compiled by Paula Hemphill TOMORROW our team of world changers hops on a plane to cross the world. They will meet the beautiful people of Uganda and they will come back different. We are honored to know them and to pray for them as they embark on this epic adventure. Watch the facebook page for daily prayers brought to you by fellow CAs for this amazing group! Team UGA, oh how we adore you! We are with you and we have you in our prayers daily.
The seeds we plant often come up as a harvest somewhere else! So I encourage all to just listen and watch for God's lead and then obey! Even when it doesn’t seem to make sense or is out of your comfort zone! I love the adventure/mystery of planting and then waiting to see where God is going to bring it all up! The key is to just keep planting planting planting though. Then the harvest is HIS and it’s just an honor to be a part of it! What are you most looking forward to? I am so excited to see with my OWN eyes how World Vision/sponsorship makes such a difference! Particularly I can’t wait to see World Visions Christian witness where they serve ! I am most excited to gather stories that I can come back and share with churches and families here! It excites me to think of how many more children will be sponsored because of what God allows me to see and experience on this trip. How can we pray for you? I would love specific prayer for protection from any viruses or illnesses while I travel. Also, please pray for my young family and my momma's heart.
What excites you most about going and seeing the work in Uganda? I'm really excited to learn about World Vision's "Channels of Hope" program, which is branch of their Christian witness in Uganda. (You can read about it here. Channels of Hope is described as "more than just training or education. It is life transformation. Training is designed to move the heart, inform the mind and motivate a sustained and effective response to significant issues." This is the program that was instrumental in the ebola crisis in West Africa where World Vision communities were spared as a result! I'm also really excited to visit this community where I'll be sponsoring a child! How can we pray for you? Please pray that my heart is wide open and that I'm able to see each person through God's eyes and with his heart. Pray that I will be able to process this experience fully and return with a God-given ability to share these stories and connect others to children through sponsorship. Also, prayers are appreciated for my family while I'm away, too. Please pray they all stay safe and healthy while I'm gone! Thank you!
Amidst the many photographs that have inspired me over the years, none has haunted yet motivated me more than the 1993 photo by Kevin Carter of a starving Sudanese girl, curled up on the ground, with a vulture behind her…..waiting. Carter had been resting in the bush after a day of photographing the famine. He heard whimpering nearby and saw an emaciated toddler who had collapsed on her way to a feeding center. Photographers had been warned not to touch Sudanese people because of disease. Therefore, rather than helping, he watched and photographed her for 20 minutes. He then scared the vulture away, watched as the girl continued toward the feeding center, then went back into the bush and wept to God. When the New York Times published the photo, readers wanted to know what had happened to the child. They also harshly criticized Carter for not helping her. The photograph quickly became a case study in the debate of when photographers should intervene. Carter won a Pulitzer for his photograph, but regret haunted him. Tragically, at the age of 33, he took his own life, leaving behind a note that read, "I'm really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist." I do not want to live with Carter’s regret. Maybe that little girl and vulture are not in my actual presence; however, just because I cannot see the poverty first-hand with my eyes or hear the whimpering first-hand with my ears does not mean it does not exist. Suffering of that kind is real. The knowledge that such suffering exists is enough to make me responsible for taking action to stop it, just as much as if that little girl were curled up at my feet right now. What excites you most about going and seeing the work in Uganda? For the past nine years, we have sponsored two children in Uganda, and more than any other African nation, I have long felt a connection to the country. However, the greatest excitement for me is being able to see World Vision’s Christian Witness work there. I love that World Vision works in the most marginalized places, even where sharing the gospel is prohibited. However, in my three trips to the field (all in nations where the gospel can be shared), the focus of our experience was not on Christian Witness. When I have talked to potential sponsors about World Vision’s sharing of the Gospel, I have been basing it solely on the “book knowledge” that I have learned at conferences. I am REALLY looking forward to the privilege of seeing the Christian Witness work first-hand so I may those stories and knowledge back home to share! How can we pray for you? Pray that I do not get home sick for my family and that I can thoroughly focus and be present on the trip.
Then I am one of the people who Rich Stearns mentions jokingly, "Oh here comes Dee... She is going to ask me to sponsor a child." Fortunately some of them did-- especially my friends at Bible Study! I read... "Pray ye therefore to the Lord of the Harvest ... He will engineer circumstances and trust you out!" It is up to me to ....GO... Following our Faithful and Good Shepherd!! What excites you most about visiting Uganda? I think this country was chosen because of its Christian witness... I am so looking forward to seeing more of this aspect of WV's ministry and coming home with God stories. How can we pray for you? SEEING God's Hand is my prayer request! Returning home with a heart that is broken and full of passion to keep on keeping on faithfully after our Good Shepherd.
