Synapse to Synapse

Thursday, July 03, 2008

John doesn't live here anymore...

Go here instead - http://tinroofchorus.wordpress.com

Friday, February 16, 2007

NY Times on Tourism in Haiti

Today's New York Times has an article about Labadie, a fenced and heavily guarded tourist resort that 20 minutes to the west of my hometown of Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

The article brings out the complexities of trying to build any sort of viable tourism in a nation that has seen such perennial instability, namely, that the only way to build anything attractive to first-world visitors is to completely isolate it from the reality of what the country is actually like. Visitors to Labadie see nothing but green hills, white sand, and smiling merchants. They do not see the houses to which the merchants return in the evening, nor do they seem to care about the squalid, sprawling city that lies behind the hills.

The article encourages and discourages me at the same time.

On the one hand, it is good to see that the Haitian government, which has an "inch-thick master plan for turning Haiti into a big-league destination," is looking to capitalize and expand on what little tourism still flows into the country. On the other hand, it is disheartening because anyone who has lived in Haiti long enough can predict what will probably happen next: The government will reinvest a small part of their profits, pocket the rest, and none of it -- none -- will reach the people who need it most, the ones who desperately need their government to come through and improve the nation's sanitation, education, and health care.

Labels: haiti, tourism

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Ben Witherington's Wonderful Blog

For those of you who are theologically inclined (and even those who are not), NT scholar Ben Witherington's intelligent, lively, and good-humored blog will be a welcome addition to your daily round of Web surfing.

Witherington is a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He is also a thorough scholar. Last year, I was assigned to read his book, The Paul Quest, for my Pauline Epistles course and quickly grew fond of his precise scholarship and his intellectual honesty. His blog reveals a lighter side to his nature, containing, among other things, poems, personal stories, political musings and cultural commentary.

This post, on hearing the voice of God, is particularly worth the time.

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

My Dad Has Been Released

Four thousand dollars and forty-eight hours later, my dad is a free man. Once I've processed this and regained all the sleep I've lost, I'll write more. To everyone who prayed us through: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Monday, October 16, 2006

My Dad Has Been Taken Captive

My mother called me last night, with tension in her voice and a long pause after the "hello" that let me know something was amiss. Last night, she told me, while she and my father and the night watchman at our house were driving home from Sunday evening service, they were stopped by four armed men, who took over their vehicle and drove them far, far out into the country. After driving down back roads to disorient everyone, they took my father out of the car and then drove my mother and the night watchman back to a safe place. My dad is still in the hills, being held by gunmen as a hostage. My mother called me with this news last night, asking me to call everyone I knew to prayer.

Our dorm met last night to pray for the situation. I had enough strength in me to tell everyone what the situation was and how to pray for it, and then we all began to pray in tongues, singing Scriptures out loud. My brother came in halfway through and began to cry. It took me longer to feel the weight of what had actually happened. After I did, I got down on my knees and worshiped the Lord with tears. I felt the weight of many hands upon me, praying earnestly for my father's release. Several of the guys shared encouraging words with us. Many more just sat in silence or paced the floor praying out loud.

Our school dean, Ken Malmin, convened a prayer meeting at 10:00 last night to get the entire school in on the situation. By then, I had felt God give me peace about the situation that surprised me. I did not expect to be as confident as I was. The leader of the event asked Gabe and I what specifically needed to be prayed for, and I asked for a quick release with no ransom given, strength and grace for my mother, and the sovereign grace upon my home church. My brother added that we should pray for the salvation of the captors as well.

The next hour was spent earnestly seeking the Lord. Many people shared Scriptures. Dean Malmin related a similar story that had happened to a PBC student while he was a teenager in Trinidad. Muslim radicals had kidnapped him, asking for ransom. He was eventually released with no harm done to him, but he had told Ken how the Lord had opened his eyes to the true nature of the situation he had been in. "I knew all of a sudden that I wasn't really in their hands," the boy said. "I was in the Lord's hands the entire time, and the devil didn't even know it."

