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Welcome to Advent! This is the first episode in our Advent 2024 series. We invited Dieula Previlon (a licensed professional counselor, certified life purpose coach, ordained minister, and author) to talk to the Be the Bridge community about hope. Latasha Morrison hosts this conversation.
As a Haitian American woman, Dieula brings a wealth of wisdom, knowledge, and intention to her words. She shares her culture, her people, and her experience with us. She and Latasha discuss the importance of listening to our bodies and prioritizing rest in this season. They dive into a deep conversation about holding both lament and hope. You will be encouraged that God sees you!
Join in the conversation on our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn to let us know your thoughts on this episode!
Host & Executive Producer – Latasha Morrison
Producer – Sarah Connatser
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Not all views expressed in this interview reflect the values and beliefs of Latasha Morrison or the Be the Bridge organization.
*this was transcribed by Spotify and has not been checked for errors
0:02
Welcome.
To the Be the Bridge podcast, Be the Bridge exists to empower people and culture toward racial healing, equity, and reconciliation.
Latasha Morrison founded Be the Bridge in 2016 to foster needed dialogue and brave spaces and to give people the tools to pursue racial justice.
0:24
We provide resources and community to do just that, and this podcast is one of those resources.
You’ll hear interviews hosted by Latasha and our team, conversations about current events, and encouragement for your racial literacy journey.
Thank you for listening, subscribing and engaging in this important work.
0:45
Be the bridge community.
Listen, I am so excited.
This is, we are recording this actually a couple days after a life changing election that we just had.
And I’m so grateful to have Jarrella Prevalon here and I I’m going to introduce her and we’re going to dive in.
1:08
But I want before we’re going to be talking about Abbott.
We’re in the season of Abbott as we are posting this.
But before that, I, I asked her if she, you know, with her, her background and trauma healing, we’re going to talk through what some people may be feeling even in this, in this moment.
1:29
So Jarrella is the founder and executive director of Elevate her International Ministries.
Her professional career in counseling and pastoring and international ministry spans over 20 years.
She was born in Haiti, the fourth daughter and a family of eight.
1:47
Her career and ministry today are because her parents sacrificed immensely for the sake of their family, entering an immigration process to the United States that spanned many hardships over several years.
She is the mother of three adult sons, and she now lives in New Jersey with her husband, Fresnel.
2:08
And you can learn more about her.
We’re going to post this all in the transcript.
Jarrella, how are you doing?
Who?
That’s a loaded question.
That’s a loaded question right now, right?
Yeah, I want you to tell me the truth because sometimes I think we, we do this bypassing, like this kind of spiritual bypassing.
2:30
How are you doing?
Oh, I’m blessed in the Lord.
I know that.
But how are you doing?
You know, and this has been hard and I know.
And the work that you do, just like the work that I do that we have to sometimes give out.
2:46
Yeah, out in the midst of our own processing, in the midst of our own trauma.
I was just talking a friend of mine who’s a mental health professional, and she was just, she’s been nonstop with people, you know, wanting to book appointments.
3:04
And she was just exhausted at the end of the day because she hasn’t even had time to even.
She’s actually processing as she’s, like, dealing with her clients.
And so, yeah.
Are you experiencing the same thing?
Oh, yeah.
You know, I often talk about bleeding while bleeding because, you know, as professionals, as a therapist, as a pastor, when things like this happen, you’re being called upon while you’re also bleeding, right.
3:37
And so how am I doing?
I, I’m, I feel it all in my body.
I think at times I tried to separate and use my leadership brain and my therapist brain and my pastoral brain and lead people.
3:53
But my body is telling me something different that right now I need to tend to what is what has happened and what what has happened feels like an assault, you know, to our humanity.
4:09
And I feel it in my bones.
I really do.
I feel it in my chest.
My chest is heavy.
My gut is all swirly, you know, like somebody just punched me in the gut.
I feel it in my back.
4:25
I feel it in my shoulders where I just feel weak.
