Stories of TransformationSea to Sea has partnered with a number of agencies and ministries working to end the cycle of poverty. Following are greetings from a few of these partners and some of their stories of transformation. (Taken from Appendix A of the Shifting Gears devotional book). Greetings and Stories from The Christian Reformed World Relief CommitteeWhether you’re a cyclist, a donor, or a prayer warrior, thank you for joining us in this adventure! At CRWRC, we’ve seen first hand the “power of one community,” where each one’s gift is used for restoration. When participating in this adventure, we hope that you will also experience this power of community. Be on the lookout for collaboration which results in fresh hope, new freedom, and signs of God’s kingdom on this earth. In North America, the Disaster Response Services “Green Shirts” help rebuild homes and lives after disasters. Around the world, CRWRC’s International Relief Team brings Christ’s love in the here and now. In both places, CRWRC engages daily in the weaving of a complex web of relationships with other relief agencies, churches, and communities in order to bring about restoration in places where continued devastation seems to be the only probable outcome. No matter what the disaster or location, CRWRC works with the community to recover from disaster and, through Christ, to gain hope in a better future. The thinking is this: This is the type of community transformation that CRWRC strives for and has helped to achieve around the world. Greetings and Stories from Partners WorldwidePartners Worldwide grew out of a trip to Kenya when a Christian businessman asked the question, “What is it that ordinary businesspeople can do, besides giving money, to alleviate poverty?” Businesspeople are perhaps best described as entrepreneurial. They are willing to take intelligent risks, want a return on their investment, and are action-oriented. Partners Worldwide engages Christian businesspeople to use their knowledge and experience to mentor, equip and encourage other businesspeople in developing countries. Through these partnerships of businesspeople, we often witness economic and spiritual transformation in families, churches, businesses and, indeed, communities worldwide. Sea to Sea 2008 is also a movement engaging ordinary people to accomplish something extraordinary: end the cycle of poverty. We are delighted to participate in a movement that engages regular people to make a difference in the world. It is our passion to be servants and humble leaders—the salt and light of Christ. We seek God’s favor and blessing on this event because of what it represents, the opportunity it provides, and the change it will bring. Water Wins is a well-drilling project in northern Nigeria. With the assistance of Innotec, an engineering firm in Zeeland, and Buer Well Drilling in Caledonia, Michigan, this project is providing clean, fresh drinking water to over seventy communities. Amazingly, many of these communities of 300-1,000 people now have a small group of Christians worshiping together when in the past, there were no believers whatsoever. Water Wins is headed by Dr. Jeremiah Yongo and his wife Marietta. Partners Worldwide makes an annual trip to northern Nigeria each March and would love to bring new visitors along. About ten years ago, and with only one freezer, Madam Lefèvre began a small popsicle business, working out of her home in Haiti. Through God’s grace, her business has grown exponentially. Today, she operates a business with twenty-two freezers, forty employees, over six hundred merchants, and is close to paying off her most recent loan of $13,000. Through her perseverance, Madam Lefèvre has affected her community by creating employment opportunities that sustain hundreds of families in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Empowering others through employment, Madam Lefèvre developed the opportunity for individuals to rise from poverty. According to Beatrice Pierre, Million Mentors Coordinator of Partners Worldwide, “When a poor person comes and asks her for money, she gives that person some product and tells him or her to go out and sell. She makes salespeople out of them.” Of her six hundred merchants, most arrive each morning and purchase popsicles to sell, or, with her permission, commit to sell and pay for the inventory at the end of the day. Training and building local business capacity is essential within all Partners Worldwide relationships. Access to capital is needed, but most useful to the communities we partner with are business relationships, allowing for a context of learning. Peter Schaafsma is a former executive of a large pharmaceutical company. In early 2005, Peter visited Nicaragua on a short work trip. He was painting walls at a local school when one of the Million Mentors staff asked him to spend an afternoon getting to know Milton Ramos. A few days later, after just a few moments of introduction, the two were deep in conversation regarding the state of the pharmaceutical industry in Nicaragua. During his two-week