Short-Term Volunteers Have Long-Term Impact

Can short-term missions work? Jonathan Flesher firmly believes that the answer to that question is “yes,” after his experiences volunteering with Hospitals of Hope this past summer.

Jonathan was one of over 60 volunteers who passed through the Hospitals of Hope guest house between April and August of this year, working at the hospital and in the community to meet people’s physical and spiritual needs. Many of these volunteers were students or full-fledged medical or dental professionals, but many others had no medical training and served in other ways.

Jonathan felt that the most tangible difference he and his team were able to make was at the Casa de Alegría—the House of Happiness—a home for girls who have been victims of abuse. Over the course of three weeks, these volunteers set out to bless these young women. The volunteers with medical and dental training did checkups on the girls, cleaned their teeth, and performed any necessary extractions. The men in the group replaced broken windows and used pick axes and hoes to break up the hard ground of the orphanage’s garden. The women spent time building relationships with the girls, taking them to church and to lunch, and giving them makeovers. Over the course of the three weeks, the volunteers witnessed a visible change in countenance in the girls, from quiet and withdrawn to joyful and engaged.

Another aspect of his ministry in Bolivia that Jonathan felt was particularly meaningful was outreaches to street children. Again, Hospitals of Hope volunteers provided basic health and dental care for these kids, along with health and hygiene education. While other volunteers worked on meeting these physical needs, Jonathan and Andy Hilton, another Hospitals of Hope volunteer, set up a prayer station where they talked and prayed with these young men and women. While drug abuse is widespread on the street and interfered with some aspects of the volunteer’s ministry, Jonathan and Andy were amazed to see that the drug use stopped while they prayed. This was the only time during their ministry that the kids were not sniffing glue. As Andy wrote, “This was the only time I remember the kids being still and calm, during prayer. It was an amazing and humbling sight to see as some of the kids actually knelt before God, as their Father, asking us to pray for their original families that they left behind to live on the streets.”

One of the things that impressed Jonathan the most during his time in Bolivia was the way Hospitals of Hope partners with other organizations and individual missionaries. These partnerships, he believes, provide an opportunity for God to really work through the Christian community there. We are just one group, but our partnerships allow us to minister to the girls at the Casa de Alegría and to the street children and ensure that this ministry will not end when our short-term volunteers leave.

When many of our volunteers come back, they tell us that their time in Bolivia has changed them, that God has used it to transform their life and their perspective. Jonathan’s experience was no different. In fact, he believes that God used his time with Hospitals of Hope to call him to long-term missions, perhaps in Bolivia.

Can short-term missions work? Jonathan believes that his experience is proof that it can, “if you’re willing to put your heart into a situation.”

The Concert and Beyond

Thanks to all of you who came out for last week's concert! We had around 200 of you come out to show your support and hear some amazing music from Waterdeep, Justin McRoberts, and SHEL. We especially want to thank all of you who volunteered to help with childcare, tickets, cleanup, etc. You all were great!

Now that the concert is over, we're turning our full attention to our other projects. One of the biggest ones we're working on right now is preparing to send another container of medical equipment to Liberia. The container we sent earlier this year has already made a big difference there, but the hospital still lacks many essentials. We've been talking with the hospital administration and are working on procuring some of the most important items that they still need. We've already got 3 x-ray machines, a bunch of hospital beds, and thousands of dollars worth of surgical instruments ready to send. As you can probably imagine, our warehouse is getting pretty full!

We're also continuing work on our longer-term project of implementing our new inventory system and getting the warehouse organized. This will be easier once we get the Liberia container sent, but there's a lot of work to do between now and then! If you're interested in helping out, send me an email at leta@hospitalsofhope.org.

Music and Missions at the Concert of Hope

We're really excited about the benefit concert tomorrow night, featuring Waterdeep, Justin McRoberts, and SHEL. They're all amazingly talented, and we're thrilled to have them partnering with us to help bring health care to the poor around the world.

