The Re-branding of Christianity

I ran across a recent blog entry by someone who I’m sure has thousands more followers than I do. I was a little shocked at the first few lines of the blog only because I thought we were past this trend in Christianity. This isn’t the first place I’d run into this notion, so I thought it was about time that someone write about it. So yes, this is a bit of a soapbox entry, if you don’t want to hear it get out now.

the big idea

The basic premise is that real Christians shouldn’t call themselves Christians because that title has been marred by non-christians, extremist groups, the media and so-called christians who don’t act like Christians. Therefore we have to abandon that name and call ourselves . . . something else. I’ve heard at least two alternate brandings of Christianity. One is ‘Jesus People’ and one is ‘Christ Followers.’

I get what these people are saying – I mean I’ve always been passionate about branding. Even as a kid I perfected my signature because I wanted it to have a recognizable and unique look do it (It still looks pretty cool, I’m not going to lie.) So I understand taking pride in your name and the stigma associated with it. I also know as well as anyone that it’s tough to kick a bad brand image – think about the airlines that have had to shut down because of one crash or the hit that Peter Pan peanut butter took after they found one shipment that had Salmonella. (BTW, you should support Peter Pan, it’s a family company and is run by Christians – err  - Jesus People . . . whatever.)

But here’s the thing, Christianity is more than a name – it’s a calling.

From a Communications viewpoint.

Many of you know that I’m a communicator, not a theologian. If I appear to have any advanced knowledge of the Bible its because I have internet access. So I come at this from the standpoint of a communicator and from that perspective rebranding is a tricky and often fruitless exercise.

Let’s take a look at a few really well known brands: Coke and Pepsi. In the 1980s the CocaCola company thought it would be smart to shake up their image – to become more like Pepsi, who was marketing to the younger generation. They devised a marketing scheme whereby they created ‘New Coke.’ Anyone who’s ever studied marketing or business knows about ‘New Coke’ because it is widely regarded as one of the biggest marketing mistakes in the history of modern business. Coke stock plummeted and Coke struggled to reverse their bungle – rereleasing the original formula as ‘CocaCola Classic’ which we all still drink today.

Pointless? Yes. Destructive? Totally. Okay this may have been more than rebranding because they made a fundamental change in their product. But what about Pepsi? You may have noticed that they did an enormous overhaul of their brand a few years back. It cost them 1.2 billion dollars. That’s a pretty big hunk when the company’s net value is around 16 billion. Read a quote from an entry on graphicdesignblog.org

There are no figures of ‘out of the blue’ sales jump or consumer liking about the rebranding reported. On the contrary, Pepsi has received far more censure than any other brands for its directionless rebranding.

So it hurt Coke, it didn’t help Pepsi, but could it work for Christians? Well the trouble begins with a simple fact: Christianity is not a company operated by a CEO. It’s made up of millions of different factions, sects and denominations. Montgomery alone has 1.2 billion churches. That may be an exaggeration, but really there are a lot. The point is that no one can make every Bible-believing, God fearing, Christ-following church change their name from ‘Christian’ to something cooler so you’re not really going to succeed at this rebrand. At best you’re muddying the waters.

The other thing to think about is that unlike commercial brands, Christians have people who are always going to fundamentally disagree with and despise us. Evangelical atheists, outspoken agnostics and members of religions who don’t believe in a God of peace and love are always going to hate us. There is no denying this – I won’t even bother pulling out the numerous scriptures wherein we’re told that we will have people who will persecute us.

So think about it – if there’s a group with whom you principally disagree (I’ll let you think of your least favorite band of extremists) – and a group within that group gets together and they decide that they want to distance themselves from their brand because they believe that the mainstream members of the group are getting away from their roots – how much would you, someone who doesn’t like the group anyway, care about the re-brand? Would you care that there are actually hundreds of different subgroups within the group, all of which have different varying purposes and beliefs? No? Honestly, to me it’s all a group of people with whom I disagree fundamentally, so I don’t care what they call themselves – they’re still the same people I’ve thought were crazy for years and years.

So to an outsider that doesn’t like Christianity, it doesn’t matter if you call yourself a ‘Christ Follower’ a ‘Jesus Person’ a Baptist, Methodist, Catholic or non-denominational – they think we’re fundamentally wrong and that is the thing that has to change – not what we call ourselves.

