Live OneWorld

Here we are in Haiti!

2011-01-15T11:08:00.000-06:00

Hey Everyone! Our Live OneWorld adventure has begun! We arrived in Haiti one week ago today. Every time I begin something new then I create a list of things I want to get out of the experience. Normally, broadcasting my experiences and trying to allow others to gain insights from what I have learned is at the top of my list (like the Live for Haiti campaign where I slept in a tent on the

Live OneWorld Haiti1

2011-01-13T07:15:00.000-06:00

New and improved blog

2010-12-10T15:47:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, Just switched over my blog to reflect a few new facts about my own shifting life. Since my last post, I have gotten married! I met Monique in D.C. at the Haitian Embassy where she was reporting on Haitian orphans and I was working with the Haitian Ambassador. While living in a tent in D.C. during a blizzard for a month to be in solidarity and raise funds for earthquake relief

UN Helicopter ride!!!!

2010-03-25T15:20:00.003-05:00

We delivered essential medicines to 10,000 people for 3 months with the World Health Organization. These UN organizations are really doing incredible work.

Haiti Recap

2010-03-25T15:16:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone! I am home! Not just from Haiti, but from DC as well. I slept in my own bed last night for the first time in two and a half months. I was only supposed to be gone for a week in DC for interviews to go to Afghanistan, but it turned into the craziest adventure of my life! Upon arriving at the airport in DC a couple days ago I spoke to the youth mayors group about Haiti and how

Day 2: Distribution of shelter with IOM!

2010-03-20T17:52:00.001-05:00

“How do I know that if I give to you, that my money will really go to help the people?” This is usually the biggest obstacle that I hear standing in the way of a generous and compassionate donation to overseas aid. It is certainly a legitimate concern and one that I share with all of you. We all know that people profit off of these crisis situations and almost everyone has a political and

US Military in Haiti

2010-03-19T12:21:00.002-05:00

Here is an interview with Lt. Col. Wiley Thompson, a West Point Professor who is in Haiti researching the U.S. military's disaster relief response. Everything I have witnessed and everyone I have spoken with, only has positive things to say about the U.S. Military and their involvement in the Disaster Response efforts down here in Haiti. The aid organizations depend on them heavily to

UN MINUSTAH Compound

2010-03-19T11:58:00.000-05:00

Haiti Day 1: Hope

2010-03-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

Haiti! I have arrived

2010-03-19T11:44:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone! I have officially arrived in Haiti! It has been an amazing experience so far. I have some really good video to share with all of you, but just one of the many problems here is a slow internet connection and uploading a 2 minute video said it will take 7 hours! So hopefully we will figure out a better way to get things out to you. In the meantime...

Beauty Will Save the World

2010-03-16T19:17:00.000-05:00

I had a layover in Puerto Rico on my way down to Haiti! It was sunny and 90 degrees! A little different from snowmaggedon in DC in the tent! Life is so good and I can't wait to get down on the ground in Haiti finally. We are going to show you where all of your donations have been going to help bring emergency shelter to the people of Haiti. I arrive in Haiti tomorrow morning! Please

Capitol Hill! Meeting w/ Sen. Durbin (IL)

2010-03-12T15:34:00.000-06:00

Assistant Majority Leader of the US Senate, Dick Durbin (IL), meets with activist Jesse Sullivan to discuss emergency shelter for Haiti and how America can begin to "Live OneWorld." How amazing to think that in one month you can go from setting up a tent on the streets of DC for a cause and 30 days later getting a meeting with the 2nd most powerful Senator in the United States. I have

Wrapping up the tent!

2010-03-12T15:08:00.000-06:00

Today... One Month in the Tent!

2010-03-03T13:43:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone, Today is exactly 1 month that I have lived in the tent! It has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I can honestly say that I am happier right now than I have ever been in my life. I feel like God has been present to me and is opening doors and I am just loving the feeling of trying to follow where the Holy wind blows. Quick recap so far...

