“TREE OF LIFE”
By Stacy Grove
“It towers more than eight stories high,
Its limbs giving shade,
With leaves that dance in the breeze.
It is a Tree of Life.
This is the tree that saved the lives of many!
With all its strength,
It has restrained
The crumbling floors
Of a seven story building.
Wounded and scarred by the falling debris,
Bowed so much
As it bears the weight of this burden,
This towering tree stands as witness…
To the life of young men
Scarred and burdened by their own life stories,
Transformed to become leaders.
The towering tree stands in witness…
Of faith that is tested,
Of trust,
Of hard work,
Of sweat and tears,
Of determination,
Of boys who become men,
Of those who are deeply rooted in Christ.”
On January 12th when the earthquake violently brought two of our homes down, it also heaved a heavy blow to a gigantic tree next to our beloved St. Joseph’s Home. Though the St. Joseph’s building went down, the deeply-rooted tree remained standing. This tree of life helped save the life of Bill Nathan (25-year-old Haitian Director of STJ). The earthquake catapulted Bill from the seventh floor of St. Joseph’s to the concrete courtyard of the house next door. When Bill looked up from where he fell, he saw a mass of St. Joe’s rooftop rubble ready to fall down upon him, but it never did. The falling roof was held back by a tree. To us, that deeply-rooted angel tree has become a symbol of Emmanuel…God with Us.
A Tree of Life forest has sprung up all around us since the earthquake. The ability to quickly rent two large homes side-by-side to house Wings of Hope children, and the ability to purchase the large house and yard next to St. Joe’s, the same yard that Bill fell onto and that the tree of divine protection grows forth from, are parts of that life-sustaining forest. The tent city that we were able to host on our soccer field at Trinity House is a tree of life providing shelter to 44 homeless families that have become branches on the Trinity House Tree of Life.
Each one of you who has reached out to us is a bountiful tree of life for us.
In March 2010, St. Joseph’s Resurrection Dance Theater completed a dance tour of six states, generating over $150,000 for our rebuilding efforts.
St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church will be expanding the outreach program in Jacmel to include a long-term and short-term volunteer center, while partnering with Haitian Timoun Foundation who has plans for a dental clinic on site at Trinity.
These are exciting, life-giving days for us as we continue forward. The demolition project on both houses will be completed around the end of July. Then will come the joy and financial challenge of reconstruction. It will cost many millions to rebuild those two homes. We are not overwhelmed by this rebuilding task because we are embraced, supported, shaded, nourished and protected by you—human trees of life, deeply rooted in love. Our St. Joseph Family has lost some branches and some leaves, but we continue to reach heavenward, assured that those branches and leaves will grow back and we will be stronger than before.
Continue to lift the country of Haiti in your prayers and especially the leadership of St. Joseph Family Homes.
On January 12th when the earthquake violently brought two of our homes down, it also heaved a heavy blow to a gigantic tree next to our beloved St. Joseph’s Home. Though the St. Joseph’s building went down, the deeply-rooted tree remained standing. This tree of life helped save the life of Bill Nathan (25-year-old Haitian Director of STJ). The earthquake catapulted Bill from the seventh floor of St. Joseph’s to the concrete courtyard of the house next door. When Bill looked up from where he fell, he saw a mass of St. Joe’s rooftop rubble ready to fall down upon him, but it never did. The falling roof was held back by a tree. To us, that deeply-rooted angel tree has become a symbol of Emmanuel…God with Us.
A Tree of Life forest has sprung up all around us since the earthquake. The ability to quickly rent two large homes side-by-side to house Wings of Hope children, and the ability to purchase the large house and yard next to St. Joe’s, the same yard that Bill fell onto and that the tree of divine protection grows forth from, are parts of that life-sustaining forest. The tent city that we were able to host on our soccer field at Trinity House is a tree of life providing shelter to 44 homeless families that have become branches on the Trinity House Tree of Life.
Each one of you who has reached out to us is a bountiful tree of life for us.
In March 2010, St. Joseph’s Resurrection Dance Theater completed a dance tour of six states, generating over $150,000 for our rebuilding efforts.
St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church will be expanding the outreach program in Jacmel to include a long-term and short-term volunteer center, while partnering with Haitian Timoun Foundation who has plans for a dental clinic on site at Trinity.
These are exciting, life-giving days for us as we continue forward. The demolition project on both houses will be completed around the end of July. Then will come the joy and financial challenge of reconstruction. It will cost many millions to rebuild those two homes. We are not overwhelmed by this rebuilding task because we are embraced, supported, shaded, nourished and protected by you—human trees of life, deeply rooted in love. Our St. Joseph Family has lost some branches and some leaves, but we continue to reach heavenward, assured that those branches and leaves will grow back and we will be stronger than before.
Continue to lift the country of Haiti in your prayers and especially the leadership of St. Joseph Family Homes.
Photo by Renee Dietrich
