Welcome to the Nonviolent Jesus Podcast. I'm
John, Father John Deere, and today I'm speaking
with my friend Jerry Straub about his new book
about life in Haiti and his life filming. among
extreme poverty. This is a project of www .beatitudecenter
.org, where you can find many other podcasts
and regular Zoom programs on the nonviolence
of Jesus and practicing nonviolence and working
for a more just, more nonviolent world. So let's
begin, as usual, with just a little moment of
prayer. And I just invite you, wherever you are,
to just take a deep breath. And to just relax
and let's all recenter ourselves and notice how
we're feeling. And I invite you to enter into
the presence of the God of peace who loves you
infinitely and personally and everyone everywhere.
And let's welcome the risen nonviolent Jesus
here with us. And just take a moment to ask for
whatever grace and blessing you need to follow.
the nonviolent Jesus more faithfully and do God's
will. God of peace, thank you for all the many
blessings of life, love, and peace that you give
us. Be with us now as we reflect together with
Jerry on your call to follow the nonviolent Jesus
in service among the poor and needy. and to work
for a more nonviolent, more just world. Bless
us, inspire us, disarm us, heal us, strengthen
us, and send us out to do your will, that we
might do our part to end poverty and unjust suffering,
and all forms of corporate greed and systemic
injustice, racism, war, nuclear weapons, environmental
destruction, and fascism, that we might be your
holy beatitude people. your holy peacemakers,
and welcome your reign of universal love, nonviolence,
and peace on earth. In the name of the nonviolent
Jesus, amen. Well, it's a great blessing to welcome
my friend, filmmaker, author, and founder of
the Santa Kiera Children's Center in Haiti, Jerry
Straub. Santa Kiera is an orphanage for children
in Port -au -Prince, Haiti. where Jerry has lived
for the last many years until he had to flee
about a year ago because of the total violence
that has swept through Haiti. Since then, living
in Florida, where we're talking today, he's written
a great new book telling the story of his journey
as a Hollywood producer, once of General Hospital,
the soap opera. to then moving to Assisi, where
he wrote his award -winning book about St. Francis
called The Sun and Moon Over Assisi, to then
founding Pax et Bonum Communications, where for
20 years he traveled the world into the poorest
slums on the planet and made some 20 films about
extreme poverty, which have been shown all over
the country and which you can now watch for free
online. And then he moved to Haiti and started
an orphanage. And so I want to ask him about
some of these things, and mainly his new book,
which is called The Cross of Love, The Pain of
Poverty, which is available online and at Amazon
and everywhere. And all the proceeds go to the
orphanage in Haiti. I've known Jerry for over
25 years. He's the author of many other great
books, and it's a pleasure to have you here.
So, Jerry Straub, welcome to the Nonviolent Jesus
podcast. Oh, thanks, John. Hey, congratulations
on this new book, which tells your amazing story,
which is hard to sum up in a sentence, but from
Hollywood to filming documentaries among the
poorest of the poor, to moving to Haiti, to setting
up this amazing orphanage, which I visited just
before the pandemic, the Santa Clara Children's
Center. I thought there's so much to talk about,
and I hope everyone will get your book, The Cross
of Love, The Pain of Poverty. dig more into Jerry's
journey. But let's focus on the films and on
Santa Chiara in Haiti. So you've made over 20
very powerful films about extreme poverty all
over the world. And now you've put them all for
free online for people to watch, and maybe even
better for church groups, conferences, and schools
to use. I think your website is poxatbonumcom
.org. which will spell and I'll repeat it later.
So tell me about the films first, about making
movies about the poor at the service of the poor.
Well, I guess it began, but I was just trying
to understand St. Francis's love of the poor
and not just of the poor, but of poverty itself,
which really made no sense to me. So I. I actually
lived in a soup kitchen that the Friars, Franciscan
Friars, operated in Philadelphia. And I was so
amazed, I got some friends of mine from Good
Morning America, and we made a very simple film
on their life. And amazingly, it wound up on
PBS, just not the whole network, but maybe 60
or 70 % of the stations took the film. And it
generated... about a quarter of a million dollars
for the Friars to build a new and better soup
kitchen. And I knew in that experience that,
you know, putting the power, I could put the
power of film at the service of the poor. And
so it began. It began to, actually, the first
thing that happened is the Minister General of
the Franciscan Order read my book on St. Francis,
The Sun and Moon Over Assisi. And he actually
wrote me a personal letter and wanted to meet
me. And I had next time I was in Rome and I met
him and I told him that I wanted to go deeper
into the bloated belly of poverty by living with
friars around the world who were serving the
poor, living the self -emptying love of Christ.
