We have a feature story on Sri Lanka published in the January 26th edition of the Chilliwack Progress.
Click on the image below to download a pdf of the article (1.7MB).
Pockets of Change in print
Posted by Justin on January 28th, 2010Dichotomy
Posted by Lorene on January 26th, 2010We were driving down the road on the outskirts of Kisumu, Kenya, a modern city in the banks of Lake Victoria, when something caught my eye.
We drove past a woman washing her clothes in the stream, next to a colossal billboard advertising a washer / dryer combo. It read: ‘Who said washing clothes is hard work’?
While the woman and the advertisement were directly next to each other, the two could not have been further apart. It was such a dichotomy to see an ad that would not stand out in North America next to a scene that does not stand out in Africa. But placed together, the two images were worlds apart.
She has no more chance of ever owning a modern-day appliance than I have of winning the Ms. World pageant. Maybe that didn’t bother her. Maybe it bothered me because even after all this travel I still consider things like a washing machine more of a right than a luxury. And that’s after washing a lot of underwear and socks in bathroom sinks. What I consider my rights versus luxuries are so separated from what that woman would consider a right or a luxury.
Now that we’re back and in our normal lives here in Canada, there are things that I used to consider my rights that really stand out to me now as overwhelming luxuries. It’s tough to separate what I experienced in our travels with what I see back in Canada. I feel different: I look at the world differently, I look at my finances differently, I look at my heart differently. Yet I live in the same world I did before. The struggle now is what to do now with the changes that took place in me.
It’s a good reason that everyone should be involved in missions. You change, whether that’s what you’re after or not.
Praying for Haiti
Posted by Lorene on January 13th, 2010
In a country where nothing could get worse, it just did. Our hearts and prayers are with Haiti today.
We were in Haiti for two weeks. But it had an impact on me that will last a lifetime. The people we spent time with were amazing, compassionate men and women dedicated to pulling Haiti out of the muck and mire one soul at a time.
And now, they face a horrible reality in the wake of destruction left by devastating earthquake. It’s hard to imagine the country ever rising from such rubble. But through God, all things are possible. Pray that the Christians in this country will be a beacon of hope to the communities. For our friends at HaitiARISE, pray they can help in the time of need and that God will provide more than they can hope or imagine as they reach out to the community of Grand Guave. Praise God that HaitiARISE director Marc Honorat is OK as is a team from Nelson, BC (non HFL) that arrived just hours before the quake hit.
Pray for these things, pray for whatever else God sets on your heart as the news rolls in. Just pray.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. - Psalm 40:2
If you would like to donate, please click here to be re-directed to a secure donation page, and in the “Donation Designation” section, select Projects – Haiti: Earthquake Response from the drop-down menu. As with all Hungry for Life projects, 100% of the funds given to this project will be used for this project.
Praise God
Posted by Lorene on January 5th, 2010Just a quick update to share with you the MANY blessings God has heaped on us in the last while.
We are, as our newsletter stated, finished our travel portion of the Pockets of Change project. The Lord was so good to us as we traveled. We didn’t get any serious sicknesses which is a miracle considering the high risk of malaria in many of the places we went, all the food we ate that wasn’t quite up to Canadian food standards, and all the travel we undertook to climates our bodies were not used to.
Not one piece of luggage was ever lost which is astounding considering we went on more than 25 flights over the last nine months. The only items lost during all our travels were one hat in Huanca Huanca, Peru, and one cable lock which we’re pretty sure ended up somewhere in the Ukraine.
One of the big blessings to share is that we have a place to stay for all of January and February! A friend of a friend opened up his apartment for us to house sit. It is fully furnished, centrally located and ideal for allowing us to jump right into putting the project together instead of worrying about moving our furniture, unpacking and setting up house first. This way, we hit the ground running. Praise God!!
We’re both in good spirits and even though the project is huge and I have had some restless nights worrying about it, we know we have a great team at Hungry for Life helping us out and we have confidence that God will see us through this project. We’re trusting that God will equip us to complete the book and that He will continue to pour out His blessing on us to finish what we started.
Thank you for your continued support. We feel so blessed by all God has provided, and that includes the readers of this blog who have been with us every step of the way.