The school then split into four groups. One group prayed that my father would be given grace, strength, and wisdom for the situation. A second group prayed a similar prayer for my mother, who is in Haiti, and for my sister, who is in North Carolina. A third group prayed for the kidnappers. A fourth group prayed for our church. I felt the Lord tell me that our church is like a lamb to him that he has carried near his side from its infancy. My father has many more sons to father, and he will be released soon.

God has been so gracious to us! My fellow students have been phoning their home churches, putting our name into their prayer chains, and shouldering this burden as though it were their own. My local church in Haiti has sent men and women to stay the night at my parents' home so my mother doesn't have to worry about it being broken into in her absence. (She is staying with another missionary family, making negotiations.) My mother says that it is obvious how much they love my dad.

One of the things we prayed this morning in class was that God would give my mother wise counsel. Apparently, He has already answered this prayer! An FBI officer who specializes in Iraqi kidnappings has been counseling her over the phone. Other embassy officials in the area have also been assisting my mom.

We need your help as well. Please pray for my dad, who is still a hostage. Pray for his captors, that they would see the light of Christ and be changed. Pray for a ransomless rescue. Payment of any sum to these thugs would only result in furthering the cycle of violence and emboldening others to follow their example. Pray for my mother, who is physically drained and has not had much chance to rest. Pray for the unity of the church -- God's chosen instrument to extend the kingdom and destroy the works of darkness in our country. Pray for Haiti. Oh, please pray for Haiti! Pray that those who have for so longed walked in gross darkness would see the greatest light. Pray that the God of peace would crush Satan under our feet.

Most of all, pray that all of this would be a catalyst to revival in Haiti. This is the plow to which my father has put his hand for the last 23 years. The restoration and healing of Haiti through the cross of Christ has been our ache and our dream for too long. Please pray with us that God's will would be accomplished in Haiti as it is in Heaven. It is time.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Other Side of Haiti

A slice-of-life introduction to my favorite country.

Nothing new to read here yet (I promise I'm working on it), although I've stumbled upon a worthy bit of recommended reading, if you're interested.

"From Haiti" (fromhaiti.blogspot.com) chronicles the life and times of a foreigner in a very strange country. Paired with sharp photographs and wry commentary, brief posts outline a U.N. observer's first-draft reaction to a nation as unflappably absurd as it is insouciantly corrupt. (A recent post on "Los Chanchos Jesucristo"--the "Jesus Christ Pigs", who scavenge for food by "walking on water" into the bay of Cap-Haitien--captures the former point perfectly; a post on the mob violence marring the recent elections excellently portrays the latter.)

Although the blog requires a working knowledge of the Spanish language to fully experience, non-speakers (like me) can limp along using Babelfish, a Web-based translator which renders every Spanish sentence into a readable, if absurdly circuitous, English counterpart. (Run through Babelfish, even such a seemingly simple inquiry as "do you know what this is?" morphs into the oddly existential "to that you do not know what is this?")

Firsthand observations of Haiti have always been rather rare and hard to come by. Even scarcer have been empathetic versions of the same. Over the past century, the Western media has tended to present Haiti to the public eye as a haven for despots and a witch doctor's playground, the world's first black republic now the hemisphere's poorest nation--gaunt and hobbled, an AIDS-addled wisp of its former self.

To be sure, Haiti is all of those things. But to those who have invested their lives into Haiti, who have buried their hearts there as David Livingstone buried his in Africa--to those whose emotions are forever entwined with the people of Haiti and the daily burdens that they bear--it is also much, much more. And that is the primary reason I recommend this blog to you. Bit by bit, post by post, Baturrico is authoring a long-overdue introduction to the unseen side of a nation which continues to evoke my heart's deepest longings, and remains the object of its profoundest affections.

Monday, July 31, 2006

Mighty Mouse Wireless

Yet another Apple product I wish I owned.

As Charlie would say, "Oh, lust."