OPERATION BLESS ING INTERNATIONALJANUARY 2016

Blessingsoperationblessing.org

Hope for Honduran Students

Desperately needed renovations help a rural school break the cycle of

suffering in Honduras { P A G E 8 }

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A Message from THE PRESIDENT

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Hurricane Patricia, the strongest Pacific storm in recorded history, fortunately

came ashore in a sparsely populated area of the west coast of Mexico. The

media reported that “Mexico dodged a bullet,” but the residents of small

fishing villages like La Manzanilla did not dodge anything.

Our Mexico City office monitored the storm’s approach and launched a team

with a convoy of vehicles and supplies that included mobile kitchens, tool trailers,

chlorine generators and chain saws. They paused in Guadalajara and waited for the

storm to hit.

My sister Judy, an artist, lives in La Manzanilla, a village known for its postcard

seascape and wild crocodile sanctuary. Judy and her husband, Philipe, were building

a new home on high ground overlooking the sea and living temporarily in a sturdy

one room house.

Darkness fell and the wind started to howl; as the eye raged closer, Judy texted

me saying, “We are under the bed with the cats; I've never heard sounds like this;

it's awful and we are scared and praying out loud.” Their roof and shuttered

windows held, but many neighbors were not so fortunate. When the sun came up,

Judy texted saying, “Please send the OBI team, our village is decimated and we

need help.”

While waiting for our team to cut their way through roads choked with fallen

trees, Judy visited every villager and made a list of those hardest hit, with priority

given to the elderly, single moms and those with disabilities. Operation Blessing

supplied building materials and a local crew worked nonstop for many days,

installing 20 new roofs and clearing countless tons of debris. We also purchased

necessities like beds and bedding to replace what was ruined.

My sister says OBI was the answer to so many prayers in this village. And that is

all because of friends like you who make it possible — thank you.

May God bless you,

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A Message from THE PRESIDENT4 Saved from Slavery

A partnership between Operation Blessing and International Justice Mission helps rescue boys from slavery in Ghana

6 Filling the Pantry with Laughter An Operation Blessing-supported food pantry helps a single mother fighting cancer

11 Bless the Poor Creative planned giving strategies allow you to support the mission of OBI in a more significant way than you ever thought possible!

12 Learning to Walk Again Once very close to losing his leg, a young man in Peru has a healthy future thanks to OBI partners

14 Restoring Oscar’s Hurricane-Torn Home After Hurricane Patricia battered the coast of Mexico, Oscar’s home was left severely damaged

Inside this issue Cover PAGE 8

Hope for Honduran Students Desperately needed renovations help a rural school break the cycle of suffering in Honduras

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GHANA

SAVED FROM SLAVERY

A partnership between Operation Blessing and International

Justice Mission helps rescue boys from slavery in Ghana

The boys should have been in kindergarten — but instead they were working 12 hour days, seven days a week on rickety fishing canoes on Ghana’s largest lake.

They started work at 3 a.m., pulling in the heavy nets set the day before — bringing in the day’s catch before noon. Their little legs were cov-ered in thick scars; their hands calloused from hard work. The boys’ small bodies were malnourished, yet they had overdeveloped muscles from

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years of manual labor. They worked barefoot, clad in little more than rags.The boys, whose names are being withheld for their protection, had

grown up on Ghana’s Lake Volta, where boys are often used as slave labor in the fishing industry — a grueling life for anyone, unthinkable for such young children.

Thanks to Operation Blessing partners and a strategic partnership with International Justice Mission (IJM), ten of these boys are no longer held captive.

A team of specialists, including anti-trafficking officers, government social workers, local police and EMTs conducted an early morning raid. One by one, the ten boys were located, rescued and provided with medi-cal help, clean clothes and much-needed food.

“The biggest message we want the children to hear is that they are safe. They have nothing to fear,” IJM staff said.

Slowly, the children began to tell their stories: One had been sold into slavery when he was just two years old, another had already spent a decade in servitude, many didn’t know their own ages nor how to write their names.

With support from Operation Blessing and IJM, these boys now have the legal support they need as their captors are prosecuted. They are settling into a long-term aftercare home where they will receive ongoing care and the chance to go to school — many for the very first time.

Thank you for changing the lives of these little boys forever! ◆

Rescued boys are brought to safety thanks to International Justice Mission, local authorities and Operation Blessing partners.