Meet Michelle Lazaro! Could you share about how you earned the trip/God's faithfulness in your ministry in the last year? I was so very blessed in sharing sponsorship. I was really on fire after Rwanda and the photos that I developed and the ones on my phone (and videos) were such a great tool. I shared with all my friends and family (who do and don't sponsor yet) about my trip. I got a bout 10 sponsorships that way. I then shared with my Life Group at church and all 4 people who were in attendance that Sunday became refugee responders. Our LG was reading, "The Hole in Our Gospel." How great is that!!! Then there is a 2-day pastor's conference in Pasadena that I do every year and I got about 11 sponsorships there and a church event. The church event was wonderful, at a small Spanish-speaking church, where the Pastor really encouraged his congregation to sponsor and told them, right before I went up to present my PPT with photos from Rwanda, that he'd be sponsoring. It was low attendance that weekend due to a retreat, but nearly every family sponsored. I think that was about 12 sponsorships. PTL!!!! What excites you most about going and seeing the work in Uganda? I love seeing WV's work in person. I am excited because I know that it will be touched by the Holy Spirit when I'm in Uganda, and my husband feels that it gives me and WV "street cred" meaning that I know that these programs are real and that they are working, and I have the pictures and videos to prove it. I am excited because Rwanda was so amazing, and I know that God has such great learning in store for us in UGA. My heart was broken and encouraged all at the same time. How can we pray for you while you're in country? A prayer for my family to be reassured and not worried while I'm gone. A prayer for smooth and on-time restful flights, and a prayer for my health in country and upon returning. After I returned from Rwanda, a few days later I got so sick with a flu/cold that I was sick for 3 weeks and could not take work off since I have missed 7 days of work. I'm a teacher and missing work is nearly impossible.
What excites you most about going and seeing the work in Uganda? When I first moved to Austin, TX I presented WV to my church and asked them to become a ministry partner. When they decided to partner with WV, they chose Uganda as the place where we wanted to focus our quarterly mission gifts for clean water and we would also focus sponsorships in Uganda. I was very moved as I already knew a lot about this fragile nation, corrupt rulers and some of the atrocities that these people have faced, including child soldiers and child sacrifice. I felt encouraged that the people in my community would step up to help our brothers and sisters with their challenges. Now I will have the opportunity to see the work that is taking place in Uganda and be able to report back and encourage the sponsors with the good work that is taking place so that they will know that WV is a good steward of the fund that we contribute. How can we pray for you while you're in country? Each time we are on a Vision Trip, we are going to see the things that break the heart of God, and these things are not easy. But we also will look at them through our own eyes with our own world view, which can sometimes blind us to what the Lord is really trying to show us. For example, will we see a child soldier as an evil person for what he as done, or will we see him as a victim whose childhood was stolen and he did what he needed to do to survive? How will we see the witch doctor who sacrifices children? Will we see him as an evil man in this society or a man who the Lord wants to redeem? It is true that WV goes into the hardest places in the world and so do the Vision Trips. I would ask you to pray for our entire team for the following:
I want to thank you for taking time to pray for us as individuals and as a team. My prayer is for you to be on a VT in the near future so that you can experience the wonders of God working in the hardest places. Meet Melodee Miller! Share about how you earned the trip/God's faithfulness in your ministry in the last year? Most of the sponsorship connections over the year were done one on one with friends and family. The only time I had more than one at a time was when I hosted the Global 6k at my church. 9 people sponsored that weekend! That was exciting! But really, God has been faithful to just bring people with open hearts into my every day conversations. During the last week of September I had 5 separate people sponsor at different times. I was blown away! God really is incredible! What excites you most about going and seeing the work in Uganda? I’m excited about attending a church service there and getting to worship with believers in another part of the world! Even more though, I’m just excited for whatever God has to show me and teach me while I’m in Uganda. There’s no way I could have been prepared for what God did in me while I was in Rwanda last year. I know God has something incredible in Uganda that I am completely clueless about and I can’t wait to experience it! How can we pray for you for while you're in country? Pray that my heart, and everyone’s hearts on the entire team, will be open and sensitive to what God has to teach us. Also pray we’ll be united in Spirit and for our safety while traveling and in country.