Now, I know in the commercial world that if your brand is truly outdated that an update can save your image, but the name ‘Christianity’ is not, has never been and never will be subject to the fads that drive the culture. You can rename your church fellowship the Edge,the Village, the Pointe, the Loft or the Toaster – those are strategically chosen names that were picked to attract people who would otherwise not darken the door of a church. That’s fine – that’s your fellowship and you can call it whatever you want, but no one has the right to sit down with a focus group and rebrand the church that Jesus started.

the Bible is the biggest problem

Here’s the biggest problem with this whole idea of moving beyond the name ‘Christian.’ The name ‘Christian’ is one of those wonderful and rare things that the modern church DID NOT invent. It’s actually what the people were called IN THE BIBLE. Some will be quick to say ‘yes, but in the original Greek I’m sure it says something totally different . . .’ NO. The word is actually basically the same – it’s Christianos – which actually has Roman roots. Here’s what’s crazy – there are even records of Christians being called Christians in the writings of first century historians outside of the Biblical texts. Tacitus (A.D. 96) says (Annals xv. 44), “The vulgar call them Christians. The author or origin of this denomination, Christus, had, in the reign of Tiberius been executed by the procurator, Pontius Pilate.” (huge thank you to GreatTreasures.Org for that info) I should point out that ‘vulgar’ in ancient roman times simply meant ‘common.’

Since the first Century – the people who claimed salvation in the man known as Christ Jesus were called Christians. If that’s not enough for you check out Acts 11:26 – talking about the the early church’s beginning in Antioch.

“. . .and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”  Acts 11:26 (NIV)

It says the same thing in every translation commonly used today. Go ahead check your KJV, NRSV, TNIV, ESV, NASB, CEV, ISV, NLT and your B-I-B-L-E. They all say that the people in the church were called ‘Christians.’ If that’s not enough for you then you should also listen to what Peter has to say:

but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. 1 Peter 4:16

You are not to be ashamed, but you are to glorify Him in THIS NAME.

Folks, I know. I know, I know I know. I know that there are people who call themselves Christians who are not. I know that people have done terrible things in the same of Christianity. I know that people have abused this name – dragging it through every bit of mud and fire and refuse. I cannot overemphasize how much people have done wrong to the name ‘Christian.’ But that doesn’t change the truth of what a Christian really is. That doesn’t change the truth of what a Christian is called to be.

You probably already know that ‘Christian’ is a diminutive form of the word ‘Christ’ – meaning that it actually means ‘little Christ.’ That is why I believe that these other names are inadequate in describing what a Christian is. The name ‘Jesus People’ doesn’t tell you what your beliefs regarding the man are. The name ‘Christ Follower’ is not intimate enough. We’re not simply called to follow Christ – we’re called to be Christ to a dying world. A Christian isn’t a ‘Jesus Person’ a Christian is Jesus to everyone around them. The only translation that doesn’t say ‘Christian’ in Acts 11:26 is Young’s and he interprets the name Christian to mean “Divinely Called.”

There is a trend that troubles me in our post-modern world. This trend is one where if something doesn’t work for us personally we abandon all use of it. We call it old, outdated, useless, inaccurate. I wrote a little about this in another blog post about ‘being so over old stuff’ so I won’t rewrite it all here. The problem is that much greater when it creeps into Christianity – have we come to the point that we no longer have a use for this word that the early church called themselves? Have we no use for the phrase that every Christian leader has called his or herself since that year in Antioch? John the Disciple, John Wesley and John Calvin all called themselves Christians. C.S. Lewis, Mother Theresa, Corrie Ten Boom and Eric Little all called themselves Christians. Have we advanced passed these brave souls? Are we beyond this great cloud of witnesses?

No, I’m a Christian – I don’t care what others have done to the name.

It’s not just what I’m called, It’s what I’m called to be.

91 days ago /  Tagged: , , , , 0

A personal look back across the past year.

At Frazer the volunteer year runs from February to January so I often think of my year beginning once the last production crew from the previous year has finished up. I don’t like to spend too much time blogging about me and my personal life, but I had a really awesome year in 2011 and I want to take one last look at it before I close its book.

In 2011 I had some really awesome opportunities. God moved me closer to Him and He introduced me to some great new friends, some powerful truths and He greatly enlarged my territory. I challenge you to read it and seek similar experiences in your own life that you would be blessed, be challenged and be encouraged to grow.

