Moved to Biblefox

We have moved our blog to Biblefox! Visit our new blog at eyestosee.biblefox.com!

Keepin’ this blog alive!!!

I know Liz and I have been back from out trip now for over 4 months…  but I’d still love to use this blog to continue to share updates with you guys.  So….I thought a good thing might be to post some exciting things going on with the organizations and people we met during our trip.  I’ll try and do my best to post cool stories and updates as they come along.  

Here are a couple to get you started…

From Preemptive Love Coalition:

We marshaled all the resources we needed to help Shad and in less than a month he was admitted to surgery in May 2009. Unfortunately, Shad did not respond to the corrective measures of the surgeries as we had all hoped he would. Too many years of living with his heart defects had hindered his body’s ability to operate as it was intended. A series of blood clots finally contributed to Shad’s death a week after his surgery.

Click here to read more about Shad’s story and the Shad Faraydoon Memorial Fund.

 

Heard about this from Chris Marlow of HELP:

HELP has been running a Campaign to End Poverty, and a church in PA decided to have a garage sale to raise money for the campaign, and they raised $3400!!! Click here to read more about this awesome story.

Chris also told me to check out a book called Scared.  Here’s a little about the book:

Once a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist, Stuart Daniels is reeling from debt, a broken marriage, and crippling depression.  The source of Stuart’s grief is his most famous photo, a snapshot of brutality in the dangerous Congo.  This haunting image indicts him as a passive witness to gross injustice.

Stuart is given one last chance to redeem his career: a make-or-break assignment covering the AIDS crisis in a small African country.  It is here that Stuart meets Adanna, a young orphan fighting for her life in a community ravaged by tragedy and disease.  Now what seemed like a chance encounter will forever change their lives.

You can download a free PDF of the book for a limited time, or purchase the book on Amazon.

 

Once a celebrated and award-winning photojournalist, Stuart Daniels is reeling from debt, a broken marriage, and crippling depression.  The source of Stuart’s grief is his most famous photo, a snapshot of brutality in the dangerous Congo.  This haunting image indicts him as a passive witness to gross injustice.

 

Stuart is given one last chance to redeem his career: a make-or-break assignment covering the AIDS crisis in a small African country.  It is here that Stuart meets Adanna, a young orphan fighting for her life in a community ravaged by tragedy and disease.  Now what seemed like a chance encounter will forever change their lives.

THANKS!!!

Many thanks to all of you who came out to our photo exhibit this past Saturday! I was so excited to see so many people come by, and to be able to share a little more about our trip with all of you.

I was so excited to see people participating in the silent auction and wanting to help the Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.  All but two of the exhibit prints were auctioned off and several 8×10 prints were ordered, raising $520 for HELP! We also received several orders for our Eyes to See book, raising an additional $180 for HELP!

Also…we showed our slide show on Saturday, and I’m working on putting it online so that those who couldn’t make it to the exhibit can still watch the slide show online.

We will also have more info soon on how to order the book online. Meanwhile, if you already know you’d like to order one, feel free to email us at eyestosee2009@gmail.com and we can add yours to an order we’ll be placing soon. Books are $35 each, and $5 from each book goes to Musha Wevana Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.

Thanks again for all of your support!

-B

More info!

Just wanted to give a quick update with more info about our photo exhibit tomorrow.

1) You definitely don’t have to stay the whole three hours! (But you’re more than welcome to… ) Feel free to just stop by whenever you can for however long you can. Also, we’ll have some snacks/refreshments as well.

2) We will be showing the 15-minute slideshow at 11:30, 12:30 and 1:30.

3) We will be taking orders for our Eyes to See book. They are $35 each, and $5 of each book sale goes towards Musha Wevana Children’s Home in Zimbabwe.

4) We will also be silent-auctioning each of the prints in the exhibit.  All proceeds over $25 from each print will go to Musha Wevana as well.

Right now, our friends at Help End Local Poverty (HELP) are having a Campaign to End Poverty, and hope to raise money for new mattresses and school uniforms for the kids in Zimbabwe, as well as help raise money for them to build a new orphanage! Liz and I are REALLY excited to do what we can to be a part of this Campaign. For those of you who have heard or read about our experience in Zimbabwe this past January, you know that we were both greatly impacted by the people we met there.

For more info on HELP’s campaign, please go here: http://www.campaigntoendpoverty.org/

We are excited about tomorrow! And can’t wait to see you there!

Thanks again, Blanca and Liz

Photo Exhibit and Book Release!!

Liz and I are very excited to announce that our church is hosting a photo exhibit for us next weekend!