compiled/edited by Paula Hemphill A team of CAs just returned from Bangladesh. I was one of the people who got to be on this trip. One day during a long van ride I asked my friends to begin to think about what we'd like to share with our team back home about how the beautiful Bangladesh was changing our hearts. These are the stories of how God wrecked our hearts in Bangladesh. We hope that He will use them to wreck yours too! Traveling to Bangladesh was the most outrageous thing I have ever done. Never have I flown so far around the world or been exposed to a culture and environment so different from my own. From the smog smells and the trash piles, to the traffic and the rickshaws, to the man selling live chickens from a basket on top of his head—these differences really only pointed to one important thing: our shared humanity. I expected to see people who had less than me. I expected to see children who had more hardships than my children. I knew the stories on paper. My new sponsored child Lamia is 2 1/2 years old and lost her dad to cancer last spring because there was no way for him to be treated. Her 15 year old sister was tricked into early marriage and her mother does not know where she is living. Her brother is no longer in school and doing odd jobs. It is a real fear that while her mother is at work in a garment factory, she will be snatched or have a serious accident while being virtually unattended. But what the stories cannot tell you is the joy, pride, and resilience that resides next to the pain and impossible circumstances. It was the most welcoming and kind spirit I have ever witnessed. Everything I knew about the work of World Vision transforming communities was in black and white and this experience turned it into living color. Being on a Vision Trip will not only change how I serve as a Child Ambassador, it will also change how I look at life. I see hope where I saw despair. I can now help more clearly my sister on the other side of the world get a sewing machine of her own in order to leave the garment factory and work from her home so she can watch little Lamia and take her to a WV Child Friendly Space. I can more adequately express to potential sponsors just how a community becomes self sustaining. I have seen the fierceness in these mothers’ eyes when they tell me how World Vision has already helped them and how they will not let their children leave school to be married off at 15—something that happened to many of them. Not only are we helping one child at a time but we are helping to weave the fabric of a whole community to protect and defend the most vulnerable children. We grieved the children that were already lost. The 12 year old girl who works in the garment factory 6 days a week for 8 hours a day for $25 a month. The 12 year old girls who walk unattended an hour to go to alternative school for a few hours in between their jobs cleaning houses and picking rice off the floor so their family has food to eat. Tears of sorrow and joy mingled when we heard from an orphaned girl who was found by a World Vision staffer while she was begging on the streets. She was sponsored, put into school, and is thriving due to consistent Gift Notifications. Current and former sponsored children proudly recited their ID numbers and recounted how they were helped and how much they enjoyed receiving mail. Born leaders were trained through the Youth Forum and spoke to us so poised and ready to dream about their future and fight for it to become reality. Husbands stood proudly by gardens made possible by their wives participation in savings groups for the ultra poor. I have only scratched the surface to see how traveling to Bangladesh with the most extraordinary group of volunteers will continue to impact my life, faith, and ministry. I reached across the globe and held another mother’s hand. A mother whose life had been defined by loss. But there is hope and healing in the future and I have a front row seat to see God’s work in these newest ADP’s. I hope that traveling is not the most outrageous thing I will ever do, but a catalyst to speak out for the vulnerable and to live outrageously for God. -- Courtney Crowder Bangladesh was a place I had to look up on a map when I first found out I was blessed enough to be included on this vision trip. It was a country that was never on my radar. But, God had this trip laid out for each of us and and I could never have imagined the lasting impact it would have on my life. Here I am a week after returning from this amazing learning experience and I am still trying to process what just happened. I don’t know if it is fully possible to know all of the ways Bangladesh changed me yet. But one this is certain, l came home more on fire, more passionate and a better human being for having met George and the staff in the field in Bangladesh. I learned what love is. Love knows no religion or economic boundary. Love knows no distance. Love knows no age. I saw how to love as Jesus loves in Bangladesh. And it isn’t contingent on any of the qualifications I tend to justify who I extend love to. Muslim, Hindu, Christian, rich, poor, American, Bangladeshi, etc. offer such beauty because we all unite for the common goal of loving one another and helping the most vulnerable. -- Holly Metzger Going to Bangladesh has made me more humble and has softened my heart. Bangladesh, we SEE you, we HEAR you! I can tell friends and all that I talk to about World Vision how they have changed lives, and in some cases saved lives. Through connecting with the staff in the field, I can speak of the care and kindness they show to the families and children they serve. I have learned more in depth about the programs World Vision is helping create in the ADPs. I've learned how hard the Bangladeshi people work, how fierce some of the young ladies and women in the communities are, and how they are developing leadership skills. Being immersed into the Bengali culture, I have been changed. My eyes see differently, my ears hear differently, and my heart is