Every morning with Dawn, we take children with disabilities from a local centre to places like the zoo, an indoor playground at the mall, for walks downtown, and even to the circus!!
Gaby & Iosif having fun Walking with Stefie at the zoo (Photo by S.Choe)
In the afternoon we go to The Potter's House to help street children & children from disadvantaged families to do their homework, do their chores, teach them bible stories, help with crafts, games, mealtimes, etc. The kids & staff are so welcoming, you are sure to not leave without many hugs!!
Playing Ducks & Hunters at Potters House (from S. Choe) English Class at Potters House (photo from S. Choe)
A couple people also are helping out with painting at Mana, another organization for helping street children. We also were able to help out with an outreach event with them on Saturday where we were able to help out with giving haircuts, face painting, serving 2 meals, sports & games, music & cleanup.
Brandon (on the left) giving haircuts all day Kyla face painting
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 5/22/2009
I can tell you that this trip has opened my eyes to the world. I can tell you that I have met a lot of interesting and amazing people in this journey so far.
There is Becky, from Casa Shalom in Bucharest, who wanted to be a missionary in Eastern Europe before it was open for her to come here and then came as soon as she was able and has been here ever since. She used to run a children's home, but the government laws have changed and she can no longer keep running the children's home and so she is slowly saying goodbye to all of the children...some have been reuniting with their families that abandoned them so there has been reconciliation, some going into new homes, some still living at Casa Shalom. The changes in the law don't stop Becky from doing something. She continues to support 100 different children to be able to live at home with their parents in order to prevent them from being abandoned due to lack of finances.
At Casa Shalom, we basically mowed the lawn, painted, fixed bikes, tractors, golf carts, washed chairs, sorted through thousands of boxes of donated clothing, unloaded a 40' container of donated items, and then helped put on a big yard sale/festival to raise money for their ministry. We visited a few villages, a girls home for those who are mentally challenged and also got to fix up and paint a home & yard for an underprivileged family. I want to give & love like Becky does.
We also got to meet Pavel & his mother. Pavel is a 15 year old who had bone cancer when he was younger. They removed the cancer and did a bone graft in his leg...but recently the cancer came back. The doctors wanted to amputate his leg and he was adamant that the Lord would heal him and so they waited. The urgency of the situation was expressed to him by his doctors and so his faith increased. We prayed with Pavel & his mother a few different nights and after Pavel went to the hospital for the results to see if the cancer was gone....they found out it was not and that his leg would need to be amputated and even then they might not be able to remove all of the cancer. I admit I was kind of disappointed to hear that news, but continued to pray for healing. A few days later we found out nonchalantly that Pavel had another test and they found NO cancer!! NONE! He still has an infection in his leg and will need the old bone graft removed...but he is continuing believing that he will be fully healed!
Can you believe it? We asked the Lord for something big...HUGE even...and He did it and then it almost felt as if it was no big deal?! I have seen sooooooo much hurt and poverty and sickness and death in my life and I've seen unanswered prayers and I've felt some situations almost hopeless....but guess what?!? God is a God who heals. I can't explain why or how or when...but He DOES it. What happened when I heard about Pavel's healing is that my faith increased. It lets me know that when I experience sickness or seemingly hopeless situations next time...I want faith like Pavel.
Sometimes a life of faith is unexplainable, but that's why it's called faith, isn't it? Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Heb.11:1). So hope big, and put your faith in the Lord, for He is always good. He is always faithful.
Now my act of faith gets tested already. I am still in need of $1,700 USD for this trip. I am actually behind on the payment schedule and therefore there is a bit of emergency to the situation....but as I said...faith like Pavel...this means that I will trust and put my hope and faith in the Lord for this.
Also, I made this video waaaaay back in Uganga and Sara thinks I should post it...so here goes. :0) hehehe
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 4/30/2009
I posted a video last week and removed it from my blogs (in case you wondered what happened to it). If you'd still like to see it, you can view by clicking HERE. :0)
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 4/29/2009
Interesting Things About Lugansk, Ukraine:
- Lugansk is the Russian name, Luhansk is the Ukrainian name.
- People are bilingual (Russian/Ukrainian), but mostly only speak Russian
- It is 20 miles from the Russian border (you can attempt to throw rocks & logs to Russia if you happen to be just a small river away, ask our boys about their attempts)
- It is further east than Moscow
-We had the sweetest, old-school flowered wall paper in our flat
- I've seen stray dogs all around the world, but in Lugansk, they all seemed to be missing parts (fur, eyes, legs, insides, etc.)
- Babushka's are cute and they will typically be selling fake flowers or blood sausage in the bazaar's.
