West Palm Beach Homeless Outreach Ministry Organization, Art and Compassion Inc, http://www.hopeandpromise.org and BLESS A CHILD FOUNDATION, in association with local partner organizations, are spearheading a mission trip Friday, January 29, 2010 to rescue and gather orphans who are in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as well as to set up a distribution center to help deliver food and supplies to those relief has not yet reached.
The immediate need for orphan-rescue is a top priority for Jean Alexandre and Pastor Marvin. It is critical they gather the children(ages 3-14) from the BLESS A CHILD FOUNDATION orphanage that is now destroyed and those new orphans in the streets before they incur preventable abuse, trafficking or unauthorized departure or violence.
While the need is long-term and extensive, supplies being requested to set up a relief center include:
FOR FIELD KITCHEN- canopies, tables(6-ft), generators, generated-light, tents (20×40), field kitchen, 6-burner stove(s), ovens, coolers, barricade fence, propane gas, commercial or large steam tables, commercial(large) pots & pans, large cooking/serving utensils, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, plastic roll table cover, disposable food containers, plastic eating utensils, disposable cups, paper towels, latex gloves, apron, sanitizer, disinfectant, disposable wash cloths, portable air-conditioning units, portable shower, portable toilet, garbage can, garbage liners, ice machine, buckets, mops, push-brooms, fly-tape, citronella candles, bug zappers, torches and lighting fluid, grill lighters, 10 x10 pop-up canopy.
TRANSPORTATION & DELIVERY: Golf-Cart, (John Deere or Kawasaki Mule-type), whistles, two-way radios
Art and Compassion has heeded to the local needs of the homeless, working poor and the hurting with feed kitchens, relief distribution, ministry support, Hurricane and disaster Relief, and internationally with youth outreach in Haiti, Cuba and neighboring countries. Your support of this cooperative life-saving mission is appreciated and greatly needed.
Orphan Rescue Relief in Haiti
“Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone.” John 8:11
In one way or the other, most of us have all been there. We chose, then we fall. We come short of being whom we envision ourselves as being. We make mistakes, then hopefully we regain composure and move on.
When this happens, all we can do is accept, reflect, commit, ask for pardon, forgive ourselves and pray that we learn from our mistakes. Once the damage is done, we cannot go back and change it; all we can do is move forward and hope that through trust, love, integrity and faith in ourselves, we can regain part of what we lost or gain even more than what we ever thought we had.
It is challenging when we are forced to witness a public figure’s personal demise and acknowledge that no human being is safe from temptations, misjudgements and mistakes. All of us fall short of being the best person we can be and all of us make mistakes that cost us much of what sometimes has taken us ages to erect.
Along the way we betray others and ourselves. Through some of our choices and actions, past and present, we represent something or someone that does not magnify who we truly are. Sometimes we fall and sometimes we rise.
It is only through our willingness to stand in authenticity in face of ourselves, our core essence and our abilities to assume responsibility for our actions, that we can rise above the challenge. Sometimes the situation may appear worse than it is, as it happens when we cannot manage our own emotional being and blame others or even victimize ourselves for our own transgression or choice.
As unfortunate as this is, it is a situation that requires that each individual take a stand for their own person, their own sense of integrity, morals, character and resolve. No one can force another to choose one way or the other, most especially, when the driving force causing the choice is a force within us that requires self control, wisdom, sacrifice, humility, selflessness and above all, a willing desire for righteousness that is directed by a force much greater than the one we think we own.
Indeed I am referring to the inner force of God’s power to guide our steps and to help us in times of need, strain and struggle. I AM talking about the force of God being within our souls to help us overcome the challenges and “carrots” placed before our path to get to where we think we need to be. None of us are immune from falling. The more we stand to do right, the more we are tried.
Within the natural world there is a force that seeks balance. Whichever side we chose to live our lives in, that force will direct the choices we create.
Being good or successful in one area of life, does not guarantee goodness and integrity in all other aspects. Oftentimes we rob those we love from our attention and time because of our commitments and other “priorities.” In trying to develop and create, we compromise values, beliefs and the vision we hold for our lives.
Unfortunately, we can use somebody else’s story to reflect on our own personal performance.
