Support Haiti
Please visit www.conduitmission.org to hear about the $25 challenge and keep up with everything we are doing to help with Haiti relief. We are doing some amazing things in Haiti and raising some very real money! Thanks to all who are donating!
Haiti Earthquake
As many of you have heard there has been a massive earthquake with many huge aftershocks that has devastated a lot of Haiti. If you have followed this blog or have known me long you know that I helped start and am the Vice President of a non-profit organization called The Conduit (www.conduitmission.org) that has done a lot of work in Haiti. There has even been a website created called www.restorehaiti.com that is a group of my friends also. We have sent many trips to Haiti and have linked with a pastor and a group of people in Jacmel. I personally went on a trip to Haiti last spring. The trip changed my life. Haiti is so impoverished and was in no shape to have this happen to them. When I see pictures in the news I have been to these places. I drove by the huge palace that now lays in ruin. I keep in touch with a couple kids I met while there and sponsor a child sending her to school and feeding her every month also. Through The Conduit we have been able to feed between 75-100 kids three times a week, we launched a child sponsorship program this summer and already have over 60 kids being sponsored every month, and we finally finished raising the money needed to complete the house we have been building for the last few years. There have been many attempts to reach the people we have on the ground there without any success so far. To say I am sad wouldn’t be close to describing how I feel right now. I can literally see the faces of the people I met and loved on for a week last year and my heart is breaking. (Update: we found out that no lives were lost from our Restore Haiti project yesterday)
How can you help? We are gathering money to wire transfer directly to our people doing work on the ground in Haiti. The money will be wired within 24 hours of receiving it. We are asking for a donation of $25. Of course you can send more if you are able. You can donate to www.conduitmission.org and trust me when I say that all of the money received will end up there. Please spread the word through email, twitter, facebook, talking about it. Let people know they can help! WE MUST DO SOMETHING!! I am not content with just sitting around and viewing images of a horrible event that happened. We must step up and support as much as we can. Thanks for listening.
Jeremy
Ordination Sunday
This past Sunday 1/10/10 two of my favorite people in the world became official Pastors. Kortland Fuqua and Darren Tyler have been Pastors to so many people for years, but now even the state sees them as Pastors. Kortland is going on staff at Journey Church in Franklin as the Village Design Pastor or whatever fancy term for the Small Group Pastor. (www.journeyfranklin.com) Darren will be the lead pastor of the church plant called The Conduit that I will be a part of as the worship leader. (www.conduitchurch.com)(www.darrentyler.com) Check out the pics of the service below. Congrats my friends!
2009.. WOW!
I started off this year with a plan.. I had a great job and a plan of where I thought this year would go. I knew that Amber was going to be in Europe for a while and I needed to figure out how to see her while she was gone, but that was all I was worried about. Then I found out at the beginning of the year that I was being laid off my job. I wasn’t worried actually. In fact I was pumped. The rest of the year went like this (crazy, but most things are in order)…
I received severance pay that would allow me to go to Europe with Amber, Sinus surgery to fix my deviated septum in my nose that was causing me to get chronic sinus infections, go to Europe for 2 months and play lead guitar in my wife’s band Everlife, visit my family for Easter, go to Haiti to see what all we’ve been doing with The Conduit (non-profit www.conduitmission.org where we have now given away over $130,000 in the last 2 years), start working for 3SAE Technologies selling fusion splicers in the fiber optics industry, go to Huntingdon, PA to have an anual family vacation in the woods, continue to work at 3SAE, play percussion/guitar with Everlife for random spot dates (including opening for The Jonas Brothers), read Dr. Asa Andrew’s book Empowering Your Health, visit Dr. Asa’s clinic, start eating healthy, work out, lose 37 lbs (Yeah pretty crazy), continue to lead worship for Conduit Bible Study every Monday night, lead a small group called a village in my church, visit my family in PA after Thanksgiving, travel to LA, San Francisco, San Jose, Oklahoma City, Charlotte, New York City, Pittsburgh, and many more places for work, and decide to start a church with Darren Tyler called Conduit Church which will launch in the spring of 2010 (I will give more details on this in another blog).. I think that’s the major ones
I realized that I packed all this into one year.. How in the world did this happen? This has by far been the busiest year of my life.. and the greatest! I have made new friends all over the world, experienced so many new things, and did most of it with my wife by my side. Amber and I have never been closer! I love her more than anything. There are so many more stories and so much greater detail that I could put in this blog, but I’m not.. I could never have planned out the complexity of this year. I actually feel more balanced than ever before.. I have been exhausted most of the year.. Most of the year I have been just barely hanging on emotionally at times, but there has always been movement.. I feel like my mind is finally getting clear. I now have more of a passion for Christ in my heart than ever. I have seen how His plan is way bigger and better than mine ever could be. That doesn’t mean that I am going to be rich or have great things like some may tell you.. It means that if I seek after Him then I am truly blessed no matter what the circumstance.