- New Tone is an English school we got to visit quite a bit. They have awesome people there. They get creative in the way they teach students English, like singing songs such as "Hotel California" and "We Are The Champions".
- Most Ukrainians know a lot of history about the city they live in (about the monuments, the buildings, important dates, etc). I believe I would fail miserably in the history department if you came to my hometown for a tour.
- Hosts often give their guests a loaf of bread with salt on the top. The
ritual of offering a guest bread and salt is a ceremony of welcome
which dates back many centuries. We were welcomed with such a gesture.
- Borsch is awesome. It's a beet soup. Add a dollop of сметана (sour cream) and it's so scrumptious. (Thanks Darcy!!)
- What we call "perogies" at home, they call "vareniki". They are potato filled dumplings.
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 4/14/2009
(Team Lunchbox in Indian attire) (Lower Bazaar in our city)
My India experience was probably different than what most people think of when they think of India. When I was preparing myself for India, I thought I was going to be dripping with sweat everyday and going to have to tell thousands of children following me that I could not give them money. I thought I was going to have to turn off my compassion just to walk down the street. I was expecting a really hard month.
When we got off the plane in Delhi, it seemed my expectations were accurate. Even when we stayed a few days in Dehradun, it was similar. Our first night in town a small child with skin problems and some deformities was literally hanging on Summer's skirt as she was walking until the locals we were with told the child to let go...I was close to tears.
When we finally arrived at our destination in northern India, I had a bit of a culture shock I suppose. It was cold. We were in the Himalayas. We were in a tourist town. It was cleaner than I had expected. Add all of these things up and it doesn't mean an easier life for the people in India. There is a very prominent caste system in which the coolies are hardest working and yet the least paid & least respected.
People somewhat have freedom of choice in which religion they choose, but if they choose Christianity, they are rejected by their family, they are rejected by their village. With their "freedom", they are also subjected to Hindu extremist groups persecution. They don't know if their neighbours or friends will report them or are involved in such groups and therefore need to be careful about who knows information about them. Most people who are believers there, are believers because they have seen some sort of miraculous healing in their life or in the life of a family member. We heard story upon story about people being prayed for and being healed of things like cancer, of severe headaches, of different diseases and sicknesses. When people see the power of God, they clear their house of all of their idols & "gods" and burn them...everything that they knew and relied on is burned because they had an encounter with the one, true God who actually hears them and actually answers prayers, unlike the pieces of wood that they used to pray to.
While we were there, we heard from a village 80km away that a man who was preaching the gospel was taken by a Hindu extremist group. Because of this, we had to change our schedule of what villages we could visit and we could not work with certain organizations or enter certain hospitals, because the locals we were with had told us that it would draw too much attention to have foreigners there.
I was thinking about the freedom we have in North America. We often take that for granted. We have the freedom of choice and often choose to be complacent about life. It's so different after sitting in the homes of those who put their lives at risk just by believing that Jesus is Lord.
So India was a lot different than I had expected...but still eye opening and still life changing. Pray for those who face persecution in India.
(Coolies carrying our packs up the mountain) (Parading around a Hindu idol in the streets)
Isaiah 44:6-22
"This is what the Lord says--Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let them proclaim it. Let them declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come--yes, let them foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing? People like that will be put to shame; skilled workers are only human beings. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and shame.
The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let is grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me! You are my god!" They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" Such people feed on ashes, a deluded heart misleads them; they cannot save themselves, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"
"Remember these things, Jacob, for you, Israel, are my servant. I have made you, you are my servant; Israel, I will not forget you. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you."
(Living in the clouds) (Team Lunchbox at Taj Mahal)
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 3/12/2009
Well, after being in Africa for 3 months, I've started to get used to things a certain way. Some of the things I have gotten so used to that I might try and incorporate into my life even outside Africa are...
* I'll say "take care" & "sorry, sorry" whenever anyone else trips, falls, steps on thorns, etc.
* I'll secure my house at home with walls covered in shards of glass or a thorn bush fence.
* I will get a keyboard to play diddily's in church during introductions and good words in a sermon.
* I'm going to get myself a beating stick to use on misbehaving animals & children.
* I'm going to put up signs on everything I have that is NOT for sale.
* I will dig a hole in my yard to put all of the trash. Then I will burn it from time to time.
* I will buy a 13-seater van and pack about 30 people in it and drive them around town for cheap.
* I will grow coffee beans and export them all so that I can only drink instant coffee.
* I will only serve meat covered with bones and fat.
* I will whistle instead of saying "excuse me".
* I will ride a bicycle with at least one more person and 300 lbs of supplies on it.
