Romania 2009 Home & Program visits...

Friday, Nov 7: We arrived in Bucarest, (RIN Hotel), and had a wonderful dinner with Aurora and Dragos!
 
Saturday, Nov 8: Devos out of Chapter 5, (The 3 Greatest Commandments), from The Hole In Our Gospel lead by Rosario. It was fun to hear her story of immigration from Bolivia and her perspective on global poverty. Drive to Cluj with a stop in Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula. Fun times!

Sunday, Nov 9: Devos from Chapter 10 (What's Wrong With This Picture) of The Hole In Our Gospel lead by Kathy. Sponsorship visits! My sponsor family is doing well, although the mom is unexpected pregnant with triplets!! It's been such an honor to sponsor them for 8 years, and visit them 3 times. Wow Triplets! We were all excited, but also talked about the challenges. For a family that only made $70 per month when the mom was working, this is going to be very difficult financially.

We also got in a quick visit to Bannfy Castle Ruins.

Monday, Nov 10:

Morning: Double Devos! Chapter 4 (Towering Pillars Of Compassion and Justice) from THIOG, lead by me, and devos with the Cluj ADP team lead by Vali Sabua, what an amazing leader! He shared about Jacob wrestling with God and losing, but being blessed. The injury to his hip is translated into Romanian as his 'agony' and Vali did a nice job tying it to "The Agonies We Live With".

First Home Visit: Roma family visit demonstrating a nice partnership between the Orthodox church and the World Vision Cluj Team.

Second visit to a father who has liver cancer, and a 11 year old son. The mom is working abroad as a prostitute and sends them money regularly and visits them a couple times a year. They live in a converted pigpen/horse stable. We all wondered what would happen if the father doesn't make it. Obviously poverty/desperation can rob people of respect. This was a very hard story to hear. I won't show pics of this one.

Third Home visit and lunch: Pentecostal dairy farmers. Wonderful success story of a family that was responsible for 18 cows under communism, and now basically do the same thing, but reap the rewards of their hard work.

(Mary with the Grandmother)

Monday Night: Overview of Youth In Transition program with Edit the program manager & psychologist so that we are ready to meet with the teens Tuesday. Remember the 1990 20/20 show? Yeah, these are the teenages & early twenty year olds that were raised in that system. She explained the attachment disorders/trauma associated with institutionalization, and how the program works with teens to prepare them for life on the outside, and how to deal with the issues they face. She is a saint. These kids are in such desperate need of help. They call World Vision their 'mom & dad'. We discussed the program funding challenges for a long time and how we can all help her get the resources she needs to continue this important work.

Tuesday, Nov 11: Devos from chapter 25 (Time, Talent, Treasure) of THIOG with Phyllis. Her perspective is profound because of her life experiences.

Morning home visits with the Bus(h) family (spelled Bus, pronounced Bush). The girls walk 3.2 miles to school through the beautiful Carpathian Mountains (we clocked it on the odometer). Their dogs go with them to protect them on the walk because there are wolves (wow). We were all amazed to hear their struggle for education. They are in the sponsorship program but have never had a sponsor - we all agreed to fix that problem!

 Lunch with a sponsor family (wow) what a lunch (6 course meal).

Tuesday Night: Youth In Transition program visit. We had a great time with the teens from YIT. They asked why we cared and how we were able to come so far to help the people of Romania. We each shared a short version of our testimony and tried to encourage them to have a goal, stay in school, and trust in God.

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Devos with Kevin, Chapter 8 (The Greatest Challenge Of The New Millennium) of THIOG. The family visit today was particularly compelling. Annie Maria is a 26 year old mom, with 6 beautiful kids.

Her husband left her, and she has no income. The local Church has helped her by giving her a small 2 bedroom house to stay in for the winter, but it has to be used in the spring for another situation. There is no running water. The babies (twins) are just 4 or 5 months old. The highlight was seeing her excitement when we asked about her sponsor. She went and got the letters from Nicky Strang. (wow) great sponsor. (postscript - I spoke to Nicky tonight and told her all about the visit and sent her a link to the pictures. She said it was the highlight of her year). Our heart went out to Annie Maria.

Thursday: 9 Hour Drive Day! Instead of long devos we all just read and considered Psalm 103.

"The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed...

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love...

Friday, Nov. 12, 2009. Devos with the Bucarest (WVR Headquarters) Staff. We lead devotions by sharing about what we had seen. Sam Vorhees was also there and shared a bit about leadership challenges. We prayed for Anna, a girl abducted from one of the WVR program sites. They had credible evidence that she had been abducted and taken to italy (likely for prostitution).