 

  • At the start of 2011 I started a new Life Group. It was one of the richest experiences I’ve had in my spiritual walk since moving to Montgomery. As a part of that I met Kyle Reschke, who has become one of my best friends over the past year. He would later go on to become Frazer’s missionary on the ground in Haiti. The group read through the books of 1st Timothy and Philippians together and we read the book ‘Wild at Heart.’ We also went Kayaking, Watched Movies together and we played several games of Settlers of Catan (best game ever)

 

  • Probably the single biggest thing that happened to me in 2011 was the opportunity to go to Haiti three times. Frazer started an initiative to help move a community of Haitians who are deaf out of Port Au Prince and into a community where they can become self sufficient. While I hope that my presence in the project has contributed to the lives of the Haitian Deaf Community, It has definitely been a challenging and enriching experience for me. I’ve gotten to know Mackenson Saint Louis, who is the leader of the Community. He’s my age and yet this whole community of over 150 families looks to him for guidance. I’ve been learning ASL ever since, to try to expand my discussion with him and the other members of the Haitian deaf community.

 

  • I went to Catalyst again and this time had the pleasure of bringing several friends along. Catalyst is always an encouraging time for me, but I especially enjoy getting  the opportunity to bring other people and have them experience the same bold teaching that spurs me on every year. One of the biggest blessings that came during that week was that I won an iPad in a drawing! I can tell you that I’ve used it numerous times in my ministry here and I would have never had it otherwise.

 

  • I grew closer to God, to my family and to my friends. This may sound generic and cliché but I can honestly say that this wasn’t as true in 2010. The year before I was largely stagnant in my faith and at different times I had moments where I felt both far from my friends and far from my family. In 2011 I was blessed to not only gain new friends and family (in the case of my new niece) but also to grow in my friendship with all my friends and family.

 

  • One of the greatest blessings of the past four years of my life has been to be the class sponsor of Asbury University’s Fearless class of 2011. Asbury has a long-standing tradition of electing two Juniors to sponsor the following years freshman. Sponsors pick the class’s name, colors, logo and advisors. We also act as the big brother and sister to the entire class. I got the smallest taste of parenthood as I watched the class of 2011 graduate. It’s always a gift to visit Asbury, but this time was especially meaningful. I finally had some understanding of what my parents mean when they say ‘We’re proud of you.’ I said that to the fearless class a lot; it wasn’t that I was proud of what they had accomplished as much as I was simply proud of who they had chosen to become.

 

  • This summer I returned to something that I loved doing when I was a kid. I’ve been writing fiction. I wrote my first fiction book sometime long about 3rd grade. It was terrible. I kept writing until one day I just decided to give up. I remember hearing about an author who wrote her books by taking notes over a series of years. When I was in high school I started taking notes about characters and plot ideas. I’d occasionally return to that through college, but hasn’t been until this year that I actually started writing the resulting book. I don’t know that it would ever be published, but it has been a really great hobby for me.

 

  • Finally this past fall I decided to do something that is totally outside of my comfort zone and I began working with a mixed martial arts trainer, learning Brazilian Jiu Jutsu alongside other techniques. At this point in the conversation I usually have to say, “Really – I’m not joking.” I’m not ‘training to be a cage fighter’ but it has been a fun new thing to learn and a really entertaining way to get in shape. My closest friends are probably tired of hearing me talk about it.

 

I just want to encourage you to take on things that are going to challenge you and encourage you. Take time to cultivate rich friendships with people who will pray you through things. Take a retreat and get to know God, better yet, to know His plan for you. Do things that are good for you. Waste less time with empty entertainment. Like John Wesley Said

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

110 days ago 2

Your Role in the Story God is Writing.

Those who know me know that I’m a big fan of the Harry Potter books and movies. I started reading the books when I was 8th grade. So, like many people now in their mid 20s, I grew up with the books. This christmas my mom and dad gave me the last Harry Potter film on Blu-Ray and just yesterday I was watching the special features when something caught my attention.

Emma Watson, who played Hermione, was talking about her relationship with Jo Rowling, the author of the series.  Jo based Hermione loosely on herself and she considered the casting of Hermione more important than any other character. In this Interview, Emma Watson mentioned that after the 3rd movie was released Jo sent her a letter that began, “To my perfect Hermione.” Emma talked about how much that meant; receiving such accolades from the woman who created Hermione was an enormous compliment.

