be perfect, [I must] go and sell [my] possessions and give the money to the poor and only then will [I] have treasure in heaven?" asks the young man to Jesus in Matthew 19:21.

Yep, sometimes "you know it don't come easy" to quote Ringo Starr (well really George Harrison writing yet another song for Ringo, but anyways).

In Jesus' case, his sacrifice was obviously about as big as it can be, death or martyrdom. But that doesn't mean that the sacrifices we must make in order to "bear much fruit" aren't extremely difficult for us. Sometimes it means giving up the things we care the most about (family, friends, community, wealth). But if this thing of value must be sacrificed for some greater good, than it is indeed "the right thing to do." God would not have planned for us to lose what we love unless he has some bigger plan working.

As other posts have made readily knowledgable, there are a lot of rocks and there aren't a lot of trees down here in Haiti. In fact, 99% of the original forest is gone, removed for unsustainable agricultural practices and for the production of charcoal. What Haiti has been left with is a desert in the tropics.

"Give them according to their doing, and according to the wickedness of their deeds; give them after the work of their hands, render to them their desert" Psalm 28:4

Crochu, my new home away from home away from home away from home away from home (LR, Sewanee, Durham, Croix-Des-Bouquets, Crochu...whew, that's a mouthful), is the perfect example of a town rendered a desert. There are innumerable plots of lands, likely passed down for generations, that  have become little more than a rock field. Upon these rocks, these people survive. If the rains don't come, if the goats eat too much, or if the seed wasn't healthy and didn't "bear its fruit", then these people literally starve to death.
As such, I have been commissioned by the Valdemas to start a reforestation project in Crochu.
And I have plans! Through the generous donation of a few thousand dollars (cough, cough, readers), the relatively simple planting of some biomass and the installation of a new pellet mill, these barren hillsides could be transformed into an agriculturally productive region, giving the people a source of cooking fuel, fodder for their livestock, improved soil for more productive agriculture, and hopefully one day, an industry they can export and expand to other areas in Haiti.
**If you have any interest/ want more details, please e-mail me at dchurch530@gmail.com. I am happy to entertain questions (and donations!) but am reluctant to reveal my great scheme to the entire globe just yet.

So, right now, I'm a seed. I am simply in a state of being (the state today is one still lacking electricity and punctuality, and overridden with heat, nausea and homesickness). But with adequate water and sunlight, hopefully I will bear some fruit in the near future. Hopefully this project will bear some fruit in the near future. Hopefully, we can all sacrifice a little for the betterment of many.

Song of the Day

"Enough To Let Me Go"

Switchfoot

Oh, I'm a wandering soul,

But I'm still walking the line that leads me home

Alone, all I know. 

I've still got mountains to climb on my own

Back from the dead of winter

And all of our leaves are dry

You're so beautiful tonight

Back from the death we went through

Back from the dead and both our tongues are tied

You look beautiful tonight

But every seed dies before it grows.

Just Another Day in the Third World

Sorry for my absence the past few days, blogland. I Don't really have too much to tell from the past week; I just sorted files all day Wednesday-Friday.
As for today, I awoke this morning at 5:30 and I felt terrible. I have since thrown up six times and have taken refuge under my mosquito net, watching youtube videos and sleeping.
Just another day in the third world.

Oh, and I would literally kill a kitten to get my hands on some Chick-fil-a right this moment!

"On This Rock"

Matthew 16: 18

“I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church”

It is often assumed, due to this passage, that Peter is the ‘rock” upon which Jesus chose to build his Church. And while Peter had three times denied him, it was his close bond with the Lord that Jesus believed made him best able to guide the Church after his crucifixion.

Many of us have rocks upon which we have built our lives, foundations of beliefs that support us even when everything else around us has collapsed. For some, their rock is indeed the Church, God, or Jesus. For other, like Jesus, it is a close relationship, with a parent, sibling, best friend, or spouse. And for others, sadly, it is in a material object such as money, fame, or popularity.

So what happens when our rocks, our foundations, are damaged, or worse, destroyed?

I have a friend, Moise, who was on the top floor of a building in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit that January afternoon two years ago. The foundation and supports for the building were not able to withstand the earth-shaking event, and the building collapsed. And out of a room full of people, Moise was one of only a very few who survived. He suggests divine providence. I suggest a combination of that and his Herculean strength. I feel certain he held the building up with his bare hands he is so strong; his biceps are the size of my thighs.