* I will brush my teeth with a stick.
* I will add a "Mzungu tax" to any sort of service or goods that I'll sell.
* I will tell people that the longest way to places is the shortcut.
* I will no longer be using toilet paper and I will dig a 4" wide hole in the ground for bathroom purposes.
I'm sure if you've been to Africa, you will probably find this list amusing. It's all things that you get used to, but at first catches you off guard. I enjoyed my time in Africa, but just wanted to capture the funny side of living there. :0)
We are now in India, living in the north-western Himalayas. It is very cold and the food doesn't sit with me well. :0( But it is beautiful here and we are able to go to individual homes and have "church" with them. We will mostly do home visits and also youth services and church.
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 3/4/2009
Tanzania
As I've shared in my previous blogs, door knocking is not my favourite thing to do. In fact, it's far from my favourite thing to do. But this is Africa, the land of hospitality, and everyone here loves visitors...so we do it. We honour the culture and do it.
This one particular day I was partnered up with Tangi and our translator, Innocent. It was our second house that day and we ended up talking with 2 women and 2 men from different houses, but they gathered in the yard to meet with us. The women were Muslim and they just laughed at everything we said. The men (David & Francis) both listened carefully as me and Tangi began explaining to them why we have left our homes to travel this year... we explained what we believe about Jesus and the Bible. We told them that when Jesus died on the cross, it was to offer the gift of salvation. We are offered forgiveness of sins and eternal life. I used Ben's analogy and said "If I hold out 10,000 Shillings to you and tell you it's a gift, you can believe it's a gift, you can see it's a gift, you can even tell people about the gift...but it's never yours until you actually take it from my hand and receive the gift. Jesus is holding out his hand and offering you this gift of forgiveness and of eternal life...will you receive it?" They both said yes, they both accepted the Lord! We invited them to the church for Bible Study that afternoon and to church on Sunday.
Now, in my door knocking experience in Africa, I've also noted that many people are very friendly and tell you things they don't always mean because they think you want to hear it...not always, just sometimes.
On Sunday morning, David (who is 18 years old) showed up to the church and I was completely blown away at what the church did. Pastor Albinus & Mr. Sanga (an elder in the church) were able to talk with David and found out his story about how he accepted the Lord a few days earlier, and they embraced him and introduced him to the church, they prayed for him and they assigned him a spiritual father in the church to help him grow in his faith.
Innocent, our translator, who is also the Praise & Worship leader at church is just a few years older than David and immediately befriended him.
David gets regular visits at home from the pastor & many others.
David also started coming to everything that was happening at the church. You could see how much he felt appreciated and wanted in this new found family. He would come over and visit us during mealtimes at Sanga's house. When we said goodbye to David we had the opportunity to pray for him, especially in the area of funding for his schooling. I just found out today that the day after we prayed over him that he received the full amount of tuition that he needed for school!
I'm impressed by the change that has happened in his life just because this church family really has welcomed him in as a brother and a friend. Love is such a simple gesture with such a huge impact.
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 3/3/2009
After our ministry time in Uganda, the whole squad traveled to a town called Jinja to do some crazy white water rafting on the Nile River. I have been white water rafting before and so was excited until I had watched a YouTube video of rafting the Nile. It became something I feared the whole month after watching the video. I decided to brave it out and just do it....got in the raft and went through 3 practice rapids.... we even did a practice raft flip. Well that didn't go over so well for me. I let go of the rope on the boat and ended up underneath the raft and in a panic as I felt limbs flailing & paddles hitting me as everyone was trying to get up to breathe. I tried to surface and hit my head on the raft. I tried to swim out from underneath and found I was going lengthwise instead of widthwise and ended up coming up for air and finding myself hitting the raft AGAIN. I needed air and so I gulped and swallowed a mouthful of Nile River water. I finally poked my head up in a spot under the raft where I could grab a breath and then went back under to find my way out. Finally, I made it out choking and with water in my lungs and knew immediately that in an actual panic situation going down Class 5 rapids on the Nile where you WILL get sucked under for 10-30 seconds at a time until a kayaker will rescue you that I would not do well. I told my guide I wanted out. Yes, I chickened out. During PRACTICE! Hehe. Then a jet boat that was driving by came to my rescue and let me have a sweeeet sweet jet boat ride on the Nile, including being airborne going up the rapids, and doing twists and turns of all kinds. I spent the rest of the day in the town of Jinja full of my own little adventures while the rest of the squad braved the waters of the Nile. :0)
Posted in General Posts by Brenda Wilchowy on 3/2/2009
Just catching up on my Uganda blogging....