My man Kwame Brown

2010-03-01T23:41:00.000-06:00

Video of my man Kwame Brown (DC Council member) who came down to the tent to urge DC to "Show Love for Haiti." Become a fan of the DC4Haiti facebook page click here.

Voice of America Interview

2010-03-01T23:20:00.000-06:00

And take a look at the article by clicking here. Please consider donating or hosting your own event. Go to: www.LiveOneWorld.org

CNN interview delayed...

2010-02-28T11:24:00.001-06:00

So I was supposed to be interviewed this morning on CNN's "Faces of Faith" to talk about the situation in Haiti and how people of faith are called to respond. However, due to the earthquake in Chile they cancelled all other programming for the morning to cover the devastation happening there. NYT reports 1.5 million people displaced. This tragedy just goes to show even further that we must all

Day 22! Windy cold night in the tent

2010-02-26T02:40:00.000-06:00

Interfaith- My thoughts on religion

2010-02-24T17:05:00.001-06:00

This most recent disaster has once again reminded us that our brothers and sisters in the developing world are suffering and it is time we "lived" our lives differently rather than just simply writing a check and going on with our day. We grow as individuals through acts of solidarity. Beliefs mean nothing if they are not lived out in our daily lives. So if we believe that caring for the "

Who is crazy?

2010-02-21T10:08:00.000-06:00

Read this article and you will discover that the situation in Haiti is even worse than I thought imaginable. People are having to stand all night when it rains because their camps are flooded with water and they can't even lie down to sleep. I found the article on my cousin John Carroll's blog. He is a doctor who has been going down to Haiti since before I was born. He and his wife Maria

What "Missions" means to me.

2010-02-19T18:28:00.000-06:00

My friend Bryan Throckmortan wanted me to do a video from the tent to show his Christian Youth group on the subject of "Missions." Here is what I came up with. Let me know what you think.

Spiritual Fasting- Join us!

2010-02-19T11:47:00.001-06:00

Here is a great sermon by Deacon Kautzky in St. Louis. It was inspired by the "Live for Haiti" movement and gives a good explanation about why Christians fast. Click Here. Fasting is a tradition of every major faith. I for example, decided to do a Muslim Ramadan style fast since I would be doing it for a month. Please consider fasting for a day to be in Solidarity with the Haitian children

Need for shelter more urgent than ever!

2010-02-18T17:06:00.000-06:00

Check out this AP story coming out of Haiti that shows just how urgent the need for shelter really is. Makes me trying to keep the water out of my tent today from the melting snow seem pretty insignificant.. Click Here.

I love back home...

2010-02-18T08:41:00.000-06:00

Here are a few more links to news stories that were run back home in Springfield, IL about the "Live for Haiti" campaign. State Journal Register: "Petersburg Native Living in D.C. Tent to promote Haiti Aid" WICS News Channel 20: "Petersburg Man Living for Haiti" Thanks so much everyone back in Central IL for your support. But this isn't about me, it is about us, and what we can do together

Watch CNN at 4:20 EST Today!

2010-02-17T14:27:00.001-06:00

I just got a call from CNN. Tune into the interview from the tent at 4:20 EST Today! I'll update you with a link if you miss it. Let's hope this can lead to more shelter for the kids of Haiti and more global solidarity amongst the American people. Here is a link to "Rick's List" where it aired. It has the text, but no video yet. I'll post it as soon as I get it. Peace

CNN's Most Intriguing People of the Day

2010-02-17T08:54:00.009-06:00

Today, CNN has selected me as one of the "most intriguing people of the day." To read the article click here. I'm right under the Dalai Lama! haha pretty hilarious to even be mentioned in the same breath with this guy. One of my favorite moments was 2 years ago when I met him at Oxford. He shuffled into the Sheldonian Hall amidst protesters chanting loudly outside, and he brought such a

Talk Radio News Interview

2010-02-16T16:06:00.002-06:00

2 week Milestone- CNN!