And he said, what are you going to do? And I
said, well, I don't know. I'm just going to,
you know, observe, take some notes, maybe take
some photos. And amazingly, he blessed this idea
and arranged for me to visit, I think, like 13
cities in about a year and a half. And that's
when I really started entering into extreme poverty.
And all I really knew was, you know, television
visuals. And so I started making films and we
showed these films that. catholic schools and
universities to try to show the people the real
plight of the poor and to then to connect it
to our faith which compels us to do something
uh to relieve that suffering and so uh i mean
that's how it started and uh yeah so in your
book the cross of love the pain of poverty you
walk us through the making of so many of those
films and they're literally around the world.
So it's such an unusual book. I was telling Leanne,
the producer, that I think you have been in the
poorest places on the planet, maybe more than
anybody else I know, except for maybe Mother
Teresa. And so it's an incredible experience
you've had. Can you tell us about one or two
of the films briefly to give us a taste of them?
Well, yeah, there was just so many stories in
each of the films, you know, individual people
that, you know, really stood out to me. But I
guess the one that really comes to mind the fastest
is a film I made in Uganda in 2009, in which
we, at that time, there was sort of the tail
end of a civil war in Uganda. The place was just
falling apart. And we were in the north of Haiti,
north of Uganda, rather. And we managed one day
to be out in the bush, you know, where very few
people went. And we were driving and the car
got stuck in the sand. And so I just got out
and wandered into a little hamlet. consisting
of just three huts made of mud and sticks and
like a grass roof. And there was nobody there.
But in the middle of a little common area, the
middle of these three shacks, there were three
huts, rather. There were two children lying on
the ground, half naked, not moving. And I walked
up to them and was just so... I was overwhelmed
by the sight of them. Their behinds were shriveled
and laced with deep lines. They had tiny bones
and dried out skin. And they were only wearing
like tattered, dirty T -shirts. And I just began
taking photographs and literally getting down
on the ground and filming them. I mean, their
face was... faces were covered with mud and flies.
I really didn't even know how to respond to this.
And we later found out that they actually had
polio, which is why they weren't moving. And
as I was filming, a little girl emerges from
the bush carrying water and turned out to be
their own older sister. all she could do for
them was to bathe them. So she walked for some
miles to get water. And we could see that they
were just skin and bones. They were on the verge
of starvation. And this became just such an amazing
thing to see and to film. And so I wrote about
it in my journals when I got back. While I was
still in Uganda, we managed to transport the
kids to some German missionaries to rehabilitate
them nutritionally. Eventually, one of my donors
supported them to get them to a major hospital
in Kampala, where they were treated for their
polio. The clips from the film of those two kids
became the way I ended every presentation I gave
at high schools and universities. And it just
so moved people. They never really forgot those
two kids, Sam and Esther. And your book has,
for the listeners, Jerry's a world -class photographer.
And you have a lot of photos in the book, including
of those beautiful kids. is it Esther who did
or Jane, you know, later on is doing really well
now. Oh yeah. Jane, Jane. I kind of sponsored
Jane for a little while. Yeah. She's the older
one. There's the older sister and she just graduated
from university. Yeah. That's a degree in English
literature, you know? And, but the big thing
was when I was back in Hollywood and trying to
put this film together and it was such a tough
ministry to try to. you know, pull together.
And I was really down one day and I went into
my office and on the answering machine, there
was a call from Jane and it's just simply said,
this is Jane. I am happy. Thank you. And I remember
just becoming so elated at that simple message,
you know, or whatever depression I was feeling
or, you know, struggles I was having were just
lifted, you know, that. This girl was able to
say that and express thanks. And now I was given,
maybe about a year ago, photos of her in her
cap and gown, you know, graduated from college.
Amazing. And I knew this was all because of a
film, you know, that really wasn't meant for
entertainment. It was just meant to help people
who were, you know. Living the self -emptying
love of Christ, serving the poor to give them
a tool that they could raise money. So that's
how it went. So a lot of your films end up being
used by the local folks to raise money for their
projects. Right. What's so amazing, you have
this state -of -the -art website now. All of
the photos and all your books, but now all the
films for free. You've given them over to the
world. Tell me about that. And I want to spell
this because I want all of our listeners to check
out Jerry's work. The website is poxetbonum .com
.org. As in Poxet Bonum, peace and all good.
It's Latin. Communications. P -A -X -E -T. B
-O -N -U -M -C -O -M -M dot org. But you can
just Google Jerry Straub and you'll see him.
