Archive for December, 2008
Ringing in the New Year in the CFCA community
By the CFCA Prayer Team
As we give thanks for the old year and look with anticipation to the new one, let us walk in solidarity with our sisters and brothers around the world throughout the day. We have listed below the time it will be here in the United States when the New Year arrives at each of our projects. We encourage you to say a quick prayer for each of the projects as your day progresses.
| Country | Pacific | Mountain | Central | Eastern |
| Philippines | 8:00 a.m. | 9:00 a.m. | 10:00 a.m. | 11:00 a.m. |
| India and Sri Lanka | 10:30 a.m. | 11:30 a.m. | 12:30 p.m. | 1:30 p.m. |
| Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar, Kenya |
1:00 p.m. | 2:00 p.m. | 3:00 p.m. | 4:00 p.m. |
| Nigeria | 3:00 p.m. | 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. | 6:00 p.m. |
| Liberia | 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. | 6:00 p.m. | 7:00 p.m. |
| Brazil | 6:00 p.m. | 7:00 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. |
| Chile | 7:00 p.m. | 8:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. |
| Bolivia, Dominican Republic | 8:00 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 11:00 p.m. |
| Venezuela | 8:30 p.m. | 9:30 p.m. | 10:30 p.m. | 11:30 p.m. |
| Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru |
9:00 p.m. | 10:00 p.m. | 11:00 p.m. | 12:00 a.m. (Jan.1) |
| Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua |
10:00 p.m. | 11:00 p.m. | 12:00 a.m. (Jan.1) |
1:00 a.m. (Jan.1) |
Please pray:
Gracious God, I pray for my sisters and brothers in ______. May the New Year bring them hope, joy and peace.
And from all of us at CFCA, we pray the New Year also brings you hope, joy and peace!
Receive CFCA’s weekly Prayer Partners e-mail.
1 comment December 31, 2008
Rewards from 2008; blessings for 2009
Thank you, CFCA sponsors and donors, for all of the support you’ve provided this year to our friends and families around the world. The gifts you’ve given and love you’ve shown to the children, youth and elderly living in poverty have made an enormous difference in their lives, the lives of their families and in our own lives. It’s a success that the whole CFCA community can share
| To qualify for a 2008 tax deduction… | ||
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What we’ve done together
Even in the face of the economic downturn, we have achieved so much. With your support, we’ve helped children go to school for the first time, and we’ve helped older youth finish school. We’ve helped mothers give their families nutritious food to eat. We’ve provided roofs for houses, and materials for home repairs. Grandparents receive vital health care, children get to visit the dentist, and communities of CFCA parents are strengthened by the opportunity to learn income-generating skills or start small businesses.
We have partnered with our friends through sponsorship. We’ve also helped through donations to special funds. And through the Sponsorship Assistance Fund, we’ve helped fellow sponsors continue their sponsorships during rough times like job loss and health issues.
Good news from 2008
We began 2008 with good news. Together, we reached the $100 million revenue milestone — a testament to the trust sponsors place in CFCA as good stewards. It’s really remarkable that each of us giving about $30 a month can make such a huge impact.
CFCA is also recognized for our commitment to responsible stewardship by three of the leading nonprofit watchdog agencies. We received the highest rating (four stars) from Charity Navigator; we met all 20 of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance’s rigorous Standards for Charity Accountability; and we earned the American Institute of Philanthropy’s A+ rating, the only organization listed in the child-sponsorship category to receive an A+.
And another achievement we can all feel especially good about: We will begin 2009 with more sponsors and more sponsored friends being helped than we had a year ago.
Year-end contribution deadlines
As much as we have done, there is more that we can and will do together. To celebrate the end of the year with a contribution and qualify for a 2008 tax deduction, here are the deadlines:
- Online credit card contributions: Midnight Central time, Dec. 31
- Automatic bank withdrawal, online or by phone: 2 p.m. Central time, Dec. 30
A blessed new year ahead
We are grateful for your compassion and partnership with CFCA. Together, we are making a difference in each life we touch. Together, we make the world a better place for everyone.
Add comment December 29, 2008
Notes from the Field #5 – Guatemala
Chris Palmer, CFCA mission awareness trip coordinator, talks about walking with the poor. During a recent trip to the CFCA project in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala, Palmer spoke with CFCA board member emeritus Msgr. Greg Schaffer who spoke a simple truth, that we are not trying to “fix” the poor; the poor are not broken.
5 comments December 29, 2008
Christmas in Madagascar
The following entry was contributed by the Antsirabe, Madagascar, project. CFCA serves more than 700 children, youth and the aging in Madagascar.
Once, a little child in the countryside was asked, “What is Christmas all about?” The answer was, “Christmas is when we receive little rice cakes in church.”
The child remembered something important about Christmas: the gift of a couple of rice cakes in church. And this happens only on Christmas.
