Archive for February, 2010
Walk2gether team aware of tsunami warnings
We received the following report this morning from Karen Allemang, the lead Walk2gether coordinator, about how Bob and the Walk2gether team are impacted by the tsunami warnings resulting from the 8.8 Chilean earthquake.
I called down to Nicaragua and spoke with Adolfo, who is with the walkers. He’s driving one of the vehicles and is the technical expert. The tsunami warning covers an extensive area including Central America. Aldolfo said that they had heard the news earlier this morning when they started walking. They are only 15 or 20 kilometers from the coast so they are keeping an ear to the news stations. They aren’t overly concerned for their safety, but are aware of the warning. I let him know that the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center shows that a tsunami has been generated but doesn’t specify where in the Pacific. He sends greetings to all.
February 27, 2010 at 1:01 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
Earthquake in Chile
Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the earthquake in Chile. We have contacted our Chilean staff, and will update you as we receive information from our project located in Valparaiso, Chile.
The Valparaiso project, the only CFCA project in Chile, is approximately 220 miles north of the epicenter. CFCA serves more than 5,000 sponsored children, youth and aging members through this project.
We ask that you join us in keeping all those affected by the earthquake in your prayers.
For more information about the earthquake in Chile, read this article from NPR.
February 27, 2010 at 12:25 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 3 comments
The best birthday gift
By Shirley Foley, CFCA sponsor
On Aug. 30, I went on a mission awareness trip to Bolivia to meet my sponsored child, Kevin, and to visit the different CFCA projects. The mission awareness trip coincided with my birthday, Sept. 1, and this trip was the best gift that I have ever received.
I couldn’t wait to meet my godson, Kevin, who will be 8 years old next month. Kevin and I have been writing to each other regularly for nearly three years now, and have become close through our letters. Meeting Kevin personally for the first time was truly a moving experience. As we hugged, I was in tears — tears of joy and gratitude for the gift of sponsorship of this beautiful child. Kevin is delightful: he loves to play football, loves to draw, was the best student in his class last year, is an excellent reader and is very precious to me. Kevin and I were able to spend three days together visiting homes and projects with our group
As I am writing this, I am filling up with tears, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy as I remember the outpouring of love by our Bolivian friends. We visited homes and projects each day. In every project and in every home, we were received with such warmth and love as one could not imagine. During these visits, we, the group of sponsors, experienced a whole range of emotions — love, joy, kindness, heartbreak, laughter, friendship, faith, goodness, generosity, sadness, elation, the love of God, solidarity and the oneness of us all.
It was obvious that our Bolivian friends had spent months preparing for our visit. Everything was perfect. No detail was overlooked. Everywhere we visited, we were met with welcoming banners, with music and dances, delicious home-cooked meals, handmade gifts, necklaces, flowers and their wonderful warmth and love. And we danced!!!!! Joyfully!!!
The sponsors that I met in this group are loving, caring people who filled my heart with happiness and appreciation to have the pleasure of sharing this visit with them. I think that we really didn’t know what to expect on our visit. We knew that we would see poverty, but what we found was a deep and abiding love — a love showered on us at every step of our journey. Yes, we saw poverty, heart-wrenching poverty, but through and overall was the ever-present love and hope and faith of our beautiful Bolivian friends — men, women and children, old and young. They thanked us for our help and called us God’s angels. But they are God’s angels. We could never give these wonderful, kind and generous friends what they have given to us.
We were honored to walk with them, honored to stand in solidarity with them, honored to be united with them and honored to be family.
February 26, 2010 at 9:19 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
When life gives you lemons
Lenten reflection week 2
By Kelly Demo, CFCA preacher
“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” This may be a simplistic and even Pollyannaish way of looking at hardships. But the fact , I think, is that God may have inspired that saying because of all of the wonderful, miraculous things that he does.
Making lemonade out of the lemons we call our lives is what God does best. No matter how badly we mess things up, or try to, in the end, God can turn our hardships into something positive.
We see it time and again in scripture. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and taken to Egypt. Did God really want that to happen? I doubt it. But, God used that chain of events to save his people from starvation, to bring them into Egypt, and ultimately, to claim them as his own. God’s will would not be thwarted.