Details-

Date: June 20, 2009

Location: Liveoak Bible Church, 7500 WOODROW AVE., AUSTIN TX

Time: 11am-2pm

The exhibit will feature photos from our time in the Sudan. And we will also have a slideshow of photos from throughout our trip. I have been anxiously awaiting to share more photos with all of you, and I hope you’re able to stop by for a bit!

Also, very exiting news – we’ve finished our book!!! Many, many thanks to our friend, Michele Bennett, for helping with the book design. And thanks to Rebecca Evans and Ellen Rees for helping with the editing. I cannot believe we’ve actually done it! We will have a few hard copies on hand at the photo exhibit, but we will also be taking orders that day. (More info to come on how to order the book online as well.)

Also, $5 of each book sale will goes towards helping the children at Musha Wevana in Zimbabwe get new mattresses and school uniforms!

I am REALLY excited!!!! I didn’t realize I was going to be this excited…BUT I AM!!!

I wish I could have printed a billion photos from ALL the countries we visited, but I’m excited to have the exhibit focus on the Sudan. And actually, towards the beginning of the exhibit time, I plan on sharing a little more about my heart and thoughts behind choosing this specific country for the exhibit.

I hope to see many of you there! Feel free to email us with any questions: eyestosee2009@gmail.com

Thanks!!!!

-Blanca and Liz

Does She have a Nightgown?

Beth and I sat in her kitchen where we’ve had many a deep conversation over tea, coffee or hot chocolate in vain attempts at solving the problems of our world or at least our individual lives.  That afternoon was no different except that a new Longhorn mug sat warmly between my hands and a picture of a little girl neither of us had any knowledge of the last time we hovered over the bar together was magnetized to the fridge and to both of our hearts.

Without any transition from our prior topic, Beth said, “Avery asked whether or not she has a nightgown.”

Without any hint as to who she was, I asked, “ The doll?” wondering if she meant the toy clad in traditional Vietnamese attire I’d brought over that morning.

“Nomatter.” Beth corrected my assumption nodding her head in the direction of the picture now on a refrigerator in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park that Blanca took over a month ago in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The question from Beth’s four year old is still swirling around my head today.  Not because I’m trying to figure out a way to get pajamas to all the orphans at the Musha Wevana Children’s Home (although perhaps we should), but because little Avery gets it.

She’s not even old enough to attend school.  Her life consists of making mudcakes in the backyard, helping her younger brother find his blankie, and playing with her prized collection of horses.  She’s never been outside the country.  She can have no real concept of the far off land called Zimbabwe where the economy is collapsing and children are left without parents due to the AIDS epidemic and a host of other harsh realities, but her young mind’s eye still has the power to see.

She saw Nomatter wearing a torn white dress in the photo.  Avery has dresses too.  She also has warm fuzzy footy pajamas for the cold nights and pretty princess nightgowns for warmer ones with Dora sets thrown in for variety.

“Mommy, does she have a nightgown?”

I’m not sure how the logic worked out inside her little blond head, but somehow she moved from the story her mom told of Nomatter and the two dimensional photo she saw, to identifying with a living breathing human being… a girl like herself who should have a nightgown too.

H.E.L.P. Launch Party

So, the story goes something like this… Blanca met a guy in Italy years ago.  Years before that two guys met in North Carolina.  Somehow through facebook we all got connected which led to all of you helping the orphans we visited in Zimbabwe.  I love how God connects dots that aren’t even on the same page and creates something beautiful.

Anyway, there’s a launch party this weekend for H.E.L.P. a non-profit started by Chris (one of the N.C. guys).  They have big dreams of helping alleviate global poverty.  If you haven’t made it over to their website yet, click on the link on our sidebar to find out more about them.  And please click here for details about the launch party in Austin this weekend.  Who knows what other dots God might be planning to connect…

What Incredible Joy…

Update from PLC:

Ahmed is smiling big! He gets to see his mom again on Wednesday…back home in Iraq!

I so badly wish I could be there to see his smiling face and give him a BIG HUG!!!!  He will still need additional surgeries over the next few years in order to live a fully functional adult life, so keep Ahmad in your prayers!   And we’ll, of course, keep you updated. 

Where to next?

As I’ve spent time with friends over the last couple days, they have all asked how we are adjusting to life back in the plenty and comfort of America after all we’ve seen and experienced.  So far I have told everyone that this has actually been the easiest adjustment back for me ever.  The usual follow-up question is, “And why do you think that is?”  Thus far my answer has been that maybe it has something to do with being more prepared after having made the jump back to this country of uninterrupted electricity, dryers, and supercenters multiple times (three in fact in 2008 alone).  I also mention that I believe some of it may be that we were transitioning in and out of cultures so frequently (literally every 4-6 days) that we never had the chance to really settle in anywhere.

