Christmas Rubble

Christmas is still nearly three months off. But the Christmas story is timeless. It's true beauty coming from it's humility. A birth in a place that no woman would choose for her child. But to this lowly place we are drawn.
God's redemption stories remind us time and time again that God chooses that which is broken, abandoned and discarded to build His kingdom. To bring Him glory.
His word says He makes all things beautiful in His time.
So it is from broken and discarded rubble and glass He paints a story that draws people. I can not explain the popularity of the nativities that I make. It is not the rubble. It is not the glass. It is the story. The story of Christmas? Yes. But also a story of hope for Haiti . Remembering as we see these that there is a hope for the poverty. There is a hope for the pain. There is a hope for restoration. There is a hope for children discarded and abandoned. The hope for all of this brokenness was  born in  barn and slept in a manger. All so that we could see past all of the brokenness in our world, in our country, in our homes, in our hearts...past the rejection and misery..past the unfulfilled dreams and the shattered hopes. Past the sorrow and abuse and hidden unrealized desires..past even death..see past all of this to a manger bed and a simple baby who came to redeem us from all of our rubble and broken glass and to make something beautiful from all that we thought would destroy us.

The lesson Magdaline taught me...by Gwenn Mangine

The lesson Magdaline taught me-- by Gwenn

by Joy In Hope on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 5:08pm

One of the things we love to do with our kids is head out to search for sea glass.  It’s fun for us, and it helps my mom’s company, Jacmel Bay, which supports Joy in Hope and serves the deaf community in Jacmel, Haiti.

Having any kind of disability is very difficult in Haiti.  Very difficult.  There are situations we’ve heard about where parents simply stop feeding children who are disabled as there just aren’t resources available to help children with special needs. The same is true for deaf children.  It is so frustrating as many deaf children do not have other special needs and can learn and develop well—it’s just that they need a community around them who can help them communicate.  There is a large deaf population in Jacmel because there is a school for the deaf here.  Even with a significant population of deaf in Jacmel, there are still very few resources, however, strides are being made.  More parents/families of deaf children are learning sign language and there are several educators who are committed to seeing opportunities for the deaf.  Change is happening.

However, yesterday something happened at the beach, which I won’t soon forget.  We were at Jacmel Bay collecting sea glass.  It’s pretty normal that kids see us doing this and catch on to what our goal is…  They all come up to us and start helping.  I love it.  They never beg from us or ask for money—they just pick up on what we are doing and start helping.  It’s pretty cute.  The same thing happened yesterday.  Random kids started helping us and there was a girl that was in her mid-teens that started walking along with us, just holding hands and smiling.  I tried to talk to her but she wouldn’t respond—she’d just smile and laugh.  I assumed from looking at her that she had some sort of mental challenge and realized she couldn’t or didn’t want to talk back.  But she caught on quickly—finding and picking up pieces of sea glass and proudly giving them to me.  It was quite endearing.   The first time she did it I told her that she had done a perfect job and the kids around me said, “Oh, she can’t hear what you’re saying, she’s deaf.”  I asked her name and they told me that her name was Magdaline.  I asked if she signed and the kids told me she didn’t.

I looked Magdaline up and down.  In spite of having some teeth that had rotten, she looked like she’d not been totally neglected.  Sure, she was very thin, but her hair clean and was also braided in neat cornrows.

And I couldn’t help think about the irony of what was happening in front of my eyes.  Here was a young woman with incredible challenges.  Let’s just face it—she’s basically the low man on the totem pole in a society that’s the lowest on the totem pole in our hemisphere.  But she saw what we were doing and she wanted in.  She didn’t know that the point of our collection was to help people marginalized much in the same way she had been.  She worked along side of us asking nothing in return.  She was happy to walk alongside of us, hand in hand and offer us the “gems” we were searching for along the beach.

I was very convicted because this young woman who had nothing to “offer” was offering me what she did have.

It reminded me of the story Jesus tells of the rich young ruler, a man too tied to his earthly possessions that he was missing out on the kingdom of God.  It was a good reminder for me.  Being in a tough season from a financial standpoint, it’s tempting for me to focus on all that we do not have instead of the ways God has blessed us.    But yesterday Magdaline was such a good reminder to me that it’s not about what you have not been given—it’s about how you will live with what you do have.

Will we, despite the challenges we’ve given, wallow in self-pity?  Or will we focus on living in and serving community?   Yesterday while all this was transpiring, the thought crossed my mind that it frustrated me that I didn’t have more to offer her. (Because I am American like that and all.) But just as quickly as that thought crossed my mind, I was reminded that Magdaline hadn’t asked me for anything.  She just wanted to walk along with us, to smile and laugh, to hold my hand.

And so that’s what we did.

Jacmel Bay Give-Away

Click here for the Jacmel Bay Give Away!!! Limited time!

How can I help?