In the Gospel of Luke (13:31-35), we see Jesus being pretty clear that he has a plan, and no one is going to derail it. Herod is turning up the heat on Jesus, and Jesus tells him, in no uncertain terms, that he will finish his ministry on his own terms. God gave him a job to do, and he intends to do it.
Lent is a great time to reflect on God’s will for us in our lives. How do we try to thwart God’s plans for us? How has God pursued us to make his plans come to fruition? What is God’s plan for our lives?
February 24, 2010 at 11:43 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
Olga’s walk
By Dani Pollock, who is currently volunteering with CFCA in Honduras.
I arrived back in Honduras on Jan. 16, 2010, just in time to join up with the Santa Rosa project’s portion of Walk2gether. After volunteering with the Santa Rosa project for 10 months, I was reassigned to Hermano Pedro project in Guatemala in June for six months because of the political crisis that had erupted in Honduras. Thankfully, everything went smoothly with the elections, and I was able to return to Honduras.
I was greeted by the familiar faces of the Santa Rosa staff, members of the Guatemalan staff and many sponsored individuals and their families. One woman in particular stuck out to me, Olga. I have known Olga since I began volunteering in September 2008. Olga has been a part of the CFCA family for seven years and has three children who are sponsored. I came to know Olga because she was always in the office sweeping, washing dishes, making coffee: she wanted to do whatever she could to show her gratitude to CFCA.
I talked to Olga while we were walking, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to spend time chatting with her after my long absence. The participating walkers from the CFCA communities were walking a maximum of 10 kilometers, so I was surprised when Olga continued walking after the others had stopped. Yet, the next day, and the next, and everyday throughout the week, Olga was walking with us.
As the days passed, it became very clear how important this walk was to Olga. She began suffering greatly from the varicose veins in her legs. The veins became very swollen, and there was concern of them rupturing. However, Olga kept walking, limping along and overcoming her pain. Even when we were finally able to convince her to ride in the support vehicle for a bit, she would not stay in the car for more than 10 or 15 minutes. When I had the opportunity to ask her why she didn’t want ride, she shared with me that this walk was something she was doing as an offering for her children’s sponsors, whom she has never met.
The walk was something she wanted to do to thank the sponsors who have helped change her family’s life. Olga said that without CFCA and the sponsors, her children would be unable to go to school. She and her husband simply do not make enough money to pay for their children’s educational expenses. Olga herself did not have the chance to attend school because of similar circumstances. For this reason, Olga realizes the great opportunity her children have been given through CFCA to help them move forward in life.
Olga says, “Walk2gether is a walk of love.” It is not only a walk showing the love Bob Hentzen and CFCA have for the people being served in these countries … it is also a walk that sends its love all the way to the sponsors, wherever they may be.
The sponsored members and their families are walking to support Bob and to show their thanks and love to CFCA and their sponsors. Those who participate in the walk are saying CFCA has made a difference in their lives, and they will walk in the hot or cold, up mountains, with blisters and even painful varicose veins as their way of saying, “Thanks for your help” and, “I love you.” Just as Olga has shown us.
February 18, 2010 at 10:52 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 9 comments
The lasting benefit of solidarity
Lent is a time for personal reflection. Every Wednesday throughout Lent we will post a reflection that we hope will help with your own Lenten journey.
The tradition of Lenten self-discipline comes mainly from the Gospel accounts of the temptation of Jesus. This Sunday, we hear Luke’s version of that familiar story (Luke 4:1-13). Before Jesus begins his public ministry, he makes a personal, 40-day retreat into the desert. There the devil tempts him with power, personal glory and material comfort. He passes the test and, strengthened by the ordeal, emerges to begin his path to Calvary.
We are usually content to take the lesson of the story at face value. Life is a struggle between good and evil, and it is only through personal discipline that we have the strength to choose the good. Jesus also faced the greatest temptations. He overcame those temptations through fasting and prayer and, therefore, so should we.
Fair enough. But why did Jesus feel the need for personal discipline? What did he gain by resisting the tempter? And why, if he knew he would be tempted, would he go into the desert in the first place?
The answer is that he did it not for himself but for others. The discipline he gained was not for the sake of personal accomplishment but so he could have more to give those he desired to serve. In resisting the devil, he resisted those things that he knew could divert him from the path of loving service.
