oh, haiti, we weep with you again

As images of Haiti's newest devastation trickle in, the photograph that has thus far resonated most for me in terms of representing this newest chapter in Haiti's hard story is this picture of the collapsed top levels of Haiti's National Palace. (Photo also available here.)

One day at the end of the month I spent in Haiti in July 2008, my Haitian-American friend Jack took me on a field trip to downtown Port-au-Prince, an area that had been the site of riots over food shortages a few months earlier. Even among some of the missionaries this was an area that didn't have the best of reputations. Jack knew the lay of this part of the city's land, though, so we hopped aboard a tap-tap that would take us from Petionville to next-door Port-au-Prince.

And when we arrived in downtown Port-au-Prince what did my wondering eyes behold? Nothing that was remotely scary. Sure, the riots had really happened: there were lingering broken windows as evidence. But there are not riots every day here. The day I was taking in the sights people lounged in the park like they do on nice days in parks down the block from the office I used to work at in Washington, DC; people went about their business; people sold souvenirs; people went to and fro; people were not menacing.

After nearly four weeks in Haiti, I had been impressed by all the things that don't make it into the bits of news we usually get from the country. I had met Haitians who were working hard for their communities and families. On two occasions new Haitian acquaintances who learned that I was in Haiti as a journalist asked me to tell stories of the good things in Haiti, too, rather than only telling the same stereotypical stories that are always told.

By the time I sat on the tap-tap, frustration was formulating over the reality that the only thing most of America and probably most of the so-called developed world routinely hears about Haiti is that it's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This is how the country is identified in nearly every news article that covers anything that happens in the country, which usually means some sort of natural disaster or an account of more political instability. These things are true, but Haiti is much more than these things alone.

And so, on that late July day when I stood in front of the National Palace that I had not previously heard of or seen images of (apparently not as famous as its White House cousin in America) I was surprised by its beauty. I loved its architecture and its gleaming white facade, even its nicely contrasting green iron fence. Regardless of whatever political realities it represented, for me it represented the unexpected beauty I had found in Haiti. It symbolically said that Haiti is not only poor, make-shift shacks stacked upon each other. There is hope for Haiti yet, it said, because there's beauty, pride, ability and hard-working humanity here.

So when I see photos of a demolished National Palace and think of the long rebuilding ahead for that one symbolic building, I weep for Haiti. Once again for me it symbolizes big things: why must Haiti's hard-won beauties be stripped away? How I hope that her people will survive this new blow and build a stronger country in place of the one that collapsed around them today. How I pray for God's mercy on these poor, beautiful people, people created in His image just like the rest of us.

*All photos are from my late July '08 visit.

deluge in haiti

Hi, folks--
I still have more to report from my month in Haiti, but I've been so, so busy since returning that more than a month has passed, and I've not gotten back here. I haven't given up hope of adding some more photos and reports eventually, though.

For now, please pray for all the Haitians who are suffering from the severe flooding the country has experienced at the hands of the three hurricanes that have dumped rain on them. While I was in Haiti, farmers were suffering because they'd had so little rain. Now they have way too much. Please pray that God will spare them from being hit by the new storms forming in the Atlantic, and that God will help all those working in relief efforts to know where and how and who to help first.

kenya continued

A Kenyan friend from my travels this fall sent out this note earlier today...

Dear Beloved Brethren,
New Year Greetings to everyone. Please allow me to appreciate those of you who have been praying with us. So far, my family and I are fine. I have also checked with our church members and ministry partners from across the country and no victim yet, except for one brother who has been in hiding since December 30th.

I have been trying to reach him on phone but have not succeded. This morning, I received a call from him and I thank God for him that he is alive. I suspect he has not had anything to eat since then so I'll be monitoring the situation.

Beloved of the Lord, the situation here is so uncertain we live one day at a time since no one knows what is likely to happen. There are no stores from where to buy food, fuel pumps are dry, transportation is difficult. From tomorrow, January 3rd, 08, things could go out of hand especially in Nairobi where there is likely to be a face off between the police and the supporters of ODM.

In closing, let me request for your continued prayers for our motherland Kenya. Innocent blood has been spilled, inocent people have died, children all over the country are crying for lack of food, they do not understand what is happening, people are going hungry and are living in fear of uncertainty, women have been raped as people continue to lose their lives. In God's merciful hands and care, we the people of Kenya entrust ourselves and I appeal to our brothers and sisters out of Kenya to stand with us in prayers. Please pray with us earnestly and sincerely for God's divine intervention to prevail upon the situation.

more from kenya

Here's a link to the blog of Adele who lives in Eldoret, Kenya, though she's apparently not there right now. I was supposed to connect with her while I was in Kenya, but those plans fell through, so I never made it to Eldoret.

