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Is Your World Not Like It Should Be? 

This year Vancouver, BC has the honor of hosting the Olympics. Some Vancouverites are concerned about the event and the connected $2.6billion in costs, claiming that the money “would be better funneled into health care, education and housing.”

The Vancouver Courier reports that “the common number agreed to by city politicians and social service providers is that 1,600 people are homeless today in Vancouver. Which begs the question: How exactly will a two-week sporting event ensure there is a housing legacy?  Housing Minister Rich Coleman doesn’t believe it’s a fair question. For him, the Olympics has nothing to do with the provincial government’s housing plan.” (Source: Vancouver Courier)

It seems like the housing minister is correct, at least in the sense that the long-term solutions to housing problems are not just money related fixes. Throwing money at things won’t fix the root of the problems.

A person who has spent time working with the homeless in Vancouver has posted a meditation on how people can really be helped in her article, “Loving the Invisible“. She offers some personal observations about what people really need, and a good reminder of our obligation to care for those less fortunate than ourselves. It is in line with Jesus’ teaching:

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:37-40)

If you would like to help connect people to resources that address their deepest needs, aka their “soul cravings”, please check out our Soul Cravings training resources connected to Erwin McManus’ book.

Upcoming online chats: Join us for daily online chats! One of our features this week will be “Purpose: Decision or discovery?” on February 22 at 12:15 pm EST.

Image by Seite-3 used under Creative Commons license

With little or no social programs to support you and – especially in the case of leprosy – a major social stigma to overcome, you’re pretty much on your own.

But thanks to people like retired dairy farmer Tony Vanderwal of Abbotsford, BC, God is helping to build a future for those who thought they had none.

Tony just returned from his 13^th trip to Vietnam

During past trips, he has done everything from helping farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices to creating a graphic design school for the handicapped. But Tony’s main purpose in going this time was to assess the condition of leprosy patients in Vietnam. According to Tony, there are 3,000 lepers in that country, virtually all of them segregated into special hospitals. Although leprosy can be cured, Tony says former lepers still find themselves socially isolated because the disease often leaves them disfigured. “When they’re cured and you send them back home, the family doesn’t want them,” he says. As a result, many lepers end up back on the street or in hospital. Suicide and mental problems are also rampant among former lepers.

Help is on the way

Working closely with the Global Aid Network (GAiN), Tony hopes to help lepers overcome their disease and re-integrate back into society. “It’s not a five-minute fix,” says Tony, “But we’ll see what we can do about it.” Tony is currently meeting with GAiN to decide upon a plan of action and will likely return to Vietnam to begin working with lepers soon.

Helping lepers gain a better life wasn’t the only reason for Tony’s trip. For the past year, Tony, GAiN, the Abbotsford Rotary Club, and the Lever Corporation have coordinated and supported a school in Ho Chi Min City for people with physical disabilities. Up until now, the school only taught graphic design. But on this trip, Tony purchased and installed five sewing machines and two embroidering machines, thus expanding the courses the school can offer and the number of people it can equip to lead independent, productive lives.

A real success

The students aren’t the only ones in this school who have physical disabilities, so do the teachers. Needless to say, Tony is extremely thankful to have played a significant role in this transformation. “To me, it’s a real success story,” he says.

If you feel compassion for these people and would like to get involved in helping them, or would like to donate funds to help them, contact Global Aid Network.

“All I know is that it’s God’s will for me,” the recent widow answered.

“But who will go with you? Surely you won’t make that long trip by yourself to a place where a strange language is spoken!”

“The Lord will go with me,” Myriam answered, “and I’m sure He’ll help me with any problem that arises.”

Preparation

Myriam Faust already knew what it meant to lean hard on the Lord. Recently her beloved husband of 40 years had suffered a heart attack and died. She had cried to the Lord and He had comforted her. Then one day as she prayed, she felt He was telling her, “Do not weep for yourself, but weep for the millions who have never heard of me.”

“Lord, lay the burden on the hearts of many young people to go,” she prayed. “Call my children and grandchildren to be missionaries for You.”

But God’s answer came back, “YOU go, Myriam Faust!”

Shortly after her husband’s death, Myriam had received a letter asking if she would come and serve as housemother for little boys at a school for missionary children in Taiwan. After praying for several days, she knew this was indeed God’s will.