I love that going into this next year there is no certainty.. I love that there is only a small plan… I look forward to the adventure set before me. I look forward to whatever comes in 2010. I look forward to whoever is reading this blog joining me on this journey. I know it will be a great year!
The beginning of something…
I realized yesterday that it has been a long time since I have blogged. I don’t know why I just stopped. I never even finished my updates from my trip to Haiti and that was months ago. My first thought was that I just got so busy with life that I just stopped taking the time to put words on a page. I realize now though that I just needed some time to unpack from the whole experience. I have always struggled with just coasting through life. I lower my head sometimes and just keep moving. I want to be the kind of person who takes time and appreciates the little things in life, but sometimes I’m not. I don’t want to miss an opportunity to get to know someone or help them in some way because I was too busy with my own life to see them. When I was in Haiti I feel like my life was wrecked. In a good way. I realized how many normal things I take for granted every day. Even things like fresh drinking water, food, and a soft place to rest my head are not luxuries that everyone gets in this life. I am still sorting out what this all means to me right now. I do know though that there will be changes in my life here soon. Don’t know how. I just feel it coming. There is something around the corner. There is something that I am supposed to be a part of. I don’t care if it will be big or small. There are too many people hurting and too many people lost for me to just sit around and coast my life away. What does this look like? Not sure yet, but I may have an idea….
Haiti Day 3
Day 3 of Haiti went like this. We woke up early and went to the church to do a medical clinic. How we set it up was there was a Haitian guy who helped the people fill out their paperwork we needed from them. All we asked for was their name, date of birth and any previous conditions they new about. The sad part was that most people had never been to the doctor before. In fact a lot of the older people didn’t really even know how old they were or when they were born. It was very sad. I was in charge of doing height and weight of everyone. I worked with a guy named Reynold and we worked pretty hard on it. The babies did not want to be measured at all. They cried a ton. Because we took a medical team with a wide range of specialties they were able to check for all kinds of illnesses. We brought some basic medical supplies to help out what we could. The biggest issues were mainly due to dehydration and malnutrition. A guy came who had taken a big chunk out of his foot with a machete three days prior was able to come get his foot stitched. There was a definite difference though in the kids who we feed. They were in much better physical condition. That is an encouragement.
A team of us went to go check out the Hands and Feet project that is only a 20 minute drive away. The rest of the people stayed to continue the clinic. Mark Stuart was actually there visiting the orphanage he started . My Pastor Jamie George and a group of men from my church were also there working hard. It was amazing to see all of the work they have done and see their amazing facility. The people at Hands and Feet are truly amazing. They have over 30 orphans that they are raising currently within their program. We did see where the hurricane had caused mud slides that had ruined a wall. They are rebuilding the wall much stronger.
Later that night we had a service at the church where we welcomed the community and shared with them some tips on hygiene. Rufus Howe lead the way with his medical tips and Robin shared a lot with the females a bunch of things. The translated words were actually pretty funny. I had a hard time holding it together during this part. I know, sometimes I am still just a boy. You could tell a lot of the people had never learned any of what we shared with them. They were listening very intently. I know they appreciated it a lot. We passed out tooth brushes and tooth paste after Linsey Watkins who is an audiologist demonstrated how to protect your ears and properly brush your teeth and gums. This day was a great day and I really have a lot of respect for people in the medical field. They have skills that are a very practical way of helping people.
I almost forgot. Pastor Lafleur thought it would be fun to take motorcycles instead of the tap tap to the church service. Really most of them were pretty much scooters but to sound cooler than we really were we’ll just call them motorcycles. In Jacmel you can take a motorcycle just like you can a taxi. you just jump right on the back of one and they take you where you want to go. They all insisted it was safe and away we went. Of course their were no helmets and safe is a relative term.
I uploaded pictures below so you can see more about our day.
CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES FROM DAY 3 OF MY TRIP TO HAITI TAKEN WITH MY IPHONE!!
