Archive for September, 2009
“Why I Go to India?”
I cannot answer that question in one blog posting but I will tell you that my heart has been enlarged to embrace the women of India. Look at the faces of these women. I met them in October, 2008 and listened (through an interpreter) to some of their personal accounts of both dealing with hardship and also celebrating what is good in life. All cultural limitations vaporized as we did what women do – we laughed together and cried together and experienced a meshing of our hearts. I can tell you that time did not allow me to experience enough.
In seventy-two hours I am planning to leave our home here in upstate New York, USA and begin my journey to visit them in their homes and villages and cities. HOPE FOR CHANGE is doing just that…bringing HOPE for CHANGE through food distribution programs, homes for bereft orphans and “street” children, and educational opportunities.
Follow my blog as I attempt to bring India to you.
Warmly,
Sarah A. Smith
Urgency to Halt the Preventable
NEWS THAT HAS COME TO US:CHRISTIANA GIDEON - (Arusha, Tanzania) died from malaria Sept. 21, 2009. Christiana was a 4th grade student who was preparing for her national exams in one of the schools that we are helping sponsor in Tanzania.
She was excelling in her studies. Sadly, like over ten million others in developing nations she died from a disease that could have been prevented with the help of available medicines and proper care. The solution seems so simple -getting the medicines and medical care which are available to the “Christianas” of the world.
Urgency is often viewed through a negative lens particularly when it is presented within the backdrop of our hurry-up culture. In that sense, urgency can be a tyrant that robs us of our priorities and peace of mind. However, urgency that has direction and purpose is necessary to accomplish tasks that are of extreme and immediate importance.
I share Christiana’s story with you with the hope that more of you will embrace with us a sense of useful, purposeful and life-saving urgency.
Preventable = to keep from occurring; to avert; to hinder. Many things are beyond our control and understanding…others are not. They are PREVENTABLE. Join us in our efforts to prevent the preventable.
James R. Smith
“With My Last Breath”
- Tanneken with her people
Recently I was privileged to be in the audience when Tanneken Fros delivered her passionate update of work among the bereft orphans of Beira District, Mozambique. Twenty miles outside of Beira is the town of Dondo where Tanneken Fros has been residing since 2001.
A rapid synopsis of her life beginning with ancestral Holland went like this…born in Paraguay, educated in the USA, worked with handicapped youth in NYC & Connecticut, then with drug-addicted adults in Israel. After this brief introduction her listeners are held in rapt attention since we NOW know that this woman has ”been around!”
For 450 years Mozambique was a Portugese colony. Over one million people were taken as slaves during the 1700′s alone. Revolutionary war began in 1962 and ended in 1975. Civil war followed, leaving more than one million dead, and thousands of war orphans. Aggravated by droughts and famine, Mozambique plunged into economic collapse. Fighting stopped in 1992 and two years later UN troops oversaw the country’s first free election in years. Today there still remains much need for rehabilitation and development.
During the last decade, Mozambique has vied with other African nations for an unenviable status – the world’s poorest country. The average age of death is 35 years old, and the average annual income is less than $900 USD. Due to poverty, war, diseases, AIDS, and natural disasters, Mozambique has an inordinate number of orphans. It is estimated that the nation is now caring for more than 1.5 million orphans. Many choose to respond to these statistics by throwing their hands up in the air. Tanneken and we, at HOPE FOR CHANGE, have chosen to throw our arms open wide.
To accomplish this, Tanneken pairs local families with the forlorn children in holistic ministry to their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. Education is on the top of her list for all of “Tanneken’s Children” as she oversees and directs funds for school fees, housing, medical, transportation, clothing, and training in cottage industries, carpentry & woodworking, and farming projects. Sounds like a tall order…and it is!
Go back with me to that Sunday morning during Tanneken’s presentation and I’ll take you to the part when she answers the often put-to-her question, “How long will you stay in Mozambique?” Her enlivened eyes roam across the faces of all present and after a pause pregnant with hush, she shouts, “With my last breath I will re
main and care for my children!”