I feel like I, I, you know, to be honest, on the day of election, I started feeling the sniffles.
And I haven’t been sick in months.
Like, it just came out of nowhere.
4:40
And next thing you know, I’m down.
And I know it’s part of the somatic pain, somatic trauma, you know, that we’re carrying in our body.
It’s showing up in our body.
So how am I?
I’m feeling my body is telling me I’m not OK.
4:59
And I’m in deep lament.
And so, yeah.
Yeah, and I know some of you listening to it, we’ll unpack it a little bit.
You know, probably the people that are listening to our podcast are right here with you in our community.
5:15
You know, they are LinkedIn an empathetic, even if it’s not their story, they are connected to the story.
Or if it’s not their experience, they are connected to it in some kind of in some capacity.
They they can understand, you know, and then there’s some people that may be listening who maybe are is new to this conversation and you’re like, what what’s going on?
5:38
Like why?
You know, if that’s you, I, I would say lean in, you know, closer and if you’re here, that’s good.
You know, if you’re here, that’s good.
If you’re here, just you know what you call spying to to give information.
5:57
You know, you, you can cut this podcast off right about now if you want to, or you can continue to listen because you’re going to get an earful baby.
But I just what you said resonates because that is I was, I couldn’t sleep, you know, I couldn’t sleep.
6:15
And although, you know, there was this surprise, I think there was this hope that we were different.
Yeah.
And so it’s a surprise, but not a surprise in the sense, Yeah, because what we have experienced and the the previous years and, you know, and just the, the elements of the residue of, of the everything.
6:43
But that was, you know, I think with me, I had a headache.
I just got a headache and my, I could not, my heart was racing.
Yeah, my heart was racing.
And then I began my sinuses.
I was already having some sinus issues, but it was clearing up and I hadn’t been taking the medicine in the last couple of days.
7:04
And then I had to like get up, take some medicine.
I had to take some migraine medicine.
Still probably got maybe, maybe two hours of sleep, if that.
Yeah.
And then yesterday I lay down just to kind of just rest my mind.
7:20
Yeah, after a walk.
And I said I’m just gonna sit here.
I need to sit here for just an hour.
And then I’m gonna do some work ’cause I have some things that I do.
I have some work that I needed to do.
And so I told sit, told Alexa to to get me up in like a hour, you know?
7:36
Yeah.
Alexa came on.
I was so tired I couldn’t even think.
Yeah, and I just went to bed.
Yeah, yeah.
And so now the work got done, yeah, none of the work got done.
Things are due, but none of the work got done.
7:53
And so I think it’s important that we all need grace in this period.
And some people maybe don’t understand so won’t extend the grace.
But if you’re in a position you know of power or authority or leadership, give your people space.
8:12
You know the process.
Now you you mentioned something about somatic.
Can you break break?
That down a little bit more.
I had the experience of that in March, which was very helpful and I would love for you just because we use that word just to kind of break it down a little bit for the people that are listening.
8:33
Yes, somatic is just talking about the body and that when we experience traumatic stress, trauma, pain, depression, anxiety, we feel it in the body.
It shows up in the body.
For example, one sister I was talking to yesterday was sharing of a friend who experienced her menstrual cycle that she hasn’t had in months.
9:01
In months.
So the cycle showed up because this intense stress, this intense thing, this intensity, that of the stress that just we just went through is showing up in the body.
So the body is the way like when, when trauma happens, the brain automatically goes into fight and flight and then it, it and, and what the body does instantly, it’s to try to protect us.
9:30
And so all of the, you know, the, the, the, the, the tension, the pressure, the, and then it’s not just yesterday.
It’s been building.
It’s been building.
We, we’ve been in this space for so long that our body is just like we’re tired.
9:49
We, our bodies are breaking down and our bodies are just like we’re, we just need rest.
We need, we need something.
We’re in distress, right?
Yes.
And so Somatic is just talking about the body and how the body really experiences the pain.