Christmastime is very much a time when families get together, visit each other or go to church together. Food will usually be better than the everyday meal. If they can afford it, parents will buy and prepare chicken or pork as a special meal.
Whoever can will dress in a smart, perhaps even new outfit. Since December is one of the hottest months of the year, women and girls will wear very pretty summer dresses in church.
As in most countries, people like to give each other Christmas gifts. Within families, parents like to give new clothes to their children. Poorer families, however, may not be able to afford buying gifts, so they make do without. Christmas is a time of doing good for others as well.
For many people in Madagascar, Christmas is celebrated over a long period of time, spreading out over several months. It will usually start in the month of December with typical Christmas songs being sung in most churches.
Choirs and youth groups will meet on certain afternoons for practicing Christmas songs, so they will be able to perform well on Christmas Day or at another time. There are translated Western Christmas songs, but also many songs Malagasy people have written.
Many people write their own poems which will be presented at Christmas, on a special afternoon or on an additional Sunday for their specific group. Thus it is possible that each group in a church will celebrate Christmas on a given Sunday, presenting songs, sketches or Bible verses they learned by heart.
You can easily have Christmas celebrations all the way from December through to March. One church could easily have 20 Christmas celebration services, and everyone is welcome to come and enjoy.
Another custom is the walking around the Christmas tree. If possible, a pine tree will be erected in the front area of the church so that all the people can see it. Colorful ribbons or other decorations, small electric lights and cut-out pictures will give the tree a beautiful appearance.
On Christmas Day, each church group (women, men, choir, young people, Sunday school or children) will come to the front, singing and walking around the tree. Never mind that it takes a very long time. All the other people in church enjoy the songs, the live presentations of the others.
For those who need to stretch their legs or to buy some snacks outside, it is common practice to do so. Therefore, a Christmas service can last the whole morning, up to four or five hours.
Then in the afternoon, more singing and group presentations will continue. It is a local church event where everybody tries to attend or even take part.
1 comment December 24, 2008
A Christmas of coming together
The following blog entry was written by Rev. Kelly Demo, an Episcopal priest who preaches for CFCA. From 1990 to 1991, she served as a volunteer for International Christian Youth Exchange in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Just outside my little house there was a large boulder upon which both lizards and I enjoyed lying. One evening very close to Christmas, I was sprawled out on my rock enjoying conversation with a sweet 8-year-old Sierra Leonean named John. We talked many nights about a great many things, and that night he asked me about Christmas in America. I had been missing my family, so I waxed on about my memories of childhood Christmases at my grandparents’ home, of going to midnight Mass, and of Santa Claus.
We lay silently for several minutes looking up at the stars, and finally John said, “Santa Claus doesn’t come to Africa.”
I looked at him and was overcome with sadness. He fully believed in Santa Claus. He had heard about this guy who travels around the world bringing gifts to good boys and girls. However, neither John nor any of his friends had ever received anything from Santa. He judged himself and his Christmas by Western standards, and he simply could not measure up.
The irony in this is that most Westerners long for the exact kind of Christmas that John and so many others in developing countries have. Christmas in America is generally a time of frenzied activity, of spending money and feeling tired, guilty, lonely, anxious. Then there are the precious moments of joy, of connection and Christ’s peace that come and go too soon and leave us yearning for more.
Just yesterday, three friends and I tried to meet for a cup of coffee before Christmas. We all love each other dearly and draw strength and encouragement from one another. But one had to meet her mom to go shopping for her kids, one had to meet with a contractor who is remodeling her home, one rushed off to work, and I had my own errands. Nothing is more important than our relationships, yet the tyranny of the urgent always supersedes that which is important.
Imagine instead, Christmas where many families come together to cook and eat and sing and play and celebrate. There is no pressure or expectation to buy gifts. There is nothing more urgent in the world than to sit down with your elders and listen to stories. There is no errand that is more important than visiting a friend you have not seen in a long time. And yes, Virginia, a place where there is no Santa Claus. That is the kind of Christmas that my little friend John would have along with billions of others around the world.
That is one of the many gifts the poor have to offer us. They stand as a witness to our Christmases past, the past that we look to with nostalgia. A Christmas when Jesus is truly at the center of the celebration as we welcome him, a homeless child, into our hearts and into our world.
We here at CFCA wish you a peace-filled Christmas. Please keep the children, elderly and their families whom we serve in your prayers, just as you remain in ours.
Add comment December 23, 2008
The patience of the poor
The final days of Advent are filled with anticipation for the birth of Christ. Father Vince Haselhorst, a CFCA board member and preacher, shares his observations of the people he met during the preachers mission awareness trip to El Salvador Dec. 2-9. Father Haselhorst is a priest of the Diocese of Belleville, Ill.
What a tremendous way to begin this season of Advent, this time of waiting, spending this first week with these gentle, loving people who understand all too well what it means to wait.