- Bottom line, we all have power of “choice” when choosing
- When we choose, we need to be in agreement with the “potential” consequence and results of our choice
- We must be willing to stand up for the choices we make and confront the consequence when it happens
- We must be willing to loose what we are trading in its place
- We must be true to the core that lines the fiber of our being
- “A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero dies only once”
- Ask the right questions regarding the end result. Worst-case scenario “can we live with the results of that choice?” If not, walk away fast or avoid the situation in the first place!
- Commit to a higher force for guidance, protection and direction
- Ask in prayer for courage, stamina, discernment and clarity
- Seek God’s guidance and deliverance for our flesh is weak and our spirit gets confused
In the words of Tony Robbins – Success is the result of good judgement, good judgement is a result of experience, experience is a result of bad judgement! May we learn from our ‘Transgressions” and may God guide our steps along the way for we only have one life to live and everyday to make ammends.
Have you ever wondered what turning a dream into reality feels like?
I used to think the manifestation of a dream would take place similarly to the Disney World and Magic Kingdom Dream. The dream comes alive when the lights sparkle, the fireworks splash out against the open sky and everyone around you is uuuhhhing and ahhwing, smiling and love abounds all around!
I always thought the dream would take place as one event, one grand explosion of effort, commitment, sacrifice, conviction, passion, consistency and belief, brought into one-single-moment of personal triumph and recognition…kind of like when expedition forces climb Mt. Everest against all odds and challenges, and after much preparation and effort reach the summit-one-individual-at-a-time!
Well, I dreamed this is how it would be when that soul-gnawing dream inside me would actually become real. I imagined my own world would stop from sheer emotion and achievement.
After all that soul-wrenching challenge to overcome self-doubt and uncertainty in order to pursue the realization of making a difference, I now see that fear and doubt created a mystery that permeated my purpose with an illusion that made my heat-felt dream appear unatainable, unreachable!
What a game we play with ourselves!!! Now I see why dreams seem so distant, almost impossible and improbable for us all. We make dreams out to be some impossible feat, fill ourselves with fear, doubt, inequity, lack and sprinkle all the labels we’ve heard, the criticisms we’ve had to endure and succumb to, laddle all the challenges we’ve had to combat, then we finally give up on the dream and walk away in defeat thinking we were never good enough to even believe…what a story we tell ourselves.
As I am literally stepping into my dream, I see a space of duality inside my mind in order to recognize and validate that which I am creating. On the surface what I most focus on is what I need to do to realize my vision, I see the stuff that needs to take place, the people I need to contact, the things yet to be done. In the midst of the worry, I forget my dream is taking shape!!! I forget to enjoy the journey, to breath back, to let go.
Often I remind myself of my WHY. I remind myself of my ultimate purpose, of what really matters in the greater scheme of my mission. Ultimately what wins is knowing I myself recognize how I can make a difference in the lives of young people. I also know turning a dream into reality is not a one-day, one-fact thing. It is a process that shapes an entity over time. A process that shapes an individual into becoming who they envisioned themselves as being…
Outside of the challenges, it is too exciting! It’s exciting because I need to look forward in order to see where I am today. I need to envision what’s going to take place when 100 youth of at-risk backgrounds come together and are inspired, moved and empowered to see renewed possibilities for their life. I imagine when NPO Leaders will feel there are people who truly care to help them make a change in the lives of youth, when a community can look at change taking place from within. When a mother who thought change could not happen, now gets a glimpse of hope that her child will have a chance at life in a renewed and personnaly empowered way. When beliefs carried by me, support others in a way that will inspire them to recognize their own true potential knowing there is a higher force at play guiding and aligning their path and life.
This is why we must learn to focus on the end result. Nothing bears greater incentive than seeing what can be with the work and resolve one commits to carrying forth.
May God grant us the power to love and empower youth for today and tomorrow. They are our source of life and our source of hope for the world.
When you think they don’t care
Imagine you believe in developing some great creation for your life. ..
Imagine you believe you have something that can make a difference in the world, or at least in your own life. What happens when those you love, most specially your family, do not appear to understand or even care what you have going on?
What happens when they do not recognize your efforts or see that what you are doing really matters? How do you manage and interpret your thoughts, your emotions and your feelings when those you love fail to see life from your same perspective? How do you gain understanding from their lack of seeing the world as you see it?
