A Story from Cambodia

Sacred Moments

Missions Musings

We had heard last spring that one of our students in Cambodia, Sovanara, had stopped going to school because her mother was very ill and no longer could sell vegetables in the market. So Sovanara went to work in a factory to support her mother and younger brother.

We alerted her sponsor to the situation, and her sponsor would not let her go. She wanted us to do what we could to convince Sovanara to stay in school and offered to pay her factor salary of $100 a month. Her sponsor had met her on one of our trips a few years ago, and Sovanara told the sponsor that her dream was to go to medical school. Her sponsor hadn’t forgotten that.

So when we were in Cambodia last month we arranged to meet Sovanara and her brother at our hotel to tell her about the offer.  Tragically, their mother had just died of AIDS the Thursday before we arrived.  That left Sovanara and her brother alone. Maybe 50 years of factory work lay ahead of her because she was only 17 years old.

Our scholarship administrators in Cambodia, Sina and KC, talked with her about the offer to pay her to go to school and talked about how working in the factory would leave her little time to be with her brother. Sovanara agreed to think about it and the next day she decided she would go back to school even though she would be much older than many of her classmates.

In reality, her sponsor couldn’t afford the $100 a month payments in addition to her scholarship payment, because her husband is in school, and she is the only one working.  But she was determined to find a way to help Sovanara to have a better life, a life of hope.

It turned out that one of the people in our group who met Sovanara said that she would write a check for her every year…$1,200 to pay her salary.  The benefactor could more easily handle that $1,200 payment every year and was more than willing to help.

What do you make of this story? Does it remind you of the Gospel? The one lost sheep?

Sometimes we are able to catch a glimmer of what God’s love and generosity must be like. Those are sacred moments.  May we each find them every day.

Julia’s Place: 2012 Partner for Gifts of the Heart Offering

By Dawn McConaughy

Sometimes it is easy in the Advent season to distance ourselves from any involvement in the original story of Christmas. When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem – about to bear a newborn – they had no roof over their heads and were forced into an animal shelter. Would we have done anything to help them? The reality is that there are thousands of families in King County who face this situation every night. Through our Gifts of the Heart offering this year, we are being given a chance to get involved and provide shelter for those for whom there would otherwise be no room in the inn.

The Mission Committee is proud to announce that this Advent season we have chosen to join Madrona Grace Presbyterian Church in their effort to provide shelter for homeless families. Since 2010, families have been the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in Washington State, particularly women and children.

v 71% of homeless women have slept in a car.

v 26% of homeless women have had to find food out of a trashcan.

v 57% have taken a bath in a public sink.

v 92% of homeless women have experienced some sort of severe physical or sexual abuse in their life. 

v Seattle Public Schools reported that in 2011 over 1,300 of their students were homeless.

 Why the increase?  While each person’s story is unique, experiencing life crisis without family or financial support can have devastating consequences.  A job loss, domestic violence, divorce, illness and lack of health insurance, substance abuse and mental illness all contribute to the homeless rate.

Seeing the need, Madrona Grace made the decision to renovate their basement into an evening shelter called Julia’s Place, adding 14 much needed beds for Seattle’s homeless families. These are families, many with very young children, who would otherwise be sleeping on buses, under bridges, in cars or separated from each other in different shelters; women and young children going to one shelter, men to another and adolescent boys to a teen shelter.  That is if they can find a shelter with room.  It is not uncommon for a mother to call 30 to 50 shelters in one day looking for a safe place for her family to sleep that night.   Now these families have a warm, safe place to eat dinner, do homework, play games and sleep while working toward permanent housing. Between April and November of this year Julia’s was able to provide 2,997 bed nights and dinners for homeless families.

 

Sarah and Victor came to the Julia’s Place with their four children in May after both lost their jobs and subsequently their housing.  Since then, they worked diligently everyday towards obtaining housing, both catching the bus from Madrona every morning at 5:45am to get to their new jobs in Woodinville.  By the end of July, they had saved up enough money to move their family into their own home. 

 

This Advent, through the Gifts of the Heart offering, we have an opportunity to help families in need.  Families who, just like Mary and Joseph, and most of us, just want a warm, safe place to lay our heads after a long day. 

Just Make More

"Just Make More" has become a new slogan for some of MIPC's ministry to Feed the Hungry.

The LOGOS kitchen crew makes extra meals for the children at Friends of the Children, a mentoring program for at-risk students in King Country.  In addition, during worship skills at LOGOS, children bring extra snacks for the children at Friends.

The Super Sixties group is also "making more" by paying an extra dollar for their monthly lunches so that the kitchen crew can make meals for the Catalyst House, one of Youthcare's emergency teen shelters. 

The pantry is full for Friends of the Children.

4th & 5th graders graciously shared snacks with Friends of the Children.

 A special thanks to Julie Stillman for coining the phrase, "just make more."

TEAM MIPC and Seattle AIDS Walk

Thanks to all MIPC members and friends who participated on TEAM MIPC at the Seattle AIDS Walk on September 22. TEAM MIPC had 30 walkers/runners participating in the 5K event, raising $4,480. If you would like to donate, go to Seattleaidswalk.org and choose: TEAM MIPC. 

This year the Seattle AIDS Walk has raised $320,000 plus dollars.

IJM Earns Positive Response from President Obama

 

Earlier this year, some of us  joined more than 73,000 Americans in signing a petition asking President Obama to take four key actions to combat slavery. Yesterday, he responded to you, announcing an Executive Order on one of the four requests made to him - officially calling for new standards that will address the terrible crime of slavery within U.S. government contracting.

In his speech, President Obama also highlighted IJM's work - honoring the advocates who "dedicate their lives and at times risk their lives to liberate victims and help them recover," and sharing the conviction that IJM and other groups, "like the great abolitionists before them, are truly doing the Lord's work." Thank you for making this movement possible.

The Homeless Plymouth Population

One of MIPC’s mission partners, Plymouth Housing, just send this information about the homeless Plymouth population in Seattle.

• The majority of residents become homeless due to a perfect storm of persona, medical and economic issues.

• In 2011 nearly 1,000 adults lived in 12 Plymouth owned and operated buildings in downtown Seattle.

• The majority of Plymouth residents struggle with one or more disabilities such as mental illness, chronic medical conditions, chemical dependency, HIV/AIDS, developmental disabilities, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

• It costs approximately $13,000 a year to provide a home to one Plymouth resident.

• There are 918 people on Plymouth’s waiting list.

Sign Up for TEAM MIPC-Seattle AIDS Walk

Join us in our 6th year of participating and supporting the Seattle AIDS Walk.

Team captains: Benji & Marnie Holen  206-236-8135 

Event: September 22, 9 AM at Volunteer Park in Seattle

TEAM GOAL: 200 WAlKERS + RAISE $10,000

Register at www.seattleaidswalk.org | Join: TeamMIPC