full of love. --Cynthia Wellington Bangladesh changed me in so many ways. I thought that I knew all that there was to know about sponsorship. I learned so very much about the far reaching effects of sponsoring one child. Because of that, my heart is bursting to tell my friends who have sponsored children, to let them know what their sponsorship really does, and also to make it my life's passion and ministry to find sponsors so more children in Bangladesh will have the hope that we saw in the faces of the children we met. But, I think the thing that I learned the most, was very personal. Before this trip, I would have aversions to certain things. I would often turn away from what was unlovely or hard to look at. Knowing this, prior to the trip I made it an earnest prayer give me Heaven's eyes; to see the world as Jesus does. It hit me just this morning, as I was reading the day 3, post Vision Trip scripture, where Jesus healed the Leper. The Bible tells us that this man had advanced stages of leprosy. I would imagine that he was pretty difficult to look at, let alone touch, and I am sure that many turned away from him. But, then comes Jesus and the first thing He does is reach out His hand to touch the man. Reading and contemplating that passage, brought me right back to our visit to the Tongi ADP. Courtney was visiting with her sponsored child, Lamia. I sat and enjoyed their interaction, but after a while, noticed that there was a group of inquiring children and adults outside the door. I went out and flashed a smile, and they responded likewise. I noticed them staring at me, and realized that they do not see curly blonde hair very often. After a bit, for whatever reason, I reached out my hand to one child. I never gave a thought to where their hand had been, what it had last touched, if it had picked their nose.... I simply reached out my hand. The first giggled and pulled back out of shyness. I smiled and went to the next child. After perhaps 5 or 6 more, one young boy came forward to take my hand. I put my other hand around his and we warmly shook hands and locked eyes. I didn't think too much of it, until later in the day when we were leaving. I had, actually, forgotten about the incident, but they had not. As we were walking, I heard some laughter behind me, and when I turned, I noticed that a group of children were gathering behind me and around me. When I turned, they all shot out their little hands. Apparently, they all found their courage. We walked hand in hand....3 or 4 at a time, holding on to both of my hands, to the point that it was not very easy to move. When we were called to the van, I could not and did not want to break free, so I called on the help of one of our WV workers to tell the children that I had to leave. When I see this picture, I am reminded of the power of touch. Jesus demonstrated it while on earth, George and the World Vision staff often demonstrated it, and now I have learned that valuable lesson. I pray that moving forward, God will allow me to be the hands of Jesus, reaching out to the unlovely, just as He reached out to me. Amen and Amen. -- Celeste Valenti Sherman First of all, visiting Bangladesh has made it easier to share sponsorship. I find if I tell people I’ve been to Bangladesh, they almost always ask, “Why would you go there?” It opens the door wide to share about World Vision and sponsorship. Couple that with the fact that after seeing the poverty and need in Bangladesh I can’t help but be bolder about wanting to ask on behalf of the unsponsored children we saw when we were over there. Who am I to be shy about asking when they are hanging on by a thread? I hope that by sharing our stories with other CA’s, they will feel free to take our stories and use them as ways to open the conversations with their friends. Finally, I am now compelled to be a better letter writer. I have always written letters, but I have not been consistent. After seeing how the children anticipate and cherish the letters we write, I will be more intentional about keeping a steady flow of letters going to my sponsored children. In fact, I wrote to each of my sponsored children on the plane ride home! I am putting a reminder on my calendar at the beginning of each month to send an email or letter to my sponsored kids. -- James Naugle I didn't know what to expect or feel when I was preparing for our vision trip. I knew I would see things that would be hard to see. But because this is World Vision I knew I would also see HOPE. It's kind of our thing, right? I didn't know poverty, in a physical sense, existed like it does in Bangladesh. I didn't know it could be worse than what you see on TV. But it is. Yet in the very same breath, I didn't know the human spirit could be so resilient or fierce. It is beautiful. Our trip planner, Chris, tried to prepare us. He said he'd never been to a place where humanity was so diminished. But he also said Jesus is there with them. And he's not wrong. Jesus is there with these amazing, beautiful, resilient, strong people. I saw His eyes in theirs. And you don't come back from that the same. -- Paula Hemphill I am still slowly processing everything after an amazing trip in Bangladesh, but I think the thing that I was very conscious of during the trip was making sure that I saw every person. This was hard and for some reason God laid it on my heart to make sure I wasn't just drawn to the children but that I was drawn to the mothers and the grandmothers as well. I had to break out of my comfort zone a few times as God nudged me to look away from the smiling kids grabbing my hands and look into the eyes of the moms standing back in the crowd. There were times when we were stuck in traffic (oh the traffic!) and beggars of all ages would come to the car window and press their head against the glass. Those faces have stuck with me. We all want to be seen in some way, and while I could have looked away and the beggars would have probably stepped away from the van sooner, I wanted to make sure that those people "even the