Join our Leadership team in Beira, Mozambique as Ken Styles (Hamilton Lead Pastor) describes meeting with a group of women who are part of a savings and credit rotation group. Our partnership with MCC is supporting entrepreneurial savings groups like this one. With the accumulated savings, the group can give credit (loans) to its members with 10% interest.
When you visit a loved one in the hospital, what does it look like? A waiting room? A hotel? A cafeteria? West Hamilton Lead Pastor Ken Styles and Janice Styles bring us to ‘The Fires’ at Macha Hospital in Zambia.
In July of 2011, we sent a team of leaders from The Meeting House to connect with our Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) partners in Zambia and Mozambique. Armed with a video camera and jet lag they set out to reconnect with some of the projects and places that you’ve heard about over the past few years. Throughout the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing with you some stories from their trip. Enjoy this introduction video and pop back soon to see the next diary entry!
The Meeting House community has sponsored 1031 children in the community of Mposa, Malawi. World Vision Malawi has captured some of their Christmas celebration! Can you find your sponsor child? Also, we should warn you that the clip features The Chicken Dance song– adjust your speakers accordingly.
Our team with some of the incredible mothers and volunteers at Z.P.H.C.A.
While we were in Zimbabwe, we saw so many examples of people who go FAR out of their way to care for others. Not just an hour here or there, but lifestyles that revolved around compassionate (and often thankless) work. We met a retired couple who run an orphanage with close to 80 children that range in age from 2 to 19 years old. There is a house next door to the orphanage that they should be living in, but instead, they rent it out for extra income to look after the children. They live behind an office in a tiny room at the orphanage. Their lives are devoted to the care of children who would otherwise be on the street. The love that they show on a daily basis to these children is unbelievably inspiring.
The Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association (ZPHCA) had the greatest impact on my worldview of all the projects we visited while on the learning trip. I was so amazed by the mothers who diligently and lovingly worked with each of the children with disabilities. These mothers, many of whom are single parents, willingly gave up their time (and the opportunity to sell goods for profit) to care for the children that would otherwise be left to fend for themselves. What is probably the most inspiring part of this project is that it started at a grassroots level –
the mothers saw a need, and acted upon that need. I cannot imagine that it has been easy for them but the women are making a real difference in the lives of these children.
These examples remind me that it is not just about what I give but also about what I am willing to give up. Am I willing to give up my time to volunteer – time that I could have spent doing something else? Am I willing to sacrifice what is important to me for the sake of someone else? Am I willing to realign what’s “important”? Compassion is not just about a hand out – it’s about making God’s Kingdom visible.
Today is World AIDS Day – a day dedicated to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS and to reflect on the current realities of the pandemic. How will you commemorate World AIDS Day? Consider spending some time to:
As a community, we also want to celebrate the AMAZING outpouring of generousity through our AIDS Care campaign. In the months of October and November, The Meeting House has assembled, collected, and sponsored:
782
|
1027 |
1016 |
| AIDS Care Kits | AIDS Care Cards |
World Vision HopeChild Sponsorships |
Elle shares an excerpt from her journal in Zimbabwe from July 2011.
This afternoon we went to see the Boys Home which is home to six young men who have lived on the streets, suffered abuse and/or have been abandoned by their families. When we entered, I met six of the best behaved and best looking youth I have ever met! Their names were Nelson, Brian, Sampson, Edmon, Becham and Shephard. Nelson is outgoing, charismatic and humorous. Brian, the youngest, is shy and reserved but with a great sense of humour. Sampson is an introvert but very smiley and often ‘called the others on’ to say or do things. Edmon, I would soon learn has a great passion for Christ and when he later sang and danced, he held himself with the confidence any grown man would be envious of. Becham was a fan of soccer and laughed all the time. Shephard, accurately named, is the alpha male of the group. He is confident, funny, outgoing, polite, personable and intelligent. I was blown away by the wittiness and wonderful sense of humor that they all had.
These were not a group of boys that you would ever imagine in a million years have lived what they have lived. Talk about resilience.
They sang for us, songs of worship. There was pure worship on their faces which was amazing to see, despite what they have suffered. One of the songs they sang had a verse of praising their mothers and fathers; this struck me. Most of them don’t have these people in their lives, and their memory of them is painful. Yet, they sang with such joy. Why?
