Saint of the Week -- Jackson Kemper

No, he's not the founder of an insurance company. Jackson Kemper, whose saint's day is on Saturday, was the first missionary bishop in the Episcopal Church.

In 1835, General Convention made all the members of the Episcopal Church members also of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (this is still the legal name under which the church is incorporated -- we are all members of a missionary society.) It provided at the same time for missionary bishops to go into the wilderness. Jackson Kemper was the first such bishop.

Consecrated shortly after this decision in 1835, Kemper immediately headed west. He was assigned to Missouri and Indiana, but also planted churches in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas. He had a hard time finding missionaries to join him in his ministry -- most Episcopal clergymen came from plush, well-to-do Eastern families and they could not handle the harsh Midwestern conditions.

Kemper also cared for the native Americans under his care, urging translation of our services into more native languages, and respecting their cultures and traditions.

How are you following in Kemper's footsteps this week as a missionary to the Midwest?

Reading Ahead-- Second Sunday after Pentecost

We are settling into Common Time, the "long green season" after the Advent through Pentecost journey. This is time for the church to live into the promise of Pentecost, to embody the Great Commission from last week's gospel reading: "Go into all the world and make disciples of all people ... and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."

In this week's readings, I am feeling sorely tested by the gospel reading from the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus tells the listeners not to worry about what to eat or drink or what to wear. I am tested, because after a week in Haiti, where people don't have nearly enough to eat or drink, where they mostly wear our American castoffs from items even the Salvation Army doesn't want, I wonder how the people of Haiti hear this message.

There is more hope in the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, when the prophet promises that God has not forgotten the people, any more than a nursing mother forgets her child.

I'm not sure where I'm going yet for Sunday's sermon. Join me in wrestling along with these readings.

+ Kit

Nehemiah Action Assembly -- The Report

All Saints totally rocks! At the Nehemiah Action Assembly last night for ACTION of Greater Lansing, we had a turnout of 88 people from our church. This earned us a certificate for best attendance ... but more than that, it signifies our parish's commitment to acting as a force for good in the greater Lansing area.

Mayor Virg Bernero DID show up (late, but he showed up ...) and he agreed to our requests for 1) to ENFORCE an existing ordinance that requires a certificate of registration in each rental home, with information on how to find out more about the landlord and property, and 2) To set up a database for renters so they can check if the landlord has violations, red-tagged houses, etc., and to be sure they are renting a safe property with a competent landlord.

Just a note for those of you who had to leave early ... ACTION meetings generally do not run this long. This was a special case while we waited to see if the Mayor would actually turn up and answer our request. We ran about a half hour over, but it was worth it, because we effected necessary change. Thanks to all of you for your time, for giving up an evening to come be part of an ecumenical, diverse and committed group of area Christians who want to make our community a better place to live.

We'll reconvene in a Community Problems Assembly next fall on October 8 to determine ACTION's plan for the next year. Mayor Bernero has promised to report to us at that meeting about the status of the database and code enforcement initiatives.

Special congrats to Janet Chegwidden for keeping the energy going over the last few weeks! Let us remember the words of the prophet ... "What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Home from Haiti ... More to Come

We all arrived safely back in the U.S. last night -- tired, but really proud of the work we accomplished and excited about participating in the Haiti Outreach Mission. There is so much to be done, but there is so much we can do. We'll be talking more about this as individuals, and as a group. The team plans to report on the trip next Sunday at coffee hour.

What everyone at All Saints needs to remember is that even if you were not physically present on this trip, you were there with us. You were there with us in prayer. You were there with us in those 100 blue bins of supplies that rolled off the plane in Port au Prince. You were there with us in the vestments and altar linens that were sent from our sacristy and put into the hands of Pere Jeannot and Pere Faublas (the Catholic priest). You were there with us in the donations that went into the Rice Bowl that powered the purchase of the computer network, that fund the ongoing medical clinic, that support the orphanage and its children.

Our Rice Bowl contribution made us eligible this year to become a member parish of the Haiti Outreach Mission. All Saints will have a representative on the board and we will be a full participant in decision-making and planning (and fundraising!) for the mission. All of us want to return on next year's trip. If anyone is interested in joining us, please talk to one of the team about the experience. It is primarily a medical mission, so sometimes it is hard to find roles for everyone. But God has a way of providing the people who need to go on each trip.

Keep the children of Mirebalais in your prayers this week. They need so much. What we did seemed very small in some ways. But it was so much, much more than they would have gotten otherwise. They got toothbrushes. They got vitamins. They got some basic, really basic medical attention. But they also got to see that people from another country, another language, another culture, care about them and their future.


