Eyes to See

It’s been chilly lately here in Austin, and tonight I enjoyed a nice hot cup of tea.  As I poured the sugar into my cup I had a flashback to our time in Zimbabwe. Liz and I had the pleasure to go with Steven Nicholson and Pastor John to visit another pastor from John’s church.  We joined the pastor (whose name unfortunately escapes me) outside his house to have tea and chat for a bit. The kind man, who also worked as a doctor, mentioned that he only had a bit of sugar left and apologized for not having enough for everyone. At a time when bread was even hard to come by, sugar was certainly a special treat. I was touched by the pastor’s willingness to share his last bit of sugar with two complete strangers. And now, every time I have tea I can’t help but picture that moment in Marondera, Zimbabwe, and be thankful for the countless blessings I have.

HELP is currently raising money to help Musha Wevana Children’s Home purchase chickens to supply the orphanage with a steady supply of eggs and meat.  The goal is to raise $5200 by Christmas, and they still need roughly $1500 to meet their goal.  You can go here to donate towards the Chicken Project:

http://www.helpendlocalpoverty.com/2009/12/christmas-fund-donation-page/

There’s also an interview of Pastor John explaining about the vision and mission of Family Praise Fellowship.  It’s awesome… and inspiring…  and humbling… and awesome some more… I cried.  And missed Pastor John.  You can watch it here:

http://www.helpendlocalpoverty.com/2009/12/zimbabwe-interview/

A message from our friends at Help End Local Poverty:

http://helpendlocalpoverty.com/newsletter/2009/help-feed-100-orphans/

I know Liz and I have been back from out trip now for over 4 months…  but I’d still love to use this blog to continue to share updates with you guys.  So….I thought a good thing might be to post some exciting things going on with the organizations and people we met during our trip.  I’ll try and do my best to post cool stories and updates as they come along.

Here are a couple to get you started…

From Preemptive Love Coalition:

We marshaled all the resources we needed to help Shad and in less than a month he was admitted to surgery in May 2009. Unfortunately, Shad did not respond to the corrective measures of the surgeries as we had all hoped he would. Too many years of living with his heart defects had hindered his body’s ability to operate as it was intended. A series of blood clots finally contributed to Shad’s death a week after his surgery.

Click here to read more about Shad’s story and the Shad Faraydoon Memorial Fund.

Heard about this from Chris Marlow of HELP:

HELP has been running a Campaign to End Poverty, and a church in PA decided to have a garage sale to raise money for the campaign, and they raised $3400!!! Click here to read more about this awesome story.

Chris also told me to check out a book called Scared.  Here’s a little about the book:

Once a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist, Stuart Daniels is reeling from debt, a broken marriage, and crippling depression.  The source of Stuart’s grief is his most famous photo, a snapshot of brutality in the dangerous Congo.  This haunting image indicts him as a passive witness to gross injustice.

Stuart is given one last chance to redeem his career: a make-or-break assignment covering the AIDS crisis in a small African country.  It is here that Stuart meets Adanna, a young orphan fighting for her life in a community ravaged by tragedy and disease.  Now what seemed like a chance encounter will forever change their lives.

You can download a free PDF of the book for a limited time, or purchase the book on Amazon.

Beth and I sat in her kitchen where we’ve had many a deep conversation over tea, coffee or hot chocolate in vain attempts at solving the problems of our world or at least our individual lives.  That afternoon was no different except that a new Longhorn mug sat warmly between my hands and a picture of a little girl neither of us had any knowledge of the last time we hovered over the bar together was magnetized to the fridge and to both of our hearts.

Without any transition from our prior topic, Beth said, “Avery asked whether or not she has a nightgown.”

Without any hint as to who she was, I asked, “ The doll?” wondering if she meant the toy clad in traditional Vietnamese attire I’d brought over that morning.

“Nomatter.” Beth corrected my assumption nodding her head in the direction of the picture now on a refrigerator in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park that Blanca took over a month ago in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The question from Beth’s four year old is still swirling around my head today.  Not because I’m trying to figure out a way to get pajamas to all the orphans at the Musha Wevana Children’s Home (although perhaps we should), but because little Avery gets it.

She’s not even old enough to attend school.  Her life consists of making mudcakes in the backyard, helping her younger brother find his blankie, and playing with her prized collection of horses.  She’s never been outside the country.  She can have no real concept of the far off land called Zimbabwe where the economy is collapsing and children are left without parents due to the AIDS epidemic and a host of other harsh realities, but her young mind’s eye still has the power to see.

She saw Nomatter wearing a torn white dress in the photo.  Avery has dresses too.  She also has warm fuzzy footy pajamas for the cold nights and pretty princess nightgowns for warmer ones with Dora sets thrown in for variety.

“Mommy, does she have a nightgown?”

I’m not sure how the logic worked out inside her little blond head, but somehow she moved from the story her mom told of Nomatter and the two dimensional photo she saw, to identifying with a living breathing human being… a girl like herself who should have a nightgown too.

So, the story goes something like this… Blanca met a guy in Italy years ago.  Years before that two guys met in North Carolina.  Somehow through facebook we all got connected which led to all of you helping the orphans we visited in Zimbabwe.  I love how God connects dots that aren’t even on the same page and creates something beautiful.

Anyway, there’s a launch party this weekend for H.E.L.P. a non-profit started by Chris (one of the N.C. guys).  They have big dreams of helping alleviate global poverty.  If you haven’t made it over to their website yet, click on the link on our sidebar to find out more about them.  And please click here for details about the launch party in Austin this weekend.  Who knows what other dots God might be planning to connect…