Tell me about the website and how people can
get the films. Well, originally we sold the films
when it was on DVD, but now everything is streaming
and all of that. And people don't even have DVD
players anymore. So we just decided that. just
to put them on for free. So Pax Abundant Communications,
that's what the C -O -M -M means. And so teachers
use the films, use clips from the films in like
social justice classes. I mean, just last month,
I was in a university in Kentucky and in the
cathedral in Kentucky showing clips from the
films, just telling the story of how I... went
not only from a Hollywood television producer,
but an atheist, into being in the poorest place
on earth, all over. We were filmed in refugee
camps in northern Uganda years later, and in
Kenya. All through South America, filmed lepers
in Brazil, in Honduras, El Salvador, India. Oh,
my word. And so. So, Jerry. And again, folks,
I really invite you to check out Jerry's films
and contact him or invite him to come and speak
to your church or university and let him show
some of the films. Because it's very hard to
bring extreme global poverty to affluent American
Christian churches and schools. And you do that
well and just show it and then invite people
to respond, right? I used to say I made films
no one wants to see with money I didn't have.
You're still doing it. So then, OK, you call
me one day and you've moved to Port -au -Prince,
Haiti, which didn't surprise me. I was like,
that was kind of where all this incredible journey
of yours was headed. And you have no money and
you're in a little apartment. And then you're
telling me later. An orphan girl named Baby shows
up at your apartment, and then a few days later,
all these other children show up. And at one
point, you have 72 kids, and you found Santa
Kiera Children's Center, this orphanage. You
have a school and 66 full -time staff, including
teachers and nurses, and you still have no money.
And somehow it's all God. This is all proof of
the, because you raised 700 ,000 a year. So tell
us all about Santa Kiera and the children. It
was done by this radical trust in God that St.
Francis had. His idea was if he had nothing,
he would have to depend upon God for everything.
And I was in Haiti during the earthquake, the
aftermath of the earthquake. I was invited to
travel with doctors and nurses right days after
the earthquake. And it was such a nightmare.
I mean, there were just bodies all over the place.
And we lived in one of the hospitals that was
not damaged. And it was just... wall -to -wall
pain and suffering. And I just, after that, I
had post -traumatic stress disorder. And I kept
going back to Haiti because I wanted to see what
was going on and how they were recovering from
this incredible disaster. And then on one of
those trips, through someone I knew, I met this
little girl named Baby, who was only 10 years
old. And she just sort of adopted me. I was able
to sponsor her to go to school. She was living
with an aunt who was in very bad situation and
circumstances. But I would be in contact with
her via phone all the time. And then she got
sick. And I went back to Haiti for her first
communion. And then I saw how bad. She was and
no one could figure out what was wrong. And I
took her all over Port -au -Prince to try to
find what was the cause. And eventually it was
a kidney problem and she had to have a surgery.
And we arranged for that. And then afterwards,
I couldn't let her go back to where she was living.
So I got a little apartment and I hired someone
to watch her when I wasn't there. And eventually.
What was happening is all the little kids in
this slum started coming to us. And Baby and
I were just making sandwiches. She was 15 by
this time for the kids. And as I was taking her
around Port -au -Prince, I saw what the real
problem was, is that all the poor women, the
single moms who were selling things on the street,
had to take the kids with them. And I thought,
wow, if we could only have a center where the
moms could drop off their kids for the day, a
daycare center, and we could take care of them
during the day, they'd pick them up at night.
And how hard could that be? And so we moved into
a bigger place, and that's what we tried to do.
And in the first month, Some 22 mothers dropped
their kids off in the morning and never came
back. And so suddenly I had an orphanage and
had no idea what to do, how to do it. We had
power only a few hours a day. And how was I going
to feed all these kids? But somehow, somehow
it just kept growing. And the more I wrote about
it, the more people donated. And it was still
a very violent place. And it was, I'm amazed
it lasted. No one ever thought it would last,
you know. And you were the first and only friend
who ever came to see it for yourself. And you
were in, I guess, the third house when you came.
Which is an amazing place. And the kids are so
spectacular. I was, you know, and so Jerry's
book, friends, I'm encouraging everyone to get
it, The Cross of Love, The Pain of Poverty. And
the subtitle is The Unscripted Journey of a Hollywood
Producer to the Worst Slums on Earth and an Orphanage
in Haiti. And it's full of photos and it's one
of the great transformation stories. Jerry, you
have a beautiful line in there where Santa Kiera,
you call it the school of life. I wondered if
you could say about that because that was my
experience. You know, we hear about Haiti as
this place of death. And it is. There's so many
killings and the anarchy now and all the coups
and the destruction. Certainly in one of the
poorest places. But when you walk into your place,
there's so much life. And compared to the United
States. And it's been life -giving for you, right?