Lisette is blogging from Tenwek Hospital, where I spent two weeks.

Trena is a college friend of mine who's headed to Kenya sometime early this year. She's been in touch with some of her Kenya friends and has posted some updates as well.

Here are a couple news articles:
"Kenya church fire kills 50 who fled mob"

"Kenyans burned to death in church"

Mathere slum, one of the places experiencing violence, is a place I visited while I was in Nairobi. There are photos of it under the "photo posts" and "kenya" labels.

Please pray for the people of Kenya, pray that a desire for power won't keep leaders from working together to quell instead of incite violence, that tribal tensions will ease, that no more lives will be lost.

where in the world did 2007 go?

Or perhaps I should say, Where in the world did I go in 2007? As the clock launches us into a new year, I find myself wondering, Where in the world will I go in 2008?

After spending Christmas week with my siblings and their families, I've traveled with my parents back to their home in Kansas. It's good to be here and to feel like it's the closest I've currently got to a physical home. Even though I didn't grow up in this house and don't know which kitchen cupboard holds glasses and which one holds bowls, at least the bowls and glasses inside the cupboards are the ones I grew up drinking and eating out of.

I've unpacked my clothes, and tomorrow I'll start sorting through files and bills and other fun things. Nothing like celebrating the arrival of a new year with file folders! Yippee!

This is a thick time of life. There's so much opportunity, yet so much to be done in order to capitalize on it. There are so many unknowns, yet I don't want to rush too quickly through to the other side of them, back into the known (though my life tends to linger mostly in the unknowns even when things are in order).

I'm glad for the short days this time of year and glad that we get to live in Advent and Epiphany during the dark, cold season, in contrast to my African friends. Somehow those conditions outdoors are good for cozy reflection and prayer indoors.

It's been good to be with family, to have them ask me about my travels, my impressions, my experiences. It's good to talk about it. Yet, I understand somewhat what some of my missionary friends in Africa said about how hard it is to explain things to people, how hard it is for people who've never been to Africa to understand stories about Africa. But I guess that's probably true of anywhere.

Now that I've reached a place I'll get to sit still in for a little while (though this month is sure to speed by faster than I was when I got my last speeding ticket ;-) ), I'm able to better feel the yearning to go back to Africa some day, more than once and hopefully sooner than later. But, it's not time yet, and I don't yet know what will be the particular context for my return trips.

These past months have taught me some good and important things about the vocation and calling God's made me for. But, pieces of those lessons are still a little unclear, dangling just out of reach, not quite grasp-able. I look forward to taking the steps to reach those dangling things.

One of the little things I can do in the aftermath of my Africa months is pray for and with new friends across the ocean. It's challenging to stay informed sometimes, but it helps when I get emails from folks in Kenya asking us to pray for their country. More than one of the countries I visited during my travels was gearing up, like the U.S., for presidential elections. Kenya is the first of those countries to hold their elections. Many were hopeful that Kenya could be a model for fair and peaceful elections and governmental transition. However, that hope hasn't been met positively. Please join our Kenyan brothers and sisters in praying for their country, for an end to the chaos that has erupted following the vote counting, for tribalism not to divide people, for truth and peace.

May 2008 be a year that God's grace and truth and mercy are newly absorbed by places and people that have dark histories.

more from A Mile in My Shoes

Trevor Hudson’s book is super relevant to this journey I’m on, so I’m very glad it made the last minute book pile cut on packing day.

“We cannot meet all the needs that surround us, but tragic consequences flow from our failure to recognize the suffering neighbor for who he or she really is. These consequences range from a cold indifference to the human cries around us to cynicism and even resentment toward people’s needs; a lack of engagement with those ‘principalities and powers’ that crush and oppress—to a tragic loss of our own humanness. However (and this is one of the aims of the pilgrimage experience), when we share personally with those who suffer, put names to faces, listen to life stories, receive the gifts they offer, it creates a climate in which we learn to see differently. These personal encounters help pilgrims see the suffering neighbor as a brother or sister made in the image of God and in whom Christ dwells. Such recognition and awareness generates a new way of relating that makes genuine compassion possible.” (p. 44-45)

Hudson then offers several questions to help readers consider how they view others:
· Is my seeing limited by the other person’s color, class or culture?
· Do I focus upon outward appearances in my dealings with people?
· Do I see people primarily as groups?
· Do I view others based on first impressions rather than hearing them out?
· Do I look at possessions as being more important than persons?