Hear the boys sing for us
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For those with family strain, “family” often becomes who you make it. Thanks to The Meeting House in partnership with MCC and the incredible work of Bulawayo Baptist Church, these boys have found new mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers in each other. I cried because of the beauty of this.
The boys taught us how to play cricket. There was support for one another, combined with playful teasing. The first rule they told us was that you cannot cry if you get hit by the ball…that you just had to “walk it off.” They looked at one another and smiled–I smiled knowing there must’ve been times when they have had to support each other.
When we came inside, they said that today was a special day for them, as they did not often get visitors. They joked about various reasons why our group could not leave. I didn’t want to.
They are such amazing young men and I want to be a part of who they become…I want to see them grow and I want to see who they will become. I prayed they would receive the financial, emotional, spiritual and physical support that they require. Please continue to pray for these young men with me.
AIDS Care collection was held at The Meeting House last Sunday and the response has been fantastic!
As of November 16, 2011:
710 |
842 |
1449 |
| AIDS Care Kits | AIDS Care Cards |
Tubes of Toothpaste |
All of this is on the way to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Kitchener. The kits will be repacked into buckets and shipped to Home Based Care Workers. The funds from the cards will be going towards MCC’s Generations program which works towards long-term solutions to HIV and AIDS.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to AIDS CARE. A special thank you to everyone who lugged (the technical term for transporting more than three kits at a time!) the kits, loaded the cars, drove the cars and unloaded again. What a generous community!
Also, a very special thank you to Superior Gloves in Acton for donating the majority of the latex-free gloves to the kits! As well, thank you to Henry Schein Canada in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Levitt Safety in Oakville for donating gloves!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
If you’d still like to contribute to this project, we’ll still accept cards and kits until November 27.
The rumors are true!
966 children in the Mposa region of Malawi have been sponsored by people in The Meeting House community in the past two weeks. There are still more children waiting to be sponsored and you can do that at www.themeetinghouse.ca/worldvision. We are SO excited about such a strong start to our global compassion goals for this month! A generous God moves generous hearts! This is also the final week to put together your AIDS Care Kits and AIDS Care Cards. Collection is this Sunday (November 13, 2011) at all sites.
Our goal:
1000 AIDS Care Kits + 1000 AIDS Care Cards + 1000 World Vision HOPEChild Sponsored Children all in the month of November
Some call it crazy. We’re okay with that.
Only 10 days left to collect your AIDS Care Kits and AIDS Care Cards. There’s still time to get involved! We asked some folks at The Meeting House about their experience with AIDS Care this year. Here’s what they said:
Hear more from Kim
I was driving to work earlier this week and all I could think about was how sick I was. My nose was running. Yup, that’s it. I was complaining to myself and generally feeling sorry for my “condition”. Something occurred to me during this episode. In two minutes, I can run into a local drug store and pick up whatever I need to stop my face from leaking. I have a car, I have cash, I have at least five drugstores on my way to work and confidence that the stores shelves are stocked.
Imagine not having a car, not having the cash, not having a place with accessible medication and being much sicker than a leaky nose.
All of this made me think about AIDS Care Kits and AIDS Care Cards. The kits are a bag filled with things that, relatively speaking, are SO easy for us to get. The Card funds go to incredible programs that help address long term solutions to HIV and AIDS. This AIDS Care season, I’m challenging myself and my Home Church friends to think differently about what we take for granted and not just smile and say “I’m so fortunate” but to give more to those who don’t have even their basic needs met. I’m blessed with much so I can bless others with much.
Hear more from Alan
At some point in my life, curiosity got the best of me and I began asking the innocent question of how other people in the world experience life. I began to discover a tremendous contrast between my convenient, comfortable bubble and the grave injustices that exist throughout our world. It seems so unfair to me…geographic location, culture, upbringing…all outside of a person’s control, but having such a great impact on their experience of life. I don’t know all the philosophical or theological reasons as to why our world operates this way, but when I see social injustices, my heart screams. When I see and hear and think about the unbearable situations that other human beings are suffering through, I feel compelled to act. To do something. Anything. And it has been encouraging to surround myself with other people who feel the same way and are fighting together for the same cause. There is support in numbers. A sense that we are in this mission together, participating in global team work, doing whatever we can to help. This team work brings people together. It is a medium to give and receive hope and love both locally and globally. So why do I contribute to the AIDS Care Kits? Because I caught the vision. Helping others brings purpose to life and generates a joy in knowing that while you can’t do everything, you can do something.
