Online Communications: March 2008 Archives
As we prepare to go to Russia, I feel this overwhelming excitement, yet anticipation of what all will go on in Russia. We are going to be working with the Russian orphans there. My heart has been broken and burdened as I have learned about the lives of these orphans. In Russia, they are discriminated against and thought of as sub-human. Around 95% of the orphans have living parents, but they were either abandoned by them or removed from their homes for different reasons. When babies are born, if there seems to be any abnormality of any type, they are advised to abandon their baby. There are right now about 1 million orphans in these institutions. The death rate in these orphanages is 2-3 times more than the average child due to disease from being medically neglected. There is no funding for the orphanages from the government, so the children are usually malnourished and have poor housing. Rape within the orphanages is very common. They influence hazing too whenever the children get out of line. In some of the orphanages, they allow the orphans to prostitute themselves, so that the headmaster can make money off of them. At age 18, the orphans have to leave the institution. Most cannot function in the real world though, since they were never taught to take care of themselves. They also have been physically, sexually, and/or emotionally abused. Once leaving the institution, statistics show that 80% of all orphans turn to prostitution to make money. Within the first year of being in the real world, over 10% commit suicide.
Once learning all of this, I just sobbed. I was so completely burdened for these orphans, and all that they have had to go through. I was overwhelmed by the evil and injustices that these children have had to live with. These past few days, I feared that my heart would just completely fail me when I entered these orphanages. I started to pray that God would strengthen my heart and prepare my team for this mission trip. I then came across Psalm 73:25-26, Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. This was just what I needed to hear from God. It was comforting to know that He will be the strength of our hearts and our portion forever. He will provide us the strength to love on these children and we will just have to trust in Him during these difficult times. Also, these verses apply to those precious little orphans. I know that they too can have God be their strength and their everlasting portion. I pray that many orphans will soon know that they have a heavenly father who loves them and will be there strength for them. It will be incredible to see how God is made known through these orphans in the next week to come.
Lauren Bournique
It is so hard to believe that we will be en route to Mexico in less than 30 hours! 16 Taylor students, 3 Taylor leaders, and 7 Lions Club members (including our fearless leaders John and Arlene Clester) will be spending our Spring Break in Santiago Tianguistenco, Mexico providing eyeglasses to people who need them. The plan is to set up shop on Sunday, and bright and early Monday morning, the people will be lining up to receive their glasses. Members of our team will be running auto refractors (machines that test eyes...they look kind of like some sort of weird video game), picking glasses with the correct prescription, and fitting the glasses on the people. Ideally, we are going to put glasses on over 5000 people while we are down there. Wow!
5000 people...I guess that kind of puts things in perspective. Lately I've been feeling kind of apprehensive about this whole trip, being a little worried that I'm really going to mess something up or that maybe I shouldn't even be going on this trip. But when I think of basically giving sight to over 5000 people...well, that certainly seems important. I think it is going to be really awesome to be able to see such tangible results of our work.
We would love it if all of you would really keep us in your prayers from now until we get back. Please pray for wisdom as we pack, for safety and health in our travels, for team unity, and for the people we will minister to down in Mexico. Also, please pray for peace for all of us. I guess I'm speaking for myself, but I'm betting that a lot of the team is kind of nervous/apprehensive about the whole trip. Your prayers will be so greatly appreciated!
Stay tuned for more updates...
- Emily Fox
It is Monday. I am about to leave for our last spring break meeting at Jeff and Jane Cramer's house. I have to admit with three days left I feel completely ill prepared. This is strange because really we have done so much to get ready to go. We have completed presentations on history, economy, people groups, and culture. We even have a web site so that we are able to review facts. We have visited a Mosque and chatted extensively about Islam. We have sampled Middle Eastern food on multiple occasions. We have even learned a little Arabic. However, I am still so nervous and not ready to leave. I am in fact dreading it. I am so worried I will offend the Iraqi refugees and the Jordanian people. Our cultures are so different and really Americans/Christians do not have the best reputations in the Middle East.
However, regardless of my feelings, we leave in three days. I have to trust that God has ordained this trip. He knows every second, from the moment we leave Taylor on Thursday until we return the following Saturday. This is His trip, not mine. He is a God greater than cultural differences, than animosity, than fear, than any barrier that could and will be thrown at this team. He has brought together the perfect group of students and we should be ready to learn and to encounter Christ in powerful ways. So please pray for us to rely on God and to trust that although we do not know what will happen, He does.
