Posted by: Quincee
Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the opportunity to speak with a church in Texas: Bend United Methodist Church. Every time I speak with this church body, the outpouring of love is enormous. My history with Bend Methodist is a long one. Because my grandparents are members, every time I have had the itch to go to Africa to work with the children, they have answered the call to be my moral and financial supporters.
In 2006, I left for Zambia, Africa on my first trip to the continent that would steal my heart. I would be a camp counselor at an AIDS orphans camp. Walking through the streets of the compounds and holding those dying children left a scar of my heart that will never be erased. I remember presenting to Bend United Methodist Church about this heartache I had to be with these children who were given an unfair plight of poverty, AIDS, and desperate hopelessness to change their situation. The members of Bend Methodist could not have been more encouraging: always reminding me to stay safe but encouraging me to following the call I had felt in this wandering heart of mine.
After spending the majority of the following year trying to heal from the heartbreaking things I had seen in Zambia, my heart was beginning to move for my next trip to Africa. This time, I would desert the jungles of Zambia for the Sahara Desert of Nigeria. In 2008, I left for Jos, Nigeria where I worked in an orphanage with developmentally challenged children. Again, Bend Methodist was the fire behind the engine that kept up my morale, motivation, and will to keep going on those hard days so far away from family.
This past weekend, I shared with them my new and ever-increasing vision with eXile international to help counsel war-affected children through the trauma they have experienced. Again, the answer was: yes, how can we help? The overwhelming desire of Bend's members to genuinely hear about the heart-wrenching stories of these children has left a huge mandate for church supporters to follow. They do not simply want to support the things we are doing, they each want to be involved in change by continuing to advocate for those that are helpless and hopeless.
Celia, the minister at Bend, said: "In the Methodist Church, this is the day of Peace with Justice. This is a day where we all say, 'This won't happen on our watch...'"
Thank you, Bend United Methodist Church, for being a voice for those with no hope. Your heart to stop the bleeding and mend the wound of these war-affected places in Africa is going to be the very vain of what chances the future for these children. For this, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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