trip Peter analyzed Milton’s business and encouraged him to obtain a short-term loan. Today, Laboratorios Ramos has filled a large order from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health and used the profit to free itself from nearly all outstanding debt. All this would have been nearly impossible without Peter’s encouragement. John and Margaret Matheri started their business in 1990 with a loan of $40, just enough to purchase a treadle-operated sewing machine. As the business has grown, so have the opportunities to impact the lives of their employees. Today, as members of the Christian Entrepreneurs Savings and Credit Society (CHESS), a Partners Worldwide affiliate in Kenya, they have hired fifteen employees, most of whom are young women who dropped out of primary education or former prostitutes who are now gainfully employed. Greetings and Stories from Christian Reformed World MissionsCRWM is excited to be a part of Sea to Sea 2008. We are encouraged to see so many cyclists committed to raise awareness of poverty. CRWM works to break cycles of poverty by addressing their root causes, by helping people learn a biblical worldview, and by working with God’s people toward long-term personal and social transformation. Thank you for joining with us in this great adventure. But their lives began to change four years ago when they entered a Christian rehab center. They met Jesus and started reading the Bible. Today, Julio and Mari are both working. Their children excel in school. They have started evangelical services at a drug rehab center downtown and have a church in their home that is part of a network of simple churches CRWM is planting in Guadalajara. Their story shows how proclamation of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit can transform lives. Once lost, they were lifted out of poverty to experience blessings and bear fruit in most areas of their lives. Deciding that he wanted this kind of character, Luka became a Christian. As a result, his family forced him to leave the family compound, which meant he had to build his own home, clear his farmland, and work from dawn until dusk. However, Luka was able to learn farming practices from a CRWM missionary teaching at the EKA Bible School. Today, three years after that class, Luka hires tractors to plough his farms, buys fertilizer, has abundant crops, and pays for his Bible School tuition. Education for Luka played a major roll in breaking the cycle of poverty. Meanwhile, the missionaries noticed the beautiful crafts that the women in each Fulani clan made and offered to show these crafts to friends, who bought them. The women then begged the missionaries to use the money to buy essential items like buckets, tubs, and cooking pots. Today, fifteen years later, the missionaries have opened two rooms in their home in Bamako as a nonprofit craft store to provide a market for the women to sell their items. Because of this venture encouraged by the missionaries, the women are able to buy enameled dishes, bowls, goats, sheep, and even cows. Greetings and Stories from Reformed Church in America Global MissionOf “ending the cycle of poverty” one thing is certain: no one individual, ministry, or denomination can do it alone. As we partner together as sister denominations on this great ride and as we partner with sisters and brothers around the world in our commitment to end the cycle of poverty, we are a witness in the world to the Christ who makes us one! Thanks for joining us in the ride of a lifetime! This church is not unique. Scores of congregations in North America are taking seriously Christ’s call to end the cycle of poverty for all of God’s children. Agrawal spoke on behalf of CASA at the dedication of fifty-three new homes and a multipurpose disaster shelter in the village of South Chinnoor in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district—a region still feeling the effects of the December 2004 disaster. More than 230,000 homes in 1,089 villages—nearly all of them dependent on fishing—were damaged or destroyed in the tsunami. Among those now living in the new homes are Keelavaipar residents Mary and Timothy Fernando, married fifty-five years. Timothy Fernando, a seventy-year-old lifelong fisherman, received a ceremonial first key to the family’s new home, which he and his wife share with their three daughters. “We’re very happy, in God’s presence, for your help,” Mary Fernando said of CASA’s efforts and their support from its international partners like the Reformed Church in America. The goal of the project is to help Bible school students, who are generally from poor, rural families, improve their income and become self-supporting. The students will learn about goat breeding and production in a rural environment. The project will utilize the Maradi Red Goat, which is recognized for its prolific attributes, good meat, the exceptional quality of its hide, and its milk production. As the goats reproduce, some of the offspring will be given to other members of the community who will, in turn, eventually produce