As a person who dabbles in both acting and writing this is not lost on me. To have an author say to an actor that they are ‘perfect’ in their role – that is truly the highest praise possible. For a moment I wondered what that would feel like – having the originator of a character tell you that you did it perfectly. Jo Rowling started the creation of that Character even before Emma Watson was born and yet she felt that when Emma played the part she did so perfectly.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, being a member of the Millennial Generation means that I was given a lot of ‘Be the best you you can be’ talk. And ‘no one can be you but you.’ I always felt that those were vague and even foolish sayings. Sure, you don’t need to copy what everyone else is doing to be you, but everyone needs some guide – some template or role model. It was when I was watching this little featurette that it clicked for me.

As I was thinking ‘It must be amazing to have an author tell you as an actor that you played the part perfectly.’ I had a revelation. I would say that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. I remembered this passage:

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”

Hebrews 12:2a NIV (emphasis added)

I may never write a book that is made into a blockbuster film and I will almost certainly never be a character in one such movie. I will likely never have a role to play that the whole world will see and critique. Despite this, I still have a part to play – not a mask to wear, but rather a role to fill in my life. The Author has written it for me. Does this mean that I have no choice but to read his narrative with no expression of my own? By no means. He is expecting me to bring myself to this role. He is expecting me to take what is on the page and create my own artistic interpretation of his prose.

It isn’t about ‘me being the best me I can be.’ I’m a prideful, self-centered, boring person on my own. If left to my own devices, I’m only a sad shell of a human being. Instead, it’s about me finding a way to play that role that God has written for me in his great narrative. It’s about me giving a living interpretation of his story – the story he is writing now. I realize that I cannot be ‘perfect’ in the human sense of the word; I cannot be without any apparent flaws. What I can do, however, is be me as he meant me to be – such that God sees me as his perfect Will Adams.

It is my conviction that the greatest privilege we have in this life is simply being a living expression of the prose God is composing throughout history, in hopes that when our part has been played, Christ stands proud as the author of salvation – as the writer who tells the actor ‘you played the role perfectly.’

138 days ago /  Tagged: , , , , , 3

The lie we were told: a letter to my generation

Generation Y, we were all lied to. From the time we first set foot on the preschool campus to the moment we were handed that college or high school diploma. We were lied to. No matter who you are, if you grew up in the US over the last two decades you were told this lie and despite how innocent it may have seemed to its progenitors, it has recently come to a head in a frustrating, pointless and event violent way.

Somewhere long about the early 80s a decision was made in America. I don’t know where it came from, I’ve tried to find out, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. This decision would make us the guinea pigs of a soon to be horribly failed experiment in human behavior. Weather the decision was conscience or just an unhappy fluke, we all felt the effects of it our whole childhood. And the results of the experiment have recently come to light as we, the Mellinial generation, generation Y, the screenagers, the mosaic generation- as we have entered ‘adulthood.’

I don’t know whether those who first told this lie actually believed it or if they just thought it would be fun to see what happens to a generation when they are all told something that isn’t true. I don’t think it was malicious; I think those that lied to us thought they were helping. I think they thought that this lie would somehow drive us to do great things. As I said it was in one way the largest psychological study of our time and it’s outcome is now obvious.

What is this lie? You may still believe it to be true. You may think I’m exaggerating it’s effects, but regardless of what you feel about this phrase, you’ll recognize it. You will recognize it from teachers and coaches. You’ve heard it on TV and in film. You read it in comics, magazines and books. Some of us were even taught it by our parents.

The lie is this: You can do anything if you want it enough. Nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it. If you can dream it, you can do it. Astronaut? NFL player? President? All possible so long as you want it enough. You may still think this is true, but I think any Mellinial who wants to behave like an adult has to realize that this is a lie. I’m 5′ 7″ and no matter how much I want it I’d never be able to beat Lebron at a one-on-one game of basketball. While I truly believe that positive thinking can take you very far, (studies show optimists live longer, healthier lives) there are some things that are simply out of reach.

Like the rest of you, I don’t like limits, I don’t like rules. I don’t like things to be hard and fast. I want to Cling to the romantic notion that the unattainable can be attained, that I am capable of anything I want to do, so long as I really want to do it. But here is the truth they didn’t tell us: You can do almost anything, but only if you’re willing to work hard your whole life to achieve it. It is amazing what you can accomplish by imagining something and then pouring every ounce of strength you have into the realization of it. You can do what many thought was impossible, but you have to do more than write a thesis and receive a degree (or two) to see it happen. You have to work for it. Wanting it, dreaming it, believing in it is simply not enough. You can reach for the stars all you want they’re not coming any closer you must go to them.