10:09
Often times we don’t even have words to express what we’re feeling, but the body is already feeling it.
So when we slow down and when we get in community, when we talk to one another, we’re actually helping each other find language to what our body has experienced from, you know, this, this whole thing that just happened.
10:31
So yeah.
Just like we’re doing now as we’re talking and through this and as people hear this, I’m sure it’s going to be there.
And you said just a really important thing like this isn’t something that just happened.
We’ve been experiencing this for a while.
10:48
So it’s really, you know, I, I’m thinking back, even when you said that, I, I said, I think I’m feeling this from like 2012, like 2012, 2015 like this.
This is so years of a pile up.
And if we’re not in community, if we’re not listening to our bodies, if we’re not taking care of ourselves, this can have really harmful effects on our mental health, our physical health, our spiritual health.
11:18
You know, all of those things are are are connected.
You wrote a book and you know that came out in May 2024 and it’s and it’s just the perfect timing of I’m just like the perfect timing for your voice and your ministry and your business.
11:38
All that you’re doing this like the perfect timing.
But the book is called Does God See Me?
Yeah.
And then on the back is, yes, my sister, God sees you.
Yeah.
And can you tell me it says how how God meets us in the center of our trauma healing journey?
12:01
Yeah, I.
Mean listen, everybody that’s listen for such a time as this and just and I’m just even thinking just of the sovereignty of God just to have even this conversation scheduled today.
It was already scheduled, right?
12:17
This was already, and I’ve been wanting to have you on for a long time, but then I, I saw that you were going to have a book coming out and I was like, well, that would be a great time, you know?
And just so you know, her book came out in May and we’re here today.
12:38
Yeah.
And we’re, we’re going to talk a little bit about Advent, but I, I wanted to just get a little bit of what this book is about.
And what do you mean when you say I know what you mean, but sometimes we gotta break it down for people.
12:53
Yeah.
Does God see me?
Well, I think everyone listening to this podcast can resonate with the question, especially on today.
You know, after everything that’s happened, I think it’s an appropriate question.
13:15
You know, it’s a question of lament.
It’s a question of feeling abandoned, feeling left feeling uncared for, feeling as if God is nowhere to be found.
13:32
And I know in the West, we’re afraid of talking this way to God.
We’re afraid of going deep in our lament, but this is a deep question that I believe every black woman, everyone that has experienced pain and suffering have asked at some point.
13:59
We, we have asked that question.
And if you have not, you have not done it well enough.
You have not been walking through this faith journey well enough because to live is to experience pain and to be black, to be woman is to be well acquainted with pain.
14:19
And so for me, the question was appropriate as I was writing the book and looking at my life.
You know, when we talk about Alice Walker in The Color Purple and she says all my life I’ve had to fight.
That’s a that’s a statement of lament.
14:36
That’s a statement of pain describing pain.
And I feel similar in a way of all my life I’ve had to deal with pain and suffering and trauma, you know, as a Haitian woman who left her country to migrate to America.
14:58
It’s been a lifetime of pain.
It’s been a life of long-suffering.
And I know my sisters in America can resonate with this question.
Does God see me?
I know my sisters in the Congo can resonate with this question.
15:16
Mine sisters in Haiti can resonate with this question.
This question.
It’s a universal question.
And it’s a question of lament that I, I believe we must ask.
We’re in the season of writing the the next Psalm.
15:34
We’re in the thick of it where we do need to write the Psalm of lament.
And so for those that are listening, write that Psalm, write that Psalm of lament.
So for me, this book is my Psalm of lament.
15:51
You know, it’s where I it’s the place where I felt that I needed to do some serious, honest talking about God and to God.
16:08
And so that’s why this book emerged ’cause it was, I had enough.
It’s like enough.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I’m thinking I’m out.
When you were saying that, I started thinking about this, this scripture.
I’m gonna try to find it.
16:23
But I’m, you know, just even recently, you know, as we talked through, you know, you said, I know that women in Haiti, women in the Concho, women in Sudan.