We met Jesus in these people. We hope that they also met Jesus in us.
+ Pere Kit

Wednesday in Haiti

It's another steamy day in Haiti. The line was not so long in front of the clinic today. But there were many children to see -- Nancy was busy. There was an old man in a wheel chair who prayed with me. He was all alone in the world. His wife is dead; his daughters are dead. He lives alone, and a friend pushes him around and the friend's wife cooks for him. He had fallen from a tree while cutting firewood and broke his back. He has some limited mobility, but needs surgery to become mobile again. Of course, the surgery is only in Port au Prince or the US, and is very expensive. I watched him get pushed down the bumpy, rocky, lumpy street, and I could only imagine the pain he suffers. The hard part of the trip is encountering people like this who have such little hope and we can do so little for them.

This afternoon, we are going to look at more Episcopal church plants in the hillside. Maybe I'll see another burro! This evening, the teenagers of St. Pierre are putting on a program for us.

Tomorrow is our last day. It seems so strange ... like we've been here forever, and also like we just got here ...

+ Pere Kit

More from Haiti

You should have seen the excitement today when the teachers at St. Pierre School were introduced to the computer lab. Now their students can gain the same global access to the same resources as their First World peers. They were ecstatic. The lab has 11 computers with internet satellite access. If you are old enough, you may remember those days back in the '90s when your childrens' schools got computers and computer labs. The feeling is the same here. The children at St. Pierre will now no longer be only citizens of Haiti; they will be citizens of the world.

The afternoon at the clinic was long and hot. They try to see all the elderly people in the morning, but there were still many elders waiting in the heat when we returned from lunch. Nancy Spates said most of the children she saw were suffering from various effects of hunger and malnutrition. The saddest point for me today was being called into the dental suite to pray with a man who had just been diagnosed with mouth cancer. They will refer him up to Cange, to one of Paul Farmer's clinics, but there is not nearly the same potential for him to be treated here in Haiti.

We all kept busy all afternoon, and you should see your All Saints friends at work! It is quite something. God has truly blessed us by calling us to participate in this work. We hope that we are bringing some of God's blessings to Haiti.

+ Rev. Pere Kit

Live from Haiti!

Greetings from the All Saints component of the Haiti Outreach Mission.

We are here and hard at work, scattered across the different programs of the HOM. First, we have to thank John Mireley and the rest of the tech team who got the internet connection up and running at St. Pierre School today. Marjie and Pam are with the dental team. They went out into the countryside yesterday to a small school, and today they are back in Mirebalais at St. Pierre School. Wendy and Nancy are hard at work in the health clinic. Wendy is on intake and Nancy is in pediatrics. Andrew was doing some construction but they put him to work helping to weigh in patients and take temperatures. Yesterday the clinic treated 386 people. When we got there this morning, the streets were lined with people waiting to be seen.

I have been filling a pastoral role. (They call me Father Kit down here ...) On Sunday, there were two services, one in Mirebalais at St. Pierre (at 6 a.m.!). The other priest on the trip, Chris Yaw of St. David's-Southfield, preached. Pere Jeannot invited me to concelebrate, and I read part of the eucharistic prayer in French. You should be pleased to know that they use the American Book of Common Prayer, in French. However, they add a lot of things into their services around the standard prayers.

That's why when we went up to Las Escobas for the feast day of Holy Spirit parish, where four or five parishes gathered, the service lasted three hours. There was lots of singing by different choirs, and fabulous dancing by children dressed all in white with Holy Spirit paper dove crowns on their heads.

It is hard to describe Haiti in its beauty and its misery. The mountains are completely bare from deforestation, and the marks of massive erosion are everywhere. Most of the illnesses in the clinic are the result of malnutrition and hard work. I have had a healing prayer station in the courtyard each morning. With a translator, we pray together with mothers and children, aged men and women.

Yesterday Father Jeannot took Chris and me up into the hills to see two of his church plants. I will share pictures when I can, but the first church, Epiphany, is a woven grass hut with rough log benches. 120 people cram into this little hut of a church each Sunday to hear a layreader lead morning prayer and preach. They hope to build a real structure someday, so when people come to church, each one brings a rock. There is a large rock pile on the site that will become the walls of the church someday.

The second church, St. Michael's, is like a big picnic shelter. They get 80 people on a Sunday for morning prayer. They also hope to build someday.
Right now, the burro Patrick (who wanted to eat my dress!) wanders in and out at will. But the church in Haiti is growing. Pere Jeannot is a true evangelist and wants to share our church with many people in Haiti.

We are all doing well. Maybe later, each of us will be able to post something on the blog. In the meantime, pray for the mission, and more importantly, pray for Haiti and its people.

+ Rev'd Pere Kit