You will have a hard time accepting this if you are a true member of the Mellinial Generation, because the one thing we excel at is overconfidence. You may know that according to an international survey, despite scoring very low in math and science, our generation scored highest in confidence. For the past two decades we have believed that we were the best, that we are smarter, funnier and more creative than any generation before- because the lie lead us to believe those things. The lie made us think we were special. The lie made us arrogant. In reality we are not any better than our parents- we’re just different. We have different strengths and we have different weaknesses. That may be news to you as well, but we do have weaknesses.

But, thats not what they told us. I warn you that if you continue to live like this is true that you will see the fulfillment of Malcolm Muggeridge’s prophecy written about the time we were all being born.

Thus did western man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania; himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down.

And having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer, until at last, having educated himself into imbecility and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over, a weary, battered old brontosaurus, and became extinct.

Or will our mantra be that of George Bernard Shaw’s great quote:

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

So Generation Y, what will future generations say of us? What will our children tell their grandchildren- will they say we sat around in public places shouting our anger at the world for it not bending to our will? Will they say we expected the government to spoon feed us? Will they say all of our talk of social justice was nothing but show? Will they call us lazy? Entitled? Or will they say we beat a bad economy with ingenuity and an entrepreneurial spirit? That we worked hard so that they could live in a better world- That we never blamed anyone for the hardships we faced- That we were selfless- Altruistic?

We are writing history and we can choose now to be a generation that couldn’t face the truth or we can be the generation that showed a maturity beyond its years. And when that history is written, what will it say? It could say that we didn’t rise to the occasion, that we lacked innovation, that we chose to play the victim when things got hard, that we left this world in even worse a state than we found it, that we were selfish, that our generation spent more time playing video games or rehearsing with our band than we did actually trying to better this world, that our knowledge of popular culture dwarfed our knowledge of anything useful, that we sat writing blogs complaining about each other, that we were a total waste of space and that the only way in which we were an example for our children was that we showed them exactly how not to live.

We could be that generation or we could be a generation that used our creativity in a way that created jobs for future generations, the generation that ended extreme global poverty, the generation that saw the end of slavery and human trafficking worldwide, the generation that stopped the AIDS crisis in Africa, the generation that spent more time fixing the problems of the world than complaining about them, the generation that fed the hungry and healed the sick, the generation that watched the divorce rate dwindle into nothingness, the generation who used their creativity to house the homeless and give hope to those who have none, the generation that solved the debt crisis and the energy crisis, the generation that saw the whole world get clean water, the generation who did more for the next generation than they did for their own, the generation who left this world a much better place than the way they found it. Because if we want to be that generation, it doesn’t happen on accident. The only way this happens is by sacrifice. Sound impossible? We’re the generation who doesn’t believe in the impossible, remember?

There is one condition under which this ideal is in fact true.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Phil 4:13 (KJV 2k)

So mellinials, will you be that generation?

184 days ago 2
Tompy-1

Haiti Help Portrait Trip Day 3

Bonswa everyone. Our last day has been a truly great one here in Port Au Prince. Our day started with a devotional out of My Utmost for His Highest from a couple of days ago.

Photo by Billy's Timer

We also spent some time discussing the current political climate in Haiti. The new president has recently declared that he wants to rebuild Haiti’s national army. This may not sound like a bad thing until you find out that it was the Army that was the cause of much of the political instability in Haiti until the 1990′s. Apparently one dictator would seize power then a few months later his general would move the army in, kill him and take his place, only to have his new general move in a few months later. This President is expected to order the UN peacekeeping forces to leave so that he can replace them with an Army, creating Jobs for Haitians. The problem with this is that the government can’t afford to build a force equivalent to that 13,000 UN troops that currently keep the peace here. Many Haitians don’t like the UN. At best they don’t think they do much; at worst they don’t think they should be here at all. So to say the least, Haiti’s situation needs prayer.

After breakfast we took a photo of the team and headed out for the day. Our first stop was a place at which the other teams who have come here have stopped, Rebuild Globally. This is a cool organization that uses materials readily available – old tires and trashed clothes – to make flip flops, jewelry and bags. It’s great because not only are they recycling materials, they’re also employing haitians at very good wages. We talked to them about ways the deaf community and Frazer can get involved with what their doing. We discussed the possibility of opening a Rebuild Globally branch near their new homes and the managers were enthusiastic. I hope we can get involved in helping them finding places to sell their goods here in the states. You can visit their website for more info.