And we can, you know, we can even expand that, you know, to so many women all over the world.
16:43
I mean, like it feels, it’s like I can say, oh, I know God sees me, but it doesn’t feel like it right now.
You know, the pain, you know, but many women that that truth of I know God sees me does not exist.
17:04
Mm hmm.
You know, like that truth of because the pain and the trauma is so deep and you know, So what would you say to even people now that where it really feels like, you know, God does not see them.
17:22
I I was just talking to my aunt.
She’s 68 years old and she was asking the question, where is God and how could God allow this to happen?
Yeah.
You know, and the, and this is a woman who has she was young, but you know, she’s, you know, just a couple a year younger than Ruby Bridges.
17:45
So the things that only at 68 that she’s seen in experience, she’s served in the military, There’s things that she’s experienced and seen that what we are experiencing now is pointing back to some of those pains and those memories and the history of that cause.
18:05
History, yeah, has the receipts, you know.
And so although we try to to have this revisionist history and erase history and change history, you cannot change someone’s experience.
No, absolutely not.
And.
That’s what we’re tapping into.
18:20
What would you say to that now?
I I would let people a man, let people say the things.
Let people the hard things, the awful things, right?
Let.
People say it.
Yeah, yeah.
Next time, gate gatekeeping what people can or cannot say when they’re in pain.
18:38
You know, I love it.
And, and I’ve learned this, you know, from my sisters in Haiti, from my sisters all over the world, we travel all over the world to teach about trauma and pain and suffering.
And I’ve, I’ve seen the thing that helps people have a different relationship with God the most is being able to be honest with God.
19:01
You know, the, the real, real, you know, we need to go there with God.
We need to ask God some real questions.
We need to put God on the seat and ask God some real questions.
We need to interrogate God about where God’s presence is in the midst of these things.
19:21
And you know what, God is OK with this.
God is OK with the interrogation.
God is comfortable with the interrogation.
God welcomes even the interrogation.
I think the people that’s a little nervous about the interrogation, about being asked are US each other, the religious, the, the, the holy of the holies.
19:45
I’m like, no God is OK with it because you know what a God that I can interrogate a God that I can ask deep questions of and he doesn’t strike me down and kill me dead is a God that I can respect, is someone that I can get a little closer to because this this God allows me to be so close that I can express my anger.
20:11
How many people that we can express are true rage and our true anger to and for them to remain close?
I’ve lost many friends when I was in my anger.
I’ve lost many friends in my rage.
20:27
They didn’t get it.
They became very fragile and very, you know, they, they, they would separate.
They became disconnected.
Not God, because what I see from the example of the Bible, the Psalms, if we haven’t read the Psalms, we need to go back to read these psalms of lament because these people were straight up like God.
20:52
You have done this.
Yes, they show us the way.
I mean, even the, even the prophets, they wrestled with God like, I mean, I mean, we, we Jacob, you know, like Moses, like we have a, you know, our faith has this history of interrogating.
21:13
Yeah.
And and how that strengthens your faith.
Yes.
You know.
Naomi, Naomi, she says.
God has dealt bitterly with me.
He he has dealt me a bitter hand.
21:31
You know, Oh my God, that right there, honey, I feel like going in tears because that is what that right there, those words.
And I’m so grateful that the Holy Script Scriptures capture that because this is with, you know, she had lost everything.
21:50
Everything.
Everything, everything.
Now we know the continuation of the story, but in that moment when that was spoken, she’d lost everything and she said God had dealt me a bitter hand.
22:05
And I mean, I was just thinking even the daughters of I was Jack his name up the Zelfa Zelfa hate the in numbers to story, you know, like just we could just countless stories.
22:20
And I think for me, those things help me to remind me of the faithfulness of God, the goodness of God.
But like the end of this OK, to to lament and to doubt and to cry.
And like you said, to interrogate God like.