Allison Maybray
The group of 55 students and faculty/staff are packing up for the trip which will leave around 10am Friday morning. The trip South will be made in five 12-passenger vans with a stop halfway for the weekend. A preview for the week includes: work projects, small group time, group meals, and a few fun activities but you'll have to come back to read more about those.
The DR team is really excited to head out on Thursday for our time in the DR. We are blessed to have 8 returning memeber from last year and we are extremely excited to be heading back. Please pray in the next few days for us as we pack and finish our our week of tests, papers, and classes strong.
Brooke Jantzen
Someone asked me recently where I was going to spend spring break this year. I told him I was going to Chicago. He congratulated me on picking a prime location for weekend festivities and general mayhem with my friends. "No," I had to explain. "It's a spring break trip. Kind of like a mission trip, except we're not leaving the country." My friend looked confused for a second, and then asked "Well, what are you going to DO?" I got slightly awkward when I realized that I didn't have an answer for him, because quite frankly, I don't know. Our team leaders aren't entirely sure either, but we know that it might involve homeless people, cold showers, gang violence, and Ben Taylor. All of these factors, we are told, will eventually gel together into some shapeless mass that is the Chicago trip; Ben Taylor was a bonus.
It is already days away from this impending masquerade, and I don't know where the time went. It feels like only yesterday that I met our team for the first time at dinner in the DC, where I went through the initiation ceremony of being force-fed by one of the girls; I'm not sure she recovered from the experience. We are told that this had something to do with learning to be a servant, and we will take their word for it.
Our leaders are three very sweet people (and by sweet, I mean sah-WEET): Ben Taylor, Deanna Ingerham, and Kyle Lantz, in no particular order. Besides the fact that they can and will cook food for us, Kyle and Ben have taken up the flag of years of past spring break trips and are shooting for the record of Worst-Smelling-Team-Leaders-Known-To-Man. The means to this grisly detail of our trip? 1) Using only one backpack to fill with clothes to wear on the trip, in order to conserve much-needed space in the vans, and 2) Sharing the backpack. Yes, we are impressed with the will power that it will take to not take their clothes out of the accursed backpack (which will have formed its own bio system by Day 3) and fervently wash them in the Chicago River. It will not matter that the river might still have a green tint to it after the St. Patrick Day festivities, but we will know when they cave in because they will come back with clothes that do not match anything except themselves, and, maybe, Green Lantern. So don't be surprised if you return from your spring break, Taylor students, and you see two burly men walking around campus with a neon green glow emanating from their pores. Just smile and nod.
We haven't even left yet and I am already anticipating more of the same excitement that has been part of our team meetings, again, thanks in large part to the Ben-Kyle combo. Deanna is like the mom, I think, because putting a bunch of students under their supervision for a week might have been akin to asking Jack Black to baby sit your five-year-old. Something will end up being destroyed, shredded, or whammied, in the name of Rock. I know that she has the skills to keep them under control, while they in turn keep us under control, because you have to have that kind of cool to be a hall-director. You can pray for her right now, and I mean NOW, as the sanity of this trip hangs in the balance in the person of Deanna Ingerham.
Until next time, heres to hoping there is a next time, assuming we don't end up washing clothes in the Chicago River all week long, though I am sure in one way or another, it would have something to do with integrating faith and learning. Chicago team, we're almost out of here!
-Adam Golder
Hola! Nos estamos yendo por Bolivia en cuatro días! That's right. The Bolivia team of 18 students, 1 grad student and 1 faculty member is headed out Friday afternoon from Chicago, flying to Miami, and arriving in La Paz, Bolivia early Saturday morning. Be praying for plenty of energy throughout this long process.
But before we leave, we are taking care of some major preparations. We have the opportunity to spend the majority of our time at the Alalay Orphanage in La Paz. When we're not rollin' up our sleeves during work projects, we'll be doing various activities with the children including organized games, coloring, math, crafts, and singing. Each of us is assigned to a specific task and are in the process of getting supplies for these activities. We're also hard at work on basic Spanish phrases which Dan Saldi has been patiently helping us with. As a Bolivian native, we're so grateful for him and his family welcoming us to their country.
The team as a whole is eager to just get there and serve alongside the Saldi's in ministry! Please be in prayer for health as a few of us have been fighting sickness and such. But God is good and I am confident he will give victory over these things that the enemy only wants to use to discourage us. Keep praying with us and I am excited to share more of what the Lord is going to do in Bolivia!!
By His Grace,
Laura Bobbett (on behalf of Bolivia SB 08!)