Photo by Billy


After stopping by a gas station to grab some water and snacks, we headed on to spend the rest of the day with the deaf community. My sign language had gotten good enough to make some conversation finally. As we finished out the photos we had come to find out that there was one couple that had recently had a baby and that she wasn’t ready to leave her house, so Billy, Josh and I headed over to their house and we caught a photo of them. It was one of the most precious photos that the team took.

We took time to interact with the community more. At one point I started dancing to some music with the kids and Josh told me that one of the community members signed “The fat guy can dance.” This is beginning to be a theme; maybe its time to lose some weight. I got into a conversation in the leaders hut about the percussionist Evelyn Glennie who is deaf. They talked about how she could feel the vibrations. After a few moments I started stoping out a rhythm on the floor and suddenly they all started stomping and tapping around the room. It was so much fun. I got into a tap-dancing competition with one of the guys. It was a blast.

Photo by Lori

We all told the community members that Jesus loves them and I was surprised at how shocked some of them

Mackenson with Kyle(actual size) Photo by Lori

were to hear this from us. The leadership council of the community took a photo together as well as Mackenson, the leader of the group. It was really cool to see the leadership take charge of organizing the group – settling disputes and making decisions. I learned the sign for ‘wise’ just so I could tell Mackenson how impressed I was with his decision making skills.

We finished with Nick and Billy walking around getting photos of a few of the children for future sponsorship profiles. Soon we’ll be offering people the opportunity to pay for a child’s schooling here in Haiti and they’ll be going to one of the top schools in the country- all very exciting. We were pretty tired at the end of the day. I don’t know that I have a reason for posting this picture other than the fact that it’s may favorite picture of Billy and Nick from this week. I think it looks like a buddy comedy movie poster.

 

If you can come up with a caption for this photo let me know – I can’t figure one out that is worthy of the awesomeness of this picture. In addition to this one (one of the only photos that I shot) Billy, Nick and Lori worked hard for us to total our three days to over 120 portraits between three days of shooting. But now the real work begins. They’ll have to edit through hundreds of different photos, picking out each household’s photos. We’ve been talking about having a special photo exhibition to raise the money to pay for the prints and possibly raise funds for future Haiti trips or Help Portrait events. Let me know if that sounds interesting to you and we’ll see if we can make it happen.

Click the thumbnail to see the full photo.Here are Nick’s

Billy’s

Lori’s

Over all this trip has been amazing and we’re already talking about our next Help Portrait event and many of us are excited to get back to Haiti again soon. I’ve got some sign language to work on – as many of the deaf people told me. (And apparently some weight to lose) But I’ve never had this much fun on a mission trip. I really feel that we conveyed the love of Christ to these people, even just in taking these photos and talking with them. I felt so fortunate to have been a part of this trip. At the end of the day I asked Mackenson what he would like to say to Frazer on video and the thrust of it was that this team was helpful and he’s glad that Frazer is involved with the community.

We head for the airport first thing tomorrow, so pray for safe travels! We’re excited to get these photos printed and framed! Thanks for everyone who has been reading. If you read this I’m telling you that you should come to Haiti. Whatever obstacle is in your way God is bigger. Learn some sign language, get here and love on these people.

Tompy, the Haitian 410 Bridge National Coordinator was extremely helpful throughout our trip.

To God be the glory.

Further reading:

-You might be interested in reading the posts from my first trip to Haiti

-If you haven’t read them here’s day 0, day 1 and day 2 from this trip

-Nick’s Blog, Lori’s Blog and Billy’s Blog are all awesome as well.

-You can always visit Frazer’s Mission Blog and Transformation Blog to read about the progress of this and other projects.

-To get closest to the action visit kyleinhaiti.com to hear from Kyle Reschke, a good friend of mine, and Frazer’s missionary in the field in the deaf community.

190 days ago /  Tagged: 3
Photo by Billy Pope

Haiti Help Portrait Trip Day 2

I have to start this entry by saying thanks to everyone who has been writing us on Facebook, twitter and otherwise. We really appreciate your prayers and your kind words.