Updates and all
Posted by Lorene on December 7th, 2009This is our newsletter we’ve been trying to send out for a week. For some reason our email program won’t let us send it so I’m posting it to the site and hoping everyone on our email list checks the website periodically!
Hello friends and family,
Praise the Lord, our travel portion of the Pockets of Change project is now done. It has been quite the ride and it’s hard to believe our travels are over. After some personal travel time we’re on right now, we will be starting the really hard part of our project: assembling all we’ve gathered into the book.
We started this project not really sure what we would find. We prayed that God would open our eyes to see what He wanted us to see. Working with Hungry for Life communications staff members Ryan and Corrina, we crafted a mission statement to keep our focus. None of us knew if the vision would match the outcome, that was in God’s hands. We prayerfully considered the mission statement and felt that it stated what God was calling us to do.
Reflecting on our travels, I know half the mission statement has been completed. We have found ’specific stories of spiritual and physical transformation of people and communities’.
Now we must work to fulfill the second half of the mission statement, ‘we desire to motivate individuals to be a part of a global movement of compassion and justice, realizing their potential to effect global change’.
All this travel means nothing unless people are called to action through the stories gathered, through the photos captured. Staring this January we will be immersing ourselves in this work, to create a book that will inspire, that will motivate, that will call people to action.
We’ll be working at the Hungry for Life office in Chilliwack. If you’re curious about what we’re up to or how the work is going, feel free to email or call. We’d love to share what we’re learning and how the work is progressing.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray that we’re able to work through all that we have experienced. It is overwhelming just thinking about the amount of places we’ve been, people we’ve interviewed and things we’ve seen. I don’t know how we’re going to assemble it into some sort of cohesive work so your prayers are very much appreciated and needed.
Also please pray that we’re able to find an affordable place to live as we work on the book. Our fundraising efforts only covered our travel portion. While we have some funds left over it’s not enough to cover rent, food, gas and the like while we work on the book for the next three to five months. Given we have no income coming in at this point, we are relying solely on God that He will provide for our ‘daily bread’.
Finally, we just want to praise God for all of you, our faithful prayer and financial partners in this project. We literally could not have done this project without you. While our Pockets of Change project is only halfway done now, I know it won’t seem as interesting when we’re sitting in an office pounding the keys eight hours a day. So while we’re still away, it seems the right time to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support. Because of you, we were able to gather what we needed to make this project come together.
Thank you.
In Christ,
Lorene and Justin
p.s. While we are taking some time to travel on our own, we are continuing to update the blog as we find internet and inspiration. Please continue to check out www.pocketsofchange.org for more stories and photos from the road.
Fun & games in Siaya
Posted by Lorene on December 1st, 2009
Remember Seje
Posted by Lorene on November 15th, 2009I’m having a difficult time writing what I experience. I try to put my fingers to the keyboard and relate what I have seen, heard, shared. But all that stares back at me from the screen is a blank page with a blinking line, waiting for input.
Considering that stringing words into captivating sentences that turn into stories is the reason that I am even in this place, this concerns me.
What I find myself stumped in writing about is a story of two teachers working in the middle of nowhere in a place called Seje. It’s a small community in Kenya, little more than an array of huts about five kilometres from a village that at least has a few corner stores.
The only way to find the school in which they work is to follow a long thin ribbon of red dirt that someone had the sense of humour to call a road. It bumps and winds and has potholes so big I was concerned we would be abandoning the car and walking with our field partner Edgar to find it.
We arrived safely, to a dusty patch of land with two buildings. Inside the mud walls of the first room, children sing a welcome to their rare visitors from outside the community. Bright sunlight streamed into the windows, providing the only light. Unlike most Kenyan schools, only some of the kids here wear uniforms, and they are tattered and threadbare.
The circumstances these students find themselves in are awful. It is a hot and dusty place. Most of the children are orphans, living wherever they can find a sympathetic hand or with old grandparents in need of assistance themselves.
Out the car window: a glimpse of Kenya
Posted by Justin on November 5th, 2009
Do you know that girl?
Posted by Lorene on November 1st, 2009
Do you know that girl? The one over there washing her clothes in a pale yellow bucket? What about that boy, the one playing with sticks in the dust beside the road? Do you know the man in the crisp white shirt, holding a briefcase and sitting on the back of a bicycle taxi? Now there is a young boy in front of us, stealing sugarcane off the back of a loaded truck, and another begging for money on the streets. Do you know them?
