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Dear
Friend,
Where
do you find hope? Is it something that comes and goes
with changing circumstances or is hope a choice?
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| Flood
victim in Gonaives with the belongings she could
save. Photo: Daniel Morel |
If
you ever wanted a laboratory for testing the nature
of human hope under extreme conditions, Haiti would
be your place. Especially this year. This was supposed
to be a special year, a proud year, Haiti’s
bicentennial, a year for the world to remember Haiti’s
unprecedented victory over colonial domination and
slavery, a year for celebrating Haiti’s progress
toward democracy and dignity for all.
Instead
Haiti has faced one crisis after another. In the winter
it was an armed uprising that brought an end to the
Aristide government. In the spring flooding near the
Dominican border killed about 2,000 Haitians. At the
end of this summer Tropical Storm Jeanne brought more
flooding, killing more than 3,000 people in the north,
destroying crops and livestock, and submerging the
entire city of Gonaives in several feet of mud. Now
this fall brings more political upheaval, with violent
clashes in Port-au-Prince, whole regions of the country
controlled by an illegal militia, and a care-taker
government that has become increasingly repressive.
Where
would anyone in such a troubled place find hope? Yet
hope endures in many people, even in Haiti’s
harsh environment. How?
I
spoke yesterday on the phone with Myriam Narcisse,
one of my Haitian co-workers. She had just returned
from ten days in Gonaives. She described a vast apocalyptic
scene of intense suffering. People are hungry and
thirsty, homeless and grief stricken. Mothers who
lost their children in the floodwaters still walk
around in a daze, only half alive themselves. But
somehow many people, even in Gonaives, manage to hold
on to hope. “Hope is the only way we survive
sometimes,” Myriam explained. “It’s
what allows us to bend like reeds and not break.”
Elie
Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust and was later awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize, said, “It is in combating
the suffering of others that we find meaning in our
own.”
The
same is true of hope. It is in working to give hope
to others that we find hope ourselves.
If
we are distressed, it is for your comfort
and salvation; if we are comforted, it is
for your comfort, which produces in you
patient endurance of the same sufferings
we suffer. And our hope for you is firm,
because we know that just as you share in
our sufferings, so also you share in our
comfort.
(II Corinthians 1:6-7) |
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Despair
will paralyze us and keep us from doing the good that
we’ve been called to do. But by allowing ourselves
to be instruments of God’s hope in this world,
we find hope ourselves.
Sometimes
that hope will seem senseless and even outrageous,
like the hope of Abraham who “…against
all hope, in hope believed and so became the father
of many nations.” (Romans 4:18)
In
this month's BB-Mail we present stories of hope from
Haiti. We learn that in the hardest times hope is
not so much something we find as something we do...something
we do sometimes just to stay alive. We learn that
hope is ideally a group activity, something that we
get by giving it away.
We
are grateful to so many of you for giving us hope
and sharing in what some consider our outrageous,
insane hope for Haiti. Thank you for believing with
us that God's reign of justice, mercy, and love, though
hidden from view now, will one day break out as bright
as day for all to see.
We
want to thank in particular those of you who responded
to our appeal for help for the victims of this most
recent flooding. We have received contributions of
nearly $50,000. We will be reporting soon on how these
funds have been used.
Our
focus now turns from relief back to our core work--planting
the seeds of sustainable change. We do this by making
education in Haiti more participatory and liberating
and by preparing a new generation of leaders who see
their role not to dominate and subjugate, but to empower
and liberate. Together with you we are planting a
garden of hope that will someday bloom brightly, even
in Haiti.
Thank
you so much for sharing in our hope. We pray that
“…the God of hope fill you with all joy
and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow
with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
(Romans 15:13)
David Diggs
Co-director
PS
At the end of September we were running $52,000 short
of the money we need to fully fund our work in Haiti.
The $50,000 we received for flood relief doesn't go
toward this shortfall, of course. So, please consider
making a special gift now to help us keep our commitment
to our partners in Haiti. You can give
online or send a check to Beyond Borders, PO Box
2132, Norristown, PA 19404. Thank you!
Want
to know more about our current financial?
Click here.
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