Today was another incredible day here in Haiti. Before breakfast was served we got talking about a particular youtube video then we had to pause and let everyone watch it. You may have seen the “Teasing the Dog” video – it got us all laughing. I mention this because it turned into a major joke throughout at the day and if you want to get a feel for the jovial attitude that this team has you’ll want to watch it. After breakfast we met and had a devotional where we talked about the day. We had a great prayer time. Kyle said that Josh made his journal today when he prayed for a Hope that is ignorant of the odds against us here in our endeavors with the deaf culture. Between a full night’s rest, a good breakfast, some fervent prayer and a hearty laugh we all felt really energized for the day.

We started off the day with a long ride to Leveque just outside of Cabaret, which is close to Chicago, oddly enough – that’s a musical theater joke – Okay, it wasn’t close to Chicago, but it did take us about as long to drive there. It was interesting to see rural Haiti after spending a day in Port Au Prince. The neighborhoods are generally safer and this area has lots fertile land and several good schools that the children in the community could attend. Mission of Hope has already built a considerable number of homes in this area already. The people living in this area all have space for gardens and we met a few of the residents as we came to tour around.

photo by Lori Mercer

We hiked around the property and saw where the deaf community will move – with the ocean just to the west and mountains to the east and plenty of room for gardening it’s a prime place for this relocation. We also saw the place for the new church that Frazer will be helping develop. I took the opportunity to take several video segments with Kyle explaining about where everything would be located. There will be basketball courts and a soccer field in addition to a new guest house for our future mission teams. I hope to have the video edited quickly and on the missions blog and transformation blog soon.

Photo by Billy Pope

Billy Pope, a photographer with 15 years experience said that this has been the most fun that he’s had shooting photos. The spirit of gratitude is palpable as its mutual between the deaf community and our team as we all feel so blessed to be here, participating in such a fun act of service. The single most common sign we see everyday is ‘thank you.’ Every time we show them their photo they say thank you and we thank them for letting us take it. The proud mothers with their children all lined up, the young couples as well as the elderly all lined up – each eager to get their picture taken and so loving and thankful while we’re just as thankful for the opportunity.

There were a number of children who were very fascinated with my beard. They all would run up to me and climb up on me and start tugging at my chin. At one point I was carrying four children around. They’re all so loving and eager for attention. Many of the teenagers were also around at this point and I started talking with them teaching them different english words. Kyle was working hard to get all the kids young and old to start calling me “Grizzly Beard” this was too difficult for the Haitian children, to say fortunately so he settled for calling me “Papa Bear.” At one point they were all surrounding me chanting “Papa Bear! Papa Bear!”

One of the coolest people that we’ve gotten know over the past few days is the woman that Kyle calls his ‘Haitian Mom’ I wish all of you could hear her voice – in spite of being deaf, she’s quite vocal and she has the most infectious laugh. She treats the kids like she’s all of their grandmother -shooing them away when they’re misbehaving and giggling when they’re being silly.

Perhaps the coolest indicator of how close we’ve become is that some of us have scored name-signs with the community. Yesterday the several leaders argued over what mine should be – they finally settled on a ‘W’ over the stomach (a loving comment on my weight.) Diane also got one – a ‘D’ on the cheek. I spent some time trying to pick up new signs today while the photographers shot. Again, the eagerness and thankfulness of the people in the community is just astounding. Here are a few photos from today from Billy

And here are a few from Lori

And a few from Nick

My personal favorite moment of the day was probably toward the end of the day when a little boy came into the doorway of the leader’s hut. I had been sitting with the sign language dictionary trying to learn new signs. I signed to him “Christ Loves You” and he smiled and said back in sign language “Thank you.”

And so I end saying to all of you – Christ loves you and thank you for your continued prayers. Tomorrow is our last full day so please pray that it will be all that it can be. So far the trip has been amazing.

191 days ago /  Tagged: 4
Haiti DAY 1-1

Haiti Help Portrait Trip Day 1

butch said we had to be up at 4:00 in the morning, my response was "No, silly 4:00 is in the afternoon!" Photo by Lori Mercer

I write to you at the end of a very long day. We started today at 3:00am (for us) and flew out of Ft. Lauderdale. We got to the airport really early but took some time to review our sign language and Creole. The flight was good. We arrived around 10am and made our way to the New Life Children’s home where most of Frazer’s teams stay on our trips here. The compound includes a guest house, church, garden and orphanage. It’s walled and there’s an armed guard at the gate. There is no better place for mission teams to stay at Port Au Prince.