By faith, Myriam started to dispose of and pack possessions she and Elroy had accumulated over 31 years. It was hard and she wept over their treasures. But she looked forward with anticipation for what the Lord had planned for her. Paying her own transportation and support, Myriam was soon on her way to Taiwan. Although complications arose on her arrival there, the Lord took care of them all.

Myriam had worked with children for a number of years in the States, reaching them for Christ through child evangelism clubs. Now, she decided, she would have a part in training the missionary children who had been entrusted to her care. She gave them scriptures to memorize and told them many stories using her flannelgraph board. The children loved her and called her “Mom.”

Myriam’s mission field

All around she saw multitudes of Chinese children and daily, the burden to reach them for Christ great heavier. But how could she bridge the language barrier? God had a way.

A missionary who was returning to the States sold to Myriam her pedicab (a three-wheel vehicle on which a man sits in front and pedals while his passenger sits in the back.) So Myriam needed a driver. And that’s how she became acquainted with Boya Yang. Boya was the son of the mayor of Taichung, the city of 200,000 in which the missionary children’s school was located. Just out of high school, he wanted a job, so he became Myriam’s driver – and translator. Now she could go out and with Boya’s help tell her flannelgraph stories to the Chinese children.

Boya learns evangelism

Boya was a Christian but he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the idea. However, Myriam’s persuasive powers prevailed. When they went out into the villages surrounding Taichung, crowds of children and even adults would gather around to hear the stories. Myriam would give the invitation to receive Christ and sometimes adults would do so; but no children responded. Finally Myriam discovered what was wrong. Boya didn’t believe children could be saved, so he wasn’t including them in the invitation.

“Boya,” Myriam said, “I came to know the Lord Jesus as my Savior when I was only six. Cannot these Chinese children also come to Christ?”

After Boya agreed to enlarge the invitation, many children indicated they wanted to receive the Lord. Before long Boya became enthusiastic about soul-winning too. He would bring his clarinet and go like a Pied Piper through the village. The children and some of their parents would follow him to the place where Myriam had set up her flannelboard. Then they would start their meeting.

When Boya was called into military service, he held meetings for children in Taipei, where he was stationed, as well as helping Myriam whenever he could get to Taichung. He was asked to teach his commanding officer English and he led him to Christ while doing so.

“The Lord gave me two lovely Christian college girls to help me continue my outreach while Boya was in service,” says Myriam. “But Boya worked with me as much as possible during the seven years I was in Taiwan.

Reaching unreached people

Myriam and Boya visited villages all over Taiwan. Once they went to a village that could be reached only by water. On the boat they made friends with a young Chinese man who was going to the same village to study.

“The boat doesn’t return until tomorrow,” he said. “I will find you a place to stay.”

When the boat docked, three of the young man’s friends were there to meet him. The four agreed to pass out tracts and invitations for the meeting that Myriam and Boya planned to hold. Almost the whole town turned out to hear the message.

“There has never been a missionary here before,” explained the elderly Japanese man in whose home they stayed.

Many came to know Christ that day, including the four young men who had given out the invitations. The Japanese host also expressed great interest in the gospel and Myriam promised to send him a Japanese Bible. Myriam also used other means to reach people for Christ.

“After I put my missionary children to bed each Saturday night,” she relates, “I held a Bible class for university and high school students, soldiers and others who wanted to learn to speak and read English better. For our study tests I used bilingual Chinese-English Bibles which the Gideons had given me and a Bible storybook. Many of those in my classes also came to Christ even though I still couldn’t speak Chinese!”

After Boya’s father died (his mother had died earlier), Myriam adopted him and brought him to America with her so that they could study to become more effective workers with children and others. They not only took courses in child evangelism, but earned their bachelor and master of arts degrees. Myriam was 72 when she received the latter.

Boya was ordained before he and Myriam returned to his native land as missionaries. Since then they have established several churches, besides reaching many for Christ.

When she was preparing to go to Taiwan originally, Myriam Faust wrote,

“If only one child catches a vision of a lost world and gives His life as a witness to those who have never heard, it will be worth everything!”

And if you could speak to Boya and see the sparkle in his eyes when he talks about winning souls to Christ, you would know that Myriam’s dream came true in him and many others as well.

Would you like to have a relationship with Jesus like Myriam has? God wants to be our leverage in living, empowering us to feel better about ourselves, more excited about our future, more grateful for those we love. If you don’t know Jesus, we encourage you to pray the following:

Lord Jesus, I want to know You personally. Thank You dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Amen.

