Glow Sticks or Luxury Cars?

For over a year I have been torn, I know I am in need of my next car, but I cannot decide what new car I should lease.  The Lexus ES is absolutely pristine, and I look awesome driving it.  You don't feel like your driving a car, but instead a top of the line, five star hotel.  After driving the ES and returning my Honda Accord 2002, I felt like the quality of the interior of the car I owed was no better than a go-kart.  The problem is the cost is restrictive.   I can afford the increased lease, because Toyota offers great rates to their employees, but I would be confined to actually keeping & maintaining a budget.  I could also lease a Camry, but isn't that a little too cliche?  Don't a lot of (old) people already drive this car?   I wouldn't really impress anyone, and I would still have to be cautious with a budget, because not only would I be paying for a car, but also a house.

Don't get me wrong, I am blessed enough financially, where when I broke my iPad, I bought a new one that night.  When I lost my cell phone (read my first blog post for the details), I bought a new one the first chance I could.  Then I think back to life in Haiti where we were taught that the people of Haiti live off less than $1 a day!   Shoot... I bought 2 Coca Colas each & everyday we were there last year.   

I don't think this makes me a bad person, but I couldn't survive the life Haitians have to live.   I "need" my iPhone, my iPad, my Coca Cola, and my choice of a vehicle.  For whatever reason, I wasn't destined to live that life.  In more ways then I take the time to realize, I am blessed beyond my imagination.  Did you hear when I said I don't have to keep budget?   It is not like I travel to London or Paris once a month, but I get to live a satisfying enough lifestyle where I get everything I need (food and water) and everything I want (shelter, new clothes, phone, car, etc).  

Last July in Haiti, our most creative VBS night was a party to celebrate Jesus.  Throughout the week, we had given the kids noise makers and played American games like dodgeball (fun to watch, but playing any game with Haitians other than soccer, which in an organized league with better training they would destroy us at, is a futile activity). 

This night, however, we gave the children glow sticks.  We decided to line the kids up and translated to them that one at time they could have one, and only one, glow stick.  Well, of course, chaos burst loose and the kids crowded around our leaders desperate for their glow stick.  Now let me stop and say, this reaction isn't Haitian.  Have you ever brought candy into a classroom of middle school guys?  If you don't give them the candy soon enough, you will be mobbed.  So we were quickly handing out the glow sticks, one after another after another while the kids were smiling and so proud of the gift they had been given.  

Quicker then we expected, we ran out of our supply of glow sticks.  It was at that time, one of the boys I knew pulled at my sleeve and motioned that he didn't have a glow stick.   The face he gave me was priceless.  I could see how much he wanted to be like everyone else and have a glow stick.  I wanted more than anything to find that boy a glow stick.  First, I am a pushover, a sap to youth who want something from me.  Ask my small group, and you will learn giving gifts (like free Burger King) makes me happy.  Second, I felt he deserved it, here was a boy who probably never seen a glow stick before.   I wanted to give something, incredibly simple & meaningless, that he just didn't get to have.  

It was brought to my attention that older teenagers made off with multiple bracelets, so I became the bracelet bouncer.  We walked around that dusty soccer field trying to find a teen with more than one bracelet.  I looked at kid after kid, and I finally found one.  I motioned to him to give me a bracelet.  He rejected.  Again, don't think of this as Haitian, an American teenager would be just as competitive to keep what he thought he earned even if it valued less than a nickel.   I motioned sternly to the teen to my friend without a bracelet.  He finally relented and gave me that bracelet.

Immediately after, I handed it to the Haitian boy.  A smile illuminated from his face.  He was so gracious to me.  This boy was the one who bragged to me, quite arrogantly, that he could count to ten in Creole, French, and English, but it was this time he attempted to thank me (in English) and either shake my hand or give me a hug.   

You see this moment was incredibly simple, but it had substance.  I do believe this boy's glow stick busted within a week after we left.   I do believe this boy forgot about the glow stick.  What I don't know is when I see the boy in Haiti, will he remember my gracious, yet simple, action for him?  Honestly, I think he will.

