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Since 1975, People’s Resource Center has been bringing neighbors together to respond to hunger and poverty in DuPage, County, Illinois.

Services that meet people’s basic needs include food pantries that provide more than 7,000 families with 35,000 grocery carts filled with a week’s worth of food including fresh produce, frozen meats and bread.

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Since 1975, People’s Resource Center has been bringing neighbors together to respond to hunger and poverty in DuPage, County, Illinois. PRC offers a variety of services and empowerment programs including an innovative Art program that helps adults and children develop self-esteem and creativity.

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That not only led to the arrests of the students, but also led to the KKK burning a cross on the college lawn. Ed King kept the cross and gave it to the United Methodist Church who were in the process of trying to desegregate the denomination nationally. So, this cross became the symbol for the desegregation of the United Methodist Church in the 1960’s.

Eventually, the cross was taken to Pittsburgh at the general conference and walked around the conference hall.  It became a rallying point. Later, the cross was given to Gerald Forshe, a pastor in Chicago, who brought home.  He took it to Jack Kearney who was a very well regarded sculptor in town.

Kearney took that charred wooden cross, encased it in a kind of skin of metal, so that it wouldnt disintegrate. On it, he placed the obviously African American, distressed, truncated Christ. And so Jerry has had this sculpture for over 40 years in his own possession.

But when Jerry was very ill last spring he wanted to make sure that First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple received it and put on public display. The cross is a gift to the church that we can make available to people who visit and want to know the story. This cross not only referrers back to 1963, but it, holds a great deal of power for us today.

This summer, First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple had a guest who came to worship. He was a retired university administrator from Mississippi. He saw the figure on the cross and immediately said, “That is James Chaney.” James Chaney was one of the three young men who were murdered as they tried to register voters in Mississippi in 1963.  Chaney was the only African American among the three. And so at least for that person, he saw in this figure, that historical moment.

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HAPI Executive Director, Valerie Mossman-Celestin and my friend, photo journalist, Paul Jeffrey asked me to help with this project. The footage will be woven into a short documentary. “Let’s Hear it from the Girls” (working title) will connect the voice of girls in a rural Haitian community to touch us with stories, music and dance that convey the joys and challenges of growing up female in Haiti. The film will also capture the subtle messages of hope emerging from a dream that the community recognize the value and equality of girls and women.

We will be working in Mizak, a mountainous, rural section of La Vallee in South-East Haiti, 80 km south of Port-au-Prince and 12 km west of Jacmel. The total population is just over 35,000. Seventy percent are peasants living under the poverty level of less than $1 US per day, and 63% of the population is under the age of 18. There are no jobs available, no electricity, no telecommunication system, no plumbing, and no water filtration. The majority of households have no measurable income and they rely on system of barter and trade.

HAPI plans to make this DVD available as a teaching resource to folks in the United Methodist Church. The project is funded in part through a grant from the United Methodist Women’s organization.

Look for more in the coming days and weeks!

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Zac and Julie Stutler work with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The Stutler’s and another husband/wife team, Jeff and Deborah Climie, launched a new congregation in this upscale resort community called Alianza. While recording footage for a project with the Alliance Women Ministries, I was able to put this video together for them.

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Your prayers for those affected and for myself as I travel are greatly appreciated! After you pray, support Haiti relief.

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