It’s so easy to visit another culture, especially one that has acquired the stereotypes and reputations that African cultures have, and refuse to really connect with the people you meet here, to assume that you are different from each other and that friendship isn’t possible. And it’s amazing to watch how that rather simple decision can affect one’s perception of and involvement in the lives of people in this new culture. It leads to always holding back, to always viewing your hosts as the “other” instead of connecting with them as brothers and sisters, as Hudson describes. When this happens, it’s such a loss for everyone involved as it keeps real sharing of God’s love from happening.

In American culture, at least—though perhaps the phenomenon is actually part of human nature—we rush to categorize everything because once we put it in a category we don’t have to think about it anymore and don’t have to really interact with it in order to understand it. The category defines it, and as long we understand the category we obviously understand and know all the things that have been placed in that category. But, when people are so firmly categorized, some of their humanity is stripped away. Instead of a unique individual full peaks and valleys and unendingly interesting terrain, the person is reduced to a measurable, definable entity…which, incidentally, isn’t so far different from what we do to God sometimes, too.

As Hudson says, “Constant media bombardment of human need often breeds a bland familiarity that generalizes suffering men and women into groups like the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, the elderly. Within these generalizations we lose sight of the spiritual dimensions present in each human being.” (p. 44)

May we all seek to recognize the humanity, the God-createdness, of each of the varied people we encounter today.

after the rain

Thankfully, the rain stopped about the time we began drinking the chai Joyce offered us (not like the spicy chai—Indian chai?—from America’s coffeehouses and store shelves but still tasty). When we took our leave, we were very glad it was no longer raining because that would have made the road back to Linda’s house even more treacherous.

I was also glad for my Chaco’s sandals. Their reputation at least made me believe I could traverse the mud safely and then clean up easily afterward. As we picked our way downhill from Joyce’s house to the “main” road/lane back to Linda’s house (a five minute walk under non-wet conditions) and mud clung to mud clung to the bottom of our shoes, I joked that I was going to take the entire road back with me. I was mostly just afraid of slipping into that reddish mud in my light khaki skirt—one of only 3 skirts I brought from home—and taking out one of my carefully selected pieces of clothing so early in the trip. And, actually, I’m really already (hopefully just temporarily) down to just 2 “home skirts” anyway because the zipper broke on my very practical jean skirt. So, you see, the stakes were high.

High stakes abound around here, it seems. Toward the end of our chat with Joyce, Rachel entered the house. Rachel also lives in the little community of houses around Joyce. She’s part of the Bible studies Linda coordinates and has helped feed (likely from her own meager means) Joyce and her family.

Rachel’s heart is very heavy these days, Linda and Sammary explained to me. (Neither Joyce nor Rachel speak English. Sammary translated their Kipsigese into English for Linda and me.) For 20 years she prayed for her alcoholic husband to become a Christian. Months ago he finally did! And he quit drinking. He’s stayed away from alcohol for four months! But over the past week he’s begun drinking again, to the detriment of himself and his family.

It’s been striking these past two and a half weeks to listen to the stories of women in Ghana and Kenya and discover the ways their stories are similar to those of women in America and elsewhere. When husbands do not let God direct their lives, their families suffer terribly. There are so many women around the world trying to be faithful wives to men who refuse to love them well, who refuse to let God into their lives, who refuse to let God refine them into men who will love well.

Please pray for Samuel to have the strength to give up alcohol again immediately. Pray for Rachel. Pray for husbands and wives around the world caught in the suffering Rachel and Samuel’s story represents.

Joyce, Rachel, Sammary

me, Joyce, Sammary

the two neighbor girls, the neighbor boy, two of Joyce's sons

Urgent prayer!!!

Here's the message my friend Andrea emailed out for me:

Hello Kami's Friends,

I just spoke with Kami and we really need to lift her and Erin up in prayer. She was supposed to leave Nashville at 3 this afternoon, but her first flight to New York was canceled due to weather, which caused them to miss their flight to Africa. At this point they have still not rescheduled a flight to Africa and were even told that the next one would not leave until August 8. If this is the case, Erin won't be able to go on the trip at all. Please pray that God will provide a way for them to fly to Africa soon.

They are currently scheduled for a flight to New York tomorrow, but don't know if they should be on it or not. Please pray that the travel agent will do everything he can to get them on a flight. There will be some added expenses because of the extra flights and changes to the schedule. Please pray that God will provide the money for these expenses. Please pray that God will give Kami and Erin wisdom to know what to do and that He will give them peace in the waiting. They are very tired and frustrated. Pray that He will continue to sustain Kami and Erin with physical and emotional strength as they endure the uncertainty of the next few hours/days.