Unlike the experience of Jesus in the desert, which drew him outside of himself and toward others, our little Lenten sacrifices sometimes have the opposite effect. We take pride in our personal accomplishments, as if the mastery of will is the ultimate goal. But when personal success becomes the focus of Lent, we miss the point.
Yes, we do personally benefit from our Lenten disciplines, and that is good. But the best and most lasting benefit is that we also grow in solidarity with others, especially the poor and those on the margins of society. It was love for these that drove Jesus into the desert in the first place, and it is the same love to which his followers are still called.
February 17, 2010 at 5:58 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
A call from the Philippines
Whenever Veron Telar, Manila project coordinator in the Philippines, can access the Internet, she tries to send email updates about Walk2gether to Trisha Pitts, the regional director for the Philippines. Veron is walking through Central America with Bob and the Walk team.
Feb. 6, 2010
Dear Ma’am Trisha,
Thank you for the very inspiring message and for sharing my journey with the CFCA. Thank you also for the appreciation, prayers and support of everyone in Kansas and in the projects.
We are now here in Nicaragua and have finished our first 40 kilometers here yesterday. So far, we have walked 1,051 kilometers after crossing the mountainous 575 kilometers of Honduras. It was a great time walking with the Honduran CFCA sponsored families and staff in the projects. I am privileged to meet my co-coordinators and the rest of each project team.
I deeply appreciate your support to the Manila project team as you are constantly communicating with my team.
We received a call from the Philippines last week during the mission awareness trip to Antipolo. It was really a great joy for me to talk with Ma’am Malou (Antipolo project coordinator) and share with them some of my journey and experiences on the Walk. Sir Bob also gave his message to the Philippines team. I believe they are having a wonderful mission awareness trip.
My prayer is that this year’s trip brings hope, joy and life-giving experiences to the sponsors, CFCA families and to all my co-workers in the Philippines. I am very proud to represent them in Walk2gether, and also all of our co-workers in Kansas and in projects around the world. It is very inspiring to walk, as every co-worker of each project that we have visited has requested me to continue walking for them. I am very thankful and will always be appreciative for this great opportunity provided by my CFCA family.
This is all for now. I will be in touch again in the next few days. I hope my emails do not take most of your time. I just want to tell my experiences in this beautiful journey. I would like to add that the Walk, to me, is a healing process of the many challenges in my personal and work experiences, and I am very hopeful that this will surely be a great success for me and for every CFCA community, co-worker and sponsors, as well.
Thank you very much. My best regards to everyone.
Sincerely,
Veron
February 10, 2010 at 2:51 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 5 comments
Gratitude of magnificent proportions
During the last week of September 2009, Typhoon Ondoy blasted the Philippines with the worst rainfall ever recorded in the area. Some parts recorded water levels more than 20 feet high, leading to mudslides and widespread loss of life and homes. Many of CFCA’s families, both sponsored and staff, were affected.
CFCA responded by sending monies set aside for emergencies from our Disaster Assistance Fund. Because typhoons are so common, the Philippines projects also set aside funds in their budget for calamities.
The staff assessed the situations of the different families and put them in one of three groups: families who were homeless; families whose homes were still standing, but damaged, and whose belongings were gone; and those who had recovered some of their belongings. The families received food, clothing, medicine, housing materials and livelihood replacement funds, according to their needs.
After the water receded and rebuilding began, Paul Pearce, director of International Programs, visited the projects and was given a surprise and heartwarming gift. Four youth in the Manila/Antipolo projects created a massive and beautiful thank-you card that was meant to send appreciation to CFCA for all of the support they received. Signed by roughly 200 people, it represents the families who were helped by CFCA special funds.
The card, done in the Japanese style of anime, depicts scenes from the flood such as brown water with debris floating in it, people salvaging things from their homes, and children in their school uniforms with their pants hiked up so as not to get their uniform dirty.
The card is 30 inches tall, and drawn with crayons and markers.
“When I saw it, I knew I had to take it back to the office,” Paul said.
However, the card was too large to fit in any luggage or backpack. So, Paul decided to carry the card during the 8,000-mile journey. He wondered just how he would get through airport security with this oddity, but found people to be not only curious, but genuinely grateful to CFCA once they heard what the card was for.
