Amazing Commitment
Kinshasa now has 8 million people. Most of these people live in slums without electricity, running water or plumbing. In many areas there are no identifiable streets. Imagine trying to set up a disability program in these conditions and with so many people? Today I saw how this can be done. The cbm partner has set up a Community...
Read moreFirst impressions
I made it back to Kinshasa. After 37 years I wondered what I would recognize. As we drove through the city there were moments of recognition. Yet the city has grown so much – and deteriorated so much – that those moments were all too few. What is not new is the poverty. Indeed that seems worse than when...
Read moreJames' mother
I have spent the last few days working in the regional office in Nairobi. It is important work, even if we are just seeing the walls of the office and not seeing the actual projects. Last night I thought a great deal of James, the four year old I saw on Monday in the slums of Nairobi. (See my...
Read moreOld song… new meaning
Today, in Nairobi, I was privileged to go on some project visits with one of the Hope and Healing partners – APDK (Association for Physical Disabilities in Kenya). One of the visits was a home visit. We met James. James is a boy of 4 with CP living with his grandmother. James’ mother left them when he was born...
Read moreGoing home to Africa…!
Tomorrow I leave for Africa – Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I grew up in the Congo and it will be my first time back since I was 15 years old! My pending trip has brought back memories and reflections. One of the songs I remember from my childhood is “Jesus Loves me”. I grew up...
Read moreSuffering and us!
Why does God allow suffering? This was the obvious question around the earthquake in Haiti. I had a ringside view of different answers. I was privileged to travel in Haiti with Lorna Dueck from “Listen up TV”. The answer Lorna received in Haiti was relatively simple. God is not to blame if humans built poorly constructed homes on known fault lines....
Read moreHow should Canadians care about Haiti?
Today I Googled “Haiti Earthquake” and saw that the stories were mostly dated January. I wasn’t surprised that the world has moved on. There are new earthquakes in Chile and China, a volcano snarling the airways, mudslides in Brazil and Uganda. I won’t ask if Canadians should continue to care about Haiti. Of course they should and of course...
Read moreAmerican Idol….
I’ll confess – I occasionally watch American Idol. I will also confess that I kind of like it. Last night I watched most of the American Idol special – “Idol Gives Back”. This was a two hour special that mixed the faux reality of “voting singers off the show” with actual reality showing stories of real people living in real poverty around the world....
Read moreWhat about Sebastian?
It rained last night and I thought of Sebastian. He was a boy of 8 who lost his leg in the earthquake in Haiti. He lost a lot more – his whole family. I last saw Sebastian as he was discharged from the hospital in Port au Prince, swinging away expertly on his new crutches. He was accompanied by...
Read moreCaring without knowing
We are all hearing more about this earthquake in China. As I tried to imagine the situation in the cold high Tibetan plateau I was bothered by something that emerged from Haiti. I was in Haiti a few weeks after the earthquake. In Port au Prince we were looking for the school that cbm has supported. We knew we...
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