22:37
And that’s what those of you who are listening now, I would say do that.
You know, we, we are entering this season of Avid and your recent posts, you know, as we talk about, we go from this grief to this lament and this advent of, of hope.
22:59
This is like the the focus.
So it’s like, and it’s like, how do you talk about hope in the midst of strife, in the midst of grief?
But we know hope is about anticipation.
But you said this and I was like, she didn’t even know what you said.
23:15
Managing lament and hope is exhausting work.
Some say it’s better to not hope, but cynicism, apathy and numbness are the byproduct.
So we lean on the ancestors whose hope carried us this far.
23:31
Today lament is leading the dance.
Tomorrow hope.
Yeah.
And that when I since when I see that and I’m like, God, you knew.
Yeah, God knew.
23:47
You know, and I knew as Naomi was crying out and talking about the bitterness of losing her children, her her three sons, her husband.
And it’s, you know, as I always think back to my grandmother telling me, she said it was one thing to lose my husband.
24:08
Yeah.
But when I had to bury my son, she said, I’ve never felt so much pain.
She said I’ve had to bury my father, my mother, my husband.
But losing her son and one of the things I and this is my uncle who had passed in 2005.
24:26
My grandmother passed in 2016 when my dad got sick.
I’m doing COVID and passed.
I said what I thank you that my grandmother didn’t have to bury.
Wow, you know, yeah, I.
Remember that when she said that.
24:43
And so many of us right now are not feeling hope.
We know that our community is resilient.
We know that women are resilient.
25:01
We know that Black women are resilient.
But I know there is a detachment of hope right now and I think that is OK too because it takes time sometimes to get there.
What what were you thinking when you made this post?
25:18
And just your thoughts and why you made this post ’cause I know this was for you to type this out.
This is what you’re experiencing and this is what you know your experience is going to help someone else.
So what were you thinking when you type?
Yeah, You know, I, I texted my friends today and I was like, you know, sometimes hope is a hazard, you know, because we can’t move forward without hope while at the same time hoping gets us in all kinds of trouble and pain.
25:54
And just like we’re, we’re feeling the loss today because we hope, you know, if at the start of the the election season, we say, you know, it ain’t going to happen.
We don’t even need to bother because this won’t happen.
26:12
We won’t even vote.
We ain’t going to do nothing right now.
We wouldn’t feel the pain we’re feeling because we we already gave up.
But we hoped one more time.
We held on to hope one more time.
26:27
Maybe, just maybe this time will be different, right?
We held on to hope.
And you know, the reality is we have to do the dance of lament and hope because hopelessness is death.
26:46
It really is.
I, I remembered reading a statement from Christina Cleveland years ago that says some of us, we don’t have the privilege of hopelessness.
We really don’t.
Because some people have the privilege to be hopeless.
27:02
We don’t.
My people don’t have the privilege of hopelessness because if my ancestors did, they would give up and I wouldn’t be here.
So they figured out a dance, which I’m still trying to figure out, this dance between lament and hopefulness, lament and holding on to hope because hopefulness at times is a hazard to our health because now we’re experiencing all these dramatic responses because we held on to hope one more time while at the same time we must.
27:39
Yeah.
Right.
So it’s, it’s, it’s navigating, you know, this process of hoping and then losing and then getting back up again and hoping again the next day and then lamenting again and then crying out to God all over again and then hope and rest and loss and joy.
28:03
You know, it’s like this dance.
Yes.
Of, of being a human being who is relentless, who is unwilling to give up.
And that’s, that’s where we are.
That’s the journey.
28:19
Some days, you know, we, we lean into lament, you know, some days we said we’re done.
And those days we need to be done.
We need to walk away, get away from the computer, get away from, you know, the, the posting, get away from people, you know, leave the church if you need to.
28:40
You know, some days we need to walk away, you know, for a moment, for a time, so that we can hope tomorrow and start over again.
You can’t start over again when you’re, when you’re so broken.
28:57
You have no strength, right?
