PAYS OFF IN PERU

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SEPTEMBER 2016

Operation Blessing partners are changing communities one family at a time { PAGE 6 }

OPERATION BLESS ING INTERNATIONAL

PAYS OFF IN PERU

HARD WORK

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Cover PAGE 6

Hard Work Pays Off in Peru Operation Blessing partners are changing communities one family at a time

3 In Case You Missed It… Find out what’s trending on social media!

4 Happenings Catch up with the goings on at

Operation Blessing!

9 From Troubled Waters to Extreme Blessing

Home makeover restores hope for flood victims

12 Bill’s Blog Zika: The “Mysterious Disease”

15 Learning to Begin Again A single mother of three learns how

to start a new life

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Inside this issue

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…If you don’t follow us on Twitter or Facebook, you may have missed this awesome video about Hamze, a little boy living in a refugee camp in Greece. Hamze takes control of the camera to show you his life, explaining how he and his father left Iraq to find a better future.

DON’T MISS ANOTHER AMAZING STORY!

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WATCH HIS STORY at bit.ly/hamze

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5RWANDA: In partnership with Victory Missions, Operation Blessing distributes more than

2,000 solar lights to Congolese refugees and impoverished families in Rwanda, like Florence and her son, Wilson.

4 WEST VIRGINIA: Members of the National Guard stop by the Operation Blessing flood

response command center in Richwood, West Virginia, over the Fourth of July weekend.

6JORDAN: Operation Blessing is helping provide a workshop where Christian refugees from Iraq

learn new skills, like sewing, that will enable them to support their families.

1 HAITI: At their graduation ceremony, the top student in each of the seven primary

classes at Operation Blessing’s ENLA School receive a special certificate and a baby goat in recognition of their hard work!

3GUATEMALA: Liliana struggled to make ends meet selling a traditional Guatemalan ice cream

called topogigios. OBI provided a new cart and bike that will allow Liliana to make her own product and earn more income.

2 CAMBODIA: Residents of the Tropang Loeuk village celebrate a new well that Operation

Blessing drilled in their community. Now 20 families will enjoy safe water for the very first time!

OPERATION BLESSING

HAPPENINGS

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n the outskirts of Iquitos, a city in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, lies a slum where rows of cobbled-together homes line muddy and cratered streets. Vultures perch on the power lines overhead while children play and hungry dogs search for food.

PERU

HARD WORK PAYS OFF IN PERU Here in a bright magenta-colored home live Sheyla and her four children, Christian, 15, Junior, 13, little Sheyla, 9, and Marquitos, 4. After her husband abandoned their family, the mother Sheyla began battling sickness, depression and the stress of having to care for four children alone. Three years ago, Sheyla and her children moved to Iquitos hoping to find a better life. So far, though, they’ve found little but hardship and toil.

Sheyla’s day begins at 5 a.m. each morning and by 7 a.m. she arrives at the local market where she sells slices of watermelon for about 30¢ each. She generally works until 8 p.m. and earns about $5 for her 13-hour day. Her aunt, who gave her the job, also provides Sheyla around $2 a day for lunch, but instead of eating, she brings the extra money home to her children. Even so, the family struggles to make ends meet. While

his mother works, Sheyla’s oldest son, Christian, looks after his younger siblings and takes care of the cooking for the family.

School has been hard for all four children, since proper uniforms cost more than they can afford. In Peru, uniforms are required both for academic classes and for physical education. Children with shabby uniforms, or none at all, are sometimes not even allowed to attend class.

Little Sheyla, said, “I like my uniform, but I’ve had it from second grade; I’m in fourth now. I don’t have clothes for physical education.”

CHANGING COMMUNITIES ONE FAMILY AT A TIME

SCHOOL HAS BEEN HARD FOR ALL FOUR CHILDREN SINCE PROPER UNIFORMS COST MORE THAN THEY CAN AFFORD.

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EXTREME BLESSING

waterTHE TATTERED BLACK LEATHER SHOES NO LONGER FIT AND LITTLE SHEYLA’S TOE PROTRUDES FROM A RIP IN THE LEFT ONE.

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TEXAS

She has also worn the same shoes since they moved to Iquitos over three years ago.

The tattered black leather shoes no longer fit, and little Sheyla’s toe protrudes from a rip in the left one. All four children lament not having the

right PE uniforms, which sometimes prevents them from participating and results in poor grades.