Is it suddenly a personal rejection?
Do you allow the sting of pain to stop you on your tracks?
Does it discourage you efforts from continuing, or are you even more encouraged to keep on???
How you handle this level of disconnect is what builds the backbone of courage, the foundation of commitment, the walls of perseverence and the roof of belief in your own unique purpose.
A sage man said “Love your family, chose your friends.” Often those we love carry with them the lessons we need to acquire in order to pursue our destiny’s path and to uncover that which will only give us a deeper sense of being and resolve.
There is a gift in committing to not giving up despite the deterrent, the slip-ups, the constraints and insurgencies that appear in the path to our awakening.
Life is available to all, but not all choose to live life! Not everyone uses the strength within to conquer self, to override frustration and to persevere in the face of doubt, fear and uncertainty.
You have a choice for action when they don’t seem to care or actually tell you that “THEY DONT’.”
Belief is the most powerful tool to develop in the face of those who do not believe in you. Let change begin with you first.
My Journey of Believing in SELF
Earthlings, (I borrow this title from R2W Partners-on-a-Mission - Here II Here!)
The journey is not easy. When we stand to believe in ourselves or in our purpose, there are always contradictions standing in the way, vying to remove one’s newly-found or self-encouraged confidence. Almost saying “who do you think you are! and what makes you think you can?”
Like I said, it has not been easy, but it is true. I am standing forth with my conviction to create change and bring about social reform and spiritual consciousness for the purpose of helping youth find their way.
So many people around the world want to help youth, yet do not know how. We all long to be a difference maker, yet we are afraid. Fortunately, God commissioned this soul to bridge a way. A bridge that would allow us all to cross from where we are to where we need to go…for the sake of the children alive today and coming tomorrow.
From early on, God’s commissioned my soul to figure out a way, to give into his vision, to persevere and to sacrifice ego for the purpose of cleansing self with the purpose to ”GET” the message.
It has not been easy.
The ego has been bruised, crushed, tempted, undermined willingly and sacrificially in order to allow God’s goodness to pierce through and reveal the hidden makings of the self; that unique essence of spirituality that lies within all of us.
Where are we today? Today there is an opportunity to bring to light a group of individuals, convicted within themselves to share the goodness they have, the insight they’ve uncovered and their uniquely created mission in the world, to bring about collective change and transformation. They are the CORE Team Partners I have linked with to bring about the Rise 2Win 4 OUR YOUth America; A Grass roots Strategy for 21st Century Leadership Launch! Within them we have individuals who believed in their own unique selves long enough to create the next frontier.
LABELS; use them to your benefit
As a coach, I do not believe in labels.
As a quadrilingual communicator, I discovered that language is a medium of exchange that allows individuals to coordinate understanding according to an arrangement of letters, symbols and graphics, – nothing more.
With labels, we have been effectively conditioned to attribute meaning to a person or a condition according to the letters describing their state of being. We have socially coined ”terms” in order to categorize a person’s spirit and essence without right.
We have learned to side with particular objectives, findings, opinions, hypothesis, prejudices and injustices when a particular word (label) is used and applied to another human being.
We have also learned to be programmed according to somebody else’s point of view and angenda. He or she that screams the loudest (often associated with power and financial resource) often bears dominion and accepted authority over the diagnosis and person being labeled.
Once the label is stated, the person or condition is marked as done, or so it seems.
How are we as regular people, ordinary individuals without hidden motivations and self-serving agendas, empowered when we don’t allow LABELS to dominate our reasoning ability and sense of self?
What makes the difference when we use labels simply as a means for deciphering evidence, clarifying data and raising awareness to a possible disfunction or malaise?
How do we rise above circumstance and challenge when we use a label and see the label-giver as a vehicle of communication for us to borrow from in order to figure out the issue?
How does this awareness allow people such as parents of a child who is diagnosed as ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder, to wait before accepting the curse as wholehearted truth that will forever plague the child in question?
You need to be the judge yourself.
In general, people tend to take the road of least resistance.
When it comes to accepting things as they are, more than less, take someone elses’ word as fact instead of doing “due diligence.” It is true, no one wants to be taken for a fool, and no one wants to appear a fool by not listening to reason, most especially when it comes from an apparent, official “source” in the matter. Nonetheless, we have to do the work in order to find a resolution to whatever we are facing.