Hear more from Sarah
It is difficult to look suffering in the eye. Our natural instincts are to pull away, recoiling from the pain because we wish we could change it and we’re rattled at how it reminds us of our own fragility. I think the AIDS crisis elicits this response from many of us. It’s big, it’s heartbreaking and we don’t feel we can change it. We can do something. We can come alongside those who are in the final stages of war with this disease and offer them comfort. In doing so, we offer them the dignity of dying with their basic needs being met, and we empower their families with practical ways to love and comfort them. We can’t always change the outcome of a life snuffed out too soon, but we can come alongside to comfort and offer dignity. In this way, we can “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). AIDS care kits provide that opportunity.
Hear more from Craig
When in Zambia with the Meeting House’s second Africa Learning Team, I saw first-hand the importance of our support through the AIDS Care kits and cards. The need is overwhelming, but MCC’s Generations program is making a difference. With it, compassion meets despair and the result is hope. I think of the sacrifices the caregivers are making to offer that hope. Here is an excerpt from my travel journal on that day:
“This is the meaning of personal sacrifice: We met the volunteer home care workers at the local BIC church. Here is a group of 14 women who volunteer two or three days per week to ensure that the 180 or so AIDS patients in this rural area get weekly visits. They have no transportation. Some will hitch a ride with a friend; one or two might have a bicycle, but mostly they walk to each appointment. The trip could be a couple of hours—each way. When I think about the sacrifices these visitors make, I am speechless. As we went about with them we also learned that they might take food from their own gardens to ensure their patients have enough to eat. What a humbling thought. “
I still remember: when we met these volunteers, they thanked us and offered prayers for us. They found the material goods in these kits invaluable. But they were also greatly encouraged by us to continue their work—simply by the fact that we showed them that someone cared.
Considering the sacrifices these volunteers make as they work to give hope to their community, contributing to AIDS Cares kits and cards is the least I can do.
Hear more from Jane
In our Home Church, the AIDS kits and cards are our top priority. I am asking our members to shop with intention. As you are buying the sheets, think about how wonderful it will be for a sick person to be able to lay on clean sheets. Think of how the powder will feel when it is gently rubbed into to the skin or how the vaseline will soothe wounds. Laying on of hands to the sick is a gift of caring and we are all contributing to that by our efforts. We might think it is efficient to just shop for the whole group to make it easier. I encourage our group to shop independently and try to visualize how these gifts in the kit will be used by home based care workers with people who are living with the realities of HIV and AIDS and the opportunistic infections that can come with that.
I have asked our group for a goal and we are aiming for 6 kits and 6 cards. I have brought in 6 grocery bags with a list of items in each. We are filling the bags as items come in. It is a visual for all to see each week. At The Meeting House in West Hamilton, I have a table set up each week with all the items in a kit displayed, so that everyone can see what it looks like and hopefully it will encourage others to do a kit themselves or with a friend.
Hear more from Jackie
In an effort to engage the kids at kidmax, I wanted to bring to their minds on how often we take for granted simple things while so many others go without. Last year the children were encouraged to contribute by donating bars of soap, this year the focus is toothpaste tubes. To prepare I ground up chocolate cookies into a container that was put inside a bucket along with a container of water. Explaining how we clean up for dinner after a hard day of playing we need to soap up and did they ever think of what it would be like not being able to wash the dirt off. Dipping my hands into the water and then into the cookie crumbs I lifted my hands out of the bucket looking like a mess. Pretending to want to touch the kids and give them food, they saw what it would be like without a simple bar of soap. Then it carried over to the toothpaste. Coating my teeth with the same cookie grounds were met with eeewwwws and yuck, but the point was made…we are so blessed here and we need to help others who are going without. They are responding enthusiastically and the Kidmax Volunteers are so amazing with their efforts to express the desperate need in such a way that a child understands and wants to help. God is so cool!
Hear more from Colleen
When I think of AIDS Care Kits, I immediately think of Hlobi who worked for MCC in Swaziland. She told us, “We cannot run our Home Based Care program without the MCC AIDS Care Kits.”
I saw first-hand the value the AIDS Care Kits have and how they are used during home care visits in Swaziland. I’ll never forget Hlobi and the people I met there and participating in AIDS Care is an incredible way to honour and love our brothers and sisters from afar.
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