Despite all the adversity they have faced, the family remains close. The walls inside their small, dirt-floored home are covered with mementos of their life together. When asked what she would like to do, Mama Sheyla replied, “I would like to have a small business where I can work from home and be able to be with my kids more, make sure they eat and not have to leave them by themselves.”

For Sheyla, that dream is coming true. Operation Blessing has provided all four children with new school uniforms, including active wear for PE, and new shoes. Sheyla shed tears of joy as she watched her

kids unwrap their new uniforms, knowing how long they had been waiting.

Operation Blessing has also given this hard working mom a small store that she operates out of her home. Sheyla now sells fish, chicken and a variety of vegetables in her store. She can work from home and cherish the time she now gets to spend with her kids.

"I never thought that this was going to happen; I'm so grateful,” she said. “Thanks, Operation Blessing, for giving me this business. I know that I am going to make it grow. I'm happy because now I can work here and be with my family."◆

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One of the most devastating floods to hit the Rosenberg, Texas, area stole their home, but an army of volunteers gave it back.

Aurora and Feliciano were out of town when floodwaters sloshed into the house they had shared for 36 years. Water had never made it up the more than three foot rise to the front door, but this time was different.

The couple’s daughter, Felicia, and her three children, one with autism, have been living with them. Felicia called her parents when rains caused the Brazos River to rise and threaten the neighborhood. Aurora told her daughter to get the children out of the house.

“We really didn’t think there would be a problem, but I told her to leave because I was worried about her and the children,” Aurora said.

When they all finally made it home, water had soaked the entire house, black mold was growing up the walls and almost everything they

FROM TROUBLED

When they walked inside, they found new beds, a new kitchen and a new beginning... "Mommy, wow, look!" Wubby, 6, said. "I have my own bed!"

Volunteer teams set to work replacing damaged drywall and soaked insulation, installing new cabinets and fixtures, and filling the house with furniture and decorations.

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owned was ruined. It all had to go to the curb to be disposed of.

“The biggest disappointment for me was seeing the pile,” Feliciano said with tears in his eyes. “Nearly 40 years just out by the road. It’s still hard for me to see — to remember it.”

The family had endured heartache before. Felicia’s husband had died in a tragic accident three years earlier, leaving her boys without a father. With this latest blow, they did not know where to begin picking up the pieces.

“It was really upsetting, but we’ve tried to look at it [as] everything has a reason [for] why it happens, and that everything will be taken care of,” Aurora said. “We have a lot of faith in God, and every day I had to tell my husband, ‘It’s going to be okay’.”

As the waters receded, Feliciano connected with Operation Blessing’s disaster relief staff who were aiding flood victims in their community.

Teams of volunteers were helping gut homes and remove debris, but Operation Blessing had something special in mind to help this family.

Throughout the country, after devastating natural disasters, Operation Blessing has selected families with extra needs to be given an Extreme Blessing — revitalizing and renovating the damaged home. Feliciano was overwhelmed when he heard the news.

“I know that they’ve done this thing for others, but I keep telling myself, ‘Why me?’” Feliciano said through tears. “[It’s] just a big blessing.”

Volunteer teams set to work replacing damaged drywall and soaked insulation, taking measures to prevent re-occurrence of mold, installing new cabinets and fixtures,

and filling the house with brand new furniture and decorations.

In less than two weeks, a crowd of volunteers holding signs and balloons cheered as they welcomed the family home. Feliciano and his daughter beamed as Aurora covered her mouth in surprise. When they walked inside, they found new beds, a new kitchen and a new beginning.

“I can’t believe it,” Aurora said.Their youngest grandson, 6-year-

old “Wubby”, was especially excited to see that the room he shares with his mother now has two beds.

“Mommy, wow, look!” he said. “I have my own bed!”

After all they have been through, the family disheartened by loss and displaced by floods are home, together and standing strong. ◆

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My wife Laura and I live in a house next to a wooded park here in Virginia. Mosquitoes

from the woods are so thick after dark that we have to stay indoors, usually with the air conditioning running, or behind open windows with tightly fitted screens. For people in many parts of the world, however, mosquitoes are far more of a danger than a nuisance that interferes with evening relaxation.

Recently, I was in a Honduran community where staying indoors doesn't provide villagers any relief from blood-thirsty mosquitoes that come and go as they please. There are no screens on the doors or windows. To make matters worse, villagers do not have

running water, so they stockpile water in numerous

containers in and around their

homes. This creates a perfect environment

for prolific mosquito reproduction. The tiniest mosquitoes, those locally known as “ankle biters,” leave victims with more than itchy bumps. With ever-increasing regularity, mosquito bites in Latin America result in the dreaded virus called Zika.

