Don't Answer the Phone!!!

I recently received an email from Jack Eans, who is the VP of International Child Ministry for us at Mission of Mercy. This is a situation that exists in Honduras, but also in a number of other countries in Central and South America. After this email hit our offices, another member of our international staff, Yolie Lalama, also shared specific instances, as well. I hope this message will encourage you to keep these countries in prayer... - Mark...

At times it’s hard for us to imagine the different types of stress and pressure the kids, families, project workers and our own field staff in the various countries are under in their personal daily lives.

The following is just one example from one of our countries that needs our prayers.

Imagine your telephone ringing and like you do any day, you answer it but this time on the other end is a stranger who threatens to kidnap your son or daughter unless you pay them thousands of dollars within 72 hours. You have no idea what to do because you don’t know who called. Somehow they know you. You can’t go to the police because they either don’t care, couldn’t do anything anyway or are involved themselves. You start calling family members asking them to loan you money. Pretty soon every sister, uncle and cousin is aware and trying to pull the money together. Eventually you manage to get the money and you stand by your phone waiting for them to call again to give you further instructions. I know this is true because it just happened to a family member of one of our project workers.

This is the latest way the gangs in Honduras are using to extort money from innocent people. It usually happens in the poorest communities where the gangs run rampant. People are afraid to even answer their phones for fear of it being a call like this. And their fears are well founded because people have indeed been kidnapped and even killed for non-payment. They don’t have time to make a “pay no ransom” policy. They just pay and pray.

In these economic down times where everyone is focused on Wall Street, layoffs, interest rates etc. I always find it interesting and yet heartbreaking how poor people are rarely worried or preoccupied with these issues, rather they inevitably have some issue of fear or survival to deal with. We don’t always understand why they can’t just do what we need them to do quickly and right the first time. That person we’re waiting on may have to take a taxi downtown to an internet café (after it took them a week to get approval to take the cash to pay for both), plus run a dozen other errands for the project, all on their day off from their regular job while at the same time scared to walk down their own street or get home when its dark, and then assuming they are locked safely inside their house – afraid to even answer their own phone.

Please pray for each person somewhere out there working on behalf of the sponsors and children that they will be safe, have their own needs provided for, and feel encouraged that what they are doing for pennies is reaping a major investment in the Kingdom.

Thanks and be blessed!

Jack

It's a Small World

A few days ago I posted a blog after I had connected again with our former sponsor child.  Someone at Mission of Mercy thought it would be nice to talk to her about her experience, so I arranged a time for us to record an interview on Skype.  As Lavinia spoke, I remembered my trip to Romania in 1995.  We visited the Mission of Mercy site, where I saw a computer lab of about 10 to 12 computers.  I remember thinking how great it was that kids were going to have the opportunity to learn on computers.  Very few in Romania had a computer at home, and even back in the States, they were really coming of age.  Well, Lavinia turned out to be one of those that had been tutored in that lab.

I found out in preparing to post the audio, that here and on Facebook, you can't upload audio, only video.  So this is a very simple video, but the most important part, of course, is the audio.  What would expect would be the focus of someone who spent over 30 years in radio?

I hope you enjoy the interview.  The world gets smaller every day!

Update on our sponsor child

I wrote about this in an earlier blog, but this is an update I sent to the Mission of Mercy/Bethesda staff. This is also for all of you that haven't gone back through the archives!

I just wanted to let you know how encouraged I am by a former sponsored child. Back in 1994 (when I was running Bethesda Christian Broadcasting), I went on my first trip with Mission of Mercy – it was to Romania. That trip impacted my life greatly. When I got back, I told Mission of Mercy to send us a child from Romania. We sponsored Lavinia for 7-8 years, until she graduated from high school (sometime in 2001-02). Her last communication to us, at 16, was that she wanted to be a computer programmer and that she prayed for our family every day!

About a year ago, I returned to Romania for the first time in over 13 years. I happened to ask the director if he knew what happened to our sponsored child. He knew of her and arranged to have her come in to meet me. She was 23 years old, a delightful young lady, that had completed her college education as a computer programmer. She led one of her college instructors to Christ. She is now working for a web consulting firm in Romania. She said she hesitated when she was offered the position because she would be the only Christian in the firm – but then she felt like God said that was exactly why she should take the position. Later, through communication with her firm, the director of the firm volunteered what services they could provide for our web site free of charge. Lavinia remembered that I had three children – two girls and a boy – but couldn’t remember their names. She thanked me for sponsoring her all of those years, and said it really made a difference in her life.

Last week, I got an email update from her. She has survived economic cuts at the firm, and is now the only programmer on staff. She is also nearing completion of her Master’s Degree. She also shared that she is going to a mission’s camp in Kosovo this summer. Her family is doing well in the Lord, even though some of them (she has six siblings) have been laid off.

I was just so encouraged by her email. She is now a friend on Facebook and I have linked my daughters Kate and Emily with her and I'm hoping they can get to know each other. You never know what happens when you sponsor a child, but Lavinia is just one example of how God uses Mission of Mercy in the lives of children. They grow up and have opportunities that they never would have dreamed of otherwise. Whatever your role is in child sponsorship or support of Mission of Mercy, please know that you are making a difference – and you’re changing hearts and lives.