their own small herds. With training, work, and cooperation, this project can play a significant role in helping the community become self-supporting. Some who were present for the grand opening remember when a notorious bar was operated on the very spot the building now stands. Ted Ruiz, one of the current board members and a deacon of The Way Out Ministries’ church, The Gathering, used to frequent that bar. Today, he lives for Christ and serves him where God is at work in Hawaiian Gardens. During the summer, the new student center offers free summer school programs, art and theater classes, and meals for children. In its first week, the center served more than five hundred meals. During the school year, it is home to classes for The Way Out Ministries Christian Academy as well as after-school tutoring programs and youth clubs. Greetings and Stories from the Office of Social Justice and Hunger ActionThe Sea to Sea Bike Tour to end the cycle of poverty is an exciting venture, and as the coordinator of the CRC Office of Social Justice and Hunger Action, I commend you on getting involved! The Office of Social Justice and Hunger Action was created in 1995 to help the Christian Reformed Church work to understand and change the systemic causes of poverty and suffering—to help us understand and confront the forces that diminish human beings and God’s world and to join in efforts to reform and improve the way things work. In other words, to witness and work for justice and peace and to end the cycle of poverty! We are especially pleased to be able to partner with the Micah Challenge and the ONE Campaign in the United States throughout this Sea to Sea ride in order to witness and work for an end to unnecessary suffering. Together, with God’s blessing and strength, we have the power to do this! As you ride, think about your trip as a metaphor for life. What if things were arranged so that the poor had a much different route to ride than the rich and well connected—a route with bigger hills, longer deserts, less shade, potholed roads, and much more traffic to fight. And what if they had to ride really cheap bikes? Would you expect them to keep up? What could they do about that? What could you do? What could you do together? Through a well-timed series of events, the advocacy efforts of both individuals and CRC agencies were successful: officials from the Office du Niger—an out of control autonomous institution set up by the French Colonial government years ago—were exposed. The Malian government finally had the opportunity to do what they had sought to do for years: arrest and jail the corrupt officials and reform the Office du Niger. In the process, the poor who lived on the land were given title to it. They also got resources to expand irrigation in the area. You can help cut global poverty in half by 2015. You can help change the way the world works. Learn about it! Greetings and Stories from Christian Reformed Home MissionsFriends, as you embark on your amazing cross-country journey, remember that our thoughts and prayers are with you. Remember, too, that while you’re riding through our great countries—the United States and Canada—you’re likely to pass many Home Missions-supported churches. In communities big and small, these ministries are doing their part to join you in the goal of alleviating poverty. I hope that inspires you as you pedal your way from Sea to Sea! Pathway is also working with a group of artisans in Kenya to help them distribute their products in the United States. The church has obtained a contract with Worldstock.com, a division of Overstock.com, to distribute the products, in the hope of having those products on the church website within the next few months. Greetings and Stories from Faith Alive Christian ResourcesAs these meditations point out, getting on a bike and pedaling across the country is an audacious thing to do. Some might even call it foolish. But as Jesus reminds us, what may seem foolish in the eyes of the world actually makes sense in the upside-down kingdom we belong to. So we are encouraged by so many cyclists going on this audacious adventure and seizing this opportunity to participate in Jesus’ work of feeding those who are hungry. At Faith Alive, we celebrate this participation in the kingdom of God. Our mission is to provide resources that equip disciples of Jesus Christ by helping them to “understand, experience, and express the good news of God’s kingdom that transforms lives and communities worldwide.” In the end, it’s all about discipleship. We’re happy to partner with Sea to Sea 2008 to provide this book of daily inspiration for bikers, donors, and everyone who offers prayers, love, and support for this tour. Other resources that help disciples translate their faith into their everyday lives include such diverse topics as being a good steward of creation (Living the Good Life on God’s Good Earth) and the origins of the earth (Origins: A Reformed Look at Creation, Design, and Evolution). As a result, we sometimes hear from people whose lives have been transformed: |