2010-02-16T15:37:00.000-06:00

Well 2 weeks down. We have had our ups and downs, but no day has been bigger or better than today! This morning I was interviewed by Jay Kernis from CNN who writes the "Most Intriguing Person of the Day" column. I was selected to be tomorrow's "Most Intriguing Person." So I'll include a link to that piece tomorrow. Here is a description they give on the site about the award: "There are

Day 13- Bad morning

2010-02-15T06:19:00.000-06:00

Bad morning. Wet and cold. Please donate.

Day 10- tour of the Haitian embassy

2010-02-12T20:20:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, God is definitely trying to test my resolve in this 30 day solidarity campaign living in a tent. I chose a heck of a time with "Snowmageddon" setting record snowfalls for the region. But to be honest, I love the challenge. I feel like I get to be the Bear Grills, "man vs. wild" in the streets of D.C. I even used a few of his techniques for avoiding hypothermia! Sorry I've

Oxford to Homeless

2010-02-11T01:53:00.000-06:00

My cousin told me I'm like Homeless to Harvard but in reverse... Oxford to Homeless.

One Week Down! Waking up in a snowstorm!

2010-02-10T08:24:00.001-06:00

I am so tired. Cold. and incredibly blessed!

Day 6- At the Embassy with Anissa

2010-02-08T21:00:00.001-06:00

Great Day today! I went down to the Haitian Embassy to get some work done. The ambassador might come down to visit me at the tent. Here in this video is Anissa whose father and mother are Haitian and Haitian American. You can tell that I am so scared she is going to squirm and fall! Her little cousin is down in Haiti living on the street. The rainy season is going to start soon. We've got

Day 5: Super Bowl Sunday

2010-02-08T04:09:00.001-06:00

Day 4 video- Record Snowfall!

2010-02-07T15:09:00.004-06:00

Sorry the video is turned sideways. I just wanted to give you all a new perspective... that and I'm an idiot when it comes to technology!

Photos by Kevin

2010-02-07T11:57:00.004-06:00

Thanks so much to Kevin Reiser an old friend, and all around great guy from my hometown, Petersburg, IL, who is now working out in D.C. who came down and took these photos at the very beginning of the blizzard.

Day #5: Blizzard

2010-02-07T11:02:00.004-06:00

Hey Everyone! So sorry that I haven't posted anything yet from yesterday. We had a blizzard come through and record setting snowfall. I'm looking out of my tent right now at around 30 inches of snow piled up around the tent! All of the businesses shut down and so I wasn't able to charge my computer or my phone. So, yesterday I was having a really bad day. I could not stop thinking about all

A visitor to the tent!

2010-02-06T13:13:00.003-06:00

Tommy who went to the same undergrad as me (Saint Louis University) heard through a friend on facebook about what I was doing and decided to pay me a visit! He brought along Hot Chocolate and we had a nice chat in the tent. Thanks for coming Tommy. Anybody in the area please stop by anytime (the corner of North Capitol and Florida in DC). Also, please share this site with your friends by

2010-02-05T17:20:00.000-06:00

Day #3- Snowstorm coming!

2010-02-05T09:05:00.004-06:00

Great nights sleep! Well, at least a little better than the 1st night. I am so blessed. So, I keep getting these messages and calls telling me that a huge snowstorm is coming 2-3 feet or something crazy like that. God must just be testing my determination, but he knows what a stubborn cuss I can be. I keep thinking to myself... no matter how bad it gets, if I'm hungry or cold or feel like my

2nd night in the tent!

2010-02-04T22:52:00.004-06:00

So last night I decided that I would say a prayer for the Haitian people every time I felt cold and lets just say that by this morning God said, "OK, OK, I get the point." I'm a country boy and I'm not used to sleeping with all of the traffic and this has to be one of the busiest intersections in the city and huge trucks and sirens are ringing out all night long. I hope my parents don't read

1st Night in the Tent!