Today all evidence is clear. We can no longer afford to give up our right to reason and to be practical when it comes to the quality of life and life choices we are living. Evidence around our country and world suggest many leaders and agents of governance, from financial institutions and banking, to healthcare and social reform, are not performing with integrity in their chosen or elected role. Their objectionable findings are not objectionable at all.
As people subjected to their guidance, we cannot be led solely on our assumption they are behaving with honorable ethical principles or serving with altruistic intention for the benefit of all.
What is more practical, is for us to understand we have the leverage ability to “start -off” where they brought us to. With free education available and technology today, we can find a practical answer or explanation for almost anything we seek. We are equally, privy to the pro and contra arguments, and solution-driven resources and alternatives to whatever we are searching for.
With will and power of choice, we are able to chart out a course that will support our intention and direction. All of this at our fingertips!
In conclusion, what I say is do not allow labels to steal your spirit and rob you of your ability to heal, to find a solution, to believe in yourself or others, and to reach your possibilities for your life. Stand strong and use the situation you are facing as a clue to something greater that lies hidden behind the coined “term.” Do not let anyone or anything mark your life, your children, your loved ones and who you yourself feel you are.
We are much bigger than any three, four or 10-15 letter word that can only describe what is perceived as possible symptoms and not the root cause. The time has come for us to rise to the potential we have to be practical and wise in God’s world. We’ve been given the resources to act. Take action!
You have to wonder why something is of value to you.
You have to wonder what lies behind what you believe in, fight for, respect, talk about, are inspired by and are willing to work for.
In my life, I never became aware of these thoughts until recently. After years of self-development and spiritual awakening, I finally came to realizing that I am passionate about protecting youth because I have always lived from that youthful spirit within. In the process, I have felt the struggle and pain created by the beliefs, values, opinions, words, and choices of those closest to me. To the day, I still hold those feelings near me, and I witness adults hurting youth everyday.
While the world says “we should all smile like a child,” and ‘live life from a child’s point of view,” nothing in this world supports the safety and nurturing that children need to have in order to believe in themselves. Irrespective of what anyone says, adults have become self-centered, egocentric, corrupt, evil, manipulative and self-serving. The trust issue is a factor that now undermines the safety of a child in every situation. And those of us who care, must beware of this reality.
Parents and caretakers who are on the right path to serving and caring for their children cannot fully trust that everything around a child’s life; his peergroup, the parents of his peers, the school and its teachers, the clergy, the doctors, the nurses, the caretakers and babysitters, family members, the products purchased, medicine given, food and water are safe and legitimately supporting the best interest and wellness of the child.
Peple say knowledge is power and that used to be the case before we realized a more deliberate awakening. Today’s reality mandates we use knowledge to figure out an action plan and take steps to making a difference for the lives of our youth. People can no longer sit back and allow programming to take common sense away.
Parents need to get informed and stay on track with changes and opportunities. What and who says what is being introduced is correct and safe for your child to be a part of? Who does the change benefit, who is making money as a result of the change or the introduction. When a marketer adverstises a product that will supposedly cure, eliminate, support, nurture a child, what is the bottom line and what will the impact be on the health and wellness of the child.
Look for example at a Clorox Bleach Commercial on TV. It advertises moms should clean the child’s bottles and tips in bleach! Ask any wellness expert not pushing conventional drugs and pharmaceuticals about the effects of bleach on the skin (the largest organ that readily absorbs every chemical introduced), the tissues, the cells, the nasal passages, the eyes. Never mind that a baby will be directly injesting residues of bleach with their feeding! I know I myself cannot even smell bleach as I immediately develop a skin rash and swelling around my eyelids and face. Imagine what it does to a child who is just developing?
What we all need to do is become empowered through becoming aware. Parents, grandmothers and caretakers, we need to step up for our kids. Nothing is more important than ensuring we do our part as adults to ensure our youth have a clear path to developing their potential; emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. Today we have been given and being fed many options that create confusion and false beliefs. It is time we take action and resolve to do more than what we have done up to now.
Our youth need us and this is why youth matter so much to me.
