Our Mailing Address has changed to the new one below:
Hope for Today Outreach (HTO)
P.O. Box 2731
Fort Pierce, Florida 34954-2731
*** E-mail: hopefortodayoutreach@gmail.com
Please address all your future contact to the address listed above.
Our Mailing Address has changed to the new one below:
Hope for Today Outreach (HTO)
P.O. Box 2731
Fort Pierce, Florida 34954-2731
*** E-mail: hopefortodayoutreach@gmail.com
Please address all your future contact to the address listed above.
Index to (Re-)reading Saint Augustine’s “Confessions”: A 30-day Meditation!
I created an index for the 30 days of our (re-)reading of Saint Augustine’s Confessions and meditating upon his life, and his ideas and understandings of God. At the link, you will have access to the individual title and theme associating with each reading and reflection for all the past 30 days. Beginning in September, we will read again (for me it is a rereading; perhaps, for some of you, it will be a new reading. I will post a daily reflection or meditation on this text) through Saint Augustine’s masterpiece, The City of God. I hope you have enjoyed the spiritual and intellectual journey through The Confessions.
Day 1: Nothing in God Dies!
Day 2: God, the Most Beautiful One and the Most Present One
Day 3: You Made us for Thyself: We Rest in Thee
Day 4: God, the Infinite Life and the Infinite Being, is One and the Same!
Day 5: Honoring and Glorifying God through Reading and Writing, and Thinking and Scholarship
Day 6: Human Beings Cannot Hide Away from God, the Most Glorious One
Day 7: The Holy Scriptures are Better than the Prose of Cicero!
Day 8: God, the Immutable One, is the Life of souls, and the Life of lives
Day 9: Man’s Mind is Not Supreme!
Day 10: God, the Everlasting Good, and our True Strength
Day 11: In Quest for a Clearer Vision of You and and the Truth
Day 12: The Joy from Faith and Shallow Happiness
Day 13: No one is Better than God, the Incorruptible One
Day 14: Christ, the Perfect Man, and the Wisdom of God
Day 15: His Conversion
Day 16: Writing about God as Vocation
Day 17: In praise of the godly Mother
Day 18: On Jesus Christ as the Immortal and Eternal Word and Truth of God
Day 19: What was God doing before he made the heavens and the earth?
Day 20: God and Time, and the Natural World
Day 21: The Past and the Future Do Not Exist!
Day 22: God, the Most Majestic and the Most Beautiful One!
Day 23: Toward the Quest for True Happiness and Joy, and Truth
Day 24: The God Who Makes both Men and Women Feel Special!
Day 25: The Literary and Analogical Trinity of God
Day 26: The God who Commands: He is the Common Good of all
Day 27: Creation and the Creator
Day 28: God and the Power of Human Memory
Day 29: Representational Hermeneutics: The Spiritual Truths Revealed in the Created Order
Day 30: God, Grant us Rest and Peace!
A Reading List on Western Philosophy and Christian Philosophy and Apologetics
by Celucien L. Joseph, PhD
Below, I recommend some of the most influential works in the history of Western philosophy, American philosophy, as well as Christian philosophy and apologetics. The list below is not meant to be exhaustive. For example, it does not deal with classical philosophy (with the exception of three to four titles on the list ); rather, the emphasis is on modern thought or history of ideas. I do not, for example, include works by African and Caribbean philosophers. I hope you will find the selected works helpful and meaningful to your own personal philosophical and spiritual growth and intellectual progress.
*** I wrote this post as a response to various inquiries I received from individuals and students who are passionate about the life of the mind and also from those would like to be well-versed in both Western Philosophy and Christian philosophy.
2. American Philosophy
3. Christian Philosophy and Apologetics
The church (“L’église Chrétienne de vie et d’espérance de Bois “/ “Christian church of life and hope of Bois d’eau”) we helped to establish in Bois d’eau, Port Margot (Haiti) married three couples who were living in cohabitation. We paid for the wedding and took charge of the reception. We also baptized five new members in our one year anniversary. We would like to share with you photos from both events and the great work God is doing in this city.
Please continue praying for Pastor Odelyn Olivier, the senior pastor of the church, and the people at the church, for spiritual strength and growth, as well as resources. Please also pray for the preschool we are starting in September 2019.
Click on the link below to view the photos of the Baptism ceremony :
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Hopefortodayoutreachhaiti/posts/?ref=page_internal
Updates: Hope Academy de Bois d’eau (Port-Margot, Haiti 🇭🇹)
The three boxes that contain the school supplies for the students and the classroom items are ready to be shipped today to Haiti 🇭🇹.
