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MAOS - coming this November! |
05-10-10 |
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How you can help Haiti |
01-22-10 |
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So many of you have inquired about the status of the kids at the orphanage we have visited in Haiti. By God’s provision, we have only lost one precious child. We know that he is with the Lord and hope that his two young sisters are comforted by that. We are thrilled to hear that Claire, a little girl I met on my last trip, is now in the arms of her forever family. It took three years of paperwork and an earthquake to get her there! Thankfully, New Hope in Haiti, the organization that supports this orphanage, has been able to get money and supplies in to meet the needs of the kids. I have been there myself and have found this orphanage to be a witness for Christ in a very dark and poor community. Even in this environment of shortage and desperation, the orphanage has been sharing their supplies with the community, demonstrating the call to “love thy neighbor” in ways that I fear I would not have the strength to carry out. New Hope has been sending in relief flights from their home base in Atlanta and this is getting very costly. If you would like to contribute to this work, please go to www.newhopeinhaiti.org
Here’s one of the postings from the New Hope in Haiti US coordinator:
“Though it has been an emotional trying day, I see God’s goodness. I have learned to just trust Him and that is what I will continue to do. Continue to press on, pursuing the opportunities that he puts before us. We have 300 children that God has given us to watch over and I will be faithful to the call. Rest assured none of us are stopping until all is well. The country is going to be put together person by person. New Hope in Haiti can’t go in and set up medical clinics and save the nation in a single swoop, but we can make sure that these 300 don’t need medical attention, that these 300 don’t need to stand in relief lines to get food. If you saw what I have seen in the last 48 hours you would be full of faith. Keep your eyes on God and your heart focused on His goodness, because HE IS GOOD!!”
Our friends with Christian Veterinary Mission are also hard at work. My husband and I have spent time with Dr. Keith Flanagan and Dr. Kelly Crowdis. Kelly is the veterinarian who is leading our “Give a Kid to a Kid” program to teach young Haitians how to raise production animals. Here’s a note from her blog:
“At dawn I had the truck loaded with medical supplies to go down and sew up and treat the wounds Guerriot’s family had. When I finished them, people just kept coming and I just kept working. Then a nurse showed up, then another and a doctor and we had a clinic set up just like that. We were sewing up things and splinting broken limbs with anything we could find….I have no idea how many people we have treated this past week but I would say at least 400. The hospitals were full and there were limited doctors. Every day has been the same dawn to dark treating wounds. The Haitian docs and nurses staying in the park even treat people after dark. It has been a week of making do with what we had and scrounging and asking for more. I have used all my supplies and part of Keith’s…..Everyone is in shock. We treated people who were buried for 2 days and more. It is amazing what the human body can endure. There is a sense of hopelessness in some but most are just grateful to be alive. We have just been trying to help in whatever way we can.”
From Keith (he and his wife have been in Haiti for over 20 years):
“I met with the Minister of Agriculture yesterday morning and will meet with Dr. Max Millien, the head veterinarian today. Medicines are a priority. The other priority that I see is animal control, especially the stray dogs. There will be an increase in stray dogs as many owners were killed and most walls that contained the dogs in yards are down. Thankfully we just completed a rabies vaccination campaign in the country with maybe 70% plus of the dogs in Port Au Prince being vaccinated. Also a national anthrax vaccination was carried out this past year. Those are two of the biggest zoonotic diseases that we have. Newcastle’s vaccination for poultry is a priority as this time of year is the peak time for this. The Ministry of Agriculture has vaccinators trained to do this, but lacks funds for the vaccine and to pay the vaccinators. Classical swine fever and teschovirus in pigs are two more diseases that are affecting the food chain. We still do not have a vaccine for teschovirus, but have people looking at production of an autogenous vaccine.”
Please consider supporting the work of CVM in Haiti: www.cvmusa.org/Page.aspx?pid=2995
Kelly Crowdis with participants in the Give a Kid to a Kid program
Dr. Keith Flanagan teaching Haitian veterinarians to do surgery
Kelly Crowdis
Keith teaching
Keith teaching
Finally, our friends the Conns, who run the Restavek Foundation, are in need of financial assistance as well. They are creating a compound where the children and families they work with can get assistance. Please consider supporting them as they work with some of Haiti’s most vulnerable children.
No matter how you choose to help, please join us in praying for the healing of Haiti.
-Suzanne
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A Girl Named Neatness |
11-19-09 |
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This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe with Ryan Keith of Forgotten Voices. The experience was overwhelming in so many ways, both good and bad - the total economic desolation, the desperate need of the people, a temptation to feel hopeless in the face of so many problems, but also the amazing beauty of the country, the wonderfully unhurried pace of interactions and conversations, and the tremendous generosity and hospitality of everyone we met.
The most memorable part of the trip by far, though, was the two days we spent with a 14 year old girl named Neatness and her family. She lives in Mtshabezi, a rural area where the needs are among the greatest in the country. She and seventeen relatives live together in a small collection of huts, near a Brethren in Christ Church mission which Forgotten Voices supports. The mission provides schooling, medical care, and food assistance to thousands of people in the surrounding area, including Neatness and her family.
