September 2015 Free Resources

God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach (Book), and “Remember the Poor: God, the Poor, and Generous Justice” (Audio CD) by Dr. Joseph.

For the month of September, 2015, Hope for Today Outreach is giving away  two free resources: Dr. Joseph’s new book:God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach,  and the audio CD: “Remember the Poor: God, the Poor, and Generous Justice” by Dr. Joseph.   Request your free copy today! 

1. God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach (Book)

Book Description

God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach provides an outline of the philosophy of Hope for Today Outreach and the organization’s work in Haiti among the poor and the needy. Based on biblical principles and theological insights, it articulates a forceful argument for engaging in Christian mission and social outreach in our communities and beyond our geographical borders in overseas—with the goal to empower individuals to reach their full potential and to contribute to their social and spiritual development. More particularly, God Loves Haiti makes a strong statement about the biblical mandate to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10), clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, and care for the oppressed, the sick, homeless, widow, elderly, the orphan, etc.

The book is based on five biblical principles and imperatives that reflect God’s character and active participation in the human drama, and the overarching liberative message of the Bible: (1) God’s righteousness and heart for justice, (2) care for the hungry and afflicted is a public demonstration of living out the justice of God, (3) Jesus’s clarion call to individual Christians, churches, Christian organizations and leaders to do the work of social outreach and justice, (4) care for the poor is a fundamental Christian practice and a public demonstration of the love of Christ, and (5) the imperative of putting faith in action.

Faith-based organizations and humanitarian groups will find this little book helpful as it provides a concise overview of the history, religion, culture, the health and economic conditions of the Haitian people, as well as Haitian migration to the United States. The book also includes selected historical landmarks that would appeal to first-time visitors to Haiti. An appendix of recommended readings is included to inform interested and curious readers about Haitian history, culture, society, politics, religion, women and human rights issues, and health and development concerns.

The love and glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ is the vehicle that motivates us to “remember the poor,” show acts of kindness and compassion, and to walk in solidarity with the hungry, the oppressed, and the disheartened. We help these individuals realize that they are created in God’s image and that they matter to God. By restoring their self-worth and human dignity, Hope for Today Outreach is committed to fostering a life of sustaining hope and holistic development.

2. “Remember the Poor: God, the Poor, and Generous Justice” (Audio CD)

Product Detail

*To request your free book or audio CD, simply send us an email message @  customers@hopefortodayoutreach.org or call us: (239) 349-4981.

We apologize for the inconvenience that at the moment, Hope for Today Outreach does not ship items to international addresses.

* Those pictures were taken in my office library before my presentation.

Hello friends: I am writing this note to you to solicit your assistance. I  partner with a Christian organization called “Hope for Today Outreach” (HTO). The organization serves and empower the poor and the needy in Haiti. Currently, we are seeking a way to provide school supplies and shoes to underprivileged  students and families in Haiti for the next academic school year, 2015-2016. HTO is sending a team to  Haiti in August to bring school supplies to these children and their families.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

Basically, there are three ways to RESPOND to this URGENT request:

1. When you purchase a copy of my new book, “God loves Haiti” (2015), you will help support the social works of Hope for Today Outreach​ (HTO) in Haiti among the poor and the needy. Our goal is to sell 500 copies by the end of July so we can buy the items listed below for these undeserved families and poor children. All proceeds from the book go directly to HTO.  To purchase the book, click on the link below:

God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach

2. You can make a donation by clicking on the support tab on Hope for Today Outreach website.

3. You can provide any item on the list below:

SCHOOL SUPPLIES LIST FOR

UNDERPRIVILEGED HAITIAN STUDENTS AND FAMILIES

(June-July 2015)

• Backpacks
• socks
• tennis shoes (all sizes)
• pencils and pens (blue or black)
• crayons
• colored pencils
• notebooks
• composition book
• Folders (3 pockets)
• Glue or Glue sticks
• erasers
• rulers
• pencil sharpeners, etc.

Mailing Location

Hope for Today Outreach (HTO)
P.O. Box 7353
Port Saint Lucie, FL 34985

phone: (239) 349-4981

email: hopefortodayoutreach@gmail.com

* Any contribution you make will change a student’s future and enhance his/her education in Haiti.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity!

My Review of Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography (The University of North Carolina Press, 2012) by Randal Maurice Jelks

Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography by Randal Maurice Jelks (review)
Celucien L. Joseph
From: American Studies
Volume 53, Number 4, 2014
pp. 121-123 | 10.1353/ams.2014.0161
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

