In 2003 Kent Annan left behind his prosperous, comfortable upbringing to face the world beyond its gates, where people wear his cast-off clothing and seek comfort from the heat in the long shadow of his homeland. Haiti, apparently, was where God wanted him. Of course, just because God wants you somewhere doesn't mean it's going to be easy.Little did he know how important his work would be. Now, in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, Annan's experience living and working in Haiti has becomea powerful resource for those looking to learn more about this amazing country and find out how they can help Haiti rebuild and thrive.In this book you'll enter into Annan's experience traveling and working in Haiti, and ultimately you'll be challenged to follow God into uncharted territory on a path that may lead to your local soup kitchen--or to a Haitian relief settlement. Either way, you'll learn what it means to become vulnerable in order to help others and share the embodied love of Christ.Read Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle for a vivid picture of the Haiti Annan knows, the good work happening there through organizations like Haiti Partners, and the ways you can get involved. Whether you go or stay, you'll geta fresh sense of what it means to love God and love our neighbor when love is uncomfortable, even dangerous; to see what happens when God stretches you beyond your borders into his kingdom.



Kent Annan (PhD, thesis pending, University of Glasgow; MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Co-Director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute and a Senior Lecturer at Wheaton College. His previous books include Slow Kingdom Coming and Following Jesus through the Eye of the Needle. Kent co-founded Spiritual First Aid. His humanitarian work has included co-founding Haiti Partners, serving on the board for a foundation focused on child trafficking issues, and living in England, France, Albania, Kosovo, and Haiti. He speaks around the country. Kent and his wife have two children and live near Chicago.



1 Through the Needle's Eye



2 Getting (Dis)Oriented on the Other Side



3 Giving Up and Finding



4 Choosing One's Neighbors



5 Revelations



6 Next Steps



Epilogue: On Making a Difference



Acknowledgments



Group Reading Guide



About the Author



"Lately I've encountered lots of spiritual memoirs that read the way most of those emotionally overwrought singer/songwriters sound: whiney and wiser-than-thou. This one is refreshingly different. It's built around an actual story, with a beginning, middle and end. It's a great story too, told by a likable, honest, regular guy who just happens to really know how to write. By the time you finish it, Kent Annan will be your friend; he'll have learned a lot, and so will you."



"Kent Annan takes the reader on a ride through the hot spots of both this world and the individual's soul. By turns wrenching and funny, and always honest, his own story puts an unerring finger on that difficult place where a questioning mind and an open heart meet."



"Annan offers a vivid picture of the Haiti he knows, the good work happening there through organizations like Haiti Partners, and the ways you can get involved. . . You'll get a fresh sense of what it means to love God and to love our neighbor when love makes us uncomfortable, or even takes us to dangerous places, to see what happens when God stretches us beyond our borders and into his kingdom."



"Following Jesus is a fresh and accessible memoir of hope and discovery. Kent's journey is an invitation for all of us to consider how we might find authentic ways to love faithfully and live humbly. In a world that desperately needs a good God to be embodied, Kent Annan offers himself as an answer to that prayer."



"Annan calls us beyond human sin and its consequences to consider the possibility that God is God, that change is possible, that hope is worthwhile, and that individual and corporate action can make a difference."



"I just read Kent Annan's book. I think he will join the ranks of Don Miller, Lauren Winner and Shane Claiborne as one of our most gifted younger writers. He not only writes with grace and grit, but he has an extraordinary bank of experience to draw on--as someone who has lived among the poorest and in the most dangerous settings. No platitudes, no sentimentality, no euphemisms. Just an honest eye, sharp mind and human heart."



"Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle offers a fresh sense of what it means to love God and love our neighbor when love is uncomfortable—even dangerous—and to experience what happens when God stretches on beyond his or her borders into serving God's kingdom."



"This wonderful book is as much about faith and commitment and service and love and love of service as it is about the author and about Haiti. Please read it. You will be uplifted and you willbe inspired, but most of all you will enjoy it."



"This is a book that emerges from the tireless struggle familiar to Haiti's slums and to Jesus' Galilee. Kent Annan's story is filled with the hope that there is a God who can set free both the oppressed and the oppressors. After all, Kent is one rich ruler who has entered the kingdom, but he had to learn that you can't drive a BMW across the border."



"It's not often you read a book at once as moving and disturbing as Kent Annan's accounts of the time he has lived among the rural poor of Haiti, where every day tested his fortitude, his marriage and his abundant store of good humor. Yet he doesn't wish to play on our feelings or to point an accusing finger. Rather, he wants to share his fears, his bewilderment, and the everyday glimmers of beauty and joy he finds among his neighbors."