1,392 Miles...

1,392 miles. That's all that separates the suffering happening in Haiti from my home in Knoxville, TN.

One of our pastors who hasn't left his compound in 3 years due to threats against his life. 81 of our kids that live daily in earshot of crackling gunfire. The same 81 kids that haven't seen familiar faces, outside of our local staff and social workers, to visit them in 2+ years. Our trusted security who share videos with us of them in the back of dark trucks as they prepare for war just on the other side of the armor. They are the guys that wake up from "sleep" filled with far different dreams and a much less comfortable pillow and bed as mine to carry the weight of physical battle everyday. Our Hope Medical Center that gangs march around with guns and catch cars on fire.

1,392 miles from it all.

Yet, the heartbreak is so close that it runs chill bumps on my skin and brings tears to my eyes. Feeling helpless is so close that it's hard take even a step or speak a word of it.

How is it that they share the same sky as me?
How is it that the silence here is chaos there?
How is it that smoke and fire fill streets there when privilege and distraction fills ours?
How is it that people are suffering and crying out for help and people here can't hear or see it?

How is it that the 1.30 hour flight over the sea is all that separates that world from mine?

Pray for Haiti. Pray that the silence and the inaction would change. Pray that the echo of change would be so loud that Heaven would make its way on the Earth we love as Haiti.

-Ashley Petress
Founder. Knoxville, TN