Harvest Time Staff

Rosemary Feerick

I grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Mount Kisco, NY, the fourth of six children. My parents emphasized kindness, ethics, integrity and generously participated in community service projects. At the age of 16, I began to search for something deeper within myself and my faith tradition that could hold in the face of the injustices I was witnessing in the world. During this time, a wise Rabbi befriended me, modeling a way of being on a spiritual path that was appealing and full of life.

I continued my search at Georgetown University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, studying religion and the liberal arts. Upon graduation, I made a decision to live simply and to work with women who were homeless in Washington DC. This decision coincided with a gift of love that came in the form of money. The paradox of that moment began my search for a way to hold together my reality and background as a person of wealth with my desire to respond to injustice in the world. That journey has taken me to the Catholic Worker movement, The Church of the Saviour, Haiti, Bosnia, a Masters of Divinity program at the Jesuit school of Theology, The Song of Songs, Yes!, Be Present, and to my current position at Harvest Time.

In addition to my work at Harvest Time, I am also the mother of two boys. We live in Half Moon Bay, CA where we enjoy making volcanoes on the beach, baking chocolate chip cookies and dressing up as superheroes.

Rosemary Feerick - rose@harvesttime.cc

John Engle

I am married to Merline and our son’s name is Daniel, our daughter's name is Leila. We live in Vero Beach, Florida but spend considerable time in Mariaman, Haiti, the community where l lived for nearly 10 years. Merline and I met in Haiti. Prior to moving to Haiti, I spent seven years in sales and management in a family business and then with Panasonic Corporation.

Growing up in a Christian family, hearing stories from Chinh and Ngu, the Vietnamese brother and sister who lived with us after fleeing their country in 1974, listening to Tony Campolo, reading books like “A Distant Grief” (about horrors in Uganda) are experiences that made me aware that I lived in a bubble and also that a desire to follow Jesus meant a lot of responsibility for people like me.

I met Don McClanen and then Bryan Sirchio soon after I moved to Haiti. Their ministries have helped shape my sense of call and I treasure friendships with them and many wonderful people who are part of Harvest Time's network.

My work in Haiti started in 1991 with Tony Campolo's organization EAPE (Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education). With EAPE's blessing and support co-workers and I created Beyond Borders in 1993, to expand EAPE's work. Now, sixteen years later, with the support of Beyond Borders and Harvest Time, co-worker Kent Annan and I have launched Haiti Partners. Haiti Partners' mission is to help Haitians change Haiti through education for students, teachers, leaders and disciples. Learn more at www.haitipartners.org

Haiti Partners is playing an important part in Harvest Time's transition out of Haiti and is excited about its new partnership with Cite Soleil Community School. Thanks to Harvest Time's financial support over the next 18 months and the ongoing commitment of the school's teachers and leadership, Haiti Partners feels blessed to be able to step out in faith and assume ongoing funding responsibility so that desperately poor children in Cite Soleil can receive a quality education for years to come.

My work as Transition Coordinator also entails supporting the process of MCC (Madison Christian Community) assuming ongoing funding responsibility for the SPARE program, coaching members of BYA as they work to create income generating activities, and identifying new partners who can replace Harvest Time's support for the Circles of Change teacher training and leadership development program

I’m fortunate in that I love what I do and the people I work with. Plus, being Merline’s husband and Daniel and Leila's father delights me. Among the things that Merline and I enjoy most is having dinner with friends, family and colleagues on our porch at our home in Haiti.

John Engle - john@haitipartners.org

Noa Mohlabane

I am the descendent of German Jewish immigrants. I lived in Israel for my early years and moved to the United States when I was seven. I began volunteering and participated in community activism from the time I was nine years old. That, along with living in different places on this planet, have brought me my greatest learning and continue to sustain me.