Morning visit - Sector 5 Placement Center (Orphanage). WOOOWWWW! What a miracle. 2 years ago we visited this same location. It was a very tired and sad facility. One person on the trip even had to walk out during the tour because it was so difficult to see, smell, experience. World Vision had just gotten approval to partner there with the staff and overhaul the facility and programs. Did they ever! You would never imagine it was the same place. The facility is beautiful, the programs are well staffed and organized. They showed us what they called their continuum of services, starting with a maternal shelter, and then a preschool, then counseling and services for parents of Children With Disabilities, and then the residential living area for 60 children. This was spectacular, and I'd imagine as good or better than anything we could do in the U.S.

I told Mariana the program manager that...

"We underestimated your ability to perform miracles"

She laughed and said it was all God.

For the afternoon visit the team broke up and saw different things. My group went to a very dangerous area of Sector 5 (the most impoverished sector of Bucarest) and visited a family that has 9 children (and the mom is pregnant). The apartment was roughly 10 feet by 6 feet (incredibly small). No bathroom. The fathers first comment was, "no one would help us until World Vision did". Both parents and the youngest child have Hepatitis C, and the government, because of confusion about their address, would not provide them with any services. World Vision stepped in and is actively working to get their paperwork straightened out so they can access governmental services. When we prayed for the mom she began crying loudly and thanked us. The sponsorship worker said they became aware of this family because one of their program beneficiaries said, "I'm poor, but this family needs your help more than me". And she took the World Vision worker to meet the family.

Saturday, Nov. 14 2009. Debriefing Day!

The schedule included:

A. Trip schedule recap & review (Wow, it's amazing how you can forget whole sections of your itinerary from just a few days prior. The hole in my short term memory)

B. Personal Reflection Time, answering 8 questions:

1. My experience has been...

2. For me, Romania means...

3. I will be going back home to...

4. When I go back home my prayers will include...

5. An area I have seen God work in my life is...

6. I see the Gospel differently because...

7. The thing about my experience I want to share most is...

8. I have seen God at work in (list each team-mate and give an answer)...

C. Follow-Up Items - what promises did you make, (or decisions) to who?

1. A wall adapter for my sponsor girl's new electronic toy (done)

2. A new (GN ) for my sponsor family

3. Orchestrating full funding for the YIT Program & visit of Olga & Edit

4. Contacting Nicky Strang the sponsor of Annie Maria and her 6 kids (Done, that was fun).

5. Get the trafficking DVD for Trinity off the Meero site

6. Get video greeting of Edit & Olga & Kristina finished for donors

7. Send a copy of all my pics and video to Trinity

8. Finish the expenses

9. Bring a track jacket to Johnathan next time I come

Romania 2009 Trip Slideshow

The Trinity Presbyterian Team visited Cluj Area Development Program from November 5th to 15th 2009. This is the 6th trip to Cluj for the church, and my 3rd! Here are the highlights in picture, enjoy:


Find more photos like this on Cluj Partner Pages

A Month To Remember - October 09, Microsoft's Redmond Campus...

Talking to hundreds of Microsoft employees in October was fun! Here is a nice Article ...
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/bel/community/68924092.html

My favorite pics from Esther's Needs Care Center

(Yes, I took all these pictures, (the best work I've ever done)...

Zambia March 2009

Find more videos like this on MPPC Lusaka 2009



Find more videos like this on MPPC Lusaka 2009



Find more videos like this on MPPC Lusaka 2009



Find more videos like this on MPPC Lusaka 2009



Find more videos like this on MPPC Lusaka 2009

My favorite pics from the Pacific Medical Kit Build

Favorite Pics Berkeley 1st Pres Kit Builds

Favorite Pics RNC Kit Build

Favorite Pics From The DNC Kit Build

My Tijuana pics from August 08

More of what I thought I wanted, but realize I can't handle...

More home visits with Caregivers...this time in Lesotho - the Mountain Kingdom.

First home, we visit a widow that is HIV positive. We meet her four beautiful children - all of them are also HIV positive. We hear her story, and try to encourage her. We pray for her, but the whole time each of us were trying not to cry (at least it seemed that way to me). Her caregiver helps her a lot. And all five are on medication.

Second home, a child-headed household situation. The older sister is 22 and has AIDS. She cares for four younger siblings, and three cousins. All the parents are dead. She was so down emotionally, but we spent a lot of time there, helped stack up her firewood, and plant cabbage seedlings in her garden. She was really grateful. She said she has wanted to plant something in her garden for a long time but has been too weak. When we left she told us she loved us. That broke my heart. The caregiver, in this case, lives right next door, and checks on them every day. But is that adequate?? I guess it has to be.

Third home, a young man 26, full blown AIDS. We walked up carrying a blanket as a gift and the Caregiver smiled and said, "he was just saying how cold he was this morning". We had also brought an umbrella for the caregiver, then it started raining pretty much as we handed it to her. Amazing.

Fourth home, a 28 year old lady. Dying. She had been released from the local adventist hospital for home based care. The caregiver was in charge of that. She had 2 children that were not with her. Her story was sad. Her husband had died, and when her in-laws found out she was sick too then pretty much stopped helping her in any way. So she returned to her home village to receive care from her own people - her mom and the caregiver were doing everything they could.