Please pray that God will work this out in a way that brings glory to Him.Thanks for praying! Kami is hoping to get to blog (although she wasn't sure if she'd be able to), but wanted to get an email out as soon as possible. And I'm sure she'd appreciate emails of prayer support whenever she can receive them.

Andrea Frankenfeld(friend of Kami's from writing group in Nashville and Grace Community Church)

Here's my follow up:

Hi, everyone--
Thanks so very much for getting this out, Andrea!

Erin and I are in a hotel in Nashville. We're scheduled to fly to NYC tomorrow on a 6:55 am flight. (There's something like 1 seat left on any other flights from Nashville to NYC tomorrow.) From there, things are fully up in the air. Our travel agent is working on things. We're going to plead our case at the British Airways ticket counter. And we'll be praying for the best.

We can pretty definitely get to London tomorrow, but it's the flights from London to Accra, Ghana that are full. The only seats that appear to be available are VERY expensive ones. (About $1500-3000 more per person than what we paid.) Please pray that when we leave NYC we'll know we for sure have seats to Accra that night. It's hard to think of leaving NYC with a "chance" it'll work out in London, where we can't use our cell phones and where the exchange rate will make holing up in the airport or in the city massively expensive.

As Andrea said, we're both exhausted, physically and emotionally and whatever other ways there are. (We were on our plane and had taxied out to runway--and I had already fallen into much-needed sleep--when the pilot told us we were returning to the gate for a delay and then the flight was cancelled.) But, we're both VERY glad we aren't doing this alone and we've managed some laughter. So, check the blog (www.kami-in-africa.blogspot.com) for the first pictures from our trip. And pray, pray, pray. Thanks so much, friends.

Love, Kami


Update on the pictures:

I'm not sure how to get my card reader on my computer to work, and I'm too tired to figure it out. So, you'll just have to check back later for a little visual story of our adventure so far. It's been quite an adventure and we haven't even left Nashville, though airports always feel like they're in another world. We've felt like we're competing in the Amazing Race, and so far our team isn't putting in a very good showing as far as speed is concerned.

packing, packing, packing and packing some more

Hey, everyone--Just a quick update as the countdown to Africa continues. For the last two days, my mom and I have been busy packing and purging my belongings. The end is sort of in sight, which is a good thing since my moving helpers arrive by 3 pm tomorrow.

Both my sister and I have recieved our passports back full of necessary visas! Yippee! We're really going to Africa! :-) Thanks for praying for their arrival!

As you think of it these next couple days, please pray that all the important things will get done, that no critical detail will be missed and that no critical piece of paper will be lost. There's so much to do yet that every minute feels essential. And things are at that point that it will be very easy for important things to be misplaced.

Also, for those of you around Nashville, please join us on Thursday night for the last pre-trip prayer time together: 7:30 pm at Grace Community Church in the Pine Room. I'd love to see you before I leave, and I really appreciate the times to pray together for the trip and for the people in the countries I'm heading to.

Thanks, friends (and strangers who are reading this blog!)!

prayer time tonight

Hey, everyone...Don't forget that tonight (Tuesday, July 17) from 7:30-8:30 pm is "organized prayer time #2" for this trip. We're meeting at my house: 8007 Old Smyrna Road, Brentwood. We'll be praying for the trip in general, for the countries of Uganda and Sudan (I'm scheduled to go along on at least one trip to southern Sudan during my Uganda time), for the people of those countries, for the people working in those countries. You can call my home phone if you need directions or additional info: 615-309-9399. (If you have my cell number, you're welcome to call that, too.) I'd love to have your help in praying together in person for Uganda and Sudan!

I'm not getting specific prayer requests for the countries posted on here like I'd hoped to do. Instead, I'm running around like crazy trying to get everything done. Please pray that all will get done in a timely fashion and that it won't be unhealthily stressful. I'm pretty worn out right now from all the preparing.

Support update: In age-old fashion, parts of this trip are turning out to be more expensive than I was anticipating. So, I've increased my support raising goal to $11,000. Even with that increased goal, I just need about $2200 more. Yah! God has been generous in providing through many of you. (Thank you, friends, for your generosity!) Please pray with me that the rest will come in by the time I leave (July 27).

The Green Support Raising Basket will be present again tonight for those who've wanted to give but haven't yet. Still, prayer is the primary purpose of tonight's time together.

Thanks! I hope those of you in Nashville will be able to come tonight and those of you outside Nashville will pray along with us from afar!

three weeks of prayer

I'm asking folks to join me in making July a month of focused prayer in preparation for my trip. I'll be holding weekly prayer gatherings in Nashville, and I invite those of you outside Nashville to join us by praying wherever you are during the time of our prayer gatherings. As July 27 approaches, I'm excited but also somewhat nervous and overwhelmed and wondering what exactly I've bitten off here. :-)

I'm also finding that the magnitude of details to take care of has made it challenging for me to remember to pray for people I'll be meeting and working with in Africa. I'd love your help to lift those people before the Lord, too, so each week this month we'll focus prayer on different countries I'll be visiting. I'll try to post on the blog more specific requests for each place to help guide your prayers.