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LOUISIANA

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Filling the Pantry with

LaughterAn Operation Blessing-supported food

pantry helps a single mother fighting cancer

Sick and alone, Shannon didn’t know how she would be able to feed her little girl.

In 2006, when Madisyn was only four years old, Shannon received a devastating diagnosis — cancer. At the age of twenty-five, Shannon learned she was facing stage IV breast cancer.

As her health failed, Shannon was soon no longer able to work. The chemotherapy, treatments and bills began to pile up. Before long,

Shannon and her teenage daughter, Madisyn.

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Shannon looked at her life and saw little else but cancer, and no way to even feed her growing daughter.

“I would be freaking out about getting groceries and how I was going to live,” she said.

Then Shannon joined a single-mother’s group in her community for support. Little did she know, she would also be receiving grocer-ies to fill her pantry in her time of need, thanks in part to Operation Blessing. When Shannon is too ill to attend because of intense cancer treatments, volunteers bring the food to her house, making sure she and her now-teenage daughter won’t go hungry.

“They would come to my door with groceries and it would be perfect timing,” Shannon said. “It’s such a blessing. It’s a weight I don’t have to worry about. I don’t have to stress, because it’s all been given to me.”

Operation Blessing has partnered with Healing Place Dream Center in Louisiana to feed more than 1,000 hungry families every month. In addition to food, these families also receive clothing and hygiene products. And if anyone, like Shannon, is unable to attend a distribution, they are always happy to deliver directly to the hurting.

“It’s made my life better in so many different ways,” Shannon said.Shannon and Madisyn have also found a new shared passion —

cooking. When she was seven, Madisyn first tried her hand at making noodles, because she wanted to learn to cook for her mother. From there, she learned to cook other things and improved steadily.

Shannon is well enough to do the majority of the cooking now, but they still treasure their time cooking as a team. Together, they prepare meals in the kitchen, listening to music and trading jokes, filling their lives with much more than cancer. ◆

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When Vanessa, William and the other students of Hector Perez Estrada School arrived for classes, it wasn’t to a vibrant classroom

full of colorful posters and learning tools.Instead, they had only a cracked whiteboard

and rotting wooden desks where they sat two or even three students to a single desk. And when poor weather hit, the roof leaked. Their textbooks and meager supplies would inevitably get wet.

“My students were frightened every time it rained,” said Jessy, a teacher at the school. “They would say, ‘Ms. Jessy, let’s just leave, our books will be ruined from the rain.’ There were leaks all over the place.”

And once children finished the sixth grade, the nearest school that would allow them to reach ninth grade, when they would earn a diploma, was more than an hour’s walk from their village.

The community tried to renovate the current school and transform a nearby community building into a secondary school for the older children, but the small farming community simply didn’t have the resources to make repairs or purchase new supplies.

When Operation Blessing learned about the challenges facing the com-munity of Penitas Arriba, teams took action to help.

“Providing education, food, health services and job training to these communities is critical to empowering rural Hondurans to break the

HONDURAS

Desperately needed renovations help a rural school break

the cycle of suffering in Honduras

Hope for Honduran Students

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cycle of poverty,” OBI staff said.

Thanks to partners like you, OB Honduras was able to renovate the primary school and its bathrooms and kitchen, providing furnishings, supplies, a playground and even a vegetable garden to help provide

Before the renovations to the Hector Perez Estrada School, children were using a cracked whiteboard and sharing rotting desks.

Hope for Honduran Students

Young William is now able to focus on learning, instead of the leaking roof of his classroom.

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nourishing food for the children. Further, teams created a secondary school for older students using the community center building.

Operation Blessing provided desks for the students at both schools, as well as whiteboards, books, crafts, learning toys and a special reading corner. Teams even delivered desks for the teachers.

“I’ve been teaching at this school for ten years and this will be the very first time I have a desk to sit at,” Jessy said.

The primary school reopened with a special ribbon cutting ceremony a few months ago and now the secondary school will be opening for classes this month too. Thanks to Operation Blessing partners, students who used to go all day without a bite to eat now get a hot meal every day at school, and even when it rains, they can study under the shelter of their safe, dry school.

“I am happy because before my books and desk would get wet from leaks in the ceiling,” said Vanessa, 12. “It’s so much better now!”

And now that students can continue through ninth grade and receive diplomas, they are better able to obtain good jobs, and even continue their schooling in the city if they choose — helping break the cycle of suffering. ◆

Now, even the teacher, Ms. Jessy, has a desk of her own.

