Small Girl, Big Faith

16Dec

Small Girl, Big Faith

Her name means “Small Girl” in her native Khmer language, really? I thought as I looked down on the pint-size girl in front of me. Well, at least it was much easier to pronounce than her real name. I couldn’t help see the irony in the fact that she really was a small girl, even by Cambodian standards. But God, who sees the heart, already knew how big she was on the inside. Small Girl came from a poor family in a poor village. In 2011, out of pressure to pay off her family’s debt, she and her older sister moved to Phnom Penh to find work at a beer garden, where uneducated girls find easy work selling drinks and sex. But Small Girl soon met someone from a ministry called Precious Women, a Heaven’s Family partner, who told her that she didn’t have to work in a beer garden. Small Girl heard the gospel, and also received a scholarship offer for 4 years if she would return home and finish high school, the very thing she wished to do.

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10Dec

Philippines Disaster… Again

It’s likely that you’ve heard about the destructive path of Typhoon Hagupit (locally called Ruby) as it raked across the Philippines just a few days ago—just over one year from when Superstorm Haiyan ravaged the island nation. Late last winter I told you about Mahalit, a small fishing community that had been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. Through our friend Pastor Lot, we helped rebuild the decimated fishing boat fleet in addition to helping rebuild damaged homes.

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09Dec

Cindi’s: a Blessed Hope for Many

Having just returned from Kenya, I cannot help but boast in what the Lord is doing through our new partnership with Cindi’s Hope, a ministry that rescues abandoned and sexually abused children in Nairobi and throughout the country. We first visited the Hope Academy campus located in Eastleigh neighborhood, one of the worst slum areas of Nairobi. It is here that the government brings Cindi the children nobody else wants. In their secure compound we witnessed the restorative effects of loving care, nutritional food and biblical teaching in the healing of wounded young lives.

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05Dec

God’s Grace in Gaza

I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent armed conflict between Israel and Gaza. As is often the case, innocents are either caught in the crossfire or neglected due to strained resources or the evacuation of aid workers. Happily, Heaven’s Family has found a partner currently working among the needy in Gaza, and we’re funding two of their aid workers for a year to help those like “Mohammed,” an 11-year-old boy who has been partially paralyzed since birth.

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01Dec

From Prison to Palace

It was a marvelous picture of redemption: 80 young men, all prison inmates who were still serving time for their crimes, singing praises to God at Kenya's presidential palace. It's an inspiring story that begins with one man named Kelvin Mwikya, who encountered Jesus in a Kenyan prison cell.

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01Dec

Defying Gravity

I was already somewhat in a state of shock—even though I had done my best to prepare for what I knew I would see. It was my first visit to a Heaven's Family-supported leprosy clinic in Hyderabad, India. As I had imagined beforehand, it wasn't easy to look at the infected wounds of leprosy patients as they were compassionately dressed by dedicated nurses. But then came a shock of a different kind for which I was unprepared.

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01Dec

Glad to be a “Man of the Book”

To an average American like myself, all 20 of the men in the room looked like members of Afghanistan's infamous Taliban. Some were even wearing turbans. We sat silently on the rug-covered floor, leaning against cold walls, waiting for our meal to be served. I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable, an odd American, likely one of the few Westerners who'd ever ascended the long valley that led to their remote mountain village, 10,000 feet above sea level.

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01Dec

Flight to Freedom

Mi Young lay on the muddy riverbank, wet, shivering, and exhausted, clutching her teenage son, Jae. They had just done the unthinkable: under cover of darkness, they'd illegally swum across a river that separates North Korea from China—without being shot by border guards. Now, however, it seemed that hypothermia might succeed where border guards had failed.

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