Here's the point, as I debate between this car or that car, I will eventually get a car and will love my new car, but in a week, it won't be a new car, it will be another possession of mine.  The question isn't if I treat my car like a gift, waxing and cleaning it daily, but that I'm gracious in the gift I was given.   The blessing of a family that care for me and worked for me.  The blessing of ability to gain employment.  The blessing of a company that treats their employees with respect.  

It is my honest hope that my passion shines through in everything I do.   I want to be seen as someone with a Heart for Haiti who lives by why he wants to build the La Coma church so badly.  So I ask and the question remains... when a stranger sees me in this world, do they see someone shining graciously like a child with a glow stick or someone lost in his own accomplishments deserving of a fancy, new Lexus?.............................

The Greatest Inspiration

When we think of role models, we think of people who have lived before us and accomplished things that we strive to achieve.  A scientist strives to be like Albert Einstein, a basketball player Michael Jordan, a golfer Tiger Woods, a businessman Warren Buffett, and on and on.  However, is it possible for your role model to be someone younger than you?   Someone who has accomplished the simplest things overcoming the most challenging obstacles that you couldn't even imagine for your own life?    Is it so strange to say that my role model is my little sister?

I learned this past week that there is a day called "Sibling Day".   This past Thursday, if you searched various social medias sites, you found your friends with sibling pictures exclaiming how close they are and how much they appreciate each other.  I didn't follow suit, because I found this process to be a little bit cliche, but also I felt this story deserved more than just picture and a well-crafted status update.

Taryn is 22.  She works as both an aide for a preschool and an assistant in an art studio.  As a hobby she is self-professed Disney expert and a passionate ice skater.  She lives with my parents.   Society tells me she has a disability.

When I was around 12 years old, I participated in an organization called Sibshop.  Sibshop was created for youth who have siblings with disabilities.  I was apart of this group briefly, but during that time I learned to embrace my challenges, recognize my feelings, and learn how to cope & manage.

I consider myself a realist, so don't expect me to explain a thunderstorm into a sunny day.   I wonder sometimes about how life could be.   Almost all our family trips were to Disney World, I wish we could have gone on other adventures like camping or skiing or to the White House or NFL games.  I feel cheated that although my sibling relationship involved the normal bickering & support of one another, we don't get to grow up the same way.   We won't get to drive to each other's houses for holidays to visit with our expanded families.  I won't get to strike fear into any of her potential boyfriends.  We didn't get to visit each other at college and spend a night out on the town living each other's life.  We won't even get to figure out together how to help our parents transition into retirement.

There may be those moments I have felt cheated and dreamed about the typical relationship, but I have learned a valuable lesson over the years, I have the perfect sister for me.



With any younger sibling, especially a sister, you want to protect her.   Unfortunately, when she was in middle school, I was in high school and when she was in high school, I was in college.  I had to rely on younger friends to watch out for and protect her.   You expect your younger sister's challenges to be dating or keeping good friends, but I had to worry about my sister learning how to read & complete math problems.   Academics came easy for me, but for her she had to struggle to meet an IEP tailored to her abilities.  Sometimes, I was unfairly frustrated with her struggles, because I wanted my sister to be just like in the top math classes in my grade.   What I didn't expect was she would eventually achieved it all.   For her, learning to read was like me learning integrals in college Calculus.  However, when the going got tough for her she pushed onward most times with a smile & a positive attitude, but for me, the "typical" one, I accepted that acing Calculus isn't within my abilities & a C is good enough to move on.   I wonder how can she be the one with the disability when she exceeded past her expectations and I struggled to meet my own.



It was because of Taryn, I became interested in helping others.   Without Taryn, I don't think my life perspective would be the same.   It is because of her that our family
 took interest in our community and helping the needs of others.  My mother helped form an ice skating programming for people with disabilities in our hometown and I joined an organization that gave grants to community service projects.  It is because of her I care about those who are less fortunate.  Without her, I wouldn't have wanted to volunteer at my church and become a mentor to middle school youth eventually finding my way to mission trips in St. Louis, Memphis, and Haiti.   It is because of her I want to find a way to finish the church of La Coma.