During one of our door knocking sessions, me and Eddie (one of the youth from the church) were partnered up and found ourselves meeting a Muslim man named Twalib who was very willing to talk with us about his faith. Twalib had much to say and we ended up at his place for close to 2 hours and ended up going home with a booklet from him trying to prove Christians & Jews wrong in their beliefs using only the Qur'an as proof. I took the booklet and told him to read the book of John in the Bible in return. He agreed.
A couple weeks later, I went to return the booklet to him, so I asked Marissa & Neil to go back with me. Before we went to his house, we studied up on Mohammed & Islam and looked at the website www.carm.org and searched Wikipedia, etc just so we would be better prepared. We ended up staying at his house for 3 hours!
Twalib is very nice. He is an artist and ended up giving us each one of his art pieces. Mine was worth $145 USD!! Crazy! We met his mother, auntie, uncle, cousins & sister as well. We had a very interesting chat about Islam & Christianity...he has read the Bible so he knows what we believe but he is a very devout Muslim and our conversation never really got very far. We did challenge him though what his thoughts were on child slavery and of course he is against it, and then we asked why Mohammed would marry a 7 year old girl and get her pregnant at 9 and asked if that was not a form of child slavery. He denied that was true and we told him it's from Mohammed's history. He can simply do a search on Mohammed and see that it is recorded that the child was one of his 15 or so wives. So he invited us to continue emailing him questions to research because he loves to learn.
We left Twalib's place wondering if our conversation was going to change anything. We were glad we prepared but weren't sure how handy it had come in. I was a little disappointed.
After we left, I jumped in a Matatu (taxi) with Marissa to go pick up her dress that she was getting made from a seamstress. She ended up needing to get alterations so we had to wait for a couple hours. I wandered next door to a video library (one of the millions of stores that sells copies of any movie or tv show for about $1 USD...breaking every North American copyright law, but completely legal here as long as they have a license to sell). Inside the store was a girl about 20-25 and her 1 year old baby.
I was chatting and smiling and she told me I was very friendly and asked what I was doing in Uganda. I told her that I came as a Christian Missionary. She said that she believed in Jesus but that she was not a Christian, but a Muslim. I asked if she believed in Jesus as a prophet or as a Saviour and she said she believed him to be the Saviour. This shocked me because this is not an answer a Muslim would give. I found out more about her...her mom is a Christian, but her father is a Muslim. She attended both Christian & Muslim schools as a child. Obviously, she had a very confusing upbringing and had to be different things for her mother and different things for her father. She ended up taking the faith of her father but says that she finds Christians friendly and likes them. I told her all of the things that I had learned on the internet earlier that day as I was studying for my conversation with Twalib. I was able to share with this young woman the differences between Christianity and Islam....I explained how God is a God of Love in the Bible. I explained a testimony I read of an East African man who converted to Christianity from Islam and the 3 things he observed in a Christian friend that made him convert. 1. He was open to discuss questions about religion 2. He loved & showed interest in his wife & children. 3. How he prayed is so different, so free. I emphasized the second point to this girl. I said how I knew that the Qur'an only mentions the name of one woman, Mary, because they believe she was special. I told her though that it's not just Mary that is special. I told her that God created man & woman in his image. The Bible says "husbands, love your wives..." (Eph. 5:25). I explained how God describes the church of believers as THE bride and he is the husband. He speaks how man and woman will become ONE when they are married.....not man, woman, woman, woman and woman will become one. I said that God didn't intend for to be someone's second or third wife. She then said "or fourth wife" and looked down to the floor. She is a man's 4th wife!!
We continued to talk for awhile and I ended up asking her what she believed...not what her mother or father believe, but what is it that she believes. She said she didn't know. I explained what Christ did. Muslims don't believe that Jesus died, never-mind that he was crucified...so I explained that to her and said that when Christ died, he offered forgiveness of sins for free, that it is a gift for her to receive and asked if she wanted to receive the gift from Christ. She said YES. I also let her know that this meant she cannot serve both God and Allah. She said she was ready. I led her in a prayer of repentance and acceptance to become a Christian! I also told her she should attend the Alpha course at a nearby church. She is in need of finances to continue education and to keep her and her baby fed...so I told her Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path". I prayed for finances for her schooling and told her to let the group at the alpha course know her needs and they might know someone who is looking to sponsor someone (that's sometimes how it works here). Please pray for this girl (for her family's acceptance, for her role as wife #4, for her to feel the love of the Father, for her husband & baby, for finances, etc)
I was preparing myself to hopefully win a different Muslim for Christ....but God had other plans and led me to this girl.