Three years ago, Neatness lost her father to AIDS. Today, there are four others in her family who are infected - her mother, her grandfather, her uncle, and her eight year old brother. Neatness has taken on many of the household responsibilities as a result, and takes care of her siblings, nephews and nieces, in addition to attending school at the mission. If not for the help of Forgotten Voices, her family would not have been able to pay for school fees and supplies after her father’s death. She would have been forced to drop out, effectively erasing any possibility of a better life. Without an education, Neatness and children like her have few options other than scraping by on what food they can grow and any assistance they can find.
Thanks to the graciousness of the family in opening their home and their lives to us (and to Ryan’s very talented photographer friend Darren), we filmed a day in the life of Neatness, which starts before dawn and ends not long after sundown. We also interviewed her, and she also told us her story. You can see the video by clicking here. As you will see, her cheerfulness, poise, and maturity in the face of so many difficulties are incredible. I think what struck me most about Neatness, and the many other children we met, is that she is not looking for anyone to fly to her rescue and make everything better for her and her family, she just wants the opportunity to go to school, study hard, and find a job. It broke my heart that these simple wishes feel like an impossible dream to countless Zimbabwean kids.
We all fell in love with Neatness, but we also know that she is one of thousands of equally remarkable children in the same situation or worse. Right now, the Mtshabezi Mission is struggling to raise funds to keep 5,000 children in school for the coming term (starting in January) because fees have just been increased. To make this possible, Forgotten Voices will need to raise $50,000 by December 15 - more than they’ve ever raised in such a short time. We believe that God will provide, and that these kids will not have to drop out and lose sight of the better life they’ve been working so hard to attain. If you’d like to help, you can do so at www.forgottenvoices.org, but in the meantime please get to know Neatness by watching her story, and please join us in praying for her, and a better future for Zimbabwe.
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A Week in Haiti |
04-22-09 |
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I had a life changing week. I don’t think I will ever see my life through my old eyes. My new perspective was acquired among the orphans of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
I must preface this by saying that I don’t consider myself sheltered from the impoverished and the orphaned. I am moved deeply every time I read about a new approach to serving those that Jesus calls “the least of these” and as the director of the Pilgrim Foundation, it is my job to find those who are poor, orphaned, widowed, hungry, downtrodden, oppressed and vulnerable. I seek out those who are at risk of being exploited or trafficked. But until now, I haven’t had a chance to meet them personally in their home environment.
I could say all the obvious things here about being grateful for what I have. Yes, I have more food in my refrigerator right now than most working Haitians will see in a year. My husband’s veterinary practice is far more advanced and equipped than the human hospitals in Haiti. I am wearing a pair of jeans that cost the monthly salary of the people working in this orphanage. Those six to eight employees are responsible for the care of over 120 kids in a desperate environment and they earn enough for one lousy pair of Gap jeans in the US for all that work. Crazy. This contrast exists all over the world and we need to be aware of it and tell our American selves “Enough! I have enough!” We need to employ the self control described in Galatians 5 that is bestowed upon us by the Holy Spirit. He promises it, so let’s use it. We are slaves to our excesses and our materialism.
Enough about that.
What struck me profoundly was how much kids are capable of when there are not enough adults around. I went into this orphanage situation thinking the goal here would be to get all these kids into good loving homes (in the US, of course). No more than 2.5 kids per home with a car seat in each Volvo and their own rooms. What I found was the existence of a pretty good substitute family. These children own nothing, so therefore I did not hear one screech of “it’s mine!!” (what a blessing). No one has their own bed, let alone their own room. When children were eating something and another child took notice, a piece was automatically shared with the hungry one (and they were ALL hungry). These kids get two meals a day and WAIT until all are served to pray a blessing together. What restraint I saw as some kids sat for 30 minutes waiting for the last to be served.
What I saw in this Haitian orphanage was the love and concern of Jesus Christ in the faces of children. If we could teach this to our own, we would be blessed. The children I met were hard to see as “the least”. They were heroic. I’m sure that American psychologists would quickly label them with all kinds of syndromes associated with loss, grief and trauma. But they are incredibly healthy in one regard. They know how to love people. I walked away knowing why “the last shall be first in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 19:30). Do yourself the favor of “looking after orphans in their distress”. I promise they will bless you and will keep you from “being polluted by the world” (James 1:27). After all, “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt 19:13-15).
-Suzanne
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Ryan Keith and Forgotten Voices |
01-12-09 |
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The director of Forgotten Voices International is a friend of mine. He became a friend after I was introduced to his ministry. His name is Ryan Keith and right now he’s in southern Africa to deal with some of the headlines that we only read about: the astronomical number of children orphaned by AIDS, poverty, chronic malnutrition, disease and starvation. The reason I write this is because I want you to know that my family knows Ryan. He and his wife Katie have stayed in our home, gone to church with us, played with our dogs and our kids. We eagerly awaited the results of Katie’s first marathon (she finished in under four hours!) And now he is working his way through Zambia and Zimbabwe to help the children there.