Today I’d have to add that I think I am avoiding completely re-entering my life just yet.  Sure I’ve already made a trip to Wal-mart for coffee and half-n-half and I’ve caught up on episodes of Heroes, but I’ve also stayed up until at least 3 every night and slept in until 11, 12 or even 2pm, holding on to the waking hours of the other side of the world.  And honestly I have refused to begin seriously thinking about what I will do over the next months or years with what God has revealed on this journey.  I would rather pitch a tent at the crossroads than dare the hike down a particular path hoping my short steps will make a lasting difference in our world.  I’ve always hated camping.  I think I need to remember that and begin the uncertain trek toward the next cloud-covered destination in the distance.

Christmas Massacres

Blanca and I are speaking at our church in Austin this Sunday.  In preparation for what we will share about Sudan, I decided to look up information on the LRA led Christmas massacres we heard about while we were in Yei.  Here’s some of what I found in a report compiled by Human Rights Watch.  The stories we heard while in Sudan were horrific enough.  These leave me shaking and force my mind to take in further depths of human depravity than I’d previously thought possible.  Please continue to pray for the safety and healing of the people of the Congo, Uganda, and Sudan and for the redemption of these soldiers along with the coming of justice to these places of unfathomable evil and tremendous suffering.

The LRA were quick at killing. It did not take them very long and they said nothing while they were doing it. They killed all 26. I was horrified. I knew all these people. They were my family, my friends, my neighbors. When they finished I slipped away and went to my home, where I sat trembling all over. — A 72-year-old man who hid in the bushes and watched as the LRA killed his family on Christmas day in Batande, near Doruma. He is one of only a handful of people still alive in his village.

I cry everyday for her. You can’t imagine what it’s like to have your daughter taken from you. It makes me ill when I think about what they [the LRA] could be doing to her in the bush. I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again, or even if she’s still alive. — A mother whose 13-year-old daughter was abducted by the LRA in September 2008

In late December 2008 and into January 2009, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) brutally killed more than 865 civilians and abducted at least 160 children in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). LRA combatants hacked their victims to death with machetes or axes or crushed their skulls with clubs and heavy sticks. In some of the places where they attacked, few were left alive.

The worst attacks happened in a 48-hour period over Christmas in locations some 160 miles apart in the Doruma, Duru, and Faradje areas of Haut-Uele district of northern Congo. The LRA waited until the time of Christmas festivities on December 24 and 25 to carry out their devastating attacks, apparently choosing a moment when they would find the maximum number of people all together. The killings occurred not just in Congo but also in parts of southern Sudan where similar kinds of weapons and tactics were used.

The Christmas massacres in Congo are part of a longstanding practice of horrific atrocities and abuse by the LRA. Before shifting its operations to the Congo in 2006, the LRA was based in Uganda and southern Sudan where LRA combatants also killed, raped, and abducted thousands of civilians. When the LRA moved to Congo, its combatants initially refrained from targeting Congolese people, but in September 2008 the LRA began its first wave of attacks, apparently to punish local communities who had helped LRA defectors to escape. The first wave of attacks in September, together with the Christmas massacres, has led to the deaths of over 1,033 civilians and the abduction of at least 476 children.

LRA killings have not stopped since the Christmas massacres. Human Rights Watch continues to receive regular reports of murders and abductions by the LRA, keeping civilians living in terror. According to the United Nations, over 140,000 people have fled their homes since late December 2008 to seek safety elsewhere. New attacks and the flight of civilians are reported weekly. In some areas, people are frightened to gather together believing that the LRA may choose such moments to strike, as they did with such devastating efficiency over Christmas.

Even by LRA standards, the Christmas massacres in Congo were especially brutal. LRA combatants struck quickly and quietly, surrounding their victims as they ate their Christmas meal in Batande village, or as they gathered for a Christmas day concert in Faradje. In Mabando village, the LRA sought to maximize the death toll by luring their victims to a central place, playing the radio and forcing their victims to sing songs and to call for others to come join the party. In most of the attacks they tied up their victims, stripped them of their clothes, raped the women and girls, and then killed their victims by crushing their skulls. In two cases the attackers tried to kill three-year-old toddlers by twisting off their heads. The few villagers who survived often did so because their assailants thought they were dead.

The widespread, virtually simultaneous nature of the attacks as well as the similar means used to kill the victims points to a coordinated operation carried out under orders from a single command structure. Captured LRA combatants, interviewed by Human Rights Watch, said that LRA leader Joseph Kony himself ordered attacks on civilians beginning in September 2008, at a time when Kony was still promising to sign the peace accords. An LRA spokesman contacted by Human Rights Watch denied all responsibility for the attacks, saying they had been carried out by Ugandan soldiers pretending to be LRA combatants. Human Rights Watch found no evidence to support this assertion.