Tiding people over in a time of need

After serving as receptionist at the Aldergrove Food Bank in Aldergrove, British Columbia for the past seven years, Pamela Hanon has seen all sorts of people walk through the door, anyone and everyone who has fallen on hard times.

The experience has taught her some valuable lessons about life, most notably the need to accept others without passing judgement.

“From the outside, you get the impression these are lazy people who won’t work. But after working here for a while, you realize there are all kinds of reasons why people are where they are. None of them are nice reasons.”

Pamela says most people are embarrassed to walk through the door for the first time, often remarking on how they never thought they would end up there.

But she always replies by saying that’s exactly why the food bank exists – to help tide people over during a difficult time.

Ideally, Pamela says they would like to help people for a short time and then see them move on. But that’s not always possible. Due to addictions, mental illness or multi-generational poverty, some people seem doomed to rely on the system for the rest of their lives.

But the picture isn’t always so grim. Pamela says many people walk into the food bank with a chip on their shoulder. But it’s amazing to see how they change when Pamela and the other food bank staff show them a little bit of love and compassion.

There are success stories too!

The other day, a woman who had been visiting the food bank regularly came in beaming because she had just landed a new job. Having worked steadily since she was 14, the woman had recently found herself out of a job. The new job only paid half what the old one did, but she was just happy to be employed again.

Although the food bank is only open one day a week, it makes a huge difference in the lives of those who need it. The fact that some people line up at 7:30 a.m. to ensure they get a spot testifies to this fact.

Everyone who volunteers at the food bank is a Christian. And while they’re concerned about feeding the hungry, Pamela says they also have a higher purpose in mind.

“We hope we can nourish their souls as well as their bodies, to love them as Jesus would love them.”

Why don’t you consider phoning your local foodbank to see if they could use your help. Your love could influence a life for eternity.

If you don’t have clean drinking water, your life is over.

As President of Global Aid Network, Kehler is acting as a pointman, enlisting the help of anyone who has a way to contribute to the bid to drill wells in many highly populated and impoverished third world countries.

“Sometimes I’ll be at the Tim Hortons near my home and a local tradesman will ask me what I’m doing these days. Once I tell him what we’re working towards, often I’ll hear that he’s got a way to help,” says Kehler. That help comes in many forms often related to the person’s area of expertise and sphere of influence. In one instance a machinist knew where he could buy steel for an excellent price. That steel could be used to construct drills and pumps for the wells.

Right now, 16 wells per month are being drilled in India. North American geologists and engineers fly over to the country, locate water sources, then subcontract local well drillers whenever possible. Once the wells are drilled, people in the community are trained to maintain the pumps and, eventually, will be taught how to drill more wells on their own.

The goal is to establish 150,000 wells in various countries around the world. Although these new wells represent a substantial increase in the number of people who will be drinking clean water soon, Kehler and company say that’s only a drop in a mostly dry bucket. The need for new wells is in the millions.

In order for a project like this to flourish, people with different backgrounds and talents need to be involved, says Kehler. “Besides geologists, manufacturers, machinists and those who can train people, we also need good communicators,” he says. “We need people who can deal with governments in many of these countries. And we need business people.”

The group is also looking for people to donate money for specific wells. $1,000 (US) will buy a well in India, while it takes double that for most African wells. Families, Sunday School classes, community service clubs or any other group can contribute. The Kehlers, for instance, plan to forgo Christmas presents this year, opting to put that money toward giving people clean drinking water in India.

The group is also calling on North American youth to get involved. Operation Jacob’s Well is a recently launched initiative that aims to see young people signing up to carry a one-litre jug of dirty water (strapped to each person’s wrist or belt) wherever they go during a 48-hour period. The initiative will no doubt attract attention to the cause as youth answer the questions of curious onlookers. And pledge money donated by sponsors the youth enlist – at least $5 per day from each sponsor – will go far in providing for the most immediate physical need any child or adult can experience.

Looking for a meaningful volunteer opportunity that will allow you to make new friends while earning a great return on your time?

The logic behind FVG

God has blessed Canadians with an abundant food supply. However, much of this food is either thrown away or left unharvested because it is unfit for today’s discriminating consumers. Rather than allow the excess food to go to waste, FVG takes the produce off the growers’ hands, dries it and packages it as a soup mix. This soup mix is then packed into barrels and made available to various international aid organizations, such as the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), that distribute it to the needy overseas. Through this process, FVG helps to alleviate both waste and need, making them one of the most financially responsible and environmentally sensitive organizations around.

