One Year Ago, Today

January 12, 2010: 

A catastrophic 7 point magnitude earthquake hit Port Au Prince, Haiti.

By January 24, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded.

An estimated three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian government reported that an estimated 316,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless. They also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

We all saw, didn't we. The world turned its head when CNN rolled the cameras in, and saw chaos unimaginable. We all heard of the panicked relief efforts, and watched celebrities campaign to raise money. We all heard when the money never made it to the people struggling to survive.

Today marks one year since the unimaginable happened to what was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Most of the cameramen have returned.. most of the attention has moved on the the next segment of breaking news.

I want to challenge anyone who reads this, whether it is today or a year from today, to not think of the earthquake as something that happened, but is over now. The implications of this disaster will affect generations. It shook the very foundation of this little country. I want to challenge you to not think of Haiti as just a country, but a collection of individual faces, individual human beings. I want you to find their stories and to listen to them, then find a way that you can lend yourself - your time and your voice beyond the obvious giving of money (which is so important, yet makes the heart distant..) Even though the cameras have rolled on, I challenge you to accept your daily opportunity to embody hope.

Yahoo News reports the remembrance that is going on in Haiti today:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The normally traffic-clogged streets of the Haitian capital turned quiet Wednesday as businesses closed and people walked in solemn processions to prayer services marking the anniversary of the worst natural disaster in the nation's history...

..."It is a grand day for us that we are able to give thanks to God that we are still here," one of the marchers, 54-year-old Acsonne Frederique, said as a preacher exhorted him and others in the cheering crowd to pray. "Others are here to repair our country. We are here to repair our souls."

Read the full article here
View Samaritan's Purse's 1 year post-quake photos here
Give @ World Vision

I spent a lot of time last year, between the time the earthquake hit, and I left for Africa, confused. I was in a 6.7 magnitude earthquake almost exactly 17 years ago. The Northridge Quakes of S California.. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of 1994. What makes my life any more precious? Nothing, because it is not.

This is my piece that will go to benefit Haiti. Purchase a print here

It is featured at A Beautiful Idea: A group of artists who have committed to giving the proceeds from a piece of their art towards World Vision's relief efforts in Haiti.

Even though the cameras have rolled on, I challenge you to accept your daily opportunity to embody hope.

And The Idea Is...

The whole concept of blogging is to put your thoughts out there, so that they might be heard... right?

In fact.. a blog could be pretty much anything that you want it to be. Some quotes about blogging:

A blog is in many ways a continuing conversation - Andrew Sullivan

Blogging is the new poetry  - Unknown

A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list. -Unknown

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. - Blogger

One of my goals for this new year was to establish an insightful, and artistic blog which aims to provide people with an awareness of the many injustices that exist in our world, and to provide them with the opportunity to take their place in the effort to combat these injustices.


SO, my goal for this blog is to take each month and focus on a specific issue, such as clean water or hunger. During that month, I will try to provide:

• Facts
• Stories of real people, so that issues can be connected with real faces. 
• Recommendations of books that provide further information
• Highlights of organizations and individuals who are working in the featured area
• Ways that you can be involved
• One or two new original pieces of art/photography: The proceeds via my Etsy shop from which will go directly to the featured cause.

Even though I am getting to a little bit of a late start, I have a topic for January picked out, and I am excited to begin working on it. 

In addition to this project, I have joined the B.E.S.T. team on Etsy, and will begin to have weekly highlights of other team member's items, hopefully starting next week!

I ended last year, and began this one on a bus.

I ended last year, and began this one on a bus.

I had the beautiful opportunity to go to Passion in Atlanta, GA with my very good friend, Sierra:

I've always had my thoughts and doubts about the authenticity of pop Christianity's big productions. I wonder if the lights and stadiums really mean that much to God, if at all. After all, He speaks through the prophet Amos in one of my favorite verses, saying:  

I hate all your show and pretense—
      the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
 ²² I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
      I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
 ²³ Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
      I will not listen to the music of your harps.
 ²⁴ Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
      an endless river of righteous living. (Amos 5:21-24)

Needless to say, I was simply curious as I rode on that bus through the new year.

Here I am now, on the other side of things, recollecting the impact that Passion 2011 had on me.

