Dear Friends,

The jobs that pay my bills – speaking and managing EAPE – often carry me far from the jobs that don’t, writing and loving my neighbors here in Walnut Hills. Just a few weeks ago I found myself in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where my old friends David Diggs, John Engle, and Kent Annan introduced me to the most dignified, courageous poor people I’ve ever met, who were cooperatively transforming their communities in ways I can hardly imagine happening in this neighborhood. Now I am wondering what will become of all that good work, and what has become of all those good people.

Having seen the desperation of Port-au-Prince just before this terrible earthquake, I know it must be the most terrible place on earth right now. My neighbors here in Walnut Hills are desperately poor in spirit, but our government consistently provides most of their basic physical needs. In Haiti, many people I met had literally nothing but faith, and yet they were organizing schools, learning to read, and rescuing children from grinding servitude, working with my friends’ sister organizations, Beyond Borders and Haiti Partners, to transform their own lives.

Now they need even more help, from families like ours, who know how to give.

Through EAPE, I have established a Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund (https://dlq4.donatelinq.net/qv10/Donation.aspx?MerchantID=EAPE) to collect donations from both our Walnut Hills Fellowship extended family and my father’s network, which we will turn over to our friends at Beyond Borders and Haiti Partners, who we trust most of all. Don’t worry about our little fellowship right now; we’re all giving to Haiti ourselves. Instead, pray for God’s people there, and give what you can to help.

Hoping against hope,

Bart