NCM Magazine/Summer 2015

A PUBLICATION OF N A Z A R E N E C O M P A S S I O N A T E M I N I S T R I E S

S U M M E R

2 0 1 5

RELIEF TO RECOVERY

THE CHURCH IN NEPAL IS THERE FOR THE LONG HAUL

… for those who embrace compassion as a lifestyle

Be a part of her story through child sponsorship. ncm.org/mag/cs To sponsor a child, go online to ncm.org/cs or simply cut off and mail this form using the prepaid envelope. l I would like to sponsor a child for $25 a month. I would like to sponsor: l Greatest Need I would like to sponsor a child from:

l Greatest Need l Latin America

l Boy

l Asia l Asia-Pacific l Caribbean l Eastern Europe l Middle East

l Girl l Africa

Name / Group____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Contact Person (if different)_______________________________________________________________________________________________ Address / City / State / ZIP_______________________________________________________________________________________________ Phone____________________________________________ Email__________________________________________________________________ Church to receive 10% giving credit_______________________________________________________________________________________ You can mail this form to: Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Child Sponsorship

17001 Prairie Star Parkway, Lenexa, Kansas 66220 No payment is due now. You will receive information by mail about your sponsored child and payment options.

Table of Contents DEPARTMENTS 4

Connection Points 27

Called to Compassion 28

Love in Action 30

Snapshot

NCM Magazine Summer Issue, 2015 NCM Magazine aims to tell the stories of the church living out Christ’s compassion.

Our hope is that all of us would hear the call to compassion as a lifestyle.

Magazine Design: Paul Kinsman Cover Photo: Steve Jeter

FEATURES

12

After the Shock When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake ripped through Nepal, the church began working to meet needs in the short-term and the long-term.

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Out of the Rubble

The destruction after the earthquake in Nepal was devastating. But the resilience of communities and the church’s relentless pursuit of hope is inspiring. See both in this photo essay.

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Generating Hope

Following the example of Jesus, NCM partners with local Nazarene congregations around the world to clothe, shelter, feed, heal, educate, and live in solidarity with those who suffer under oppression, injustice, violence, poverty, hunger, and disease. NCM exists in and through the Church of the Nazarene to proclaim the gospel to all people in word and deed. n

Nazarene Compassionate Ministries 17001 Prairie Star Pkwy, Lenexa, KS 66220 (800) 310-6362, info@ncm.org n

To sign up for a free subscription, please visit ncm.org/magazine or call (800) 310-6362.

For subscription changes, email info@ncm.org or write to NCM Magazine, 17001 Prairie Star Pkwy, Lenexa, KS 66220.

In a Kenyan community shattered by HIV and AIDS, people are coming together to help widows provide for their families.

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Hope, Health and HIV In Ukraine, people living with HIV and AIDS are experiencing hope for the first time through church-based ministries.

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Business as Unusual Montana, Bulgaria, is one of the poorest cities in the European Union. Here, a local church is equipping entrepreneurs to turn their dreams into reality and create a new future for their families.

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Questions? Comments? Email info@ncm.org. n

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Connection Points.

OPENING NOTES

Photo courtesy of Steve Jeter

Shaken but Steadfast

by Curt Luthye

I

STILL REMEMBER the shaking. I also remember the fear.

In the weeks following April 25, hundreds of earthquakes and aftershock rattled buildings, along with the lives and hearts of thousands of people in Nepal. For a couple of weeks, I was also being bounced awake to run outside and pray for everyone to be safe.

In those moments, I was confronted with the infinitesimally small amount of control we have on anything. Some in Nepal prayed to a pantheon of gods, and I’m sure others asked, “Where is God in all this?” while I prayed to the One whose steadfast love does not depart.

God asks us, especially in the most difficult times, to plant our hearts squarely in a relationship with Him, a loving, compassionate, present Father. The same Father who showed His great love for us by sending His Son to where we are to live with the same pains we experience. Of course, Jesus was not in Nepal in bodily form when the earthquake struck. But the church was, and that same Father called the church in Nepal to go into the hard places to be as Christ to those who were hurting.

The Nazarene church in Nepal—its

4 | NCM Magazine

pastors, leaders, and members—were in the same boat as their neighbors: Shaken. But they packed up food and tarps and hygiene kits and took them to villages that were almost completely destroyed. They served those in need, regardless of caste or social standing. They continued holding services, singing and bearing witness of their faith to nervous landlords who didn’t yet believe. The church in Nepal planted its heart squarely in a relationship with a compassionate God, and they continue to let that compassion flow out of them in response to the great needs they see. As others around the world pray and give to support that response, they are also showing God’s compassion.

On pages 12 to 19, you can read about the ongoing response in Nepal and see photos from the days after the earthquake. As you flip through the images, look for the compassion of God. You’ll see it in the actions of people who have not forgotten His steadfast love.

You’ll see it in the actions of people seeking to live out that love.

Curt Luthye is a Nazarene elder and emergency management specialist who served alongside church leaders in Nepal in the days after the earthquake.

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

— Isaiah 54:10

A PUBLICATION OF N A Z A R E N E C O M P A S S I O N A T E M I N I S T R I E S

S U M M E R

2 0 1 5

RELIEF TO RECOVERY

THE CHURCH IN NEPAL IS THERE FOR THE LONG HAUL

… for those who embrace compassion as a lifestyle

NCM Magazine is now available on your iPad and iPhone.

Download your copy through Apple’s Newsstand today.

CHILD SPONSORSHIP SPOTLIGHT

Friendship Changes Futures DAVID LEMACHE, ECUADOR David still has a photo of the friends who helped change his future.

M

y parents came to the Lord in the midst of a great crisis. My dad was an alcoholic, and he created a lot of suffering for my mother. The physical and verbal abuse was routine until God came into their hearts.

