Archive for March, 2010
The many reasons people walk
Easter reflection
There are many reasons people walk. Some walk out of choice, others, out of necessity. Along the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:15-35), we meet two people who walked simply to get away. The one in whom they had placed their hopes had just been executed as a criminal, and now his friends – and theirs – were hiding in fear. Believing that nothing was left for them in Jerusalem but danger and disappointment, they decided to leave.
On the road, they met a stranger. The temptation to wrap themselves in fear and reject the stranger must have been strong, but instead they invited him along. And, as they continued walking, an amazing thing began to happen. Step by step and mile by mile, these two wounded travelers found restored hope in their encounter with this remarkable new companion.
The stranger was really the resurrected Jesus – a fact that the two disciples only discovered at the end of the day when they shared a meal. But once they did, they couldn’t get back to Jerusalem fast enough, for such was their desire to share the good news.
In life, sometimes we feel as if we are walking toward something, and sometimes we feel as if we are walking away. But when the dust settles, the reasons we walk aren’t nearly as important as the fact that we do, indeed, keep walking. For, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, it is only in the journey that we continue to encounter Christ in traveling companions.
For the next two years, hundreds of sponsors will join CFCA President Bob Hentzen at points along the Walk2gether route from Guatemala to Chile. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they, too, are discovering a new and glorified face of Christ in the faces of the poor. And, again, like those disciples, they can’t wait to take that good news home with them.
As we enter into this beautiful season of Easter, may each of us be blessed with fresh legs and renewed spirits. May we walk as happy wanderers, intent on savoring the blessings of the journey. Whatever sorrows we may be leaving behind, and whatever dreams we may be moving toward, may we always hold onto the joy that comes from knowing that the one who defeated death is our constant traveling companion.
March 31, 2010 at 2:23 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
Cleaning Cinquera
After hiding in the mountains for 12 years during El Salvador’s civil war, residents of Cinquera returned in 1992 to find their beloved town destroyed. They rebuilt the community, and with the help of CFCA sponsorship, families began again to dream of the future.
Today, CFCA sponsors 500 children, youth and aging in Cinquera, and the town is a model of community cooperation and pride. Sponsored members and their families, organized by CFCA Coordinator Blanca Aminta, participate in a monthly cleanup, a reflection of their unity and love of the place they call home.
More about Cinquera, El Salvador:
Read more about the cleaning campaign in Cinquera.
View before and after photos of Cinquera during cleanup day.
Read a history of Cinquera.
See some photos of Cinquera that help explain its history.
March 31, 2010 at 1:11 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
Bells and brooms are signs of a community rebuilding
Pablo Alvarenga is one of the original residents of Cinquera, El Salvador. The town was destroyed during the country’s civil war from 1980-1992. After the war, Pablo and other families returned to rebuild their community. Pablo was one of the community leaders who welcomed CFCA’s support in 1992.
Today, CFCA sponsors 500 children, youth and aging members in Cinquera. Pablo recently recounted the town’s history and CFCA’s role in its rebirth, for Henry Flores, director of the El Salvador communications center.
My name is Pablo Alvarenga Escobar, and I am native to the community of Cinquera. I work with Christian communities in Cinquera. My main focus is to strengthen the work of the small Christian communities, trying to bring them the Gospel of Jesus and the spirit that he wanted us to have.
My work as a catechist started in 1960, and I worked until 1979. On May 9, 1983, a huge attack by the armed forces against the rebel forces forced everybody to abandon their homes, belongings and Cinquera. To save their lives, many left for the mountains, leaving everything behind.
After the attack, this town stayed empty. We say it was a ghost town. A few days later, armed forces started to bomb the area and ground forces broke into the town and finished the destruction.
After Cinquera was destroyed and abandoned, nature started to cover the ruins of the houses. When we returned, Cinquera did not look like a town. You could not see anything. It was like looking at the forest.
The new Cinquera church with the original bell tower
The church was destroyed, except for the front walls and the bell tower. There were big trees inside the church property. We all agreed that we had to keep the remaining walls and bell tower. We knew that we were going to rebuild the church in the same place, and these ruins would be a sign of hope and a reminder of our history.
When we began rebuilding our lives here, we needed a way to call people for community gatherings. That is what church bells are for: to call the people to gather. But we did not have any bells.
Our people are creative, and some members of the community said that they had seen a 750-pound bomb that did not explode. They said, “Don´t worry. The rebel forces deactivated the bomb and made a new bomb that they used against the army, so it is inactive now.”
Many of us walked far to get to the place where the bomb was. Children, youth, men and women helped bring the heavy bomb. We carried it, we rolled it, we pushed it and we pulled it until we got it into town. We placed it in front of the church, standing it up for the sound to be better, and it worked. It sounded so loud!
The church bells are actually old, diffused bombs. The third bell does not sit by these two.