They wait for the rains to come so they can plant their crops. They wait for the harvest while praying that it will be sufficient to sustain them for another year. They wait for the sun to rise so they can go to work in their fields or to other work. They wait for a bus so that they can go and sell their products.
Parents wait, as Mary did, for the birth of their children. They wait for them to grow up, hoping and praying that they will have a better life than they themselves have and that they will choose a right pathway for their lives.
What a privilege to be able to walk with them these few precious days on our common journey!
-Father Vince Haselhorst
1 comment December 22, 2008
Residents of Santa Teresita celebrate Christmas
Las Posadas is a Christmas tradition celebrated throughout Latin America commemorating the arduous journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Each evening from Dec. 16 – Dec. 24, CFCA sponsored members and their families from the community of Santa Teresita, Guatemala, hold a candlelit procession to a different home. They sing songs, pray and end the evening enjoying traditional food and refreshments, such as tamales and fruit punch.
9 comments December 16, 2008
Make your own Christmas tamales
In Latin America, the traditional Christmas fare is tamales. Tamales originated in Mexico but today, every Latin American culture has its own version. While tamales vary from country to country, all are made with a corn or rice dough steamed inside a leaf. Most tamales are filled with meat and sauce, but some are sweetened and filled with raisins. Making tamales is a labor-intensive process that can take several days. Watch how the residents of Santa Teresita make their tamales.
Mexican tamales
Allow two days for preparation.
4 lb. package of maseca for tamales (available at Hispanic grocery stores)
10 lb. chicken pieces
3 c. oil
4 T. salt
4 T. baking powder
1 package each of chiles anchos, chiles California and chiles de arbol
1 lb. corn husks
Prepare the chiles
1. Pour hot water over all the chiles and let soften for one hour.
2. Puree the mixture in a blender.
3. Strain through a colander to remove seeds and skin
You may want to wear vinyl gloves because the chile oil can burn your hands.
Prepare the chicken
1. Remove the skin and boil the chicken with salt until the meat is cooked.
2. Remove the bones and tear the chicken into small pieces.
3. Saute chicken pieces with the strained chiles in 2 T. oil and 1 tsp. salt. Set aside.
Prepare the masa (dough)
1. Mix maseca, baking power, salt and oil with enough lukewarm water to give it the texture of playdough.
2. Knead the dough for one hour.
Prepare the corn husks
1. Soak the husks in hot water overnight.
2. Remove from the water and rinse.
Prepare the tamales
1. Spread one husk out flat.
2. Spread with a thin layer of masa, about ½ inch thick.
3. Add 1-2 T. of the chile/chicken mixture in the middle of the dough.
4. Fold all sides to the center, adding a bit of dough inside the ends to keep the chicken mixture from oozing out.
5. Steam in 2” of water in a large pot or tamale cooker covered tightly with aluminum foil for several hours on medium high.
6. Let sit for 1 hour
Enjoy with sour cream and hot sauce. Eat them anytime, breakfast, lunch or dinner. Tamales can be stored up to a week in the refrigerator or for 3 months in the freezer.
In Mexico, tamales are eaten traditionally during the Christmas season with champorrado, a hot, spicy drink made with maseca.
Recipe courtesy of Martha Cromer, an employee of CFCA-Kansas
4 comments December 16, 2008
Christmas shopping in your slippers
Have you had a chance to check out the CFCA Christmas catalog yet? It offers a great opportunity to share the true spirit of Christmas with a friend or family member.
You can choose from five funds that support the needs of people living in poverty around the world: scholarship program assistance; HIV/AIDS funding; food crisis support; housing support; and Christmas celebrations and gifts for children and the aging.
So instead of standing in long shopping lines for sweaters and picture frames and toys, we invite you to make a cup of hot chocolate, relax in your most comfortable, cozy slippers and avoid the crowds while you make a donation in honor of someone you care about.
You can also take comfort in knowing that 100 percent of your contribution goes to CFCA projects to benefit those assisted by the fund you select.
We hope you enjoy your CFCA Christmas gift-giving experience.
Add comment December 15, 2008
CFCA Walk with the Poor brochure wins top honor at Philly Awards
CFCA received the Best of Show honor at the sixth annual Philly Awards for our Walk with the Poor brochure.
The awards are presented by Nonprofit Connect, recognizing excellence in Kansas City nonprofit communications. CFCA also won first place for the Walk with the Poor brochure in the informational brochure category and second-place honors for the CFCA sponsorship brochure in the membership appeal category.
The Walk with the Poor brochure was created to encourage young people to go to the Walk with the Poor Web site and learn how they can impact global poverty by helping a student finish school.
The Best of Show Award is selected from the first-place winners in 11 categories. Read the full story on our Web site.
We created a video of the multi-fold Walk with the Poor brochure. Watch it unfold as it connects the dots…
1 comment December 12, 2008