“When I reached the airport in Manila, at every security checkpoint the guards wanted to look at it and talk about it,” Paul said. “When I was walking by shops in the airport, one of the shopkeepers told me that her house had flooded as well.”
Once in Japan the security guards were impressed with the artwork of the card. Flight attendants and fellow passengers were accommodating to Paul and his giant card.
“Instead of being a hassle, it became a badge of honor,” Paul said. “It is a reminder of the special grace the Filipinos have. That in the middle of this disaster, they have the thoughtfulness to come together to make this thank-you card. They never stop amazing me by their resiliency and how they respond to hardships. It’s pretty humbling.”
The card arrived at CFCA headquarters unscathed and is on display.
February 8, 2010 at 10:21 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 4 comments
An endearing spirit
By Henry Flores, director of the Communications Center in El Salvador
Manuel was a 16-year-old boy, living in El Salvador, who, in spite of his severe muscular dystrophy condition, lived with hope for the future to come.
“I want to be a radio technician,” he said, “I like it, and I can learn.”
His 85-year-old grandmother and only relative, Mercedes, kindly smiled and believed in his words, “Manuelito learns very fast and has fixed a little TV which he connects to a car battery because we have no electricity.”
A few weeks ago, after complications from hepatitis and kidney problems, Manuel passed away, leaving a great example to the world he left behind. Through his shining personality and kind smile, he was able to enter people’s hearts, which motivated many to sponsor more children in his community, others to contribute to the construction of four homes for families who were living under cardboard and plastic in the area, and sparked the creation of a new fund for children with special needs.
Because Manuel was the first sponsored person in that area, the CFCA staff and Manuel’s community members saw him as the “father” of their community. In his honor, the CFCA community he lived in changed its name from Community La Linea (train tracks) to Community Manuel.
Deep in my heart, I feel Manuel had a mission, and he accomplished it. He made us aware of the problems of his neighbors, and CFCA was able to help many because of him.
I pray to the good Lord to help me find my mission in this world, as well as the understanding to carry it with the same love, hope and joy that Manuel had.
Editor’s note: The winter issue of “CFCA Spirit,” mailed this month, features a story about Manuel and Mercedes. CFCA did not receive news of Manuel’s death until after the publication was printed.
February 4, 2010 at 2:45 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
On the other side
Nelson Figueroa, Santo Domingo project coordinator, shares a Dominican’s view of the earthquake that struck their island.
As you know, our island was jolted by a strong earthquake that affected, above all, our neighboring country of Haiti, especially the city of Port-au-Prince. Seen from this side of the island, the panorama could not be much darker. The latent reality today is that all the hospitals in our country are filled beyond capacity with our injured Haitian brothers and sisters.
From the capital, Santo Domingo, to the border zone that is serving as a bridge for the arriving international help, the hospitals in our country are not only overflowing with patients, but they are also being filled with concerned relatives in search of information about their missing family members.
The day after the earthquake, in Santo Domingo, there was a collective sound of sirens coming in all directions from ambulances, carrying the injured to the health centers. Those with means flew by helicopter to the health center CEDIMART in Santo Domingo and the Metropolitan Hospital in the city of Santiago.
Our country felt the tremor, but it did not affect the physical structures as much as it did the family structures. Hundreds of families have not seen their family members return because many of the Haitian companies they worked for have collapsed. To cite an example, my oldest daughter’s classmate lost her father. They heard him alive in the rubble, but he lost his life while they were trying to rescue him two days after the quake. It is estimated that there are hundreds of Dominicans who have died.
The tragedy affects the whole territory, and emotionally, we are all sorrowful. We do not escape the shadow of this catastrophe that has affected our neighbor.
In our territory there have been a variety of fundraising activities, and truthfully, solidarity has overflowed these days, which has helped to alleviate a little of the tension that has always existed between the two countries. People can now be seen hugging each other in pain, united by one cause, forgetting their differences and prioritizing the human being.
Tragedy makes us see that we are all children of the same God, and in our case, connected by a single territory, sharing the same island, and therefore we endure the same suffering. We live sheltered in the hope of ending our disagreements and uniting ourselves as brothers and sisters who share the same rays of the sun.
February 3, 2010 at 10:58 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