Simply stated, I think it was beautiful to see 22,000 people my age come together from all over the world, hoping to experience God in a new way, and then to try to express the surrender of their lives to Him. People my age need to be empowered. To be implored to use what we have been given for the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom isn't distant; it's here. And this conference, minus the big production, may have been a small glimpse of that.

In his article "Re-imagining Heaven" in Relevant Magazine, Jeff Cook says:

"When we choose mercy over indifference, when we choose action over apathy, when we choose self-restraint and chastity over a life given over to our many reckless desires, we choose to live now in the kingdom of heaven. When we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, house the homeless, and die to ourselves for the sake of another, we enjoy the life of the age to come. When we hear the voice of God telling us we are lived, that our many sins are forgiven, we experience now what we will experience forever. When we eat together, laugh together, sing together, serve together, take communion, love our enemies and cancel debts, we choose to live the best kind of life - the life of God's future connected to Hom and to one another."

One of the most incredible things I observed at Passion, was the way in which they married worship and justice. As demonstrated in the verse from Amos, this is the heart of God, and it's something that I've been looking for in the heart of those who follow Him for a long time.
They had set up a village, of sorts, in which people could come and learn about things that the majority of our world are up against; things that break the heart of God. Things like lack of clean water, hunger, human trafficking, HIV... It was amazingly informative and artistic, and provided people with a way to respond to what God was doing in their lives by investing money in organizations that are on the ground, working against these things. As I entered, my heart was in my throat. I'd been waiting to see something like this for a long time.

(Sorry some images are sideways - - ??)

Within 4 days, a stadium of broke college kids was able double the goal they were given, and raise over 1.1 MILLION dollars. 

The conflict within me lies here: I was talking to a girl from another group, and she said that they had encountered a homeless man on their way back to their hotel. He said that for 4 days, he had watched thousands upon thousands of college students pass him by, not even stopping to talk with him.

I thought.. Oh no. We have missed the point.

For God never told us to give our money to World Vision and let them care for the oppressed, sick, and poor. He told us to do that. And if donating money is an easy way out of our responsibilities that God has given us in His kingdom, an easy way to feel good about ourselves, and to justify going out and buying that $100 pair of jeans, then God forbid..

Still, I have to quiet the cynic in me, and believe the slogan that they displayed: That together we are a force for good. That when people are informed of the things that exist in this world, and given a tangible opportunity to be a force for good in that, in God's name, they will. And they will do twice as much as was expected of them.

I have a lot of thoughts for the year that has just arrived, and a lot of them have to do with this blog that I suspect nobody reads. I hope to get those up in the next day or so... if for nothing but my own personal satisfaction. 

PS... Sierra made a cool video, you should check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1566935535653&subj=1303350800

Today is Turned Red..

Today is world AIDS day. Please take time to pray for those beautiful people infected or affected.. Some other things you can do:
>>> Go to www.lahash.net and see how God's grace is moving in East Africa through some of His amazing people.
>>>Go to /www.etsy.com/shop/OnBehalfOf - the proceeds from 4 pieces of my art go directly to support those living with HIV.

>>Join Mocha Club. For the price of two starbucks coffees per month, $7, you can provide life saving antiretrovirals to a person with HIV. www.mochaclub.org

PS.. Look at their beautiful smiles. :)

Happy New Listing!

I have just finishing listing some of my new items in my Etsy shop! Some pieces have just been completed as recently as a few hours ago.

(I made the entirety of my Upendo Means Love piece this morning while watching A Walk In The Clouds, a beautiful movie about a Mexican family who owns a vineyard. I know, it's a painting for Africa and a movie about Mexico, but in my house, the whole world converges every day. <3)

Enjoy!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/OnBehalfOf#

Apple Pie Days

A little glimpse into the nicer moments of my past week :)

Autumn isn't my favorite season.. It's hard for me to see everything outside dying and fading away, but the season provides the occasional lovely moment. How about apple pie days?

Each year we drive all the way down old 94, take the Grafton Ferry across the Mississippi, and go to Ekhert's to pick apples. The journey is always longer than the time spent at the farm, but that's half the fun.

 

I made two different apple pies, so we could determine which recipe should be used for Thanksgiving. Although the Grandma Ople recipe makes a beautiful pie, the traditional definitely wins.