Click on the link below to access photos via our Facebook page
Click on the link below to access other photos via our Facebook page:
“Some Updates about the Haiti’s Preschool and Kindergarten Project”
We just purchased the school supplies for the amazing 25 children of “Hope Academy de Bois d’eau,” Port-Margot, Haiti. Allow me to show you in just a minute…
Hope For Today Outreach would like to thank everyone for your generous gifts toward the preschool/Kindergarten project in Haiti 🇭🇹.
We still need to raise more funds to buy food for the students ( to feed them 5 days a week when they come to school) to pay the teachers and staff. Personally, I can’t wait to meet every child who is going to attend “Hope Academy de Bois d’eau,” beginning in September 2019.
#SupporteducationinHaiti
#TeachourchildrenforanewHaiti
#Education&transformation
We modified the mission and vision of Hope for Today Outreach (HTO)
Hope for Today Outreach (HTO) is a Christian faith-based and non-profit organization that takes a holistic approach to sustainable development and human flourishing so we can empower the poor, the marginalized, and the economically-disadvantaged individuals and families. To achieve this goal, HTO invests in various (social) development projects and works in the areas of poverty, education, health, water and sanitation, agriculture and food, trade training, leadership, church renovation, spiritual formation, etc. We primarily serve families in the impoverished area of Port-Margot, Haiti to contribute to the Region’s development and growth, and human flourishing.
We maintain that showing compassion to and helping the poor, the needy, the homeless, and the imprisoned is an integral part of the Biblical story of God’s restoration of humanity and the goods news Jesus preached.
“Hope for Today Outreach’s Six Major Projects for Rural Haiti 🇭🇹: Toward Sustaining Development and Human Flourishing”
1. Establish fully funded (and free) schools (Preschool to High School) with arts programs, pre-vocational programs, medical clinics/facilities, and clean and sanitary water projects in Haiti’s poorest rural areas–10 schools per department;
***Haiti is divided in 10 Departments or Provinces, including Artibonite,
Centre, Ouest, Nord, Grand’Anse, Sud
Nippes, Nord-Est, Nord-Ouest, and Sud-Est.
2. Create literacy programs for illiterate Haitian adults in the most empoverished areas in the country: 10 literacy centres per department;
3. Establish vocational/professional schools with programs such as carpentry, plumbing, electricity, refrigeration, masonry, barber, culinary arts, etc., in 10 most needing rural areas in the country;
4. Create religious programs and theological schools to provide decolonial spiritual formation and training and to promote postcolonial hermeneutics and indigenous ecclesiastical practices: we’ll need 10 major centres: one per department;
5. Create Community libraries and community-activity centers: we’ll need 10 of those per department in rural regions in the country;
6. Create Teacher Education Programs & Leadership Schools in rural Haiti: we’ll need 10 centres per department
How to fund these programs and projects:
A. Through the development of Haiti’s agriculture and natural resources;
B. By soliciting assistance from Haitian professionals in the Diaspora to invest in these projects;
C. By establishing scholarship funds and grants;
D. By soliciting Haiti’s wealthy class and rich private sector to invest in these projects;
E. By promoting (and selling) Hope for Today Outreach’s intellectual resources such as books, cds, teaching materials such as seminars and workshops on leadership, health, and education, etc.
F. By encouraging generous and humanitarian individuals and families to add Hope for Today Outreach to their living wills, trusts, and estates.
***We are making the first step in realizing a small portion of our goals. In September 2019, Hope Academy de Bois d’eau, located in the rural area of Bois d’eau, Port Margot, will start running with 25 students. In the next five years, our goal is to start a medical clinic and provide sanitary and clean water to the population there.
Our motto is “to remember the poor.”
–Dr. Celucien L. Joseph, President
Update: First Day of Class at Hope Academy de Bois d’eau (Port Margot, Haiti)
Hello, Friends: Today (Monday, September 16, 2019) was the first day of class for these amazing and talended Haitian boys and girls at Hope Academy de Bois d’eau. It’s both a joy and delight to see this collective dream of ours is being realized. I truly believe that education is one of the important vehicles to transform a country (Haiti) and help prepare the Haitian youth to become engaged and responsible citizens who will contribute to the common good and human flourishing in the Haitian society. In the context of Haiti, an engaged pedagogy is the most promising tool of decolonization and reconstitution of the (Haitian) mind toward a sustaining community and an effective and strong nation. Investing in education is to foster hope in life and impute optimism in human interactions and relationships; correspondingly, to invest in people and their future is to lead to the good life and the good community we all envision and covet.That is what we hope to accomplish at Hope Academy de Bois d’eau.