So tell me about the life of the kids and how
it's brought, if you will, new life or the experience
of the power of God there in all of this. In
the kids, Jerry, in life and all. Well, for me,
it was a transition of like... going from filming
the poor to living with the poor. And that was
such an amazing difference, you know, to experience
what it was like to have to, every drop of water
you drank or used to bathe or clean things had
to be hauled in, you know. And the Santa Clara
became for me a school of life in that I really
learned how to, you know, what was really, really
important in life. And the children themselves
really, really were transforming me, you know,
how to live truly this kind of self -emptying
love. And the kids had been through so much.
I mean, so much. We took in abandoned kids and
abused kids, kids that no one wanted. And it
was only by teaching them that. or letting them
experience what it was like to be loved was some
kind of change possible. And so, for instance,
one kid was actually born in City Soleil, the
worst slum. His mother was 15 years old, and
she had him right in the street. And seconds
after the baby was born, she somehow cut the
cord, gave the baby to an old woman and said,
I'm just... going to go get help, hold my baby.
And of course, she never came back. And the woman
took care of the baby for about five days, but
she was so poor, she only gave him tea. So she
brought him to Santa Chiara. And of course, he
was so sickly that the staff didn't really want
to keep him because we didn't know how we could
take care of him. And I said, well, if we let
him leave with this old woman, he's going to
die and we can't let that happen. And so I named
him Moyes. I got in my car, went down and got
some strong formula. And he lived with me for
nine months. And now he's four years old. He's
like the prince of Santa Kiera. He's funny. He's
smart. And so all the kids come with these stories
of abuse and abandonment and deep psychological
scars. And we've over the years managed to hire
nurses and doctors and psychologists and social
workers to treat them, to help them deal with
the issues that they had. But the most important
thing was is that they had to learn to take care
of each other. And because of you and your teaching
me about nonviolence, that became in this place
of extreme violence. We wanted the children to
live a nonviolent life because they were just
constantly hitting each other and fighting with
each other. How did you do that then? Tell us
how you did that. Well, I don't really know.
I just had to keep explaining to them. That there
was one rule in the whole place. That's it. And
you couldn't talk bad to anybody. You couldn't
hit anybody. You couldn't hurt anybody. Never
hit anybody. And this was really hard. This was
really hard for them because they knew nothing
but that. And just one quick little story. There
was a little girl named Isnaida. She was eight
years old and I called her Izzy. I gave all the
kids names I could remember and pronounce. And
at that time, the kids were going to an external
Christian school. She came home one day and she
said, Dad, a boy hit me. And the principal of
the Christian school asked her, did you hit him
back? And his knightess said to the principal,
no. And then the principal asked, why didn't
you hit him back? And she said, oh, Papa Jerry
wouldn't like that. And I knew at that moment,
John, that this message of nonviolence had penetrated
into this violent place, at least in one little
girl. And it took a lot of time and a lot of
correcting. And two years ago, during summer
school, because we have summer school, which
is more like fun and games, we had a guy come
in and give a seminar for a week on peace and
nonviolence. It was all in Creole, so I don't
know what he was saying, but he apparently really
was, that this was his thing. And that, to me,
was the only way that... situation in Haiti would
change, you know, when people began to understand
that violence is just completely unacceptable.
Well, you offer so much hope there in such a
light of possibilities in the midst of certainly
one of the poorest places on the planet at the
footstep of the United States right there off
Florida, and one of the most violent places on
the planet. totally connected to our history.
And you've been telling me even recently that
this unconditional love that you've practiced
with the kids and that you've invited them to
practice to one another, rooted in a nonviolent
life. Okay, everybody's going to be nonviolent.
You've seen a lot of the kids really change and
then suddenly go from being very difficult and
problematic to kind and then leaders to the other
younger kids, right? Yeah. One kid in particular,
Bensi, was the worst kid possible. Tell us about
Bensi. She was just, you couldn't, she would
talk back, use vile language that, you know,
you couldn't even believe that this kid even
knew. And she just was. So just difficult. And
no matter how you would like punish her, and
I don't mean, I may just like isolating her,
no matter what, didn't care. She just would take
whatever we dished out and just go right back
to being. And I was criticized for forgiving
her, for constantly trying to love her. And,
you know, like I was not being helpful, you know.
But I said that Christ asked us to forgive, you
know, 70 times, seven times. We have to just
keep loving. And eventually she turned the corner.
