Mighty Mom, June 2009

Aigul, Alyssia and Adeen Orozbaeva

What would the world be like without the women? No mothers. No wives. No sisters. No daughters. It can't be imagined. God said it wasn't good for a man to be alone. His solution was such a good idea that He chose to visit our world---through a woman.

The "weaker sex" have often found themselves in roles that require amazing strength. Giving birth. Loving unworthy husbands. Suffering discrimination. Being exploited. And enduring persecution for following Jesus.

This month we've chosen to tell you the stories of five women who are strong in the Lord---overcoming prejudice, poverty, disease, bullets, and bounty hunters. A few of them are just young girls. They live in Kyrgyzstan, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Macedonia and Mexico. All of them know the grace of God. All are our sisters in Christ. And all are beneficiaries of your kindness through the ministry of Heaven's Family.

Rejoice with me as you read their victories in this issue.

--- David

Mighty Mom
I Was Hungry's General Fund at Work in Central Asia

The Orozbaeva family outside their crumbling house

Aigul Orozbaeva screamed in horror. She had just delivered a beautiful baby girl only to witness the doctor accidentally drop her on the delivery room floor. Equally horrifying, the doctor picked up the screaming baby and, without examining her, handed her to Aigul. He later denied that he had dropped the baby, and so did witnesses. Such is life in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia.

From that dreadful moment, baby Alyssia was not normal. The fall caused mental damage and paralysis in her arms and legs. As she grew older, it was evident she also had a speech impediment.

Soon after Alyssia was born, her father abandoned the family. He never supported them again, and would only return occasionally when he was drunk to beat and rape Aigul. With no social services available, Aigul scraped out a living to support herself and her two children by cleaning homes. They lived together in a crumbling little house with no indoor plumbing in the slums of Bishkek.

Providentially, Aigul was introduced to American missionaries John and Beth Carey. They told her about how Jesus would deliver her from sin and heal her broken life. She believed and was radically transformed. She has never looked back. That was seven years ago. Now she is a pillar in her church.

The Careys were able to arrange medical help for Alyssia through some missionary doctors and paid for her to go to a private therapy clinic for paralyzed children. And they've sacrificially helped her since then with food, coal to heat their home in the winter, and ongoing medical costs for taking care of Alyssia.

Filled with Christ, Aigul started getting together with other families with handicapped children. Then, opening her tiny run-down home, she began a home-school program to educate Alyssia and other children who are unable to go to the public schools. (The Kyrgyz government provides only $10 each month to help families with handicapped children.) Aigul still earns her meager living cleaning upscale homes. John Carey said she could probably make more money by begging on the streets, but she knows that would not be God's will.

Through gifts to the general fund of our I Was Hungry division, Heaven's Family has helped the Carey's help Aigul, Alyssia and Adeen by providing initial funding of $2,500 to repair her home. It needs windows, brick and mortar repairs, and a partial replacement of the leaking roof. We'd also like to provide funding for an indoor bathroom, as Aigul has to carry Alyssia outside in the winter to use the outhouse. And Aigul has big dreams. One day she hopes to open a center for disabled children.

The Bigger Picture: 100% of all contributions to the General Fund of I Was Hungry are used to assist poor believers with pressing needs who live in developing nations. Please consider helping us provide an adequate home for Aigul, Alyssia, and Adeen to live in where they can also serve handicapped Kyrgyz children in Jesus' name.

Saving Soon-Yi
The North Korean Christians Fund at Work

A young North Korean girl leaving Mansudae Hill, in Pyongyang, after laying flowers to pay respect to the “Great Leader Kim Il Sung”.

Five-year-old Soon-Yi of North Korea didn’t understand when she heard her father, in hushed tones, tell a close family member that her mother had been arrested. Her crime was "speaking against the party." Soon-Yi didn’t know what those words meant, but she couldn't ignore her father's worry.

When her mother returned home, Soon-Yi did not recognize her. Mercilessly beaten, she was badly bruised and in great pain. It was difficult for her to move. She soon miscarried---in her eighth month. Soon-Yi's father gently tended to his wife and began plotting their escape from North Korea. Along the border, North Korean guards shoot to kill anyone who makes an attempt. Although Soon-Yi and her parents ultimately succeeded, her mother never recovered from her abuse, and she died in China. Now it was just Soon-Yi and her father.