Mr. T escorting us by motorcycle to the New Life Children's home Photo by Lori Mercer

Kyle met us in the airport and we were escorted from there by our Haitian police friend who is lovingly referred to as “Mr.T.” Once we got to New Life we sat down and Kyle told us a little about how things were going to go. He told us that the leadership of the deaf community volunteered to organize the people in the community to be ready to have the photos taken.

When we arrived at the community we were quickly mobbed by all of the children who absolutely love Kyle. As soon as the car from 410 drove up children came running out of the huts to meet him. Many people are surprised to find out that even though the adults in the community are deaf, most of the children are hearing. It’s very common for this to happen, but especially in Haiti where much of the deafness comes as the result of illness rather than condition from birth. The children in the community love to sing. Kyle plays guitar for them and goes through the few praise songs that he knows – often translating them into Creole. One of the coolest moments of the day was hearing all these Haitian children singing at the top of their lungs ‘Wi Jezi, wi Jezi, wi Jezi…’ – the chorus from ‘Trading my Sorrows.”

Photo by Billy Pope

photo by Nick Drollette

We got to hear from several members of the leadership council most of whom are very young and all seem like very smart, determined people. Mackenson St.Louise is one of the leaders and he is determined that the community learn English as well as French, Creole and Proper American Sign Language. In an effort to help in their endeavors we delivered to them several books that help teach proper sign language. They wasted no time as soon as we were done they they all took one of the books and set down to read them. It was awesome to watch them as they devoured the books – each of them was trying out the signs depicted in the books and then showing the others.

Josh Brewer, our wonderful translator was there to translate several amazing stories as the leadership council each shared where they were during the earth quake and how they came to the deaf community. You can hear more about Mackinson’s awesome story on kyle’s blog.

Photo by Lori Mercer

The team and the members of the deaf community were fast friends as they were all telling us stories and asking us questions. Many of them sat with us as we all hand-spelled our names and made what conversation we could. It was an enormous blessing. We took a tour of the community were we saw that a number of the people there have already started their own micro enterprise – artisans hocking their wares, other people selling other kinds of goods – there’s even a local pub.

Let the Photos Begin

photo by Lori Mercer

Finally we started taking photos. God really provided for us in a cool way when it came time for us to decide where we were going to shoot. Since the first meeting we had been wondering were we were going to stage the photos, originally thinking that we’d try taking them totally outside in front of the T-houses you see in the above picture. But when we got there we found out that just in the past few weeks a new tent had been donated by UMCOR (woot! woot! UMC represent!). The tent was the perfect size and opacity; It provided a great back drop with a neutral white and wonderful diffused light that allowed the photographers to set up a single flash and take pictures that look exactly as if they’d been taken in in a studio.

It didn’t take long for word to get around the camp and soon Billy, Lori and Nick had their hands full with families wanting their photos taken together. Diane was busy taking names so that we were sure to match up the photos with the correct households when we return with the framed photos in December. I acted as a light stand for much of the afternoon. Butch was doing crowd control and Josh was in the middle the whole time, making sure that everyone was understood. I wish I could tell you how amazing it was to take photos of these people and show it to them. Though none of them speak english – and many of them don’t speak at all – we could all see the joy in their faces as they each saw a photo of themselves. All of them were very thankful. It was funny to see the number of things that are universal – the awe of an elderly couple looking into each others’ eyes in one photo, teenagers refusing to smile in a family picture and the fact the everyone feels joy knowing that they’re worth photographing.

Here are a few of the photos from today – all three photographers contributed a great deal today. These three photos were taken by Billy Pope. You can see the larger image by clicking on them. Keep in mind these were all taken in the same tent in the deaf community.

for more photos by Nick, you can visit his blog 

End of the day

Tonight we had the blessing of joining the children at the New Life Center for their evening devotional. Though the whole thing was in creole, I was still struck by the sincerity of their faith and the universality of our God. As the team leader I was asked to stand up and tell the kids who we were so I explained through a translator what we were doing and introduced the team. After the devotional each one of the children approached each one of us to wish us ‘good night’ or ‘god bless’ in english. It was a really cool experience.

over all it was a really good day – we’re all excited to get back out there tomorrow, but the whole team is really tired. Even as I finish writing this a little after 9, I’m the last one awake. Thanks for your continued prayers – we’ve been feeling them! God is doing a great work here!

192 days ago /  Tagged: 9
← Older Entries