Steve’s Excellent Adventure

Just got an update from Scott Todd who is leading the Compassion medical relief in Haiti.  This is a wake up call to the church and to us all.  As Scott says…  “(we, or the church) would not be trapped and anesthetized any longer by our culture of… call it what you will… lusts and self-satisfaction”.

The link to this article is HERE

The following is a post from Compassion’s first wave of medical help in Haiti. 

Received from Scott Todd, our Senior Ministry Advisor, who is leading our medical team in Port-au-Prince.

Last night’s (Jan. 25) arrival – in the dark, no lights in the airport, Humvees and Marines roaring around, bags thrown on the tarmac, smell of jet fuel, shouting, chaos, can’t find our pickup, pulling out over 30 duffel bags and boxes, driving through the chaos of Port-au-Prince with three of our guys on top of each pickup “guarding” baggage.

Touring our office at night with flashlights, framed mission statement on the wall tilted, leadership principles tilted, warning to walk clear of certain walls which are collapsing – pitch tent in parking lot, spray some DEET, take some Malarone, sweating from hauling stuff.

Today (Jan. 26), our medical team worked under tarps because the people are afraid to go inside buildings. Within an hour we were up and running and saw approximately 100 patients.

Each patient registered at entry through a gate with name, basic info including height, weight etc… and took a number. Some were triaged. Others waited to be called to one of four (sometimes five) stations. Each station had a doc, nurse and translator (though some of our Haitian nurses also served as translators).

The cases were not as severe as I expected with some very serious cuts and abrasions that were infected and needed dressing, some dislocations, a few bone issues. Many were just overwhelmed and needed someone to look at them and tell them they were okay. We prayed with some of them.

The spirit of the team is wonderful – encouraging, humble, aware of the complexity of treating the whole person. No one became impatient or frustrated (despite many reasons to be so). The day was a success in my view.

We sleep in a parking lot and listen to trucks and generators and dogs. We have access to one of the two buildings which has been deemed safe. The other is not safe.

The IT guy has set up wireless that seems to work reasonably well. My phone does not call but does text – weird. Verizon seems to work. They need to add Haiti to their map commercial.

The crew is sleepless, all-out working, coping with very complex issues and needs protection from external expectations.

I met two girls who were sisters – both sponsored through Compassion. There are three girls in the family. They were home when the quake hit. One got out. The other two were trapped.

Mom was selling food on the street and ran home. Dad also ran home from his work at a wood-working shop. Mom and Dad and uncle dug out one girl after about eight hours and the second girl after about 11 hours. Both girls suffered injury.

The sisters came to our clinic and we dressed and cleaned their wounds – infection. I asked each of them afterward some questions, prayer requests, both independently said – pray that I will get back to school and do well in school, pray that we can have our house back.

I asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Doctor and Doctor.

Mom stood next to them as they shared, and she was crying. We prayed that someday when people are hurt it would be these two young ladies who offer healing.

Shaun captured this story on film and is editing it next to me in the muggy Haiti night under floodlights, a tarp-tent sitting in a sloped parking lot with one of my chair legs wobbling in a pot hole. Shaun is holding a flashlight in his mouth as he works his audio.

Three of our docs are just returning from Salvation Army’s site here; they were visiting a clinic in search of pediatric meds (we had a hard time finding and don’t have enough). They also wanted to review how the Salvation Army clinic is designed – to pick up ideas.

Dinner is arriving in black trash sacks – rice and beans and scrawny chicken (kinda cold, not sure where they get it), but purchased and delivered in love in a place where every kid I saw today was hungry.

Hungry. I felt shame as I hid in a room with the others to eat half a sandwich for my lunch. But I felt proud to be a part of it all and offer whatever I could to serve these kids. They deserve everything we can offer and more.

That comment on hunger might make you wonder about food distribution – we’re doing it but it is very complex and cannot be done simultaneously with our clinic. That would be a serious mistake. So I snuck a little to the sisters and gave my half empty water bottle to another boy but otherwise we really could not do anything resembling food distribution

As some of you know, there are now over one million kids sponsored through Compassion International.  We just got some demographic stats the other day, and in case anyone wants to know….  they go like this.

Current Compassion Donor Demographics:
Ages 18-29:  10%
Ages 30-44:  28%
Ages 45-59:  35%
Ages 60+:    15%

     Where have I been?  Well……   working(a bunch), working some more, biking, hiking, school and ministry stuff.  This is in addition to the husband and dog owner things:). 

     I am going to start back running next month after letting my heel rest.  We will see.

     The following is a post concerning a past house guest we had, Paul Omondi.  From “Chombo” to evangelist.  I stumbled upon his story on the Compassion website….    This is the body of Paul’s post.  From “Chombo” to evangelist…God is good.  For those of you sponsoring a child, God bless you.  For those of you who are not yet, please visit the link on the side of this blog and get started.  We are Compassion advocates because we have seen what Compassion really does (instead of what some organizations say they do).  You can truly change the world, starting with one child.

As a kid, I often played at the dumping site and scavenged for edibles that the various companies and airlines disposed of at the site. My friends and I named the dumping site “Chombo.” Chombo is a Swahili word meaning machine.We named the dump “Chombo” because we found biscuits disposed of by factories that the machine did not cut into the correct shape. Most boys ended up not going to school, but found a home in “Chombo.”