Because her father didn’t have papers that would allow him access to work, housing, or food in China, they lived anonymously on the fringe of society. Thankfully, however, Christian believers who were willing to endanger their own lives found them and helped them. Soon-Yi's father found Christ and so did she. He then began clandestinely traveling back and forth between China and North Korea, passionately serving the underground church there. Life settled into the uncertain rhythm of living outside the law.

North Korean soldiers in parade at the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea in Pyongyang. North Korea is the world's forty-seventh most populous nation, but boasts having the world's fourth largest standing army.

Soon-Yi’s world turned upside down again when she reached age fifteen. Her father was arrested in North Korea for proselytizing and was sentenced to death. His case was highly publicized and Soon-Yi found herself being sought by bounty hunters who wanted the reward offered by North Korean authorities for her capture. China did not recognize her as a person and would not grant her refugee status. She was under the same death sentence as her father. Believers moved her to a remote safe house.

Our partner in North Korean ministry, Alpha Relief, worked with the UN High Commission for Refugees as well as high level connections in Washington DC, on Soon-Yi's behalf. After months of persistence, she was permitted to leave China and was admitted into South Korea as a political refugee. Now sixteen years old, Soon-Yi is safe. An uncle living in South Korea now cares for her, and she attends a church in Seoul.

Despite international protest, Soon-Yi’s father was executed in North Korea a short time ago for his religious activity. He is now in heaven, but hundreds of thousands of believers in North Korea are facing severe hardship and persecution. As many as 70,000 Christians are being held in political prison camps. Stories that have leaked out regarding those camps are almost unspeakable in their horror. Please help us continue to provide relief to Christians inside North Korea.

Two North Korean propaganda posters: (1) "With everyone's unified force, crush the American's threat of nuclear war!" (2) "Boycott the American product, punishment for them will be severe!"

The Bigger Picture: In North Korea there are approximately 400,000 believers and it is estimated that 50,000 to 70,000 are being detained in prison camps. North Koreans can be imprisoned for virtually any state-defined crime, such as being a Christian, making a negative comment about the regime, failing to have a picture of Kim Il Sung in their house or failing to keep it clean enough, and traveling to China to look for food. Punishment is not limited to the offender, but to three generations of the offender's family. There are eight political prison camps in the country which hold between half a million and a million people. Political prisoners are kept under constant threat of execution. There are 30 other camps which contain hundreds of thousands of North Koreans who are forced to work every day. Through gifts to our North Korean Christians Fund, Heaven's Family is able to help supply food that is smuggled into North Korea and then distributed to believers there. This is especially important now, as rations have recently been reduced for North Korean citizens. The government is telling its citizenry that North Korea is about to be attacked from the West due to its recent unpopular missile launch.

Midnight Escape
The Christian Refugees Fund at Work in Sri Lanka

Anoma, age 21, happy to have escaped the crossfire of Sri Lanka's civil war

For twenty-six years in the island-nation of Sri Lanka, the LTTE, better known as the Tamil Tigers, have been fighting for an independent state for ethnic Tamils in a war that has claimed 70,000 lives. At one time, the LTTE controlled a third of the nation. At this writing, however, government forces are close to a final victory, having pushed the LTTE forces back to a patch of land along the northeast coast.

Earlier this year, the Sri Lankan government designated a "no-fire zone" where civilians could find shelter from the fighting. Unfortunately, tens of thousands of civilians have found themselves trapped with the rebels inside this zone. Now, all supplies to the area have been cut off and food and medicine are scarce. Civilians have been caught in the crossfire and it is estimated that 6,500 have been killed in the past few months. Not wanting to lose their human shields, LTTE soldiers are shooting at those who try to cross over to the government-controlled areas. The LTTE is accusing the Sri Lankan government of Shelling Civilians

Thousands have risked their lives making the precarious journey to safety in the middle of the night, crossing rivers and a shallow part of the sea, to escape the LTTE-controlled area. Those who have succeeded are now being held in detention camps in government-controlled areas.

