The Merry Monk

Every time I eat a meal or enjoy a luxury like a venti soy chai latte at Starbucks, I think of all the people suffering in Haiti. I saw a story last night (while wolfing down a bowl of Life cereal) about how they don’t know what to do with all the bags of amputated limbs, not to mention the dead bodies. They’re amputating kid’s legs with Black and Decker power tools and wheeling the children off in dirty wheelbarrows.

I can’t take it anymore! I can’t watch what’s going on in the aftermath of that earthquake without either becoming calloused to the suffering, or doing more than sending a few bucks to the Red Cross. So I’ve decided to do more (short of inviting Haitians to live in my house…I’m not that holy…yet).

I am going to undertake a fast for the 40 days of Lent to raise money for relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti through Tony Campolo’s organization, EAPE. Will you sponsor my fast?

Here’s the skinny on the fast (Get it? Skinny!):

- I pledge to consume only liquids (water, whey protein, fruit & vegetable juice) for 40 days
- You pledge an amount of money per day I can make it ($1 / day yields $40)
- Consider joining me in the fast and solicit sponsors of your own
- 100% of the money goes to EAPE

Let me know how much you’re in for in the comments of this post. During the 40 days I’ll post updates to the blog in an effort to keep attention on the situation in Haiti. I will also attempt to raise awareness of the need for world leaders to cancel Haiti’s $1 billion debt in order to give the country a real chance to recover.

Check out my recent MonkCast on Haiti and hear the genesis of this idea. Let’s call it the “Help Haiti Fast”.

Haiti, may God bless the Hell out of you.

Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.

- Isaiah 58:6-10

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