Basically, for several weeks I've been deeply troubled emotionally. I think a couple afternoons of walking in the shoes of a caregiver was too much for me to handle. I pray for them more now. Realizing that God has gifted them for what they are doing. I pray that God will do miracles and keep them encouraged. It's amazing to think that there are 59,000 Caregivers doing this right now, just through World Vision's ministry. I pray that I'll be able to share these stories so that people care...

Care that in just 3 'wards' of the Umzimvubu area there are 800 full (meaning both parents are lost) orphans that World Vision works with. And there are 17 wards in Umzimvubu in total. No one is working in the other 14 wards. No charities, no missionaries, nothing (that we are aware of anyway).

Care that by 2010 there will be 53 million orphans in Africa from all causes including AIDS.

Care that the life expectancy in South Africa is 46

Care that the life expectancy in Lesotho is 36

Care that the average income in Lesotho is $700 per year.

A few highlights from Umzimvubu South Africa - recent trip

My March trip to South Africa and Lesotho was hard. Have you ever asked for something you thought you wanted, then when you got it, you realized you couldn't handle it? Yeah, this trip I asked very specifically for the chance to walk from house to house (actually hut to hut) with Caregivers, and meet their clients. We did it for a couple days, one in South Africa, one in Lesotho. The caregivers are the heroes of our story here, not the Americans, (that's for sure).

The first home was a man dying, probably had a few months to live. He was coughing uncontrollably. He had been treated for TB already, but we (all 9 in the group) were worried about being exposed. Everyone was too scared to talk. The man was happy to great us, and have us pay him a visit. He was told that "Americans" had heard about the Caregiver ministry and wanted to come and encourage Caregivers and clients. We told him the same thing, and he was very quick to say wonderful things about his caregiver, between fits of coughing. We prayed for him, and chatted with him in an affirming (hopefully) way. This was pretty much hospice care type stuff, a difficult thing for anybody, let alone strangers, but we did it in a way that felt kind to him. His eight year old daughter watched it all quietly. We wondered what would happen to her after he's gone.

Second home, Mother of two children, widow, HIV positive. The babies aren't. She is on medication and is strong enough to even serve as a caregiver to others, and to work in the community garden. In fact, we met her a day earlier as one of the caregivers, so when we got to her home, we were confused. They explained that she was a client, (and still is), but had gotten strong enough physically to want to help, so she's a caregiver now too. That's pretty cool.

Third home, a mother of three children, one of them is severly disabled. She just found out she is HIV positive. She was devastated, wondering what was going to happen to her son. We all joined her in that concern, comforted her, prayed for her, then left.

You can see AMAZING pictures of our trip from one of the travelers, photographer Mark Kuroda. He is my hero too - for his ability to capture a moment, and share it so powerfully. Here's a link to his amazing work...

Trip visit video of South Africa and Lesotho

Wow I love the singing!!

My Favorite Pics from the Palo Alto High Kit Build

April / May Initiative - Equipping 30,000 looks possible...

If you're reading this you already know the stuff I'm into - equipping caregivers, mobilizing people - connecting locals with the global AIDS Crisis. Yeah team.

So, here's an update on our Bay Area Caregiver Kit Initiative - as of now, we are set to have about 30,000 kits built this year through some amazing local partners including individuals (big cash gifts) companies, churches, and schools. Based on the partners so far we will mobilize about 5,500 people as we do this.

Last year we mobilized over 4,000 people locally, and generated 22,000 Caregiver Kits. If you don't understand how this program works, or want to put on your 'let's criticize this idea instead of getting involved cap' then check out the ning site and watch all the videos. Make sure you watch the educational vidoe too. And email me, I'll show you precisly why this is a GREAT program that is absolutely helping combat the global crisis.

If you want to get involved in the April/May Initiative to equip caregivers - email me. On Friday we got pledges for about 8,000 kits, which gets us to 30,000, but sadly, we need much much more.

World AIDS Day - 12/1/07

Yeah, today in partnership with the Journey church we had over 300 people assemble 1,000 Caregiver Kits to equip HIV/AIDS frontline responders aka Caregivers through (who else) World Vision. Having Mayor Chuck Reed endorse the effort was awesome! And we made the San Jose Mercury News...

Romania 2007

Yeah, another great trip to Romania! Visiting the work in Cluj and Bucharest was outstanding. This year we set up the pictures and video on a social network site so everyone could share easily. Cool stuff, check it out at ClujPartnerPages.ning.com

Here's the team video...

Laura Bush Builds Caregiver Kits In Zambia Good Morning America Interview

Wow, check this out - The First Lady visited the World Vision's HIV/AIDS work yesterday & today and helped distribute Caregiver kits. There is about a 50% chance that the kits she helped distribute originated here in the Bay Area since half of all kits completed to date are local. Fun! Here's the Good Morning America Interview clip and one from CBN.