Partnering with the Foursquare Churches of Sri Lanka, Heaven's Family has sent relief using gifts from our Christian Refugees Fund to help meet the immediate needs of believers who escaped with only the clothing they were wearing. One of them was Anoma, age 21, pictured above.

Anoma, a follower of Jesus, was conscripted by the rebels to fight, but she refused. She was punished and sent to the front lines. Anoma escaped, however, and fled to her aunt's home. Her aunt literally buried her in the sand to keep her hidden from those who were searching for her. She was ultimately able to escape in the middle of the night to the government-controlled area, but she is now living in a refugee camp. As of this writing, there are still hundreds of believers trapped in the LTTE-controlled area, praying to survive their ordeal.

The Bigger Picture: Your gifts to the Christian Refugee Fund have brought relief to Christian refugees in India, Kenya, Turkey and Sri Lanka. Currently, that fund is empty. Much more help is needed to meet the pressing needs of refugees who are members of our spiritual family in Sri Lanka and in Orissa, India, where we are also currently

Gypsy Sister
The Widows Fund at Work in Macedonia

Suzana with two of her eight children and a grandchild

Two amazing followers of Christ of whom the world is not worthy are Dave and Lee Gilman, called to make disciples among a special group of people who live primarily in Europe, but who trace their lineage to medieval India. They're known as Roma, or Gypsies. They number in the millions.

Roma generally live on the margins of society in squalid squatter communities. They are often blamed for criminal activity and are subject to daily discrimination. Last summer, photographs were published of Italian sunbathers enjoying a day at the beach, swimming, sipping soft drinks and chatting, just a few yards from where the bodies of two drowned Roma sisters, age 12 and 13, were laid out on the sand awaiting collection from the local morgue. Roma are accustomed to being despised, which is why they are always shocked when Dave and Lee speak to them in their native tongue. Nobody cares about them---except Jesus.

In 2006, Lee Gilman befriended a Roma woman named Suzana, who was a prostitute and widow with three children under her care. They lived together with a group of other Roma behind an illegal dump outside the city of Skopje in the republic of Macedonia. Like all the other Roma, their one-room shack was made from materials gathered at the dump.

Suzana's former home in back of the dump

Lee shared the gospel, and Suzana opened her heart to Jesus, repented, and was transformed. She quit her profession and decided to trust God to provide all her needs by collecting recyclables to sell, while her teenage son rented a horse and cart to work as a private trash collector. A new creation in Christ, Suzana shared her earnings with "the poor," and would often open her one-room shack to strangers who didn’t have a place to stay. She would say, “If God sent this person to me, how could I turn her away?”

One day Suzana returned home to find that her shack was gone, leveled by government bulldozers along with the other Roma dwellings in her "neighborhood." Staring into the ditch that held all of her meager belongings, she said, “It’s OK. God will give it back to me, and it will be even better.” A week later, she was able to move to a more solid house in Shutka, a Roma village of about 40,000 on the outskirts of Skopje. It consists of two rooms built from concrete blocks. It does not have running water. Suzana built a crude outhouse out back.

Recently, the Macedonian government made illegal just about everything the Roma do to earn a living. For example, Roma collect plastic bottles in large bags and sell them to recycling plants, but they aren't allowed to dig through dumpsters any more to search for plastic bottles. Nor are they permitted now to ride their horse-drawn carts on paved Macedonian roads. They aren't allowed to sell anything on the streets. They aren't allowed to beg anymore at traffic lights. Suzana found herself out of work.

In April, however, Heaven’s Family provided funding from our Widows Fund to help Suzana set up a small convenience store to sell vegetables and other staples from one of the two rooms of her home. As shelving, paint, door lock, scale, bins, calculator, and other store items started arriving at her house, people gathered to see what was going on. After Suzana explained the plan for her store one onlooker said, “With your big heart you will give everything away within five days.” Everyone laughed because they know what she’s like. So does the Lord.

