status update.

thanks so much for checking up on stephen and me; i'm assuming that's why you are reading this. be assured that stephen and i are doing just fine here in Port-au-Prince, despite having had our return flight home this morning cancelled.  you can chill, mom, we've got one for saturday :) (thank you Mr. J!)

last night, as you may have read, the preliminary results of the presidential elections were released here in Haiti. contrary to international observance, the results favored the outgoing president's hand-picked successor rather than the candidates for whom the Haitian people hand-voted. there is a long and deep backstory to what is happening today, and it reaches back far before this election. 

if you and your people had again been held under the hand of a ruling political class of 5% of the population for the better part of 200 years, what sort of reaction would you have? 

today, we feel removed from the actual events, holeing ourselves up in the home of one of stephen's classmates here (she is the most sweet and most gracious), making it impossible to feel any sense of solidarity with the protesters.  even if we weren't holed up, our nationalities and appearances would still make participation impossible.

instead we pray for justice and wonder where it is. for electoral integrity and find it hard to see. for responsible reporting that would side with the WHOLE story and not merely photos of inappropriate mobs and the UN peacekeeping heros (only furthering the justification of their unwanted presence here). 

for that is not the story!

if you're interested, check out this piece. i know i'm constantly citing HP articles, (sorry, dad), but they most align with what we're hearing, observing, and experiencing in-country. *can't link it now, as our internet connection is crawling.

and, yet we pray for our own well-being. God, help us to seek love for every human life. for those we find it easy to love and those we find it nearly impossible. 

in hopeful anticipation,

w