OPERATION BLESS ING INTERNATIONALFEBRUARY 2015

Blessingsoperationblessing.org

Coming Home A desperate mother must leave her children in search of work

until she receives a special blessing that brings her back home

{ P A G E 8 }

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A Message from THE PRESIDENT

Bill meets Isabella, a young mom from Guatemala who learned how to create vertical gardens in her backyard to help feed her children through an Operation Blessing agriculture program.

In my travels I meet hardworking mothers all over the world who get up every morning and make herculean efforts to make life better for their children. But in spite of all their work, they still cannot escape the pull of generational poverty.

These women usually can't afford school uniforms or tuition and are also hard pressed to afford medicine for their children when they get sick. Beleaguered moms have the energy and the will — but lack the way — to earn enough to bring their children into a life free of poverty.

OBI implements creative strategies to empower women by helping them earn more money. We teach a variety of vocations and provide training in skills ranging from cell phone repair in the Philippines to commercial sewing in Pakistan, jewelry making in Haiti, backyard farming in Guatemala, cosmetology in Mexico and small business training in El Salvador. We also give microloans to women with fledging businesses in places like Benin, West Africa, where our efforts help disrupt the terrible tradition of desperate parents selling their children into slavery.

Learning a new skill enables a woman to leave the ranks of the always-underpaid, where raw labor is a cheap commodity and those without skills are susceptible to cruel exploitation. A woman with a newly learned skill can quickly earn her way into a better lifestyle, and in so doing, gain self-esteem, which fuels further success. I often interview women at vocational graduation events and always ask the same question: "What is the first thing you will do with your new earnings?" The two answers I almost always get, no matter where I am in the world, are "send my children to school" and "buy medicine for my children when they are sick."

By helping fuel OBI efforts you are empowering women to earn a better living and enabling their children to escape the clutches of poverty. By supporting Operation Blessing you truly are helping to make the world a better place.

Thank you and may God bless you in every way,

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A Message from THE PRESIDENT 4 A Blessing for Astrid An Operation Blessing medical clinic changes the life of a little girl and her family

6 More Than Enough The priceless gift of water for a farmer and his village in Thailand

12 Help When Hunger Strikes A family facing hunger receives a helping hand from an Operation Blessing-supported food pantry

14 Relief for Raayio Children in Kenya too poor to afford shoes

15 A Sacrifice for her Siblings Cosmetology training helps a teenager provide a better life for her brothers and sisters

Inside this issue Cover PAGE 8

Coming Home A desperate mother must leave her children in search of work until she receives a special blessing that brings her back home

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HONDURAS

A Blessing for Astrid

At two years old, little Astrid was still carried everywhere by her mother because, for her, walking was dangerous.

Astrid was born with Strabismus, a condition that prevents her eyes from aligning properly and causes her to easily lose equilib-rium — making it almost impossible for her to walk without falling.

Her mother, Yuri, worried that she would get hurt and never be able to see or walk properly, so she tried several home remedies to correct her daughter’s eyesight, but nothing worked.

An Operation Blessing medical clinic changes the life of a little girl and her family

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“I constantly massaged around her eyes and even paint-ed the tip of her nose with red nail polish because my mother was sure that was going to help my baby,” Yuri said, “but time was passing by and the prob-lem never got better.”

Knowing that what their daughter needed was surgery, Astrid’s parents worked hard to save up enough money for an operation, but they could barely afford the trip to the hospital just to have her seen by a doctor, much less an expensive procedure.

One afternoon while Yuri was cooking, Astrid fell and hit her head very hard on the floor. All Yuri could do was sit and cry with her daughter, feeling helpless and devastated that there was noth-ing she could do to help her little girl.

Then one day, eye doctors came to their village with an Opera-tion Blessing medical brigade and examined Astrid. They were soon able to give her the operation she so desperately needed — free of charge to her family. Now Astrid is learning to walk properly and her family couldn’t be happier.