No?
Neither do I.
I know nothing about these people, save the brief impressions as we drive through the dusty streets of Kenya.
We spent time with Kenyans during our time in this country. As I have listened to the stories of the few we met, I have heard tales of sorrow and strength. And I want to write their stories down and share them with as many people as I can.
But there are countless more who I will never know, never hear about and consequently never share their stories in my world. No one I know will ever know their plight and in turn have the opportunity to help them.
But what I do know is that God knows them. He knows their language, the size of their birthmark, what they last ate. He knows their hopes, their obstacles, their future and their past.
That is of comfort to me. The more we have travelled, the bigger my world has become. Too big. It can be overwhelming when I think about all the great need in this world. Everywhere we go, people are starving, people are living in the pits of poverty with no ladder out.
What I’ve loved about our task is that we get to hear the stories of how ladders are being built to help people out. When I see the masses in the markets, outside our car as we race by, peering out of houses and loaded in taxi vans, it can seem like nothing can be accomplished, no strategies can help. But to meet individuals like Pastor Michael, a small church pastor learning farming techniques to help feed his family and make as bit of an income, I know change is possible. It is in the individual lives where we see God’s hand at work. And individual lives affect families that affect communities which in turn can affect nations.
So do you know that girl? Maybe not. But by helping those we do know, someone who knows that girl may one day be able to help her too.Do you
10 shillings
Posted by Lorene on October 27th, 2009
Wilfreda’s weathered face reveals an old woman who has suffered hardship. To look at her arms, you can trace the bones within. Her clothes are tattered and threadbare.
Wilfreda lives in a small mud hut with a thatched roof. She and her aged husband have no means of making money. We visited Wilfreda at her home because she had been blessed with a male and a female goat through a project facilitated by Hungry for Life and our good friend Edgar.
We saw the goats first, as our visit was unannounced and Wilfreda was not home. As we talked to our guide Pastor Michael about the project, Wilfreda came running up the dirt path to greet us.
She happily shook our hands and told us through Pastor Michael’s translation what a joy it was to meet us and how excited she was about the upcoming birth of her goat. She talked of the blessing these goats will be when she can start to sell the offspring at the market to make a bit of money.
We had a little chat and headed on our way as we had much to see and a long ways to walk on this particular day. And I thought that was the end of my story about Wilfreda. But then we went to Pastor Michael’s church on Sunday.
The mud walled and tin roofed church was full of mostly widows and orphans. Some had probably not had anything to eat for breakfast; three meals a day is unheard of in Boro.
Pastor Michael’s flock is a very poor one. While they cannot bring much to offer, what they do bring is joy. Wilfreda and the others arrived at the church with huge smiles, dressed in their Sunday best.
They came to worship, and it was a sweet sound. Out of the congregation, one lone woman would begin to sing praise to God. The rest would repeat after her, moving and clapping their worship to Christ. As one song ended, another woman would begin a new song, and so it went for song after song.
It was beautiful. There was such a presence of God in this place, and the humble surroundings made it all the more evident that God seeks after our hearts alone. I watched as Wilfreda sang out to her Saviour, giving Him her praise. I am sure God smiled down on his followers in the Boro church that day.
The Hillside team’s pastor, Durwin, gave the message, and then it came time for the offering. A large basket was placed on a table at the front, and quickly after people began to drop in their offerings. As a team, we had decided to each give about 100 shillings each, a lot for these people but under $2 for us. I was standing right by the basket, and as I watched, Wilfreda and most of the others in the church came forward. They dropped in change – 5, 10, maybe 20 shillings at the most – releasing their grip and dropping their meagre offerings into the hand woven basket with a clink.
As I watched, I began to weep. I couldn’t help it.
We gave so little. These people gave a tenth of what we did, yet they gave so much more.What we gave was nothing in comparison to what they gave. How can I describe the sacrifice these people gave, their precious offering?
It was so real to me, after seeing Wilfreda in her home and witnessing the poverty she came from. To see her and others that come from similar living situations give their offerings to Christ was humbling. No sacrifice I have made for God’s glory comes close to the 10 shillings Wilfreda gave that day.