The first discovery of Zika virus was found in 1947 in the blood of a monkey living in a remote Ugandan woodland called the Zika Forest. Scientists suspected that mosquitoes were the carrier, but they were not sure. Researchers from the Rockefeller Foundation placed “sentinel monkeys” in cages on a tower high in the forest canopy where a certain type of mosquito lived. Soon one of the healthy monkeys came down with a 104 degree fever. After intensive study, scientists verified that Aedes africanus mosquitoes were the carrier.

It is believed that many Africans have a natural immunity to the virus, so there were no significant outbreaks until 2007 when the virus showed up in

Yap, a remote island in the South Pacific. It then appeared in 2013, in French Polynesia, where thousands contracted Zika — but its effects were mild and there weren't any reported birth defects.

Then, unfortunately, Zika got traction. In late 2014, there was a powerful El Niño and South America experienced unusually heavy rainfalls and high temperatures. The hot, wet conditions resulted in an explosion of the mosquito population and the incidence of dengue fever tripled in Brazil alone. That was bad enough, but countless people began reporting dengue-like symptoms that faded quickly and went away. In Brazil, people called it “doença misteriosa” (mysterious disease). Symptoms were mild and short-lived: rash, red-eye and achy joints for a week or so.

No one took it seriously until August, 2015, when Brazilian mothers who had experienced the mystery disease started giving

Bill's Blog

ZIKA: THE “MYSTERIOUS DISEASE”

by Bill Horan, PresidentOperation Blessing International

Read more from Bill's Blog at ob.org/bill

With ever-increasing regularity, mosquitobites in Latin America result in the dreaded virus called Zika.

LATIN AMERICA

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UGANDA

birth to babies with tiny, deformed heads. A researcher described the newborns as “having normal faces up to the eyebrows and then no foreheads.” This condition, known as microcephaly, is but the tip of the ugly Zika iceberg. Millions of pregnant mothers all over Latin America and even the U.S. are at risk.

For the first time ever, a mosquito-borne virus is passing through the safe haven of a mother’s placenta and causing deformities or death in an unborn child. The other frightening aspect of the Zika virus is that it can also be transmitted sexually.

Mosquitoes have been a nemesis of mankind for eons, but while scientists were smart enough to put a man on the moon, they haven't yet figured out how to get rid of the tiny insect that causes more human death than any other single animal. During the past 80 years, billions of gallons of DDT and other

sprays have been used with mixed results. But these toxic chemicals have caused immeasurable harm to humans, wildlife and the environment. In spite of all the collateral damage and billions of dollars spent, mosquitoes still swarm in the woods of Virginia, villages in Central America and everywhere on earth except Antarctica and Iceland.

At OBI, we are committed to finding and using new and sustainable methods to eradicate mosquitoes and prevent disease. In the next issue of Blessings, I will address our game-changing pilot project in Honduras where we have deployed an integrated strategy utilizing the latest technology as well as living mosquito predators, all of which have been proven effective individually, but not as part of a combined arsenal of tools that we are putting together to turn the tide against mosquito-borne disease — one community at a time. ◆

For the first time ever, a mosquito-borne virus is passing through the safe haven of a mother’s placenta and causing deformities or death in an unborn child.

Betty knows what it means to start over. Just after the birth of her third child, Betty’s husband left

and her three children were suddenly without a father and provider. Betty struggled just to feed her family, let alone send them to school.

Desperate for help, Betty made a heartbreaking choice that she thought would be best for her three kids: she approached an orphanage to see if they could care for her babies. However, instead of taking custody of the children, the orphanage had a different idea and called Abide Family Center, an Operation Blessing partner organization that works with families in poverty.

Abide moved Betty into emergency housing, ensured they received intensive medical care for malnutrition and illness, and provided counseling. Today, Betty and

her children have regained both physical and emotional strength.

Soon, Betty will start Abide’s business, parenting and Bible classes that will give her the tools to move forward. Upon completion, Betty will be given assistance starting a new life with her children. Thanks in part to the support of Operation Blessing, Betty’s family is one of thousands helped through the Abide Family Center each year.

“My children and I are well taken care of,” she said. “I am not anxious about anything now.”

Armed with a safe home and the knowledge of how to create a self-sustaining life, Betty and her children can look forward to a strong and healthy future. ◆

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LEARNING TO begin AGAINA single mother of three learns how to start a new life

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