So yes, my little sister is my role model.   Her perseverance through challenges I couldn't have imagined has inspired me to push myself just a little bit further.   If she could learn to read with all my abilities that I have been blessed with and business training that I have been afforded, I can overcome my fears like those of public speaking, introducing myself to strangers, and tackling unfamiliar experiences to take on challenges I used to think I wasn't skilled enough for like managing a project at Toyota, leading a church small group, and supporting a fundraiser like Hearts for Haiti 5K.  We all need a bit of inspiration, don't we?

-

Why?

For the past several months, I have been planning a 5K event to support La Coma, Haiti.

Why?  How did I get here?

Last July I joined my church (First Church of Christ in Burlington, Kentucky) on their annual mission trip to Haiti.  I decided to go on this mission to Haiti, because I'm a leader in the student ministry and I felt I had an obligation to go.   What I didn't expect was my attendance was needed more as a follower than as a leader.

Early in the trip, before we left the plane in Haiti, I had misplaced my cell phone.  For the next two days, I was consumed with thoughts related to my phone.  Is someone racking up a bill over a thousand dollars?  Is someone calling & messaging all my friends & family?  Will the airline find my phone?   Will I be able to get a replacement iPhone.  I wasn't just consumed with negative thoughts, but my mood was wrecked. Everyone was enjoying & embracing the experience, but I was worrying about worldly possessions to the point that other people on the trip knew what my focus was on.  Certainly, I knew my behavior was misaligned and I tried all I could do to correct, but I just couldn't change my attitude.

On our first full day in Haiti, we finally arrived at La Coma.  After exiting the bus, I was informed that the group I was leading would be responsible for that evening's VBS.  My phone was still on my mind, but now joined by my worrying about delivering the perfect VBS lesson that I felt we weren't prepared enough for.  Of course as life goes, our VBS lesson went better than I expected.  By being a vocal point of that night, I started to integrate myself into the environment as young teenagers started asking me questions about my age, family, etc.   It was in these moments that my worrying about my phone and about leading the perfect lesson became insignificant.   Those moments were about bonding with my fellow man and finally softening my heart to their experience.  I won't deny that I came into the trip with harden heart burdened by insignificant worries.  These first conversations started a week long change a of perspective in myself.  You learn to complain less about the difficulties of your life.  Try riding in a bus in Haiti, you won't care about another pothole in US ever again.

So what led me to this 5K?  While in Haiti, I learned to be participant as I watched other leaders embrace their niche.   A teacher becoming an educator of the English language.   A midwife & a paramedic addressing the needs of a pregnant woman.  A sales manager successfully guiding a team of 32.  In my life, I am businessman trained in the world of project management.   We live & die by planning every little detail.  In college, I was responsible for the impossible task of leading fundraising for a business fraternity of over 40  overly extended college student forcing them to dedicate themselves to fruitless tasks like concessions at a football game.  If I could do this, couldn't I do something more for something more meaningful.

Towards the end of my trip, I overheard a conversation with the minister of La Coma.   He was listing the needs of the church.   Some seemed simple (Bibles, can you imagine the easiest book to find in the US being a luxury in Haiti?) and some seemed impossible in their surroundings (a sound system), but it was in those moments that I felt all my experiences in life through many narrows paths lead to one important objective.  To help launch the church of La Coma, Haiti by fundraising for their financial needs.

I'm nothing special by myself.  I believe what I am doing anyone else can accomplish.  However, I have been given the experience to accomplish something greater than myself.   I cannot imagine the everlasting impact I can bring to this community by offering the financial resources they need to complete the roof of their church.  I know many Americans are disenfranchised with the Christian Church, and I cannot blame anyone for that reaction, but Haiti does it right.   Their church is about helping the hungry, the sick, and the weak.  

This site will be used to share my experiences, so you can understand why I am begging and pleading for so many of my friends to participate in this event.  This event isn't for me, but it is for my friends in Haiti who deserve so much more, but still find a way to find happiest in everything they do.

Register today at www.heartforhaiti.tk.   Thank you everybody!