“I just couldn’t believe that the surgery was going to be free — something so expensive given to us at no cost,” Yuri said. “Thank you Operation Blessing for what you have done for my daughter. I am so happy; we are all very thankful. God bless you.” ◆

Before

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For Nong, a farmer from the rural village of None Sawan in Thailand, having access to water — and having enough of it — is rare.

The only water available to the families in Nong’s village comes from an outdated tap water system and shallow wells several miles away, and during the dry season water is limited and there is simply not enough to go around.

“We had to get water from our neigh-bors’ wells, and in the dry season even that water was limited and some wells dried up completely,” Nong told OBI staff. “We couldn’t rely on the village’s tap water system because in the dry season it doesn’t flow at all.”

Thanks to Operation Blessing, a new well was drilled, and now Nong and his village have access to water year-round with more than enough for each family.

“We have more water to drink and use,” Nong said. “This helps us not to have to go out to find water from other distant sources because now we have clean water right next to our homes.” ◆

THAILAND

More Than EnoughThe priceless gift of water for a

farmer and his village in Thailand

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Learn more at ob.org/ClubBless

BLESSING

Did you know that Club Bless, Operation Blessing’s monthly giving program, is specially designed to put every gift, large or small, into Godly action more quickly and more effectively than ever before?

– CLUB BLESS – Monthly

President’s Circle $500 Bless-The-Greatest Need 250 Bless-A-Village 100 Bless-A-Family 50

Bless-A-Life 25

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† BE A ¢

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When Brian heard the gunshots just outside his home, he immediately rushed to his little sisters.

“My sister Andrea woke up, and I did not know what to do, so I just told her to be quiet because at

EL SALVADOR

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A desperate mother must leave her children in search of work until she receives a

special blessing that brings her back home

Coming Home

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that moment I thought that if they could hear us they might try to get into the house and hurt us,” Brian said. “I started telling her, ‘Please, baby, be quiet. Go back to sleep.’”

The shooter eventually fled the area, and Brian was left scared and alone.

“I started crying,” he said, “and the only thing I wanted was for my mom to come back home.”

His father passed away three months before, and eight-year-old Brian had to leave school to take care of his sisters Wendy, age three, and Andrea, just one, so their mother could work to pro-vide for them.

His mother, Arely, worked hard every day selling packages of fried bananas on buses and along the streets of their city, earning just $3 a day — barely enough to keep her little ones fed.

“It’s hard for me to leave them alone; I worry that something might

happen to them while I’m gone,” she said. “I cannot take them with me be-cause it is very risky to get on and off from the buses.”

Arely had no other option available — she didn’t have relatives living close by, and she had no one to help provide food and shelter for her little ones. If she did not work, they would not eat.

“The first day that I stayed alone with my sisters, my mom was telling me

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Arely sold fried bananas on buses in her city, earning just $3 a day.

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to look after them, and when she hugged me before leaving, I wanted to cry,” Brian said. “I felt something like an empty feeling in my stomach, but it was not hunger, it was fear. As soon as she closed the door to leave, I wanted her to come back to stay with us.”

Operation Blessing staff met Brian and his family through a medical clinic that was held in their community. Teams immediately set to work helping the struggling family.

“We helped her start a micro-business selling tortillas from home,” OBI staff said. Arely received a new stove for making the tortillas, as well as 400 pounds of flour and other supplies she would need — including a pro-pane gas tank and cooking oil. The family even received hygiene supplies and enough food to see them through until the business could turn a profit.

“This family’s life has changed a lot,” OBI staff reported. “Brian does not have to stay alone caring for his little sisters while his mom goes out to work selling fried bananas. Now he can go to school because his mother has her business in the house, and she can take care of her daughters.”

Arely is also able to earn a better income to cover the payments on their house that had been slipping behind since her husband’s death, as well as food and other basic necessities.

“I am grateful to you,” Arely said. “Thanks to you I can now work and look after my children and have food for them. Operation Blessing, thanks for all your help!” ◆

PERU

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Now, Arely makes and sells tortillas from her home where she can also care for her children.

With his mother working from home, Brian is now able to return to school.

