Earthquake in Haiti

How horrific is the news that comes out of Haiti after the earthquake. Our small group at St. Aidan’s spent time this summer growing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters there, but we cannot imagine the pain and suffering they are experiencing now.

We encourage all to give what they can to the relief efforts. It is said that as many as three million people–half the people in this small country–have been affected. Their needs are, and will continue to be, enormous.

There are many organizations that are about getting food, water, tents, medical supplies to Haiti. They need financial support. Please help with what you can give.

And please, please pray.

We can live with less…

…literally.

Another reminder can be found here: http://www.dailycamera.com/lifestyles/ci_14143690.

Time to act!

The small group of us who ate for $2-a-day came together and determined what our individual contributions would be. For the most part, each person wants to give the amount that they would have ordinarily spent on food if they had not been part of the We Can Live with Less project.

As it turns out, we will joyfully contribute $520.00 to the Colorado Haiti Project!!

This contribution comes from the abundance in our lives. We all gained insights from the project and now we will all share the abundance with others.

food for thought

We often think that service means to give something to others, to tell them how to speak, act or behave; but now it appears that above all else, real, humble service is helping our neighbors discover that they possess great but often hidden talents that can enable them to do even more for us than we can do for them.
–Henri J. M. Nouwen, Donald P. McNeill and Douglas A. Morrison, Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life, 2008

Need an inspiration?

Go read this story…wow!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/10/05/malawi.wind.boy/index.html?eref=rss_world

Did you know…

that the US Department of Labor, US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in Consumer Expenditures in 2007, that the average American spent $68 per week on food (both at home and in restaurants) or $9.70 per day?

Compare that to half the world spending $2 per day for all of their expenses.

It’s something to think about…

food for thought

Sometimes when we look out, the world seems so dark. War, violence, hunger, and misery seem to abound. This makes us anxious and helpless. What can I do in my private little corner of life that could have any effect on the march of world events? The usual answer is: nothing. We then decide to do what we can for our own, and leave the great events to their domain. Thus, we opt out, and join the largest majority in the world: those who acquiesce. Believing ourselves to be helpless, we hand over all our power to forces and systems outside us that then act in our names; they go on to put their beliefs into action; and ironically these actions are often sinister and destructive. We live in times when the call to full and critically aware citizenship could not be more urgent. We need to rediscover the careless courage, yet devastating simplicity, of the little boy who, in the middle of the numbed multitude, in naive Socratic fashion, blurts out: “But the emperor has no clothes.” When spoken, the word of truth can bring down citadels of falsity.

Real presence is the ideal of all true individuation. When we yield to helplessness, we strengthen the hand of those who would destroy. When we choose indifference, we betray our world. Yet the world is not decided by action alone. It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action and behavior. The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together. Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation.

—To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue, 2008

Hunger crisis

The UN World Food Program announced yesterday that there is significant shortfall in the donations received to support the hungry world-wide, just at the time that there are more hungry people than ever before. Higher food costs and the economic crisis are a “recipe for disaster.”

It is clear when we look at these numbers that the situation is critical:
* 1.02 billion hungry people in the world
* US$ 6.7 billion WFP budget for 2009
* US$ 3.7 billion forecast contributions
* US$ 2.9 billion forecast shortfall

Read more about the hunger crisis here. And look around the web site for more information about how you can help.

About BeadforLife

My dear fellow participants,

On Friday I visited the BeadforLife Foundation in Boulder to talk with Torkin Wakefield, co-founder and co-executive director, about our We Can Live with Less project. She and her colleague, Heather Ditillo, spent an extended time talking with me about the start of their organization and encouraging us to persist with our work.

I don’t know if you are familiar with that organization, but they assist bead makers (mostly women) in Uganda by expanding the market for their beads and helping them use their earnings to start up small businesses and to save money. You can read about them at http://BeadforLife.org. Their work is very impressive and keeps changing to improve their offerings to Ugandans.

Torkin was very interested in what we are doing and how we can raise awareness about hunger. She mentioned that they have just launched a curriculum to achieve similar objectives with children. I have downloaded it from their web site as she encouraged me to review it to see if any parts could be adapted for use with adults in our “faith-based community.”

I wish that I could adequately relay her enthusiasm and perspective on work that affects the billions that live in poverty. She was an inspiration.

As I left her office (which is also a store that sells the beads), she gave me five bracelets of beads made by Ugandan women to bring back to each of our pilot participants. She wanted to say “thank you” to each participant for the bold and interesting initiative. And she hoped that our group would go on and find the next thing to do in service to others.

I have the bracelets that you can choose from; each has a tag that describes their organization. If we want and if fits with our agenda, we can talk sometime about the possibility of hosting a Bead Party, selling the jewelry made from the hand-made beads and raising money to support their efforts in Uganda with a portion for our work (if we want to keep it).

I hope that you will look at http://BeadforLife.com. We can all learn from their good work.

Peace and blessings,
Anne

More glimpses of Haiti

Photograph taken in Haiti by Greta Frohbieter