Sometime after that, we found another bomb and later, one more. So this is why we now have three of them in front of the church.
At the end of the war, we had absolutely nothing. It was then when the solidarity of a man named Bob (CFCA President and Co-founder Bob Hentzen) came here. He used to walk around the town. He played the guitar and told us about CFCA. We all got excited. This was like a boat in the middle of the ocean for us.
The impact of the sponsored members and their families in the community is great, and this is because of the leadership behind CFCA here in town. CFCA has local staff working for the community—people who have a heart for the town, a love for others and a great sense of solidarity.
One of them is the CFCA social worker Blanca. She has been leading the families in different groups to clean the town.
This is why our town looks very nice.
More about Cinquera, El Salvador:
Read more about the cleaning campaign in Cinquera.
View before and after photos of Cinquera during cleanup day.
Meet the Blanca and the CFCA families who clean Cinquera in this video.
See some photos of Cinquera that help explain its history.
March 31, 2010 at 12:51 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
Happy birthday, Bob!
Today, CFCA President and Co-founder Bob Hentzen turned 74. Although Bob is in Venezuela today, the Kansas staff still celebrated his birthday.
Some creative staff made a sign …
… decorated appropriately:
And, of course, in true CFCA style, there was music and singing:
Happy birthday, Bob!
~From the CFCA Kansas staff
March 29, 2010 at 4:43 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 13 comments
Juan Antonio: The dancing man
Meet Juan Antonio, an elderly man who lives in El Salvador. This vibrant man of 83 years is sponsored through CFCA’s Hope for a Family program. Since August 2009, he has participated in a dance and gym class as part of his sponsorship benefits. Being involved in the dance program has made him feel, in his own words, “cool.”
We think Juan Antonio is cool, too. But don’t take our word for it. Watch on to meet this charming man.
Read more about the dance program.
March 26, 2010 at 1:27 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 5 comments
The poverty and potential
Lenten reflection: Holy Week
At CFCA, we often say, “We don’t see poverty, we see potential.” It is important to emphasize the hope and possibilities that sponsorship brings to a person and to a family.
However, we, of course, do see poverty. We are walking with the most vulnerable people in the world. To say we do not see the poverty would be to deny their reality, their daily struggles. Doing so would mean glossing over the heroism they show us in overcoming those hardships.
One of the gifts of sponsorship is that it gives us a fuller understanding of that reality. Instead of being apart from the dirt, sweat, smells, hunger and indignities that those living in poverty experience on a daily basis, they let us into their lives so that we can more fully understand their reality. We can see Jesus and the poor walking together and witness their suffering.
As Christians, we cannot have Easter without Good Friday. We cannot truly celebrate the light without honestly, boldly facing the darkness. We cannot celebrate potential without seeing the reality of poverty.
As we enter Holy Week beginning this week on Palm Sunday, let us hold close to our hearts those who live every day the dynamic interplay of Good Friday and Easter. Death, life, doubt, hope, loneliness and community: poverty and potential.
March 24, 2010 at 3:52 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
A Teacher’s story: Where there is a will, there is a way
This is a story of Jose Marie V. Camargo (Joey, as he is fondly called), a fourth-grade teacher in Quezon Project. He was sponsored for 12 years and assisted by CFCA’s scholarship program from 2003 to 2007. Joey was first introduced in the 2010 Spring edition of The Scholar.
The lesson that I share with my class is, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Success is everyone’s dream in life, and this is what everybody wants; however, only few achieve it.
I come from a family of six. My mother is a housewife, while my father works in school maintenance. I am the eldest among four siblings – two brothers and one sister. When I was a child, I thought I couldn’t attend school because of financial constraints, but upon my sponsorship with CFCA, everything became possible. I was born with a handicap, but this has not stopped me, rather, it has pushed me to fulfill my dreams.
I am presently working as a private-school teacher. I teach fourth graders mathematics and computers. I finished business education at one of the state universities in the Philippines.
I was able to get through college with the assistance of the CFCA Scholarship Program. The scholarship helped me pay for my school expenses, such as tuition, books and uniforms. Aside from financial aid, the services* I rendered to the community and CFCA developed my skills, talents and knowledge to be a better person – the person that I am now. I owe my success to God. I may not be successful in awards or money, but I am successful because I followed the ideals of CFCA: help children fulfill their dreams and touch their lives.
I decided to be a teacher because I believe I have something to contribute to a child’s development. Despite my disability, I can be a role model. I think is a powerful way of teaching, always being the person your students may want to be.
Interacting with students with a variety of personalities is what I considered most challenging. They each have different backgrounds, orientations, attitudes and behaviors. It would depend on the teacher how to blend and complement these mixtures of individualities. This is the challenge that I face everyday.
Being a good teacher means being faithful to the memory of all the good teachers who have motivated me and pushed my life boat within the oceans of life, through its waves and storms, even when it occasionally got stuck in the sand of a shore.
