UPDATE!

Thanks SO MUCH to all who've contributed, the need is now down to $1,000 in the next four days! For the record, the money is not going to be used on extravagant Caribbean vacationing, unless living in a tent and eating beans and rice every day can count as such- the majority of the money will be used for building houses, buying the tents we'll be constructing for the Internationally Displaced People, help at the Medical Clinics, etc. Other things we'll be doing will include working in orphanages, registering people (150,000 people are still unaccounted for), working with food and clothing distribution, etc. We are not looking to help rebuild Haiti, but rather to partner with the community and build a new and stronger foundation, something made of much more than mud and clay.


If you would like to help, feel free to send any sort of donation through:

I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have in Haiti, so please forgive me if I am unable to respond to any communications, and please know I love and will miss you all!
<3Sara

Hands of Hope

As (hopefully) all of you know, on January 12th a massive earthquake rocked Haiti, killing 230,000, leaving an estimated 1,000,000 homeless, displacing even more and ultimately affecting at least 3 million people. I cannot even begin to imagine what life is like for people there, for the newly orphaned and the freshly widowed, for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere who had nothing and now has even less. So often when we hear about these things, the only response we seem capable of is helplessness.
As such, I am so thankful and humbled to say that I have been presented with a unique opportunity to actually go and work with one of the most structured relief efforts currently operating in Haiti right now.... Meaning that in four weeks, less than three months after this catastrophe, I will have the privilege of being with these people as well as their neighbors in the Dominican, partnering with the community and serving them in any way I'm able!
(I am able to do this as part of a DTS (Discipleship Training School) I'm currently doing with YWAM (Youth with A Mission) - an international missions training and sending organization with over 1,000 locations in 150 different countries, whose main purpose is to "Know God and make Him Known." As some of the most `known`characteristics of God are love and His passion for justice, basically YWAMers are all about learning and loving! The first three months are comprised of a lecture phase, which features different speakers from around the world who come in and teach in-depth on various topics, while dually allowing students to become pro-active in the community through volunteering, etc. [this could be anything from mentoring/tutoring at risk youth in a Bootcamp run by the LAPD to raising awareness for Human Trafficking.]. The final two months are spent on "outreach," where we split up into groups of about 10 and go overseas to do our best to administer those characteristics of God we've just learned so much about, such as love and justice, by whatever means most needed, whether building houses or working with victims of genocide or just spending time with the forgotten - loving the unlovable, listening to the voiceless.)


I am SO excited to see what God is doing in Haiti and to join in the efforts already in place.
In order for this to actually happen, though, aside from my own financial contribution, I need to raise some additional funds in the next 3 weeks to help cover both the two and a half months in Haiti/Dominican Republic and the three months in Los Angeles. It's a crazy amount, but God has already made it so clear that I'm supposed to be here and I'm excited for another opportunity to see the impossible become possible. So I would like to humbly request your partnership, either in prayer or through financial contributions. If financially, please feel free to either make out a check to either Youth With A Mission or Sara Owens and mail it to:

Sara Owens C/O YWAM - Winter DTS
11141 Osborne Street,
Lake View Terrace, CA
91342

or you just click the lovely PAYPAL button just down yonder! :)

So, yes! In closing, if you would like to know more or have any questions (or just want to say hey!), please feel free to e-mail me at: of.trees.and.seas@gmail.com. I would love to hear how you're doing and what you're up to, or even if I can help or pray for you in any way (Dear skeptics: I legitimately mean that for every single person who's reading this!)!

Lovelovelove, Your friend/relative/acquaintance/fellow human Sara Danae

For more information:
www.ywam.org
www.ywamla.org
http://www.ywamhaiti.org/

Isaiah 61

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me...
to preach good news to the poor.
..to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
...to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations...

Instead of their shame
my people will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
they will rejoice in their inheritance;
and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,
and everlasting joy will be theirs.

"For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and iniquity.
In my faithfulness I will reward them
and make an everlasting covenant with them."