I've just been reading a bit more about Justin McRoberts on his website and blog, and I'm really excited to get to hear him in person. Justin is deeply committed to supporting mission work, especially groups like Compassion International, the International Justice Mission, and the Blood Water Mission (and now us!). In regards to working on behalf of the poor, Justin writes, "I believe these are the defining characteristics of our likeness to God. The need and desire to care for the poor and oppressed is something we share in common with all humanity, not simply the religious."

Here's an excerpt from a recent post from his blog, talking about his song "Man Like Me":

Regarding the songs theme: I had just finished reading Jonathan Kozol..s book Savage Inequalities and was struck by the situation many poor find themselves in; the cycle of having nothing to stand on to help them climb out of their dilemma. For many poor, their desire is to not to be carried or receive a lifetime of free handouts, but to receive the initial help they need to get their foot on the first rung.. as Jeffery Sachs writes in The End Of Poverty. I realize full well that I say this in direct defiance of many who look upon the poor collectively as lazy and ill-intentioned. This social perspective is part of the dehumanization that the spirit of Poverty is most bent upon instilling in those who have. It begins with a sense of entitlement; that we have been something other than fortunate or blessed, but have in fact received our due. Those who are poor, in turn, receive what they deserve according to their efforts. In the long run, this perspective leads us to equate value with wealth and that kind of blindness is something far more than ignorant, it is destructive and shameful.

So come out tomorrow night and join us at Maranatha Worship Center (888 S. Webb Road in Wichita) for a great evening of music and missions. We hope to see you there!

Suffering and Redemption

I’ve always thought that the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” seemed sort of cliché. Not only that, but it’s a question that I can theologically dismiss in about two seconds:

Q. Why do bad things happen to good people?

A. There are no good people. Next question.

Unfortunately, though, that answer doesn’t get rid of the issues of injustice and pain. And these are issues that resurface again and again. The current recession continues to cost hardworking people their livelihoods. A friend of mine recently lost a couple of people close to her in a tragic accident. My sister witnessed the effects of decades of war while teaching in Afghanistan. Our staff and volunteers have seen people dying because of lack of basic medical care in Liberia and Bolivia. I, personally, have been faced over and over again with children begging on the streets of Bolivia and Guatemala.

Especially in this profession, these are issues that I can’t escape from. And, really, none of us can.

Some people buy into “Oprah theology,” as my pastor recently pointed out—they comfort themselves by claiming that everything is supposed to happen, that God planned for these bad things to happen in order to bring about some greater purpose. Others claim that God is powerless to change things—that he hates the tragedies we experience but can’t stop them. Others claim that God is simply cruel, or distant, or nonexistent.

I can’t buy into any of those theories. I can’t believe that God orchestrates evil—and to me there is no question that many things that happen are evil. And I think that the Bible is clear that God is all-powerful, that he has the power to stop bad things from happening, as well as that he is loving and deeply personal.

I could go on writing about this for hours, about how this ultimately comes back to the Fall and to the question of free will, etc, but I don’t have time to write that, and I’m sure you don’t have time to read it. Really, though, I think the key to this issue lies in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). It doesn’t say God causes the pain, just that he uses it for good, and I find this immensely comforting.

In my own life, I’ve found that the main way God uses the evil that I’ve experienced to accomplish good is through other people. It’s amazing to me how He uses such fragile instruments as human beings to redeem suffering—to fight evil, and to replace it with good.

And that’s what we’re trying to do here. We can’t change the histories of the places we work or of the people we work with. We can’t change the fact that war and injustice and natural phenomena have caused untold suffering. But we can let God use us to bring healing and hope. Bad things will continue to happen, but God is good and will redeem our suffering. And I’m willing to bet my life on that.

Our site is back up

Our site is back online, and our email is back up, too. Hurray!

Website down

Our web host's server went down, so our website and email aren't working right now. We hope to have this resolved shortly.

In the meantime, if you need to contact us or if you would like more information about our benefit concert on October 16, you can call the office at 316.262.0964 or email me at leta.reppert@gmail.com.

Sorry for any inconvenience!