search the site...
the magazine
Archives: March 2009
Aware...
Archives: March 2009
Lives that do the talking...
If you've been around Soul Survivor for a bit you would have probably heard the phrase 'Actions speak louder'. It's a good little way of saying that sometimes our words mean nothing if our lives aren't living out what we say. But more often than not our good intentions don't always translate to our lives, and we can talk the talk, but not walk the walk. So here's some encouragement. These people did it. They heard God, they noticed and they acted. And guess what? they aren't too different from you and me...
What would you do if you saw a kid crying in the street?
Stop of course. Anyone would.
Maybe you wouldn’t if you were walking past one of Manila’s largest dumps, “Smokey Mountain”. It’s a place full of waste where hundreds of local kids earn a living sifting through all sorts of rubbish to find bits of metal to sell and discarded food to eat. So, think again. This young kid is crying whilst queuing to get into the dump… you’d be crazy to stop:
Wouldn’t you?
No more theorizing. This happens. People ignore this situation, and thousands of others like it, every day.
But what would happen if just one person stopped?
Zeny Abling did. She took time to comfort the little crying boy and find out about his life.
The boy explained that the queue into the dump was long and slow. He desperately needed to get into the dump and find things to sell so his family could buy medicine for his sick father.
She got involved, found out the boy’s name and visited his family. She went further, supporting them financially and committed to praying for them. She got to know the little crying boy as a person, Edurado, and supported him by paying for the costs of his education.
He was bright and won a scholarship to university where he studied accountancy.
Fast forward ten years or so and Edurado is now the president of Manila’s second largest bank. He lives close to Smokey Mountain where he used to earn a living, and he now uses his own money to help churches in the area that work with the poorest communities.
So what would you do? You know, one small act might just might move mountains.
Thought you could never change anything?
Imagine walking through Ambedkar Bustee, a slum that houses 5000 of Delhi’s poor. Sewage runs through the streets, people are packed into cramped temporary housing, employment and food are scarce and at any moment a whole community could be evicted at the whim of the local landowning authorities. So what do you do? Whatever you can.
Take Kiran Martin as an example. Back in 1988 she’d just qualified as a doctor. Seeing the poverty experienced by those who lived literally on her doorstep, she acted. Borrowing a fold up table and chair, she sat under a tree in the slum and opened her first clinic for women and children.
Initially she was ridiculed for what she was doing: a fairly wealthy, well-educated, young woman doctor without any patients, sitting in the middle of the poorest area of town.
However, after a severe cholera outbreak, hundreds of people needed medical attention. Because of her commitment and skill, local business owners gave her a room from which she could see patients and serve the dire needs of the community.
ASHA, as her work is now known, operates in over 33 slums across Delhi.
One small committed step and that was that. No looking back.
Since opening this first clinic she’s trained countless local women as community health workers and educated them to treat simple illnesses to further educate the local people about healthcare issues.
Still, that’s not enough. Knowing that the people of Ambedkar Bustee could be evicted at any moment Kiran Martin encouraged locals to fight for the right to live in permanent housing.
The fight was successful. Small plots of land were given and the process of building their own homes has begun.
Thought you couldn’t change anything? Think again.
Taking out the trash is a right pain…
We all hate doing it, but most of us have to at some point. That’s right, putting out the rubbish. Chucking away all the stuff we’ve amassed consumed and chewed up. Believe it or not, what we regard as rubbish and not fit for our homes or bellies ends up giving life to others. In the city dump of Tegucigalpa in Honduras live hundreds of people who depend on the rubbish generated by wealthier people to survive. With a serious reputation for being a dangerous spot, you wouldn’t want to be caught in the area for too long.
So what would you do if you found yourself staring into that dump? What sort of stuff would run through your mind as you watched the hundreds of children rummaging through the foul smelling mounds of rotten food and broken glass?
This is the situation Jeony Ordonez found himself in. Being with his five year old daughter, Chris, he figured it was safest to just get out of the area altogether. Sounds sensible…
…His daughter didn’t think so. She wanted to pray for the other children.
A few weeks later, on returning to the dump with her Dad, Chris (still five years old remember) was convinced God wanted her and her family to do something: she urged her father to put their prayers for these children into action.
And so it began. One small girl, a few small words, a little prayer and the lives of all involved are changed. For the next six months the Ordonez family visited the dump community every day to build relationships and trust. After a while they started to provide education for the children of the dump and soon they started afternoon school classes right amongst the ‘rubbish’.
Four years later and the ‘Love and Faith’ school brings the hope of a brighter future to 75 dump children and their families. They are just about to move in to their first covered classroom in a site just outside the dump, and a growing number of kids and their families are encountering Jesus as part of the local church where Jeony is Pastor.
Just one prayer translated into action… that’s all just see what can happen.
Soul Survivor is a Christian charity that puts on events for young people. Our registered charity no. is 1080720. We are also a company limited by guarantee in England & Wales. Our company registered number is 03991111, which is nice. Thanks for caring.
e. info@soulsurvivor.com | t. 0303 333 1 333
Soul Survivor | Unit 2 Paramount Industrial Estate | Sandown Road | Watford | Herts. | UK