The numbers

Since FVG opened their new 7,600 square-foot facility in September 2001, the organization has produced over one million servings of soup. Their goal is to produce over three million servings of soup in 2002.

Who can help?

FVG survives solely on donations and volunteer help. Their facility contains a commercial food dehydrator that can dry up to 1,200 kilograms of produce a day. However, everything else in the process is done by hand – volunteer hands. This includes harvesting the produce, washing and preparing it for drying and packaging it into bags and barrels. The work is not difficult and it does not require specialized skills:  only able hands and willing hearts. That’s where people like you come in.

Seniors are the key

According to FVG Treasurer Jack Friesen, 95 percent of FVGs volunteers are seniors. “Seniors make ideal volunteers,” he says, “because they have time on their hands and they’re looking for opportunities to socialize while doing something meaningful to help the poor.” Friesen, who is a retired BC Hydro employee, was drawn to the organization for precisely these reasons. ”If you’re retired and you don’t have a hobby, what do you do?” he says.

Apart from the fun working environment, Friesen says the best part about helping out at FVG is the sense of satisfaction you get that what you’re doing is really making a difference. FVG calculates that one hour of volunteer time generates the equivalent of 120 servings of food. Not a bad return on the time you invest!

As Friesen says, “We know we can’t feed everyone, but we can feed one person at a time – or one hundred and twenty an hour!”

Haiti stole Roger Medley’s heart long before he ever visited the tiny Caribbean country.

It all started in 1995 when Roger and his wife Shawna adopted a little boy, Nathan, from Haiti. His brother-in-law also adopted two Haitian children. Four years later, Roger’s brother-in-law was leading a mission trip to Haiti, sponsored by Northview Community Church in Abbotsford, BC. He invited Roger and Shawna to come along.

Although Roger wasn’t a Christian at the time, he decided to go down and check things out. “I’d taken something from their country – my son Nathan – so I wanted to give something back,” Roger says.

But God had something more in mind for Roger than ten days in the sun. God was already working on Roger during the flight to Haiti. As he read the Bible and talked with other believers, his heart was softened.

Once in Haiti, Roger spent a lot of time with Pastor Luc Honorat, who heads up the Haitian branch of Heart to Heart Children’s Home, the ministry with which they worked. This relationship also had a profound influence on Roger.

Prior to the trip, Roger had been open to the gospel, but he had yet to commit his life to Christ. “That trip got me off the fence,” he says.

Since then, Roger has led three short-term mission trips to Haiti. He and Shawna have also assumed leadership of Heart to Heart’s school sponsorship program, which provides textbooks, school supplies, uniforms and nutritious lunches to 345 students at Heart to Heart’s school, at a cost of only $25 per student per month.

Nowadays Roger divides his time between his oil and gas consulting company, which keeps him busy for six months of the year, and Heart to Heart, which also operates a children’s home and several other ministries in Haiti. He’s excited to be able to make such a practical difference in people’s lives, especially in Haiti which happens to be the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

“Coming from a country like Canada, it’s always a sacrifice to go down there,” Roger says. “But that’s part of the discipline of God. When you give of your time and energy to a purpose like this, it is such a great feeling.”

Because of AIDS and general social breakdown, the number of grandparents raising grandchildren increased

Fewer teen pregnancies, fewer young mothers incarcerated and fewer incidents of drug addiction and AIDS in this country mean Canadian percentages are not as dramatic as in the US. As a result of their spiraling numbers, the US is far ahead of Canada when it comes to research and aid given to grandparents trying to cope with parenthood a second time around.

Still, contrary to popular belief, according to Esme Fuller-Thomson, as assosiate professor teaching at the University of Toronto School of Social Work, the average grandparent is this role in the US is not black and/or poor but white and middle-class. However, low-income grandparents have special concerns.  “They may not be welcome in subsidized senior housing because they have children,” says Fuller-Thomson.

In Boston, GrandFamilies House has addressed this issue.  It’s an abandoned nursing home transformed into a 27-unit facility which opened in 1998 to specifically accommodate grandparents raising grandchildren.  Residents have the benefit of daycare, after-school care, learning and physical fitness programs – and they are assisted in securing government financial support, which is generally more generous than that available in Canada.

Resources worth exploring:

• Orphaned Grandparents Association
• AARP.org

Used with permission from 50Plus.com