Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle: Living Fully, Loving Dangerously

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 become a 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 get a 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.

"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."--Shane Claiborne, author, activist and recovering sinner (www.thesimpleway.org)

"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."--Brian McLaren, author and activist

"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."--Greg Paul, author of God in the Alley

"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."--Christopher L. Heuertz, author of Simple Spirituality and international director of Word Made Flesh

"Kent Annan is a gifted writer to keep an eye on with a message you can't afford to miss. Highly recommended!"--Margaret Feinberg, author of Scouting the Divine and The Organic God

"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."--Aina Barten, features editor, Orion Magazine

"An unpredictable book! As you read this story, words like fascinating, convicting and inspiring will come to mind, but beneath them you will feel the suffering strain--and yes, the glory--of a young couple radically following Jesus into the lives of the obscenely poor people of Haiti."--Tony Campolo, Ph.D., Eastern University

"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 will be inspired, but most of all you will enjoy it."--Edwidge Danticat, author of Brother I'm Dying and The Dew Breaker

"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."--Bart Campolo

"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."--Jim Miller, The Daily Sentinel, March 27, 2010