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“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” – Isaiah 58:6In honor of World Day of Social Justice on February 20, will you help rescue vulnerable children and families today? Join Operation Blessing’s efforts to bring holistic relief to impoverished communities through trafficking pre-vention, education, skills training, safe water projects, sustainable hunger relief and more.

Start today by visiting operationblessing.org

EXPLOITATION. OPPRESSION. POVERTY.

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GEORGIA

Tracey never dreamed her family would ever have to choose between paying the bills and buying food, but when she was let go from her job, money quickly became tight and that

A family facing hunger receives a helping hand from an Operation Blessing-supported food pantry

Help when Hunger Strikes

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tough decision soon became reality. The sudden loss of income put a strain on the family’s finances,

and both Tracey and her husband Vince, who was in training to be an electrician at the time, tried to find full-time work but were unsuccessful.

Concerned about how they would take care of their two sons, they did odd jobs like cleaning houses to get by, but it was not enough. Soon Tracey and Vince were forced to make a decision between paying the mortgage and buying food for their family.

Knowing their situation, a friend told them about an Operation Blessing-supported food distribution center in their area, and there they found the help and relief their family needed to make it through the tough times.

“We didn’t have the money to go shopping at a grocery store for everything we needed,” Vince said. “So to go and see all those groceries we needed, and the quality stuff, just blew me away — such a blessing.”

Now back on their feet, Tracey and her family frequently volun-teer at the distribution center to give back and help other families in need. ◆

Help when Hunger Strikes

DID YOU KNOW?Operation Blessing feeds millions of hungry people around the world each year. In the United States last fiscal year, OBI’s fleet of Hunger Strike Force tractor-trailers traveled more than 1.6 million miles and distributed more than 62 million pounds of food and donated products to families in need.

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At just three years old, little Raayio’s feet were calloused, bruised and sore.

Raayio and his siblings, eight-year-olds Kalisho and Emily, 10-year-old Soilah and 11-year-old Koisah, were too poor to have ever owned a pair of shoes. They live in abject poverty with their grandmother,

as their mother is unable to care for them and their father abandoned the family.

Constantly barefoot, their feet would get terribly infected, which made walking painful. Operation Blessing’s community health workers, trained volunteers who help improve the health of their neighborhoods, discovered the children and set about treating their wounds.

Operation Blessing then provided brand new shoes and even blankets to the siblings and a dozen other children in the community in need. Now these little ones have sturdy shoes to protect their feet from injury and infection. ◆

KENYA

Children in Kenya too poor to afford shoes

An Operation Blessing community health worker tends the wounds of children formerly living without shoes.

Relief for Raayio

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With their parents unable to care for them, Maria and her siblings live with their aunt. But their aunt has her own children to provide for, so at just 16 years old, Maria has

taken on the responsibility of providing for her four younger siblings.She had just completed the ninth grade when Maria had to

leave school and take a job at a factory — hoping to earn enough to keep her brothers and sisters in school. But she earned a mere $35 a month and worked long, hard hours.

But things are changing for Maria. With hope for a better future, she enrolled in an Operation Blessing-supported cosmetology training program near her home. With her graduation certificate in hand, she is now able to secure a position at a salon, earning more than double what she was able to make at the factory.

Now Maria’s siblings will be able to get an education — the very thing that she sacri-ficed to take care of them. ◆

PAKISTAN

A Sacrifice for her SiblingsCosmetology training helps a

teenager provide a better life for her brothers and sisters

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Maria is learning a new trade to help provide for her younger siblings.

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Copyright © 2015 by Operation Blessing International, P.O. Box 2636, Virginia Beach, VA 23450. For more information, call (800) 730-2537 or visit our website at operationblessing.org

Our Christian faith and supporters like you give us hope and a passion for serving the most desperate among us. The

blessings you’ve helped us bestow through our relief programs and initiatives around the globe are a true testament to what God’s love can achieve.

But as the end of our fiscal year on March 31 approaches, we need to replenish our financial reserves so we can continue to focus on our mission. Can you help today?

To make an immediate gift, please visit operationblessing.org

Will you help us feed and protect

victims of poverty?