Post Haiti Day 1 and Day 2
I returned from Haiti late Monday night. I had to leave a day to process before the blogging begins. I will be doing multiple blogs to tell the story of our trip. If I fit it all in one blog it would be too long for people to actually read it. Plus I need more time to process. The question I keep getting asked is how was Haiti? Well, Haiti is a mess. I have traveled to many places in the world, but I have never scene a place so destroyed. A man on the trip described Haiti as a place that looks like 6 months ago a nuclear bomb went off and the people are still trying to recover. Day 1 we flew into Port Au Prince which is a major city. We drove for an hour through what can only be described as extreme poverty. People trying to sell anything they can to make some money. They were living in aluminum little shacks that were smaller than most of our bathrooms. The amount of garbage just everywhere was unbelievable. The government has no organized trash pickup so there were literally rivers of trash everywhere. The people just were trying to survive. There were pigs and goats everywhere along with very mangy dogs. After a scary drive up a giant mountain we finally got to Jacmel where we would be for the rest of the trip.
The second day we got up early and led about 250 kids through games, songs, and crafts. They loved it. We had a lot of fun too although we were all very very hot. The sun is killer down there and the humidity is worse. After spending many many hours with the kids we observed the feeding program that we support. The local pastor there feeds the kids out of his home. The homes there are a lot different than homes here. The homes there are basically small rooms with sometimes separate rooms and every once in a while someone will have a toilet. Through the money that Conduit has given them we have bought them an industrial size stove that has really helped them to be able to make more food for the kids. We also bought them a really big chest refrigerator to help keep the food and water cool. They feed between 75-100 kids 3 times a week that otherwise wouldn’t eat. The food they give them is a big plate of rice with a stew like substance on top. The kids walk in the room, take a squirt of hand sanitizer, then take their seats and sit patiently and wait for Pastor Rodrigue to bless the food. Pastor Lafleur who lives in Antigua, but who is the main contact for us said that he normally can’t stay at the house for the feeding program. The reason is that there are a lot of people who are outside the gate to the house who cannot be fed yet. This makes him too upset to watch. There are a few ways that kids get to eat. 1. They are sponsored monthly by someone. (I will give more info on how you can sponsor a kid later) Along with feeding the kids the monthly sponsors also send them to school. There is no government assisted or funded schools. If the kids can’t pay for school, they don’t go. 2. When Conduit or other organizations support them monthly they take the money and they feed extra kids but do not send them to school.
We also got to see the house we are building. The house we are building is to increase the feeding program. Pastor Rodrigue and his wife will live in the new home. The house will also have some extra rooms that will serve as a safe place for missionaries visiting or others who may need a safe place to sleep. The foundation of the building is completed and the walls are up and the ceiling. Part one is to get the downstairs done. The plan is to build 2 more floors in the future. With the money we brought down with us to give them we only need $16,000 US to finish the home. I am very excited about finishing the house. So many more kids will be able to be fed once the house is completed. After this we walked for miles around the mountain and visited the families homes that we support. How we got around was by riding in what they call a tap tap. A tap tap is a truck where there are 2 benches in the bed of the truck. We all road in the back and hung on for dear life. When you are ready to go… well you.. tap tap.. ha.. This was the first night of the cold shower. We slept at a hotel in downtown Jacmel. This place was a safe haven for us. We had wi-fi at the hotel, but the electricity turns off for a few hours every day. The hotel rooms had air conditioning when then the power was on and we were greeted every morning at 5am by a very loud rooster who felt the need to remind us every 2 minutes that it was time to wake up.
This is all the info that I am going to share right now. Click the link below to see some pictures I took with my iphone from day 2. Check back for additional blogs about the trip. Thanks for all that have been reading my blogs.
Haiti or Bust!
I am about to go to sleep because I have to be at the airport at 4:30am. I just wanted to remind everyone to please be praying for the team of us that are going to Haiti. I am very excited to go there. I really pray that we will be able to really make an impact on that country. I know that we will also be impacted too. We return Monday night very late. I will try my best to keep everyone updated while I am gone. I was told that we have wi-fi in the hotel we are staying in. I am not taking my computer but my iphone should do everything I need to. Thank you guys very much for your support financially. Without your help this trip would not have been possible. I look forward to talking to you all soon.
last 2 days
Today (25th) and tomorrow (26th) are the last days 2 days to donate to my mission trip to Haiti through The Conduit.
I am very excited to go next Thursday. I can’t say I am completely ready because I am not. I am still getting used to being home and to be honest with everyone I have really needed time to recharge. I do know that I will be ready by the time that next Thursday comes around. Thank you to the people that have donated already. I still have $500 left to raise, but I know that God is faithful. I will update my blog as often as I can during the trip.
Have a great day!
