March 18, 2025
March 18, 2025
Did you see my Hoops for Haiti vignette with Pastor John? It and all the links to donate and submit your brackets are on our website. I love it because it’s not about the basketball or winning, it is as we noted ... about the money.
And it is personal for me this year. Here’s why.
In 2016 I was honored by Trinity Seminary as a “Distinguished Alumnus in Christian Service.” It meant a lot to me, but I remember thinking “Isn’t that what I was baptized into, ordained for?” Two others were honored that day. I was second. The introduction for the third award, a medal, began “Maya Rose Fond Luckner was born a child slave in Haiti.” Sheltered from the streets by St. Joseph’s Family he committed to giving back what God had given him. A seminary immersion study group was in Haiti when an earthquake hit, killing a student. In all of that chaos, Maya organized food, motorbikes, small boats to get the group to safety and ultimately home many days later. I remember thinking “he can have my award, too!”
During pictures after the ceremony I mentioned to the stranger next to me that I would like to visit Haiti someday. He smiled and said “you can be part of the next group in May.” And I was. Maya shepherded me. It changed me forever. I call him friend and brother.
I rode standing on the back of a flatbed truck with eighteen others across a river, up a beautiful mountain, white knuckling the side rails all the way, to a little school ambitiously called Centre de Education Integree (CEI) the ONLY school in rural LaMontagne! Children are children everywhere. These kids couldn’t contain their joy at the visit of the biggest, roundest white man they had seen outside of pictures of Santa Claus! And, when they asked to see pictures on my phone, of my children and where I lived ... well.
This year’s Hoops for Haiti project is to build three new classrooms at that very school, making room for 75 more children! Open windows, wood floors, but with desks and chalkboards. We have joined with six other partner congregations to raise $25,000 to help my Haitian friends help their neighbors and, through education, change a child’s life forever.
So, yeah, I love basketball. I’ll fill out brackets as I do every year. It’s fun. But Hoops for Haiti is NOT really about basketball. It is about raising the money to make those three classrooms happen. If you can, please donate. Brackets are due this week, but we will receive donations through April 6.
Still in Christian Service, with you,
Pastor Jim
P.S. Maya let me ride in the cab down the mountain. He didn’t tell me we would be picking up any women or children we met on the way. There were no reindeer, but with children bouncing on my lap and a heart filled with joy, I did feel a little like St. Nicholas.
Did you see my Hoops for Haiti vignette with Pastor John? It and all the links to donate and submit your brackets are on our website. I love it because it’s not about the basketball or winning, it is as we noted ... about the money.
And it is personal for me this year. Here’s why.
In 2016 I was honored by Trinity Seminary as a “Distinguished Alumnus in Christian Service.” It meant a lot to me, but I remember thinking “Isn’t that what I was baptized into, ordained for?” Two others were honored that day. I was second. The introduction for the third award, a medal, began “Maya Rose Fond Luckner was born a child slave in Haiti.” Sheltered from the streets by St. Joseph’s Family he committed to giving back what God had given him. A seminary immersion study group was in Haiti when an earthquake hit, killing a student. In all of that chaos, Maya organized food, motorbikes, small boats to get the group to safety and ultimately home many days later. I remember thinking “he can have my award, too!”
During pictures after the ceremony I mentioned to the stranger next to me that I would like to visit Haiti someday. He smiled and said “you can be part of the next group in May.” And I was. Maya shepherded me. It changed me forever. I call him friend and brother.
I rode standing on the back of a flatbed truck with eighteen others across a river, up a beautiful mountain, white knuckling the side rails all the way, to a little school ambitiously called Centre de Education Integree (CEI) the ONLY school in rural LaMontagne! Children are children everywhere. These kids couldn’t contain their joy at the visit of the biggest, roundest white man they had seen outside of pictures of Santa Claus! And, when they asked to see pictures on my phone, of my children and where I lived ... well.
This year’s Hoops for Haiti project is to build three new classrooms at that very school, making room for 75 more children! Open windows, wood floors, but with desks and chalkboards. We have joined with six other partner congregations to raise $25,000 to help my Haitian friends help their neighbors and, through education, change a child’s life forever.
So, yeah, I love basketball. I’ll fill out brackets as I do every year. It’s fun. But Hoops for Haiti is NOT really about basketball. It is about raising the money to make those three classrooms happen. If you can, please donate. Brackets are due this week, but we will receive donations through April 6.
Still in Christian Service, with you,
Pastor Jim
P.S. Maya let me ride in the cab down the mountain. He didn’t tell me we would be picking up any women or children we met on the way. There were no reindeer, but with children bouncing on my lap and a heart filled with joy, I did feel a little like St. Nicholas.