2010-02-04T22:46:00.002-06:00

First night in Solidarity! Listening to Bob Marley "redemption song" and Bob Dylan "The times they are a changing." Sitting out in the tent in 30 degree weather with snow on the ground waiting on a donated large cheese pizza from New York Pizza (kinda feel bad eating such a good meal) But I decided to do a Muslim Ramadan style fast. I'll only eat food before sunrise and then again at sundown

Take a look at my new blog

2010-02-04T18:37:00.000-06:00

Ya estuvo

2008-06-19T16:11:00.002-05:00

My brain has just run the equivalent of a marathon! But I am officially finished with my degree here at Oxford! (Ok well not officially, I have a Viva or an oral part on the 30th...) I no joke have a blister forming on my finger from the past couple weeks of writing! The Degree program here is set up so that your whole grade is dependent upon these final exams. All exams are essay exams.

2008-05-19T18:25:00.002-05:00

Truth is pluriformJust as beauty and justice are pluriformIt is not all things,But it is not just manifested as one thing.In substance it is one thing, but not in form.It takes on many shapes, and is dressed in many styles.But underneath the different masks lies the same essence.Truth is one, but truth is also more than one.Like multiple geysers that spring forth with the same water from an

Haitian Hearts

2008-05-07T20:07:00.003-05:00

When I was younger, my dad's cousin Johnny Carroll would go down to Haiti and work with kids at a clinic and bring some back to Peoria Illinois for Heart Surgery. I really looked up to him and he was one of the reasons I wanted to do medicine, to go overseas and work with kids. He still is a big inspiration to me, especially for speaking the truth in search of justice regardless of the

Incredible day

2008-05-07T19:52:00.002-05:00

Hey all, so listen to this day I had yesterday...First I wake up and it is sunny!Then I go to class with Joseph Nye. He is the old Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and my favorite International Relations guy. He talks about "Soft Power" and wrote the book "paradox of American Power" which is a classic. He is also the founder of NeoLiberalism. Then in the afternoon I went to

Exciting past couple weeks

2008-05-03T04:57:00.002-05:00

Things here are going great! I was asked to give a talk at SLU university in Madrid Spain. So I got a 3 day all expense paid trip to Espana (thanks to one of my favorite professors of all time who is now working there- Ron Modras and his wife Mary Elizabeth). So we went to Toledo, saw flamanco dancing, Picasso's "Guernica" and some El Greco's, had tapas and sangria and best of all... I saw the

Newest article for OneWorld

2008-05-03T04:56:00.000-05:00

It Begins Within YouBy Jesse Sullivan “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.” These words, first written in the founding document of our country, are engraved deep into the very soul of America. Yet, at the time they were written, slaves, women, and Native Americans might have found them to be a bit hypocritical. While the phrase is meant to exclude no

detachment

2008-04-21T16:52:00.004-05:00

To be an Artist means not to calculate or count,but to ripen like the tree that doesn't force its sap, that stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not followfor it will come regardless.But only to those who live as though eternity stretches before themSilent, carefree, and endless...I have recited this poem in my head about every day since I first read it about 2

Religious vs. political

2008-02-18T15:53:00.003-06:00

"To put Archbishop Romero on the path to sainthood, Cardinal Martins said the Church must first determine that he was killed for religious reasons rather than political ones."I honestly laughed out loud when I heard this, and then I just felt a little ashamed of what our Catholic church has become. Could someone please tell me, what is the difference between the two????If he died because he

Welcome back- to me!