On the eve of Art and Compassion Inc’s Ministry, Outreach Trip to minister youth in Cuba, I post this article I found and add a video that will shock,disgust and alter you, like it did me. Most especially if you have children and care for those who are abused because of their weakness and social conditioning. (Have it translated if you don’t understand Spanish).
SEX TOURISM AND CHILD PROSTITUTION IN CUBA Arch Kielly, LtCol, USAF, Retired
{posted from: http://tinyurl.com/hiltonhotelsban}
Communist Cuba is attempting to right its economic problems by permitting the sexual trade of its children for badly needed monetary resources.
A generation of young people may have been invested to make Cuba’s tourism more appealing to foreign tourists looking for more than beautiful beaches and soft trade breezes.
Fidel Castro maintains his grip on the Cuban people as long as Cuba is able to produce funds to keep his regime afloat. Take away tourism dollars and Castro may self destruct and free a generation of Cuba’s children from sexual exploitation.
Tourism is Cuba’s most important moneymaker, generating almost $2 billion last year. In Spain alone, twenty flights leave for Havana every week, carrying to the Caribbean island a yearly total of some 200,000 single male tourists, all in search of cut-price sex. (Tunku Varadarajan, “Time-bomb that Flies in From Havana,” The Times, July 10, 1996. Lexis-Nexis document.)
Most tourists come from Canada, Spain and Italy. Tourism has recently replaced sugar as the single most important export in the economy. Much of this tourism, however, centers on travel for sex. Foreign tour companies use code words such as “Cuba Amor” to advertise package tours. At least one Spanish travel company offers a catalogue of Cuban women who would serve as companions during a tourist’s stay. (Adams, p. 1A).
By 1995 the Italian travel magazine Viaggiare recognized Cuba as the “paradise of sexual tourism,” awarding it five stars for its “general erotic level.” According to the magazine, Cuba beat out such competitors as Brazil and Thailand. (Adams, p. 1A; Dalia Acosta, Culture Tourism: Cuba Brushes up its Tourist Image, Interpress Service, Sept. 19, 1997. Lexis-Nexis).
Some reports suggest girls will sell sex acts for less than $10 and sometimes for as little as $3. Inexperienced women and girls can be persuaded and/or tricked into spending a whole night with a client for the cost of a meal, a few drinks or small gift. “Habitual sex tourists state that it costs them less to spend two weeks indulging themselves in Cuba than it does in other centers of sex tourism, such as the Philippines and Thailand. (O’Connell Davidson, p.41).
Sex tourism is often a means to satisfy very specific sexual preferences. Many men choose to travel to particular destinations because they know that it is possible to pursue their tastes more cheaply and safely. Pedophiles are an obvious example of this type of sex tourist, but more common are men who have a preference for experiencing multiple, anonymous sexual encounters with teenagers and women in their early 20s.
Sexual access to girls between the ages of 14 and 16 is not difficult to attain, and girls between the ages of 16 and 18 are very accessible. More disturbing still, such tourists are paying older Cuban women and men, often prostitutes themselves, to procure 14 and 15-year old boys and girls for them.
Sex tourists are also frequently drawn to Cuba because of the prospect of exotic encounters that contain a racial component. This is especially the case for those consumers who find it difficult to satisfy racialized fantasies at home.
As is the case elsewhere in Latin America, sex tourists view Cuban women as caliente–hot. In addition Davidson reports than many sex tourists are either openly racist and/or fascinated with Black sexuality, which they imagine to be untamed and uninhibited. (O’Connell Davidson, p. 46) Interestingly, the government of Cuba uses racial stereotypes “showcasing ‘traditional’ Afro-Cuban religious rituals and art, ‘traditional’ Afro-Cuban music, and of course, Afro-Cuban women (Fusco, p. 67). in conjunction with other images of Cuba as tropical, exotic and full of scantily clad native women.
These same stereotypes carry over to the sex tourism industry and feed into the sexual fantasies of the male tourist. As Davidson notes, many more jineteras are Afro-Cuban as opposed to mixed race or white. (O’Connell Davidson, p. 45. See also Fusco, p. 64).