I’ve recently been reading a book suggested to me by my father entitled, The Brother of Jesus, that examines James, Jesus’ brother, and his importance and significance in the early Church. In it, the author suggests among other things that James, not Peter, was the “rock” upon which Jesus had truly desired to build his Church. This is indeed an earth shaking realization; something, which if proven correct, would obliterate the foundation of the modern Catholic Church which is physically headquartered on Peter’s rock, his tomb in Rome. So destructive it would be that even those scholars who support the theory on James are weary of its ramifications.

While I do not know for certain what I believe about James, I do know what I believe about earth-shattering realities.

We must accept them, for they are gifts from God.

Such acceptance will likely cause a great deal of damage. People will get hurt; some may even die. Beliefs will be crushed and institutions and individuals will be forced to change. But, like all things, God wants us to accept the Truth. If he had wanted us to believe otherwise, he would have never caused the earth-shattering reality to occur in the first place.

Our lives and our history are full of these overwhelming realities: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Copernicus’ planetary realignment, the death of a spouse, the loss of a best friend. But all of these events would have never occurred if God did not want us to learn something. It is in these darkest times that we humans are best able to grow.

Down here in Haiti, they are still picking up the rubble from earthquake 27 months ago. There are likely still numerous bodies buried under the piles of bricks and mortar, victims of the harsh reality of the very violent, unstable, and seemingly unfair world we call our home. How could God allow such a tragedy to occur in such a broken and impoverished society? Was he really punishing the posterity of Voodoo whose ancestors had “sold their souls to the devil” in order to free themselves from their oppressive slavery?

No.

Very simply, the Earth just moved. What had been years of tension between two determined pieces of land finally gave way, resulting in a destructive and powerful upheaval of rock. God did not intentionally cause this tension, nor did he deliberately cause the tectonic movement. The ever-changing, evolving planet he designed simply did what it was designed to do: change.

While roughly 300,000 perished, Moise, like millions of others, survived this catastrophe. Many lost their homes, their businesses, their jobs. Hundreds of thousands were forced to relocate to unknown places while many simply relied on their families and friends scattered around the island. But one thing, one foundation, remained through all of this mayhem: their faith. The Haitians, one of God’s most tested people, remained ever faithful in the ever-loving God. If anything, this disaster allowed their faith to grow.

Haiti will rebuild and recover. We all can rebuild and recover, with faith in God, in whom and with whom all things are possible. But right now, Haiti and the rest of the world are facing the incomprehensible question: How?

It will not be easy. And it will be very slow. It will continue to be a test on Haiti and other nations alike for years to come. But the Lord will give us a second chance; he already has when he sacrificed himself on that rocky hillside nearly two millennia ago. He has already given us his greatest gift.

Redemption.

With it, all that we have destroyed can be rebuilt. War-torn countries, polluted rivers, flattened cities, religious conflict, splintered relationships. With the gift of redemption, we can transform the rubble into something more beautiful than we can even imagine. There will be times where we will fail a second time, a third time, a thirty-third time. But God will always remain, our rock, our shelter from the storm, calming the waters for our thirty-fourth try. Upon him we can rebuild the foundations that once supported us. And, like Jesus, we should remember to rely on our brother, our brothers, to hold us up when everything around us seems to have collapsed. 

Rocks

I made the off-hand comment to my father during his stay in Haiti:
"If there was somehow an international market for rocks, Haiti would be the wealthiest nation in the world."

There are rocks everywhere. I have read extensively about Hispaniola's geology, but I have yet to figure out why every hillside and landscape is covered in stones. These rocks make farming an impossibility and a simple hike uphill a potentially deadly (or very painful) experience. It is almost as if some titan who used these rocks as golf balls was smacking his driver and Haiti was his driving range. Now, if I could only invent a range-cart to harvest all of these rocks...

Haiti was built on shaky ground. Besides the rocks that litter the land, the nation of Haiti literally sits in one of the worst areas in the world in regards to tectonic activity. The island of Hispaniola has the unfortunate prestige as being the only area in the world known to geologist where two major fault lines parallel each other so closely. Thus, a recipe for disaster that has played itself out numerous times.

The fault line to the south runs directly under Leogange, Port-au-Prince, and within mere miles of where my feet stand now. This is a strike-slip fault. The land to north of the fault line is determined to head east while the southern half of the island wants to go west. As you might assume, this doesn't work out too well and thus we get huge earthquakes such as the one on January 12, 2010 as a result.

The other fault line is more of a subduction fault. It lies just off the coast from Hispaniola. This fault line is where the Caribbean plate is literally colliding with the North American plate and subducting underneath it. It has also produced massive earthquakes, including the 1842 Cap-Haitien earthquake (an 8.1!) that destroyed much of the city.