2008-01-26T08:52:00.000-06:00

Hey all, sorry about the long vacation I took from this blog! I never thought so many people were actually reading it and wanted me to keep writing. So I will do a short recap of the past couple months. Worked like a dog first term spending so much time in the library. The library here at my college used to be an old chapel and so it still has religious stained glass windows etc. It just

Amazing Speakers

2007-11-08T18:43:00.000-06:00

Every single day here there are so many incredible lectures taking place all around the university. In one week, we had the President of Afghanistan, The President of Turkey, and the Past-President of Mexico... but none of these people were as good as another man I listened to at the end of the week. His name is Tariq Ramadan. He is a scholar that talks about the "Gift of Islam." He talks

My Weekly Schedule

2007-11-08T18:31:00.000-06:00

Monday-9:30-11:30 Global Governance12:00-1:00 Diplomatic Practice (Usually famous guest speaker onregional issues: Darfur, Iraq, etc.)2:30-3:30 Diplomatic Practice Tutorial (small group practicalapplications: crisis simulations or speech writing etc.)5:00-6:30 Global Governance Lecture (Famous Guest Speaker)Tuesday-No classesUsually Read and attend seminars put on by various departments justfor

I made the Varsity B-ball team!

2007-10-08T19:37:00.000-05:00

Hey all, Just wanted to give you a quick update. Knowing that I wanted this Oxford experience to be about more than just academics, I decided on saturday to try out for the Oxford University Basketball team. There were about 70 people there and after 3 hrs of intense drills and scrimmage they widdled the field down to just 6 of us to join the Varsity team ("Blues" as they call it.) I had a

Photo time!

2007-10-08T18:10:00.000-05:00

Mowing the yard for Ian (my Rotary host counselor) He's the one on the far right of the picture belowOther Rotary Scholars studying in my district (from US, Italy, Korea, Austria, & Japan)Lianna & I at a Rotary talkNick my gracious host in Portsmouth where I met 90 other Rotary scholars studying all over the UKBoat ride in Portsmouth on the Southern Coast, typical England weather:( .

Question and Answer

2007-10-03T07:34:00.000-05:00

Hey all, I think it would be best if for the next bit you ask me questions you are interested in hearing and I will reply with a short answer. To give it a try, just hit comments below. Cheers!

At your request

2007-10-01T14:48:00.000-05:00

Hey all! at your request I will give you a little day to day experiences I have had thus far in England. So I left the U.S. just under a week ago. Long day of travel with a stopover in Montreal, where I left my winter coat in the overhead compartment. I know, I know. I have a bad reputation for doing this ever since I left the shoes I was wearing at my cousins house and walked home barefoot

1st real post- Hello from England!

2007-09-27T08:42:00.000-05:00

Hello All! This is my first real blog entry, I am not quite sure what audience I am writing to. If only my family or close friends were to be reading this, I would no doubt keep the "to" at the end of the last sentence even though I know it is not proper. My family knows above all that I am far from perfect and it can be a daunting task to try to appear as such. However, if you, the reader,

OneWorld Article- "The Savior"

2007-09-21T18:52:00.000-05:00

The SaviorJesse SullivanSisyphus is a character in Greek mythology who has the task of rolling a boulder to the top of a large hill. No matter how tirelessly he works to get the rock to the top, the gods step in and roll the boulder back down the hill. I am intrigued with the character of Sisyphus because I believe that all of us, in a sense, have entered into his struggle. We all set ideals,

OneWorld Article- "The Forsaken"

2007-09-21T14:12:00.000-05:00

The Forsaken by Jesse Sullivan11/3/05 El SalvadorThe waves came one after another ceaselessly crashing in on the dirty sand beach. White foam glides its way up the shore, struggling and straining to continue its climb- but to no avail. Eventually the wave would reach that point at which its momentum and desire was overpowered by the laws of reality. From that point where its will had managed

My recent Article in Conversations Magazine- "We Need A Theology that Afflicts the Comfortable"

2007-09-19T00:15:00.000-05:00

recent Article in SLU mag: "One Voice for OneWorld"

2007-09-18T22:43:00.000-05:00

A recent graduate finds a way to share hispassion for social justice.– By Nick SargentLong before Jesse Sullivan (A&S ’07) dreamed of dispensing social justice across the globe, he dreamed of dispensing a different brand of justice on the football field.As a teenager growing up in Petersburg, Ill. — population of about 2,300 — Sullivan had his sights set on sports and expected to succeed. After