I sought non-traditional education including studies in Kenya and Tanzania through Friends World College – a school that was based on international independent field study. While studying education for self reliance there, I met Douglas, who was of Sotho and Tswana descent. We were married for 16 years and raised our children in the South African exile community in California. Our children, Namane and Goapele, continue to bring awe and sweet pleasure into my life 34 and 32 years later. My daughter has brought a granddaughter into my life – pure joy. Demetra joined me as partner in life and love four years ago and brings even more family into my life.

With an AA in Early Childhood Education and a MA in Human Development (specialization in Parent/Community Work) from Pacific Oaks College, I have worked with children, parents and teachers for over 40 years.

All my work has been in the not-for-profit world including over 25 years of organizational development and managing or directing programs, both grassroots and large established ones. I love witnessing and photographing open heart moments and the intense sensual beauty of form and balance in nature.

My heart’s work for over 21 years has been with Be Present, Inc. where I currently sit on the board and which brought me in partnership with Rose during the 18 month Training Institute on the Issues of Race, Gender, Power, and Class.

My biggest current learning / growing edge of how to work with the complexity of expanded financial privilege and responsibility that came with an inheritance from my father. I am now engaged in amazing transformative conversations through my employment with Harvest Time which have opened this Jewish soul to whole new levels of learning.

Noa Mohlabane - noa@harvesttime.cc

Greg Rasmussen

I've lived in northern Wisconsin most of my life where I have had the good fortune to reside in quiet rural settings. Together with Joy, my dearest friend and wife of 32 years, we live on a small piece of land surrounded by pine, spruce and maple trees, and thousands of acres of county forest. It was here we raised our two children, who are now grown and married and living their own dreams. Joy and I recently became grandparents for the first time, and my mom, Carolyn, who lives with us, became a great-grandmother. When we're not busy working our day jobs or planning how we're going to spoil our granddaughter, we enjoy our gardens and being outdoors, keeping friendships kindled, working with wood & clay, and living quietly off the beaten trail.

Early in my teens I became aware of the Abba of Jesus in a way I still can't quite describe. That produced a recognition of a spiritual restlessness within me that set me off on a particular course of life that continues to this day. Along the way, any number of personal experiences and many, many people have been instrumental in shaping my life and faith these many years, helping me to vision and revision the life I most long for deep within my heart. Perhaps the most significant experience was coming face to face with my alcoholism in 1988. Along with the difficult side of that reality, I also came face to face with the undeniable reflection of a God who was gently but firmly loving me in the midst of my deepest poverty. This impacted me in such a profound way that, for the second time in my life, I've never quite been the same since. I am deeply convinced the God I have come to know loves all of us without cause or reason, and accepts us as we are, not as we should be.

Other experiences have both opened and broken my heart to the broader realities of the world we live in, and revealed the true depth of the spiritual journey I'm on. Experiences in Laos, Haiti and tribal lands here in the States, challenging perspectives from Brennan Manning, Gordon Cosby and the Church of the Saviour and former co-director Bryan Sirchio. I wish I could acknowledge all the people and events that have contributed to my faith perspectives. Today I find I am still only trying to live in meaningful and faithful ways - acknowledging I don't always do that well. In spite of this, I celebrate with gratitude and humility the God of my interiority that continues to offer acceptance, hope and promise, who has revealed to me the merciful, compassionate face of Jesus, and the life-giving, empowering and transformative possibilities of the Holy Spirit.

I bring a background of various media related and clerical skills to help support Harvest Time's efforts. I am grateful to be in fellowship with people I consider friends and teachers. I truly love the people I work with and have come to know through Harvest Time.

About the picture at the bottom - it's from a Harvest Time Haiti Circle retreat we had in Texas last year. Rose, John and I went horseback riding one afternoon and I will always remember the simple enjoyment of that ride as much as I will remember and treasure all the wonderful people and the meaningful time we shared at that retreat.

Greg Rasmussen - office@harvesttime.cc

Harvest Time is a 501(c)3 Public Charity