Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Crazy. A year ago today I felt this question tugging at my heart: it’s one thing to feel the hurt; what are you going to do about it? A year has passed and so far very little has happened. We held a night of reflection and prayer for Haiti in which my high school students raised over $700 which we donated. Though temporarily I felt as if we accomplished something, it only increased the desire in my heart to do more. So…I tried organizing a trip to Haiti with my youth which fell through. But while in conversation with my friend who lives and works in Haiti, I found out $2000 US builds a stone house for a family. I began to think about what could be done. If I couldn’t go to Haiti, I wanted to build houses there. In addition, I wanted to include the students who so willingly gave to the cause. Thus, began our fundraising campaign to build houses in Haiti.
Where are we now? The students have come up with three distinct ideas that will hopefully all lead to providing a little in the midst of the great need in Haiti. The first is a series of movie nights that would encourage people to come together and watch movies and contribute $10 to watch a movie at our church. This is a simple, yet effective way to get the ball rolling. Practicality at its finest. The second is the one I wanted to focus on here: SPCRedPaperClip. The idea was thought of in response to a dude who began with a red paper clip and began a series of trades that eventually led to a house. The students have already donated various objects that are free to trade for. Among them include a silver watch, a necklace with a pendant, a first generation Nintendo DS and others. Now you might be thinking, why would I trade for those things? What do I have a need for those things? Although those are fair questions, I think the way to approach it might be…who might actually be able to use some of these items, and what can I trade that I can do without that hopefully someone else might need. For example, what if you traded for the microwave (yes a microwave was donated) so that you could give it to someone who might be in need of a working microwave. Perhaps you know of some college student who could definitely use one. So in order to gift it you might trade something you realize you are willing to give that is “better.” The hope is that someone else will look at that and think exactly what you thought, “I can gift this and give this up in order that in the end, this will contribute to a house in Haiti.” That is the hope. That is the desire behind this project. How can we take the things that we realize are not necessities in our lives to hopefully begin a process that will lead to a house in Haiti? If one red paper clip leads to a house for one person living in the states, I wonder how 8 or 9 items of greater value than a paper clip might lead to many houses in Haiti. Am I a dreamer? Am I an optimist? I would like to think that we realize the abundance we live in and would be able to give up something to provide for our fellow men, women and children who are in need.
Check out the blog, tumblr, twitter. If you have questions, just let me know or email. The link to the blog will give you the info. Perhaps by this May we will have built at least one house. Next year as we reflect, I hope to be able to see all that has happened and wonder…”what MORE can we do? How can we CONTINUALLY participate? “
http://spc-oneredpaperclip.tumblr.com/
http://spconeredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
papachung.tumblr.com
Where are we now? The students have come up with three distinct ideas that will hopefully all lead to providing a little in the midst of the great need in Haiti. The first is a series of movie nights that would encourage people to come together and watch movies and contribute $10 to watch a movie at our church. This is a simple, yet effective way to get the ball rolling. Practicality at its finest. The second is the one I wanted to focus on here: SPCRedPaperClip. The idea was thought of in response to a dude who began with a red paper clip and began a series of trades that eventually led to a house. The students have already donated various objects that are free to trade for. Among them include a silver watch, a necklace with a pendant, a first generation Nintendo DS and others. Now you might be thinking, why would I trade for those things? What do I have a need for those things? Although those are fair questions, I think the way to approach it might be…who might actually be able to use some of these items, and what can I trade that I can do without that hopefully someone else might need. For example, what if you traded for the microwave (yes a microwave was donated) so that you could give it to someone who might be in need of a working microwave. Perhaps you know of some college student who could definitely use one. So in order to gift it you might trade something you realize you are willing to give that is “better.” The hope is that someone else will look at that and think exactly what you thought, “I can gift this and give this up in order that in the end, this will contribute to a house in Haiti.” That is the hope. That is the desire behind this project. How can we take the things that we realize are not necessities in our lives to hopefully begin a process that will lead to a house in Haiti? If one red paper clip leads to a house for one person living in the states, I wonder how 8 or 9 items of greater value than a paper clip might lead to many houses in Haiti. Am I a dreamer? Am I an optimist? I would like to think that we realize the abundance we live in and would be able to give up something to provide for our fellow men, women and children who are in need.
Check out the blog, tumblr, twitter. If you have questions, just let me know or email. The link to the blog will give you the info. Perhaps by this May we will have built at least one house. Next year as we reflect, I hope to be able to see all that has happened and wonder…”what MORE can we do? How can we CONTINUALLY participate? “
http://spc-oneredpaperclip.tumblr.com/
http://spconeredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
papachung.tumblr.com
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