When it seems like the world is in chaos and uncertainty is swirling all around us, it’s time for a Trip of Perspective. Block out June 23 – July 1, 2017, on your calendars, pack your bags, prepare for an extraordinary, life-changing experience, and head for Haiti with us.
Need a little convincing? Here are some comments Susan Taylor made after returning from a trip there with Faith and Money in 2015.
“Like most well-educated people of faith, I grasp facts around inequality in wages and living conditions. I have cooked breakfast at homeless shelters and served on Faith and Money Network’s board of directors. But my travels to Haiti seemed designed to expose how complacent I’ve become in my comforts and expectations. 
“One week I was in Colorado Springs, CO for professional meetings. A week later, I was in Haiti on a Trip of Perspective with Faith and Money Network.
“In Colorado, the room I was provided cost enough per night to send three children in rural Haiti to school for an entire year, books and uniforms included.
“In Colorado, we meticulously catered to a range of dietary restrictions and preferences. In Haiti, we had delicious and plentiful food because of our hosts’ generosity, but people who are truly hungry aren’t as worried about paleo-gluten-whatever as about getting something to eat.
“In Colorado, we talked about our children’s many activities and extensive travels. In Haiti, some families suffer desperation in poverty so deep that they risk sending a child away to live with strangers in the tiniest hope that the child will be better off there.
“In-your-face inequality. Stark, undeniable, mind-bending, sinful (dare I use that word?) inequality. The realities are a challenge to cope with mentally and spiritually.”
Susan has often been asked, “Why did you go?” She heard that question in Haiti, too. When we posed that question, she responded by sharing a special experience with us.
“In the rural village of Ma, I spent an afternoon reading with the 10-year-old son of my host family. This bright and beautiful boy, named Andy, read for me in his English text from school, asking me to help him pronounce some words. Bless his heart, Andy will probably say “pencil” and “chicken” with a Southern US accent for the rest of his days. Then he flipped the lessons around and made me learn a few excruciating words of Kreyol. Finding ways to understand each other. Laughing and sharing. It was an extraordinary ordinary day.
That evening as we hung around the kitchen’s cooking fire, Andy asked me, in English, “Why did you come?” Risking sounding like a crazy woman from the USA, I told him the truth. ‘I came to meet you, Andy. I came to meet you.’”
Meeting our neighbors in Haiti, India, Palestine, Ethiopia, South Africa or West Virginia–wherever we go on Trips of Perspective–our goals are to see life through the eyes of our local hosts, gain an understanding of the economic and political factors that impact every aspect of their lives, and examine our own lives and choices in relationship to our global family.
My husband Dave and I found excuses not to go on a Trip of Perspective until our hearts told us we could put it off no longer. Afterward we asked, “Why did we wait so long? What were we afraid of?” It was the most important trip we’ve ever taken.
These are unsettling times when many of us are deeply concerned about what the world is thinking about Americans these days. How will that change unless they get a chance to know us?
If you feel the need to demonstrate your concern for our neighbors around the world and to understand how our politics are impacting them, we invite you to consider our Trip of Perspective to Haiti. Print out the details on our home page, block out June 23 – July 1, 2017, on your calendars, pack your bags, and fly away with us on an extraordinary, life-changing experience.
Blessings for Your Journey,
Judy Osgood