Often when we see photos of a place like Haiti it is overwhelming. There is so much that needs to be done it almost seems impossible to do anything! The truth is that if everyone gave that which he is able to give all the physical needs on earth would be met. But ...we can not worry about the other person doing his part to make it all work  out. The question is "What can I do?"
I really believe that people like to give. I also believe that it often helps to give them direction. If I say
"Can you give me a little money to help out in Haiti?" You will  be embarrassed to give me a dollar. But if I say "will you give me a dollar to help in Haiti?" most likely you will be happy to give a dollar.
So let me give you some suggestions how you might be able to help.

• Give us a dollar. Or five or ten. If that is what you can give we would love to have it for our trip in October.
• Give us $5,000. That would go a long way in building the driveway to the homes that will be build for the Joy in Hope Children's Home.
• Buy a set of good quality white towels. We need ten more sets. One set cost about $40.00. Ten people donating one set each will have it covered.
• Donate your time and sewing talent to embroider 10 sets of towels. Or volunteer to embroider one set.
• Donate good quality white queen or twin size sheets. We need a lot. Donate one set..two sets or ten.
• Donate beads or jewelry making items that can be donated to the deaf community in Jacmel.
• Donate used t-shirts. 100% cotton. We will make diapers out of them to bring to Haiti.
• Donate your time to help sew these t-shirt diaper's..
• Donate powdered formula for the babies in the tent camps in Haiti.
• Donate powdered SOY formula for baby Schneider in Haiti.
• Donate disposable diapers for babies in tent communities in Haiti.
• Sponsor a bag. For $100 we can carry an additional bag to Haiti.
• When missionaries are on furlough lend them a car, a car seat, a house. Give them a gas card a gift card  a prepaid visa card. (any missionary not just mine  :)
• Sponsor a job for an unemployed Haitian.(monthly)
• Sponsor a child.
• Sponsor a house. You don't have to go to Haiti to build a house. If you have the means pay for the materials for others to build a house. (roughly $6,000.)

I could go on all night. What I really want to say is "What's in your hand?" It's not about the gift. It is more about the giver. I used to not like to ask. Then I discovered people like to give. They just sometimes need a little direction. So give with an open hand and  a cheerful heart. It will make your heart happy.

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Free Advertising from the grandchildren :)

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The Story of my Haitian Family

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Every story has a back story.

Today my son in law Nick and I talked about Jacmel Bay and sea glass necklaces. Each necklace has a life of it's own. At some point it could have been ballast from a long ago and far away time when Haiti was known as "The pearl of the Antilles". Cargo ships sailed into harbors and off loaded glass bottles and dishes and pottery into the sea to make room for the riches of Haiti to be stored in their bellies. Or perhaps it was not such a glamorous story and simply was a discarded item that was tossed over the river bank that make it's way to the sea and churned for a hundred years and then on the day of the sea glass hunt it was tossed onto the rocks on the shore of Jacmel Bay to be rescued and redeemed.
Then there is the back story of the person who found the glass and the person who fashioned it into a necklace. That is the story that Jacmel Bay tries to tell. When a necklace is worn it gets noticed. I am delighted that people like the necklaces because of their beauty. But that is not it's story. Simply being pretty is not a story. What happens every time someone comments on  necklace the story gets told..The wearer does not simply say "thank you". The wearer tells the admirer the story of Jacmel Bay artists and Joy in Hope. The story is compelling and worth repeating. It helps us to remember the pains of yesterday but offers hope for tomorrow. Jacmel Bay is not a business. It is a story.
I have shared how it all started. The scripture in Exodus chapter four when God asks Moses " What's in your hand?" The power Moses possessed was not it the staff. It was in his obedience when he threw it to the ground at God's command. That phrase "What's in your hand? has been the foundation Jacmel Bay has been founded on. Being willing to offer what ever pitiful thing that I might possess in obedience to God is very humbling. How could God use what I have in my hand? Like Moses I do not possess the confidence to speak or to lead and like Moses I question God wondering if I am really the one to walk this path.
Today while looking a facebook a sidebar on my page revealed photos from my daughter Gwenn's page. Knowing that these were photos of a sea glass hunt I clicked on it.  I saw the photo Gwenn send me last year of a young boy's hand outstretched with his sea glass offering. Just a small child of the streets with a dirty hand outstretched to give his gift to my daughter. The picture spoke volumes to me "What's in your hand??" In fact that photo has become my logo. And this is a back story. But not far enough back. Tonight as I looked at Gwenn's photos I saw HIM! Not a body less hand with white and green sea glass. Yes that but so much more! This picture was the boy himself. And I could see his eyes and face and smile. This was the back back story. A child. A boy. A dirty little boy, unsupervised, unschooled and very possibly on his own. A child offering what was in his hand. Delighting in his ability to give I want to be able to give like him. And now seeing his face I want to know his story.His back story may never be known by me.But his story is now part of the Jacmel Bay story. A story that must be told.