least of these" that God made in his image, knew that I saw them. As soon as we made it into the field I noticed the spark in the young children's eyes. They were beautiful, but circumstances dulled that spark as kids got older and I searched for that spark in their eyes. Like any spark with the proper environment, it can reignite into a flame that shines bright or it can flicker out and extinguish. Hope can reignite that spark and World Vision brings that hope to the communities it works in. I will forever be changed by the people of Bangladesh and am forever sold out to the good work that World Vision does in the communities it's in. --Rachel Teodoro Walking around the grocery store on Monday, it was like nothing had changed, and yet like everything had changed. It seemed almost surreal that two days before, I was in a place where I never imagined I’d be: Bangladesh. It was the trip of a lifetime! One of the highlights for me happened at the Sponsorship Party where a hundred sponsored children, from 4 different ADP’s, were gathered. Towards the end of the program, the children were given an opportunity to ask questions of the Child Ambassadors. A beautiful young girl named Sumaiya, noticed a lot of “water” in my eyes and asked me what it meant to me to be a Child Ambassador. I got to stand in front of those 100 sponsored children, including my own sponsored child (Arrada), and tell them I loved being a Child Ambassador because I believed every child was created in the image of God, that God loved each and every one of them, and that they were precious in His sight. If I truly believe that, and I do, how can I do anything but my best to help these children? How can I be anything less than BOLD in speaking up for these children who can’t speak up for themselves? And so I will continue to advocate for children and work to find sponsors for them, but with a new determination and a renewed purpose, because of Bangladesh, and because the children deserve nothing less. --Barbara Schellhardt Bangladesh not only changed my views, but amplified my desires. It has always been my desire to serve God but I had my service in a box of sorts with judgments that would keep me from truly trying to reach the least of these. I feel we have truly witnessed "the least of these" and they are beautiful and wonderful, even if they are not Christian. God made them and loves them. I am overwhelmed at what God is doing in their communities through World Vision. The work there, more than I have ever seen, is truly the hands and feet of God working. I will strive that much harder to get kids sponsored knowing the true impact that sponsorship has. The trip was eye opening, heart breaking but most of all, hopeful! --Jennifer Parks I don’t think I yet know the extent of how my heart has changed since returning from Bangladesh. I think I am stronger and more brave for traveling clear across the world and stepping foot into a culture so foreign to me. In my younger years, I wanted to travel the world and be a missionary but God taught me that I don’t need to travel to do that and I became a Child Ambassador instead. I still had an urge to travel and experience other cultures, but over the years, I became content and the yearning for that type of adventure dissipated. (I’ll never understand His timing!)
I think my mind has expanded. I have a greater understanding of many things. Even though I have advocated for children through World Vision for many years, there is a difference between the text-book knowledge and the hands-on experience. I will be able to convey the details of community transformation from a ‘first person’ perspective which I think will carry more meaning. Many people have asked me if I have ever gone to one of the ADP’s and seen it for myself and now I can offer that validity. I also have a better understanding of developing countries and how governments struggle to take care of their people as well as how that situation can change if the people are equipped to advocate for themselves and each other. I better understand how valuable it is to take fractured, chaotic, broken lives and bind them together in ‘community’ to make everyone stronger. I know my heart has expanded. I don’t think I have ever felt so much love for so many people in such a short time! I felt like I could see each person through the eyes of Jesus and not just see their situation but see the real person, the one God loves and cares about. The one that He cheers for as His heart swells with pride when they continue to take one step after another through devastating struggles. My eyes are wider open. It was such a joy for me to see the beauty of the people through a lens; to zoom up and capture a moment in time. The contrast was amazing: the people, with their smiles and wild colorful clothing were like flowers dotting the monochromatic landscape filled with pollution and trash. Amidst disheveled buildings, roads, and sidewalks, the people remained lively, robust and purposeful! Strength and resilience resonates in picture after picture! My faith has grown. I was worried how seeing such hopelessness in the slums might affect me, but I left Bangladesh with a confidence that the situation isn’t hopeless but the beginning of something amazing! I also gained a better understanding of Jesus. From the beginning of the trip, Celeste, I think, gave us the nickname of the Bangladesh 12, or BNG12. Being with George, our guide, for a week kind of made us feel like The Twelve Apostles at times! He is an amazing man and the love of Jesus just overflows in all he does and says. I think we all felt like we got to experience ‘love in action’ through George and developed a desire to replicate that in our own lives. It was an amazing trip and I feel like this is just the ’tip of the iceberg' as I have so much more processing to do at this point and I think I will continue to experience more ways that I have been changed through this Vision Trip to Bangladesh! --Rebecca Losh |
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