Part of his trip to Zimbabwe is personal for me. Two years ago, my in-laws went on a missions trip to a small village there. We learned of the suffering there as they tearfully showed us their pictures. They befriended a local man and we had the privilege of having lunch with him when he visited the US. He appears to be the only source of support for this impoverished village due to his connection with US relief organizations. He has promised the villagers there that he will not leave them, even as conditions continue to deteriorate. Ryan is going to that village to see if Forgotten Voices can help them. With God leading, I know they will. You see, Forgotten Voices is one of the most effective non profits I have come upon in 10 years of foundation work. Their Board member list looks like a who’s who list of committed, highly educated experts in a wide array of disciplines. Ryan and the Forgotten Voices staff have worked hard to equip the Zimbabwean church (many, many of them, actually) to meet the needs of the people of Zimbabwe. The programs they support educate and feed thousands of orphans, provide employment and to hundreds, and bring hope to the African pastors desperately trying to shepherd and rescue their flock. I know he’ll be able to help those villagers. It’s funny to think of a guy who’s capable of all this playing soccer with my husband and kids in the back yard (and doing monkey impersonations!)
In America, I think most of us have no idea just how bad the situation is in Zimbabwe and how many hurting children live there. My extended family has been there, seen it, and we are so grateful that Forgotten Voices is courageous enough to make a very dangerous trip to one of the most desperate places in the world on behalf of hungry, lonely children. Our family is praying that God will bless him while he travels.
Please consider learning more about FVI and following Ryan’s travel at www.forgottenvoices.org
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Why Does America Have Orphans If It Has Christian Churches? |
10-29-08 |
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In honor of National Adoption Month and the millions of kids waiting for forever families, I want to draw your attention to this excerpt from an article by Anthony Bradley. It’s quite convicting I think.
Why Does America Have Orphans If It Has Christian Churches?
America has nearly 115,000 orphaned kids in foster care waiting to be adopted. Some wonder how this is possible in a country with Christian families. Surely, there are 115,000 missional families in America, right? Missional families, for example, embrace the redemptive mission of God and practice “true religion” in their local communities (James 1:27). Missional Christians in America could eliminate the foster care system tomorrow if we would stop “shootin’ up” with the American Dream in order to get high on a lame life lived for the sake of comfort and ease.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world,” writes James (1:27). As a matter of fact, the Bible has over 40 verses mandating God’s people to look after orphans and the fatherless for various reasons.
According to the American Religious Identity Survey, conducted by the City University of New York, there are over 224 million Christians in the United States. So, why are there 115,000 orphans in a country that has over 224 million Christians?
[…]Let’s break this down further. The Washington Times reports that there are about 65 million evangelicals in America. So, again, why are there 115,000 orphans in America’s foster care system? Does this mean that there are 65 million people missing huge sections of their Bibles?
[…]If your church is not cultivating an ethos that practices “true religion” it may not be missional at all. It may be dying or sinking into a consumeristic, entertainment quicksand where people come to have their “felt needs” stroked. Your pastor might wear “cool” clothes, have a “cool” blog, or be in the process of trying to make God and Jesus androgynous but God seems to care that his people are being led by capable men who lead the rest of God’s people in bringing the Kingdom to their local neighborhood in all its forms.
While not all Christians are gifted or equipped for taking in orphans it’s pretty convicting that 65 million American evangelicals can’t rescue 115,000 kids from an unstable hell. If the pagans in our neighborhoods aren’t struck by how our churches are applying the Word of God to the needy it’s possible that we aren’t the real deal yet. May we all pray that our churches are soon as mature as James commends. The revolution continues…
Anthony recommends: Bethany Christian Services (a Christian adoption agency operating in the US and abroad; www.bethany.org) and Adopted by God: From Wayward Sinners to Cherished Children by Dr. Robert A. Peterson.
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Feeding the Hungry |
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“We need your help.
We are seeing more and more people coming to our food cupboard for help. We need to be there for them. Our financial cupboard is almost bare. Your gift in any amount will help us keep our lights on and refrigerators running. Please donate now so we can continue helping the people of Chester County who need us the most. Thank you.”
I saw this plea on the local food pantry website this morning. I have never seen needs at this organization like I do now. As our economic crisis deepens, the hardest hit will be that segment of our community that was already struggling. The poor will be poorer. Food pantries will experience a significant decrease in giving. As their donor base gets more protective of their pocketbooks, the needy will be increasing in number. In other words, they will have less resources to serve more people.
This doesn’t seem like a flashy and upbeat way to launch a website but it is my goal to present real needs to the community so that we can work together to meet those needs. I desire to “Speak up for those who can not speak for themselves, for those who are destitute” (Proverbs 31:8). You’ll see a lot of God’s word on these pages. I want it to be clear that God cares tremendously for the vulnerable and needy among us and desires to show His heart to the world in the way we serve and love each other. We can be the hands and feet of Christ in this hurting world. Please join us in “Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves” (Matthew 22:39) I look forward to working with you.
Serving together,
Suzanne