The photos below of these haitian boys and girls attending their very first day of class brought tears to my eyes. I just can’t believe what’s happening today. The staff of Hope Academy de Bois d’eau and Hope for Today Outreach (HTO) and the parents of these little ones would like to thank you for all the support you have provided to make this dream a reality.
We continue to count on your collective support and the cooperating efforts of various communities so that the students and (their) families at Hope Academy de Bois d’eau could fulfill their their dreams and goals in Haiti 🇭🇹 as well as the mission of HTO: (1) holistic and sustainable development, (2) improved and better human conditions (i.e. economic, political, cultural), and (3) strong civil and political societies in Haiti.
Click on the link below to view photos via our Facebook page:
Peace and Blessings,
Celucien Louis Joseph, PhD
“Extreme Poverty in Rural Haiti”
I’ve been taking frequent trips to Haiti since 1995; usually, I visit Haiti two to three times a year. It hit me very hard this year when I recently went to Haiti early in January. The good team from Hope for Today Outreach and I visited about 130 homes distributing hygienic items to Haitian peasant families in a remote area (i.e. mountain) in Grande Rivière. The human condition is inhumane and quite depressing in that rural area. The level of suffering has grown over the years and touched every aspect of (peasant) life. The level of poverty that I witnessed in that area is disheartening and problematic.
I met a lady who is the mother of five children. Her husband was not home at that time. The family lives in extreme poverty. She and I share the same last name. About five years ago, she lost her home to a tragic rainfall. Her house was totally destroyed by the rain.
As a result, she and her husband relocated to the new area where I met her. She is renting her current home for $ 1500 Haitian dollars annually, which is equivalent to $ 80 U.S. dollars, annually. She is is unable to pay her rent and several months behind.The current home she is renting is made of mud, wood, and palm trees. It’s a tiny 2 bedrooms. The wall in one bedroom is severely damaged and collapsed. She has no beds inside the house; all the five children sleep on the hard floor in the tiny living room. There’s no toilet or kitchen. Some of her children were wearing very torn clothes, and the little girls had no underwear on. Folks, this is extreme poverty!
“Redefining Poverty and what It Means to be Human”
1. Being poor does not mean you are not intelligent and can’t contribute to human flourishing.
2. Being poor does not mean you can’t have big dreams and lofty goals, and that you have nothing constructive to contribute to society.
3. Being poor does not mean you can’t become somebody great in life and does not have a (political) voice.
4. Being poor does not mean you can’t beat the odds of life and overcome all the unfortunate circumstances in your life.
5. Being poor does not mean you are linguistically deficient and psychologically unfit for society and upward mobility.
6. Being poor does not mean you are not a person and does not have dignity.
7. Being poor does not mean you should allow people to mistreat and disrespect you just because you are poor.
8. Being poor does not mean you’re a hopeless individual and that your life has no meaning.
9. Being poor does not mean you are not beautifully and unwanted.
10. Being poor does not mean God is done with you.
Grace and peace!
Dr. Celucien L. Joseph
Haiti Impact Trip (January 16-21, 2020): Port Margot and Grande Rivière du Nord–with the Hope For Today Outreach Team
Brief Report:
–Thursday, January 16: Left Miami Airport for Haiti
— Friday, January 17: The Team drove from Cap-Haitian to Port Margot.
— Saturday, January 18: Port-Margot: Dr. Joseph offered a seminar on the theology and philosophy of christian education. It was attended by pastors, Sunday school teachers, and lay people. About 160 individuals were in attendance. We distributed a free copy of the Creole translation of Dr. Joseph’s new book, ” The New Life Catechism” and the accompanying audio book to the pastors and Christian educators.
— Sunday, January 19: Port-Margot: At the Eglize Chrétienne de foi et d’esperance at Bois d’eau, Dr. Joseph and Pastor Olivier, the senior pastor, baptized four young people ( three young men and one young woman) on Sunday morning. Dr. Joseph delivered the morning sermon on “Planting the good seed for the growth of the church and the glory of God.” The church celebrated its first Harvest Feast (fèt mwason). The event was well attended by the people in the community, and special guests included the Mayor of the City of Port Margot and Board Members of the Association of Motorcycle Riders.
On Sunday afternoon, the church organized the final match for the soccer ⚽ tournament for the young people in the community. What an amazing game and skilled players! It was well attended by the people in the community. It was a great time of fellowship, community-building, and friendship.
— Monday, January 20: the Hope for Today Outreach Team went to a remote aea in Grande Rivière for servant evangelism. They distributed hygienic items to about 130 families/houses.
–Tuesday, January 21: End of the Trip
*** Below, we share pictures with you from the trip.
Grace and Peace!
HTO Team