It took like four or five years. And now she
is like an angel. I can't believe it when I see
her bending down and talking to some little kid
about how to behave. It's like. And all it was
was unconditional love. They said that she was
pushing me the whole time. How will I make this
man break and hit me? And it never happened.
How can I do something that he won't forgive?
And it never happened. And so that was the miracle
of it. It was just pure loving them and forgiving
them all the time. You know, people were criticizing
it. Many of the staff, they just, everyone wanted
her out. Even the kids wanted her out. Now she's
like, to me, the real living example that transformation
is possible, even under the worst circumstances
possible. I mean, for five or six years, the
soundtrack of my life was, you know, screaming
kids and gunfire. And in this horrible place.
something beautiful was created. It's such an
amazing story. And again, folks, I really want
to invite you to get his new book, The Cross
of Love, The Pain of Poverty. There's really
nothing out there like it. Because his story
is so wild from Hollywood to Haiti and everywhere
in the whole world in between. I just want to
say one thing. I said, I feel like that by encountering
the poor, I came to see my own really very real
interior poverty within all the external riches
that I had. And I am so grateful for the grace
that opened my heart and eyes to the love and
tenderness of God and God's overflowing mercy
and compassion. No matter the struggles and suffering
I personally endured amid this barbaric violence
where twice gangs tried to kill me and it didn't
happen. That's a story in itself. All this violence
that I witnessed, I would rather today be in
Haiti with my kids than any other place on earth.
And it's breaking my heart being in Florida.
Well, thank you for that testimony. So, Jerry,
how can people support you? Tell us about the
Santa Kiera website and what can people do to
support the children there at Santa Kiera and
therefore to make some gesture to the hope and
the even love that you, the light you're shining
from of all places, Port -au -Prince, Haiti.
Tell us what we can do. Well, Port -au -Prince,
Haiti right now is in the throes of some of the
worst violence ever. The gangs control 90 percent
of the city. Over 9 ,600 people have been killed
since 2024. Thousands of people have been driven
from their houses. The gangs are decapitating
people, burning people alive, burning down entire
neighborhoods. And nobody is paying attention
to it. And so for me, the Santa Chiara Children's
Center, which we have a website called santachiaracc
.org, what's really most important is this violence
has... driven up the cost of operating the place.
It was always hard. I was always in debt. But
now the annual budget has ballooned to like $700
,000 a year, $50 ,000 a month, which just seems
insurmountable to me, even though we've always
been on the edge of bankruptcy for all this time.
But the only way I can do it is to have more
speaking events. The sales from the books all
go to support Santa Chiara. But speaking events
are the most important. Over the 15 years before
going to Haiti, I did about 260 poverty and prayer
presentations at schools and churches all across
the United States and in Europe. And once the
people see... The clips of the films of the individual
children and the extreme living conditions they
have, and they hear my conversion story and they
hear about my journey, they really want to help.
I mean, people who have seen Sam and Esther like
10 years ago still know these kids. They know
all the children's names from my journal. And
so that's the big thing is is getting more speaking
events. And so so people can write and they can
and they can write to me. They were on the Santa
Clara website, the Santa Clara website. There's
a link to they can donate via PayPal or they
can just send a check to. Vero Beach. There's
a post office box listed on the website. And
so that's what we depend on. And we barely have
enough money to even make it to Christmas. And
so. So let's folks, let's try to help Santa Kira
and the kids in Haiti. It's a start of what we
can do to reach out. Jerry, it's a blessing as
always to be with you and listen to you. As our
time is up, really, I'm wondering if you have
any last words of encouragement that you'd like
to offer our listeners in light of your journey
and for their journey. Yeah, well, the big thing
that is nonviolence and all of its daily manifestations,
large to small, is the only way to go. We begin
by being nonviolent with ourselves. That is to
stop beating ourselves up over our mistakes and
failures and to become more merciful to our own
selves and then extend that mercy to others.
And so that really is the key. We're called to
be compassionate and merciful, starting with
ourselves and then reaching out to others. Thank
you so much, Jerry Straub, for speaking with
me today. And dear friends, please check out
santachiaracc .org and order a copy of his new
book, The Cross of Love, The Pain of Poverty,
which you can get on Amazon or anywhere. Yeah,
some guy named John Deere wrote the foreword
to the book. It's on Amazon. And then pox at
bonum, C -O -M -M dot org, you know, has all
his films. And I hope people will invite Jerry
in to speak. And please make a donation to Santa
Chiara. As generous as you can be. Jerry writes
a daily journal about life in Haiti, which is
free. And you can sign up and get that there.
Thank you all for listening to this episode of
the Nonviolent. Jesus podcast. You can hear more
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