You have nothing.
And so it requires lamenting and resting and leaning on community, healthy community.
It requires that dance, you know?
Yeah, so that’s what I was thinking when I posted that.
29:16
That’s so good about that.
And I know that’s going to encourage so many people as they read it because, you know, so many people don’t have the community and, you know, they’re hurting and they’re lamenting and some people don’t have words for it.
And so that helps give, you know, breath and words to what a lot of people are feeling.
29:36
You have a really unique perspective as a, you know, Haitian American.
And, you know, what would you say?
What, what do Haitians and Haitians, Americans bring into this season of Avid when we talk about hope?
29:54
Oh, that’s a good question.
I, I feel like we are a people who have been waiting in anticipation for liberation for a long time.
We live in this space of, of being in the not yet.
30:16
We’ve been navigating this space for a long time.
And as we know, Advent is is the season where where we’re being intentional about waiting in anticipation for the arrival, the coming of the Christ right?
30:32
And so in but in on this side of the world, the we we observe it for four weeks, you know, of observance right before the Christmas holiday for Haitians and many others who suffer around the world, It’s a daily waiting in anticipation and moaning and groaning and just crying out to God.
30:55
So for us, you know, I think what we bring to the season of Advent is that we, we’re, we’re, this is where we can teach.
This is where we need a theology for those who suffer.
31:13
This is where we need the people who suffer to teach us in the four weeks of Advent how to wait well, how to anticipate for the coming of Christ well, how to wait for liberation.
Well, you know how to do this dance of, you know, waiting and being dissatisfied in the weight and fighting and resting and lamenting.
31:40
We’ve been in this space for so long that when Advent come, you know, and we see people who are intentional about the language of waiting and the, the, the moaning and groaning and lamenting.
31:56
We’re like, welcome, welcome.
Join us.
It doesn’t feel so lonely when we see people really going deep into the Advent season, you know, and taking it seriously of just, of just waiting in, in, in anticipation, but not just waiting in joy, but waiting sometimes in sadness, you know, so it feels, it feels good.
32:20
When I first learned about Advent as a Haitian person, you know, I, I was a little bit happy to hear that there is such a thing in the church calendar because it felt congruent for, for a change.
32:38
I felt there was congruency in how I see the world and how you know what Americans and how Americans see the world.
You know how I see pain and suffering?
You know, it, it felt congruent for once, right in the church calendar that they see me, they, they understand the pain and suffering.
33:05
They for for once, I feel like Advent forces us to see the pain of the world.
You know, Advent is not about shying away.
There’s no pain and suffering.
Advent is like there’s pain and suffering and we need liberation and we need the coming of Christ.
33:22
Christ come, come right now, right.
And so it’s, there’s no shying away that there’s pain during Advent.
And I love that about Advent because it calls us to sit in pain.
It calls us to sit in anticipation, it calls us to sit in lament as we wait for the coming of Christ.
33:45
And it calls us in this hope of the coming of Christ, right.
So I, I, I think that’s what people who suffer can bring to the American church is to teach us how to lament.
Well, how to, and I don’t know, I’m using the word well, There’s no, there’s no well way of lamenting.
34:06
Lamenting is messy.
And it’s it’s not this messy nice space where we do it well because Americans always want to do things well.
Lament.
You don’t do lament well, you just do it.
You know, you just.
34:22
Be messy, as messy as you can be as angry as you need to be, as rageous, enraged as you need to be.
In lament it’s you don’t get an A for lament.
You get to be messy, you know, and so that’s what I think we bring to the season.
34:38
It’s beautiful, I think, and we see that in Scripture and the ways that different people lament it.
We see that it is messy and there’s various ways.
There’s no one way and how someone limits.
I was just even thinking as you were talking about like this is like when you’re hearing about avid, you know, as a Haitian American, you were like, now this helps me to see it felt more congruent.
35:03
And I think for me, even I grew up in the tradition.