The Bigger Picture: You can support missionaries Dave and Lee Gilman through our Native Missionary Fund by clicking the link below or by writing "Gilman" on the memo of your check. 100% of all gifts to the Widows Fund are used to help poor Christian widows become self-sufficient through small-business startup grants.

Irasema Walks Again
The Critical Medical Needs Fund at Work in Mexico

Irasema, slumped in her father's lap (far right) last September as Jason Fitzpatrick preaches in remote Mexico

"What if that little girl was my daughter?" I kept asking myself. Up until a few months earlier, Irasema had been a perfectly healthy little six-year-old. She started experiencing alarming symptoms, however, at first passing out when she stood up from her school desk, but eventually being unable to walk at all. She lost her appetite and was losing weight.

Irasema's father carried her to the evening church services where she would slump on his lap the entire time. She could not even hold her head upright. During worship, he would clap her hands for her, because she couldn't clap them herself. It was heart-breaking to observe. Like any father, he desperately wanted his precious daughter to be well, but he had no idea what was wrong with her.

Almost every night last September when I was with missionaries Jason and Nicole Fitzpatrick in Mexico, I joined them as they did what they do almost every night of the week. We hopped in their truck and took off for some remote village where they had planted a church among some very poor descendants of the Aztec Indians. Those churches met in little crowded shack-like houses, or under crude wooden shelters, and Jason and his disciples would preach by the light of a single suspended light bulb. Irasema and her mother and father were often at those gatherings, as Jason would pick them up each evening on his way.

Nicole explained to me that she and Jason had taken Irasema to a doctor, and she had been tested for many illnesses, but to no avail. The remaining option was expensive and five hours away---specialized tests at Children's Hospital in Puebla.

I was blessed to leave Jason and Nicole with some money from the Critical Medical Needs Fund for that purpose. Irasema went through days of testing over a two-month period, and she was eventually diagnosed with dermatomyositis, a connective-tissue, muscle and nerve disease, the cause of which is unknown. The doctors told Jason that Irasema's disease had progressed untreated for too long. But they put her on medications and daily physical therapy. The churches prayed.

Heaven's Family (that's you!) has been blessed to pay not only for Irasema's tests, but ongoing therapy and medication since her diagnosis. By late October, she was able to stand on her own and walk a few steps. Now, seven months later, Irasema is eating well, running and playing. All the signs are looking good for a full recovery. Thanks for making this blessing possible.

Irasema just a few weeks ago

The Bigger Picture: Through the Critical Medical Needs Fund, Heaven's Family provides funding for ill and very poor members of our spiritual family around the world to receive needed medical attention. 100% of every gift to this fund is sent overseas.

July's New Testament Reading Schedule

The New Testament reading schedule below is for those who started reading with us in January. But you can start at anytime to read through the New Testament in twelve months along with David Servant's daily commentary, HeavenWord Daily. Just click on the HeavenWord Daily link at the home page of HeavensFamily.org. Every weekday thereafter, HeavenWord Daily will be waiting in your email inbox when you awake. Each weekday, you'll read one New Testament chapter (an average of 700 words) and David's commentary---never longer than 700 words---on the day's Bible chapter. Total time needed by an average reader: About six minutes! Sign up today, and start each day with a motivational "do-votional!"

Don't Forget Your Family This Summer!

Most ministries experience a downturn in contributions during the summer months. Coupled with the recession, the outlook for this summer is cause for concern. Yet the critical needs that are being faced by the members of our spiritual family around the world will not slow down. Please don't forget your family this summer! Thanks so much.

Cool Stuff at HeavensFamily.org

At HeavensFamily.org, you can now create and log in to your own account, set your communication preferences, see photos and bios of your sponsored children, and view or print your giving history. If you move, you can change your mailing address so you don't miss a single issue of our monthly magazine (and save us postal expenses). You can change your email address as well to receive monthly e-teachings just where you want them. And you can read hundreds of pages of Bible teaching, or order books and teaching videos by David Servant. Stop by for a visit today!

Parting Shot
A Tiny Woman with a Big God

A Christian worker who attended one of our conferences in Nepal, holding the Nepali version of The Disciple-Making Minister. Christian women all over the world are building God's kingdom.