“In this important work, historian Randal Maurice Jelks provides a chronological and intimate account of the person, life, and writings of Benjamin Elijah Mays up until the publication of Mays’s autobiography, Born to Rebel, in 1971. Jelks intelligently investigates the foundations and origins of May’s ideas and worldview. He establishes the connection between Mays’s contributions to the Civil Rights movement and his embrace of Prophetic Christianity and Progressive Protestant Theology, and Ghandi’s nonviolent philosophy and practice and his commitment to peacemaking and racial unity through nonviolent tactics and strategies. These ideas, especially Prophetic Christianity, according to the author, had played a central role in Mays’s activist life to challenge America’s racism, inequality, and racial segregation.
Jelks’s Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography is one of the significant studies on the theologian, activist, and the pioneer of the Civil Rights movement Benjamin Elijah Mays (1894-1984). The author presents Benjamin Elijah Mays as a public servant, an engaging public intellectual-activist and cultural critic, an educator, a theologian, and most importantly the pioneer of the civil rights movement. Yet, Jelks highlights the interconnections between these various roles that Mays played and underscores how each one complemented each other in Mays’s unyielding quest for the idea of a just democratic social order and social justice and equality on behalf of the African American population.
More importantly, Jelks attempts to bridge both the historical and intellectual gaps between Martin Luther King Jr. and Benjamin Elijah Mays, whom King had considered as a father. Current scholarship on the Civil Rights Movement have failed to acknowledge and explore this important dimension. Hence, Jelks’s work filled the gaps by accentuating Mays’ significant role in relationship to this historic event in American history and the black experience. Jelks describes the relationship between Mays and King like father and son (200–211). In many and various ways, he establishes the manifold influence of Mays upon the young King as his spiritual mentor, a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, and King as an intellectual-activist. Jelks remarks, “Mays, as King testified, had been significant in his life and influential in his calling to be a Baptist minister. Mays was also one of the clergy members who listened to his trial sermon and ordained him” (201). In addition, he asserts, “When King decided to attend seminary in 1948, at the age of nineteen, it was Mays who had written a key recommendation on King’s behalf…During King’s doctoral studies at Boston University, his academic inquiry focused on the question of God. King paid homage to Mays by writing a dissertation along similar lines as Mays’s dissertation, comparing the concepts of God in the respective theologies of Edgar Sheffield Brightman and Henry Wieman” (201).
Furthermore, Jelks has brilliantly analyzed the close relationship between Mays’s religious life—his theological training in Liberal theology and Christian progressivism, political theology, and the influence of the Social Gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch at Bates College and then the University of Chicago—and his secular vocation and vision. For the author, Mays was profoundly influenced by “the faith of his mother” (42), which served as a driven force in his understanding of Christian activism and responsibility to society as a whole, the idea of “the just society,” his work on race relations and correspondingly, his relentless fight against anti-black racism, white violence, and public segregation in American society. As the author remarks, “Mays’s formative religious ethics held that everyone was equal in the eyes of God … Mays always held on to his mother’s belief about the equality of persons before God as counter to the racist image he received in the wider society” (44). It is good to inform the reader that previous studies on Mays and the Civil Rights Movement have not made this clear connection between Mays’s religious worldview, social activism, and his fight for racial inclusion, black freedom and civil rights in a country that refuses to affirm black humanity and dignity. From this angle, Jelks’s contribution to Civil Rights scholarship as well as African American religion underscores the significance of faith…”
Source: http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/american_studies/v053/53.4.joseph.html

Book Title: God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach by Celucien L. Joseph

Product Detail

Paperback: 92 pages
Publisher: Hope Outreach Productions (June 13, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1514350548
ISBN-13: 978-1514350546
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.2 x 8.5 inches

Book Description

God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach provides an outline of the philosophy of Hope for Today Outreach and the organization’s work in Haiti among the poor and the needy. Based on biblical principles and theological insights, it articulates a forceful argument for engaging in Christian mission and social outreach in our communities and beyond our geographical borders in overseas—with the goal to empower individuals to reach their full potential and to contribute to their social and spiritual development. More particularly, God Loves Haiti makes a strong statement about the biblical mandate to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10), clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, and care for the oppressed, the sick, homeless, widow, elderly, the orphan, etc.

The book is based on five biblical principles and imperatives that reflect God’s character and active participation in the human drama, and the overarching liberative message of the Bible: (1) God’s righteousness and heart for justice, (2) care for the hungry and afflicted is a public demonstration of living out the justice of God, (3) Jesus’s clarion call to individual Christians, churches, Christian organizations and leaders to do the work of social outreach and justice, (4) care for the poor is a fundamental Christian practice and a public demonstration of the love of Christ, and (5) the imperative of putting faith in action.

Faith-based organizations and humanitarian groups will find this little book helpful as it provides a concise overview of the history, religion, culture, the health and economic conditions of the Haitian people, as well as Haitian migration to the United States. The book also includes selected historical landmarks that would appeal to first-time visitors to Haiti. An appendix of recommended readings is included to inform interested and curious readers about Haitian history, culture, society, politics, religion, women and human rights issues, and health and development concerns.

The love and glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ is the vehicle that motivates us to “remember the poor,” show acts of kindness and compassion, and to walk in solidarity with the hungry, the oppressed, and the disheartened. We help these individuals realize that they are created in God’s image and that they matter to God. By restoring their self-worth and human dignity, Hope for Today Outreach is committed to fostering a life of sustaining hope and holistic development.

To purchase the book on Amazon.com, click on the title below:

God Loves Haiti: A Short Overview of Hope for Today Outreach

The e-book version is also available on amazon.

*All proceeds from this book will support Hope for Today Outreach ministries among the poor and the needy in Haiti.