Well, I did grow up in the church, but when I became a Christian in the non like non denominational world, evangelical world.
And so you didn’t have the full Christian calendar.
35:19
You didn’t, you know.
So it wasn’t until I moved to Texas that I started, you know, you know, participated in Advent and Lent and you know, just the, you know, all these the full Christian calendar.
And I think that’s it.
That’s really important.
35:36
One of the things you you, you know, there’s a lot of suffering in the world, a lot of grief for people personally and collectively.
What encouragement can you give to the Be the Bridge Community community to hope in the the midst of it of it all?
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You know, I think the the encouragement that I would give is really about being in community, in loving community.
I’ve found that this time around, post election, my community has been so necessary for this season of lament.
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It’s a lonely place to lament alone and it can sometimes be dangerous.
I would say quote, UN quote to lament alone because you need the community to carry you and we need to be able to carry each other in the lament.
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And whether the community is online or whether it be, you know, in person, we need the the voice of the community.
We need the community to be saying the things that we don’t necessarily have words for yet.
You know, there’s bound to be someone to feel like we feel, you know, to be sad.
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As we said, it feels less lonely, you know, when we’re grieving and lamenting this in community.
So I would encourage the Beale Bridge community to be in community to really find these safe spaces, safe people, safe, you know, organizations, churches or whatever the case may be.
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That really where you can really lament together and do it well because it can be so beautiful.
And I think that’s where the hope comes from is when you’re in these communities and you’re all in it together, you’re like, OK, I’m tired.
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We’re resting together.
We’re lamenting together.
We’re enraged together.
And it energizes you.
It really energizes you.
And that’s when you start feeling yourself being invigorated again, that now it’s ready to fight some more.
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Right.
But doing it together makes it feel less lonely, less, less sad, less alone.
Like doing it together, just that’s where the hope.
That’s where the hope is built.
Yeah.
When we.
Do that’s so good.
38:22
And I mean, I want you to say something about just some thoughts around your Haitian community.
You know, I just so that those who have never had the experience of the love of that community, which a lot of people have, you know, but sometimes those things that you’re disconnected from, you can vilify.
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And we’ve seen that, you know, recently in the news.
And I know I, I think about people that I know.
I think about the children and just how apathetic we are.
I would love for you to tell us something about your community.
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And I want you to speak encouragement directly to your Haitian brothers and sisters and maybe their children who could be listening.
What would you say?
Yeah, my Haitian people are the most.
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And I, I use the word resilient in a positive word, not in a way of making it even more weighty, but they’ve taught me how to survive.
You know, even in the Haitian church where we would learn blocks of Scripture to survive like Psalms 46, God is our refuge and strength.
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I know it in French because we had to memorize it because and I think the reason they they talk.
I want to hear it say it in French.
Oh, in French.
Yeah, you can say.
Cheese 0 Apple Noon and Refuge E Mr. Cool kinder monks, Jaime de la Diclis It’s it’s it’s songs for you 146 one God is our refuge and our strength and ever present help in trouble.
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And we learned these big blocks of scripture, you know, because we know we need the encouragement.
We know we need the strength, the healing, the the support to remind us to keep going.
And that’s what scripture did for us in the Haitian church.
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And not only that, our Haitian people are so generous, so generous and loving.
There’s never, never a party of 10.
We never can cook for one person.
We are always thinking of the next door neighbor, you know, who might need to eat.
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And I learned that from my grandmother.
My grandmother would cook a big pot of rice in our village in Haiti and would make sure everyone in our surrounding would have something to eat, would have something to eat.
So when we come here, we were, I guess, you know, you hear things about America and you think, you know, they’ll treat us in the same way our people treat strangers in Haiti.
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Because in, in Haiti, you know, the hospitality we show, you know, foreigners and strangers who come to our land, it’s just superb.
You know, we roll out the red carpet, we cook the best of foods.
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We give them the, the, the food.
I mean, I mean everything, we roll it out.