Before Operation Blessing arrived to help, the children's desks were rotting because of the leaking roof.

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PERU

Once very close to losing his leg, a young man in Peru has a healthy future thanks to

Operation Blessing partners

Aldair thought he would never be able to walk again.The 16-year-old had been riding home on a motorbike — the

most common form of transportation in the city of Iquitos — after studying with a friend when he was struck by another motorbike.

At first, Aldair didn’t feel any pain, but then he saw the compound fracture in his leg. “I thought I would lose my leg or die,” he said, “so I started crying.”

He was taken to a hospital and his parents rushed to his side, but the doctors told his mother, Manuela, that she would need to purchase a special external fixator kit to stabilize the bone before they could oper-ate. Their health insur-ance refused to cover traffic accidents, leaving Manuela and her hus-band desperate for the funds they would need for Aldair’s care.

Aldair had been in the hospital almost a week and still Manuela had not been able to procure the money they needed — and the doctor gave them a dire warning: with-out surgery very soon, Aldair would almost certainly lose his leg.

When Manuela learned that Operation Blessing was in her city holding

Aldair was injured in a motorbike accident while on his way home after studying with a friend.

Learning to Walk Again

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a free medical clinic, she went there in search of help.

“I approached one of the OBI staff and told her about my son,” Man-uela said. “She told me she would go with me to the hospital and find a way to help Aldair.”

Soon, Operation Blessing had coordinated with the hospital to purchase the external fixator kit and even pay for the cost of surgery.

Manuela couldn’t believe that someone who barely knew her would do so much for her son. “You have helped my family when we needed it most,” she said.

And Operation Blessing didn’t stop there. Aldair had a long road to recovery ahead of him, and OBI was right there along the way. When he was told he could return to school if he used crutches, Opera-tion Blessing purchased the crutches for him. And when x-rays revealed that Aldair would need extensive physical therapy, Operation Blessing arranged for that as well.

Now, one year after Aldair’s ac-cident, he is finally walking again, all thanks to the compassion of Operation Blessing partners!

He is able to attend school and accompany his mother to the mar-ket without crutches, and he hopes to someday soon return to playing his favorite sport — soccer.

“I’m feeling much better,” Aldair said. “I can’t believe I’m walking on my own again. Thank you very much, Operation Blessing!” ◆

Aldair, shown here with his mother Manuela, is now able to walk again without help thanks to Operation Blessing partners.

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MEXICO

After Hurricane Patricia battered the coast of Mexico, Oscar’s

home was left severely damaged

RESTORING OSCAR̕S HURRICANE-TORN HOME

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Ten-year-old Oscar was devastated

when Hurricane Patricia swept through his small community, ripping the roof from his home and drown-ing all his family’s belongings with torrential rain. He |knew his family simply didn’t have the resources to repair their small house.

“Now my family doesn’t have anywhere to live,” he said as he cried, worried about where he and his three siblings would sleep at night.

Oscar’s family was one of many in La Manzanilla picking up the pieces after the intense storm struck. Operation Blessing teams worked tirelessly in hard-hit areas like this one, bringing much-needed relief — serving up hot meals, helping with

debris cleanup and replacing damaged roofs. One of the roofs OB Mexico teams replaced was Oscar’s.“The joy of Oscar

and his siblings was contagious as they returned to their house to sleep under a new and secure roof,” said OBI staff. “And just like Oscar, many other families now have a new roof thanks to the team of volunteers from Operation Blessing.” ◆

A volunteer works on installing Oscar’s new roof.

Oscar was heart-broken to see his family home seriously damaged.

Oscar beams in front of his repaired home, excited to have a safe, secure place to sleep once more.

Copyright © 2016 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

ONE PROMISE can bring twelve months of

HEALING AND RELIEF

As you and your family are making plans for the new year, please remember those facing hunger, poverty and crisis this year and make a simple promise to share your blessings with them. Change lives this year by joining Club Bless.

–– CLUB BLESS –– Monthly President’s Circle $500 Bless-The-Greatest-Need 250 Bless-A-Village 100 Bless-A-Family 50 Bless-A-Life 25

With your monthly gift of $25 or more, you will receive a beautiful metalwork cross, handcrafted through an Operation Blessing microenterprise project in Haiti.

Learn more at ob.org/clubbless