Today, thinking and remembering all of them makes me feel the great responsibility I shoulder to be like them and to become better, because I want my students to see me as a role model in the future.
I am the committee chair on education of the Scholars Alumni Association in the CFCA Quezon project. I have committed myself to creating a worldwide community of compassion. I will do my share in the voluntary work through tutorial sessions, teaching and talent development; become a role model to the younger generations; protect the rights of children, youth and elderly; help generate jobs for future CFCA graduates; share my expertise; and advocate for the mission and vision of CFCA. This is my expression of gratitude to the CFCA movement that changed my life.
To those who aspire to follow the path that many like me have walked, each has to have the heart of a child – kind, loving and joyful. This, perhaps, would lead you in your destined profession and vocation – TEACHING!
*Editor’s note: as part of the scholarship requirements, scholars perform service projects that benefit CFCA families, or their local community.
March 23, 2010 at 2:20 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
‘I am doing something new’
Lenten reflection week 5
“Remember not the events of the past, … the things of long ago consider not; … see, I am doing something new! … Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? … In the desert I make a way, … in the wasteland, rivers.” (Isa. 43:16-20)
This section of Isaiah is where words of comfort and encouragement are given to God’s people. They will be in exile for their sins, but they are not to lose faith. God will restore them. That is the beauty of this passage.
It isn’t that we are to forget completely what God has done. But all of those miracles in the past — Abraham and his sons, the freeing of the Israelites, parting of the Red Sea — all of that is nothing compared to what God is going to do! He says things will be bad, terrible, in fact, but, be prepared to watch him work and create and restore the likes of which you have never seen!
That is what makes the work of CFCA so exciting on a daily basis. We get to witness every single day God’s movement forward. Growing, creating, surprising and expanding His kingdom through the work of our sponsors and our sponsored friends. Look at the faces of the sponsored children and think, “I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
March 18, 2010 at 8:14 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
The abundant life of Easter
Lenten reflection week 4
When you hear the word, prodigal, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The answer is probably the parable we hear this week (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32), commonly known as “The Prodigal Son.” In fact, the word is so well-associated with that story that you might have a hard time coming up with another context in which it is used.
For the record, prodigal means wasteful, excessive or lavish. In reference to the Gospel story, it describes an ungrateful child who leaves home, squanders his inheritance on extravagant living and learns the hard way that life back home wasn’t so bad after all.
The story, as we all know, ends with the son repenting and being welcomed back into the family by his joyful father. But there is irony in this ending, for the father celebrates his son’s homecoming with some extravagance of his own. He kills the fatted calf and throws one heck of a homecoming party.
So, is the sin of prodigality (yes, it is a word) really the point here? After all, in the scriptures, extravagance is a quality often associated with God himself. Perhaps the real failure of the prodigal son wasn’t so much his lifestyle as his lack of appreciation. He didn’t appreciate his good fortune because he hadn’t earned it, and that is why he made such poor choices in how he spent it.
When sponsors visit CFCA projects, they often comment upon the deep gratitude of sponsored persons. Although these hard-working families have little in terms of material possessions – or, perhaps, because of that fact – they are filled with genuine appreciation for what sponsors contribute to their lives. As a result they, like the prodigal son’s father, have the wisdom to recognize a true occasion for joy when they see it.
May this season of Lent bring each of us to a sacred place where we can truly enjoy the abundant life of Easter – that life which our extravagant God is just aching to share with us.
March 10, 2010 at 4:01 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 2 comments
A prayer for International Women’s Day
Today is International Women’s Day. We celebrate the accomplishments of all women and look with hope toward a future of equality and empowerment. On this occasion, it is fitting to share the story of Veronica Telar, a special woman, mother and leader in CFCA.
Veron is the CFCA project coordinator in Manila, Philippines. Her son was born with cerebral palsy. She said that on the day of his birth she became a working mother, a nurse, a therapist and a dietician. Three years ago, Veron’s husband left her and their son. Fortunately, her family is a source of support as she raises him alone.
“In this most challenging and difficult life, I keep my faith to the Lord, and I keep my son in my heart to cover my pain and distress,” Veron said. “At age 6, my son is not walking and talking yet, but he is absolutely giving joy and inspiration to me, to my family and, hopefully, to everyone who knows him well.”
Veron’s family is caring for her son while she walks with Bob and Walk2gether through Central America. Her reason for wanting to participate is simple: “I am walking for my son, and for every child and person who cannot walk yet.”
Please pray:
Lord, bless women everywhere. We pray especially for all those mothers, grandmothers and sisters who work to care for family members in need while forging their own paths in life. May their loving hearts and nurturing spirits be blessed with strength and joy. We ask this in your holy name. Amen.
Blessings,
CFCA Prayer Team
This is from our weekly ePrayer. Sign up to receive Prayer Partners in your inbox.
March 8, 2010 at 3:16 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