So we were expecting when we came to America, the land flowing with milk and honey, that the red carpet would be rolled out for us.
And that’s not what we’ve experienced being here in America.
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So for to my Haitian people, I would say, you know, to keep being generous, keep leaning on God as our refuge and strength.
Keep leaning on the God of Psalm 121.
You know, I lift up my eyes onto the hills where cometh my help your left mess.
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You’re available time do murgy and God or Sir cool, you know, keep leaning on that God we learned about to be our ever present help to be our the the God that shows up for us.
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So hold on, hang in there, don’t give up, don’t surrender.
Lament when you need to, lean on community when you need to.
Love deep, love deep.
Don’t let what’s happening to us ’cause us to have hardened hearts, but continue to keep the hearts opened and soft and tender and gracious.
43:01
Amen.
And I think that is a perfect way to end our time.
You know, I’m thinking about your boys who are off and you know, I remember, you know, I followed you a while.
43:16
So I remember when they graduated and went to college and now they’re like, you were telling me before this that oh, no, they’re not in college anymore.
They’re like they’re got their first apartment.
You are like a empty nester, right?
You know?
Empty, empty nester.
Yes, they’re grown.
43:33
Grown.
So what are you telling them right now?
You know, how are you telling them to hang on to that hole?
Yeah, my, my old.
So I have three sons.
My oldest is 26 and the twins are 23.
43:49
You know, I was talking to my oldest this morning and I talked to the twins last night, just processing a little bit.
And we were just processing about safe communities.
We really were, you know, to find these safe spaces, you know, to to to belong to people who will show up for you and you show up for them.
44:16
And we to lean on people who who love you and not just tolerates you, but celebrates you.
And so just kind of breathing life into them and just reminding them of who they are and how brilliant they are and how beautiful and wise they are.
44:37
Because these things take a toll on black young men.
They really do.
When they see what’s happening, they it takes a toll.
You know, when my sons started hearing the rhetoric and the, the, the hateful speeches about our ancestors and us, you know, on social media, they came to us frantically, like, Mom, are these things true?
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I’m like, no, they’re, they’re not true about us.
And so, so we, we talk a lot about belonging, about community, about love and honor and respect and dignity, all that I, I pray for and I, I do tell them, you know, to not just take anything from anyone.
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Don’t go where you’re not wanted.
Don’t sit at tables that were that don’t want you there, that are not tables of love and of joy and of peace.
And so I’m always encouraging them to to just keep their heads up, you know, to keep their heads up and not surrender to the Okie Doke and of the world.
45:52
So yeah.
I know we’re around the same age range when you just said that because that is my word.
Don’t fall for the okie dokie like.
I am so grateful for your voice.
46:07
I’m so grateful for your ministry.
I’m grateful that you have this book entitled Does God See Me?
How God Meets Us in the center of our trauma healing journey.
And you can purchase that book where books are sold.
46:25
We’re going to have a link in the transcript to to all of those.
And you know, a part of this is, you know, we’re talking about how how we see Avid through the lens of justice and the things that you talked about love, the thing that we talked about, lament, liberation.
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Those are some of the words that you were saying that is an act of justice.
And I’m so grateful for the just work that you’re doing and the trauma healing that I know so many in our community need.
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And I know I think Sarah’s probably going to link your information because I know people are going to listen to this and say, OK, I need, you know, I need more of this.
And so I’m so grateful.
And there’s so many of us out there that are doing some incredible work and in our lanes.
47:16
And what we like to do in the Beats the Bridge community is just to pull that collective and those partnerships together to put voices in front of our community so that they can expand their knowledge, you know, of the diverse voices that are out there.
47:32
So great for you.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Yes, on the Be the Bridge podcast.
So grateful for you.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to the Be the Bridge Podcast.
To find out more about Be the Bridge and what we offer, visit bethebridge.com.
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Partner with us in this work at bethebridge.com/give, Connect with us on social media, and remember, you are not alone in your pursuit of righteousness and justice.
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