The explosive growth of sex tourism in Cuba in the 1990s has coincided with the island becoming a major destination for international tourists. The Cuban government began to emphasize foreign tourism as a development tool in the 1980s, in part as a response to a stagnant economy. (Espino, p. 153; 158). Said one foreign diplomat of the boom in prostitution, “the decline and fall of Cuba’s economy and the turn to attracting foreigners has made it inevitable. The only way for most of these kids to survive is to sell themselves. (Freed, p 1).
The Fourth Party Congress in 1991 declared tourism to be “an important source of revenue for economic development. (Quoted in Espino, p. 147). The government has, particularly through government agency INTUR and state-run corporations Cubanacán and Gaviota, built up tourism infrastructure and welcomed foreign investment through joint ventures in hotels. It has also aggressively marketed Cuba as a tourist destination abroad, especially in Europe and Canada. To at least some degree the government has used sexuality to promote tourism.
The government has been aware of the explosion of sex tourism for some time and officially has distinguished prostitution under socialism from that of earlier periods: “this prostitution was different from that prostitution: that prostitution was what women did to buy food for their starving infants; this prostitution reflected a malaise born of boredom and frustration rather than economic desperation. (Gordon, p. 20).
Reflecting the official line, Fidel Castro remarked in 1993 that thanks to socialism Cuban girls must make the cleanest and best-educated prostitutes in the world. (Thomas Von Mouillard, Sex Tourism Arrives in Cuba, The Ottawa Citizen, March 13, 1993, p. K5. (Lexis-Nexis); Adams, p. A1) Castro said in 1992 in a speech to the Cuban National Assembly: “There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist. Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily, and without any need for it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we in the country with the lowest numbers of AIDS cases… Therefore, there is truly no prostitution healthier that Cuba’s. He also said in 1992 that: “Cuban women become jineteras (prostitutes) because they like sex.”
Cuba, which traditionally has had one of the world’s lowest levels of positive HIV cases, has seen an increase there and in other sexually transmitted diseases. (Adams, p. 1A). The number of international tourist arrivals to Cuba has continued to rise. The Cuban economy, while recovering somewhat compared to the early and mid-1990s, is still struggling and most ordinary Cubans continue to scramble for scarce dollars. With no new large-scale crackdowns having taken place, thousands of sex workers continue to work openly at Varadero, Havana, and other tourist centers on the island.
The New Republic, June 2000 claimed, “The government referred to the women as “promoters of tourism.” Travel Intelligence, AA Gil 2001 reported that “The sex, of course, is what most of the tourist come to Havana for. Have no doubts about this. They’re not here to show solidarity with 40 years of continuous revolution, or to study architecture, and they certainly aren’t for the food”. Received on Wed Feb 07 2007 – 23:35:36 PST
If you would like to support Art and Compassion Inc’s Ministry, whether in Cuba with Youth 4Christ or in West Palm Beach with serving the homeless plague of drug and alcohol abuse, sexual addiction, psychosomatic issues, and other life controlling issues, please go to www.hopeandpromise.org or call 561-683-0707. The ministry is in need of a wharehouse/office space, supplies, art and sports equipment, a truck and/or van, and cash. You can be sure your donation will get to those who need it in the name of Jesus Christ.
Women of Worth Creating Change
We learn through the experiences of others. Through our own lives, we gain insight into how we can lend a hand to guide and inspire others.
It has taken me 41 years to recognize my own self worth and to outwardly manifest that awakening in a way that supports who I know I am. For so long I wondered and put myself at a spiritual and moral disadvantage trying to figure it out, to feel significant and be appreciated and loved. It is now a privilege to share this magnificent insight with you. Through this blog, I urge you allow yourself the freedom to use your story to do the same.
As I now see evidence in all areas of my life, every experience lived has indeed lent itself to helping me grow and to define what I stand for. I see clues of the past revealed in circumstances of the present. As I see it, to better serve others we must first being by being in integrity with ourselves and in authenticity with our creator. The painful challenge is worth the sacrifice.
With an international and multicultural community making this globe a more reachable place, we are being called to share our experiences and stories so that others will learn and possibly be guided to follow a clearer and more accessible path to their own purpose-driven lives.
I hope you find this blog an opportune platform from which to share yourself and, in the process, inspire others to reach for their own awareness of the worth within themselves.