Haiti: Resting on very unstable ground

After reading about the geology of this place, I found it fascinating as to the parallels the underlie the political foundations upon which this unstable nation rest, albeit likely just coincidence.
In 1791, Haitian slaves revolted and obtained freedom from France in 1804. Ever since then, the country has been at the throws of foreign powers and authoritarian governments. In 208 years of history, they have has 33 government overthrows. Talk about instability!


So let's look at the two different fault lines:

1) The subduction fault in the North. The island is literally colliding and trying to become a part of the North American plate (upon which the entirety of the US and Canada sit). The Caribbean Plate is getting shoved under the North American Plate. Quite fitting seeing as  almost every president that has ever found power has attempted to allow foreign investors (mostly American) to jump start the economy. And every time, the people get upset by the certain subservient nature under which they will be forced. At least two instances in the past, they have literally blown up the Presidential Palace, whose destruction in the 2010 fame received worldwide fame. So, it is pretty apparent that the island does not want to become part of North America.

2) And then there is the strike-slip fault in the middle of the nation, the one that is literally ripping the nation in half. Ever since Haiti received independence, the nation has been divided between factions who remain loyal to the north (capitaled interestingly enough in Cap-Haitien) and those who remain loyal to the South (capitaled, at, yes, Port-au-Prince). So much division, in fact, that the nation was actually two different nations (The Republic of Haiti in the south and the Kingdom of Haiti in the North) from 1811-1820. And, as 33 rebellions might point to, Haiti certainly does not like it when someone stays in power too long and establishes any sort of stability.

So, what does the future hold for this very unstable country? I am not very sure. I just finished a 400 page political history of this country and all it did was make the situation seem more insolvable and dire. All I can hope for in the next two months is that there is not another coup-d'etat. Oh yeah, and just two weeks ago, Pere Val told me that the Senators are attempting to overthrow President Martelly. Awesome.

Hands

Yesterday and today I used my hands, a lot. I spent both days reorganizing the file cabinets of Lespwa Timoun, determined to increase the efficiency of finding files of patients. I started by dividing the cabinets into letters by making cardboard dividers. I was in the zone; it was like arts and crafts time in elementary school. I was stapling together cardboard, coloring and sharpie-ing things. And I was getting some interesting stares from all of the Haitians who were surely thinking: "What is this crazy white boy doing?"
I then started (and will likely not finish for some time), dividing each letter into small folders (Ex: Sa, Se, Si) so as to make file finding even easier. Today I worked on the letter J for over 5 hours and STILL did not finish. I must have organized over 2,000 files.

Before: An Incredible jumbled mess of paper

After: A slightly more organized jumble.
More organizing to come.
Thanks for the skillz MOM!

Every day we all use our hands doing lots of things: brushing our teeth, drinking our coffee, or signing contracts. 

But I've been thinking a lot about my hands, hands in general. They are arguably the greatest gift of our physical body that God gave us. Especially the opposable thumb. Just ask the raccoon versus the dog. Who is able to open the ice chest and get all the goodies?

The idea about thinking about hands came to me the other day when I used the word "hands" as my centering prayer word. I had read one of the Psalms where David expounded upon God's hands on everything. It seemed like a fitting (and new) word to use for meditation. But what I found was that, as I kept repeating the word in my head was that I kept saying it in creole, which, interestingly enough, is "men".
So I kept trying to think about hands and kept saying men. And it was then that I started thinking about the incredible overlap between these two words: hands and men, or more importantly and PC, mankind...or humanity (if you want to be real PC).

         I have been incredibly fortunate the past few weeks to be using my hands in better ways, ways I had been desiring. Whether it has been digging in a garden, hammering nails in on a roof, holding back a Haitian's tongue with a tongue depressor, or taking blood pressures, I can sincerely say that my hands have are being used by God. Not that he was not using my hands in school when I would plug away at an Econ problem set, but all of that "handy"-work seems very trivial and intangible at this moment.
         Every day before all meals or before long days of medical and dental work, all of the members of the team (Haitian and American), all members of the one body of Christ, join hands together in a large, interlocked circle and pray. At first I did not think about this image, but the more I have done it, the more I think about the famous drawing of all of the children holding hands surrounding the world. We are all joining hands for one common purpose, for one common goal. Some of us might have better ways of organizing a file cabinet, or removing a decayed molar, or driving a flatbed truck all the way up to Crochu, but, in the end, we can only achieve success if we decide to take our brothers' hands and each give our strengths to the common good. It is when these gifts can be bonded and unified that men can truly form one body of Jesus Christ.

Today's Daily Office Lesson fits right in:
1 Corinithians 12: 4-7; 12
"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it with Christ."

Ben Harper's "With My Own Two Hands"