Not many kids made it to high school in my neighborhood, basically because of two reasons; one, to make it to high school, there is a national exam that one has to take. Passing this exam is not easy as such, and if one never makes it in the exam, then there is no place for him or her in high school.

Another reason is that, even if some make it in the exam, they fail to join high school because they cannot afford the school fees. I thank God for Compassion because it ensured that my school fees were paid for in high school. My sponsor family also encouraged and believed in me, hence I did so well in my exams and joined a government high school. Some of the kids I grew up with did not get the opportunity to join high school. Most boys went into drug addiction and to nurse their drug addiction, they turned to crime.  Ladies turned to prostitution, and most of them had babies as early as 14  years old.

I saw more than 15 boys I grew up with either being shot down by the police or being stoned to death by mob justice. The community was just fed up with crime and took the law into its own hands.  An event that turned my life is when I saw one of the young men I grew up with and even shared classes with being chased down the streets. Later, the crowd caught up with him, stoned him to death, and set his body ablaze.  I later learned that this young man had stolen an electronic gadget worth maybe less than $100. It saddened me seeing my friend die in the hands of an angry mob.

For a long time I blamed myself for not sharing my faith with him. I resolved to join an evangelism and discipleship class in church popularly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. Here I had opportunity to learn how to share my faith and I saw my friends come to Christ, though some rejected.

By the time I had completed high school, I did not know what the next step would be for me, because in Kenya at the age of 18 years I was due for graduation from the Compassion program and that was it.  For sure, high school education alone could not help me achieve my dreams. I became sad. I really had the desire to proceed with my education, but I knew without the help of Compassion I was not going to make it.  One thing surprised me, though; I did well again in my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams. I became a role model in my community, and I often had parents send their kids to me to talk to them.

I had an interest in teaching kids in church; I found it fun singing with 8- and 9-year-olds and teaching them Bible stories. I also continued sharing my faith in the neighborhood through door-to-door evangelism.

What a great day for us to praise God for the 1 millionth child being sponsored through Compassion International.  What a great day to celebrate what God is doing around the world to “release children from poverty in Jesus name”.  In fact, our neighbor, Mark Hanlon was on Fox and Friends today to make this announcement.

He addresses the fact that secular media marketing groups have recommended taking the name “Christian” or “Jesus” out of everything having to do with the organization.  And that this would increase donations.  Well, Compassion is unashamed of our Christian roots, and will, in fact, make Jesus name even more prominent.  Which shows why they are such a great organization.

This is the official announcement from Compassion…………..
It is my great privilege to introduce you to Fellow Blewussi Kpodo, our one millionth sponsored child! Fellow is eight years old and he lives in Togo with his father, two older sisters, and one younger brother. And he now has a very bright future!

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And who better to stand alongside this precious little one than the world’s strongest woman?! Fellow’s sponsor is Jang Mi-Ran, a long-time Compassion supporter and Olympic gold medalist weight lifter from Korea. So, the strongest woman in the world is now sponsoring one of the most vulnerable children in the world

I got to visit with Ricardo last spring, when volunteering as a photographer for Compassion in El Salvador.  We ended up sponsoring him, and he really is a sweet kid.  He lives in a real bad part of the country.  But the Compassion center is the shining light of the town.  We just got this letter from Ricardo yesterday.

I was reading an article describing the need for Jesus in Africa, written by a self described athiest.  The author talks about a Christian organization that helps supply drinking water to folks living in Africa.  But the point of the article is the practical success of Christian organizations in Africa, where secular ones are lacking.  Just throwing money at problems is not the answer.  A changed heart, through faith in Jesus Christ, is.   Some may complain that Compassion has an “agenda”, but why not?             Excerpts from this article are as follows……

Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.

Christmas card from Ricardo

We got a Christmas card from Ricardo in El Salvador.  His english is AWESOME!  In his latest letter, he said that his “tutors” were teaching him English.  The tutors he was talking about are church members.  Compassion joins with the local church to provide church members to help “tutor” the kids.

Both sides of the letter will be in Ricardo’s “link” on the  left hand column.

Merry Christmas!!!

We are planning on a quiet Christmas this year.  One thing we are going to do is to write a letter to all of our Compassion sponsored kids.  This might be a good family project on Christmas night for any of you that are currently sponsoring a child.  And if not, gather around the computer as a family and access http://www.compassion.com/steveandconniejohnson  to sponsor a child.    Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas this year!

We got a letter from Ricardo (in El Salvador) the other day.  He is one of the kids we sponsor through Compassion.  I met Ricardo the last time I traveled to El Salvador.  The church and Compassion Student Center was amazing!  What $1/day can do.  Those “mentors” mentioned in the letter are church members who volunteer to tutor the kids at the Compassion center.  They are learning English to be able to break the cycle of poverty in this rough part of El Salvador.

Example of what Compassion does………….
“Michelle Tolentino, former Compassion-sponsored child and Leadership Development Program graduate speaking in Atlanta”

I went to El Salvador last year as a photographer for Compassion. While there, I met and sponsored a child from San Vincente(I think that was the name). The church affiliated with the Compassion project is a big one that was funded by a church in San Salvador. I was VERY impressed with the pastor there.