Here's the schedule. If you're in Nashville, please try to join us in person! The Green Support Raising Basket will be present at each prayer gathering for those who've wanted to give and haven't done it yet, but prayer will be the main purpose of the gatherings.

~~July Prayer Schedule~~
7:30-8:30 pm (central time) each night

Wed, July 11 (that's today!!!) at Grace Community Church (corner of Granny White Pk. and Old Hickory Blvd.) - www.gccnashville.org) -- Ghana, Kenya

Tues, July 17 at my house (email me if you need directions: khakiface(at)yahoo(dot)com)-- Uganda

Thurs, July 26 (the night before I leave!) back at my church again -- Zimbabwe, South Africa

Thanks for praying!!

the july recap

I'm in the process of sending this little update letter out to folks I actually have mailing addresses for, but there are many of you for whom I only have email addresses. I think if you click on the letter you'll be able to see an enlarged version of it.

weekend update

This was quite an eventful weekend in the world of Africa adventure preparation. First, there was a pleasantly successful yard sale that raised about enough money to cover my very expensive avoid-yucky-diseases shots and that had a small enough amount of leftovers that we only needed one trip to Goodwill. Thanks so much to everyone who donated items for the sale!!

Second, I pushed up my sleeves and offered up my arms to the needles for my second round of Africa immunizations. In two weeks I'll be able to laugh in the face of such dread diseases as meningitis and yellow fever and typhoid.

Third, my generous parents and some equally generous friends helped me move round 1 of my belongings into storage. I never begin packing and moving this far in advance of my moving date, so that tells you how excited I am about going to Africa. ;-)

Fourth, I talked by phone and email with some of the folks I'm setting up Africa work with and managed to hammer out another round of details.

Fifth, my great church, Grace Community Church, "prayed me off" on Sunday during the morning service and then later a group of folks who meet to pray for missions activities also prayed for and with me. As my departure date nears, I've been confronted anew by the essential nature of having folks praying with and for me. And, I'm not just "doing the Christian thing" and paying lip service to prayer. It's really true. This whole undertaking is bigger than I am, and the only way it's going to work is if others help me hold it all before God in prayer.

Finally, I also had some yard sale helpers who posed as shoppers for my trusty little camera, so that you can feel like you, too, were part of the Africa yard sale:

Amazingly the entertainment center and the couch didn't sell until the last 15 minutes or so of the sale!

Everyone can use a "new" coffeemaker! Why check the directions?

My dad displayed the merchandise while offering peanut gallery comments to entice the customers to purchase our wares.

South Africa meetings and plane tickets

It's always quite exciting when another piece of this trip falls into place!

I had a good meeting last Tuesday with some of the folks I'll be working with in South Africa. Roland, the South African head of Africa Upper Room Ministries, has been in the States for a few weeks, so I met with him, Renny (hr/finance person for Africa Upper Room) and Dale (the State-side AUR coordinator). We continued a conversation Dale and I began a few weeks ago, filling in a few more of the details of which stories they'd like for me to cover.

Currently, it looks like I may spend about a week in four different South Africa locations on both the east and west South African coasts. I'll also likely end up working with a media guy there on some video projects telling the story of some of the folks AUR gets to work with. I'll be the script writer. There's some possibility that all of my travel in South Africa will not be by plane, allowing me actually to see the country instead of just flying over the top of it from one spot to another.

In addition to filling in more details, the meeting was also a nice chance to meet folks I'll be connecting with on the other side of the Atlantic...instead of having to wait until I climb off the plane into a crowded airport. :-)

I still don't have plane tickets. They're in the works, but my itinerary is quite intensive (probably the travel agent version of those terrible math word problems: if Train A leaves Nairobi at 10 am traveling 80 km/hour, what time will it cross under the airplane carrying Kami and hopefully her luggage, too, to Kampala at a speed of whatever speed airplanes go?), so it's apparently taking some time to work out. And my sister Erin and I are trying to go to Ghana at the same time as everyone else in the world who's heading there for Ghana's big celebrations. So, prayers for all that ticketing to come together for as low a price as possible are appreciated. That might include praying for the poor travel agent on the other end of the itinerary. May he be rewarded with a big bowl of ice cream or his favorite candy bar or something once he gets it all worked out. :-)