Shortly after coming to faith in Christ, my parents received God’s call to serve as pastors. They left everything to go study at the Nazarene seminary in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 1981. My father had finished only primary school, and with just two years of schooling, my mother hardly knew how to write. They came from very poor homes with few opportunities, but with a lot of hard work they earned degrees in theology and began pastoring.

One day my dad gave my younger sister and me good news: We were going to have new “godparents” who lived in another country and wanted to help us. I didn’t know what a godparent was, though, so I decided to call mine “friend.”

This friend was my child sponsor, and that’s how God extended His hand to help beyond my circumstances. My friend helped me every month, even if the situation in my country was difficult, even if we had moved houses for the 10th time, and even if I had been behaving Share y our badly toward my mother. My friend was a great gift sponsor ship sto from God. r y by emai I believe the Lord taught me three important things lin cs@ncm g during those years of friendship. First, I learned the .org. world is bigger than I thought. As a child, I didn’t know there were other cultures, countries, and ways of thinking. Despite differences in preferences such as food or sports, one thing my friend and I always agreed on was our faith. I learned that true unity is in God, and the Lord began to prepare me to serve in other cultures.

God also used sponsorship to develop my creativity and expression.

I’m an introvert, and when I was younger I was especially introverted.

Writing letters to my foreign friend became a safe way to express myself. I used words to paint a picture of what I experienced in school, at traditional festivals, and in my spiritual life.

Finally, sponsorship showed me that God uses His children to bless others. I remember the day I wrote my farewell letter. It was a very sad goodbye, but I kept photos of my friend and his family. I never saw or heard from him again, but I began to understand that our friendship was part of God’s plan.

My wife, Lucy, and I have been serving in ministry for more than 12 years now. Lucy is the program director for the Nazarene International Language Institute, and I now serve as rector of the Nazarene Theological Seminary in Quito, Ecuador. I am convinced this last part of my life could not have been written without the help of a friend God used in my childhood.

Now, I carry a spiritual principle in my heart: The kingdom of God is the best place to sow seeds, and I have learned to sow generously.

Photos courtesy of David Lemache

We w hear froamnt to you!

To learn more about how you can become part of a child’s story, go to ncm.org/mag/cs Summer 2015 | 5

Connection Points.

PERSPECTIVES

QUOTABLE

Sana’s Story by NCM Bangladesh

W

hen Sana* was small, she had a happy life in Bangladesh. She was loved, and her parents were able to buy her toys and new dresses. But Sana’s joy turned to sadness when she was a pre-teen.

Two years ago, without warning, her father walked out on the family to marry another woman. He left Sana’s mother, Shaya, penniless and provided no support for the children.

Sana’s mother had been a housewife and lacked the skills needed to find a job that paid well, so instead she started working in the fields to try to provide for her children. The work was hard and her days were long. Sana’s mother became ill and was unable to work, and on those days the children went without eating. She prayed, “God please help my children if I die.”

Eventually, her sick days became more frequent, and one day Shaya went to the government hospital. The doctors told the children that their mother had cancer. Shaya passed away a couple of weeks later.

Sana’s older sister had just started studying at a local college, but she had to drop out when she became the guardian of Sana and her brother. She went to Dhaka, the capital city, to find work. She got a job as a laborer in a garment factory. Sana and her brother also moved to Dhaka, stopped their studies, and had to work as child laborers in the factory.

Desperate, Sana called one of the caregivers at a church-based child development center in her home village to ask for help.

The caregiver, Vanuca, met with local leaders to talk about Sana and her brother and the problem of child labor. The village leaders asked their father to take responsibility. Eventually, he did. Today, Sana’s sister is back in college, and Sana and her brother are back in school.

love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.”

— Desmond Tutu

BE AN ADVOCATE FOR CHILDREN There are many ways you can advocate for children in need: PRAY for children at risk at home, or organize a prayer event for your church.

SHARE with others about the child you sponsor, or promote NCM Child Sponsorship at your church. Go to ncm.org/advocate to order a free kit.

*Children’s names are changed for thier protection.

LEARN more about how churches around the world are serving children at ncm.org/children.

Learn how you can help children like Sana at ncm.org/mag/ unsponsored.

Photo courtesy of NCM Bangladesh

6 | NCM Magazine

“Your ordinary acts of

PARTICIPATE by sponsoring a child in need as an individual, family, or group at ncm.org/cs.

CHANGED LIVES

Love Is Louder Than Fear by NCM Lanka n a remote village in western Sri Lanka lives a young boy named Dayan*. When Dayan was 4, he was an energetic, mischievous boy— much like many 4-year-olds around the world.

Dayan was also afraid of the dark—also like many children around the world.

One day his parents locked the little boy in a dark closet as a form of punishment. When Dayan was let out after several hours, he was speechless with tears running down his face.

Dayan, now age 11, has not spoken a word since that day.

Dayan was enrolled in an NCM-supported child development center (CDC) that provides education, care, and love for children with special needs. Even there, Dayan found it hard to cope. He would isolate himself, and the slightest noise would upset him. But the caregivers at the CDC and the special education teacher spent a great deal of time with Dayan, and they didn’t give up on him.

About a year ago, Dayan started to show an interest in games and activities, and he began trying to make friends at the CDC. After a year, he can now pronounce a few words, and he continues to make efforts to speak with his friends and teachers.

Today, Dayan is a completely changed child. He is kind to everyone and easy to get along with, and he takes part in most of the activities. He is an extraordinarily talented child, and we are extremely happy with his progress.

Photos courtesy of NCM Lanka

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Once fearful and isolated, Dayan now enjoys playing games with his friends at the CDC.

*Children’s names are changed for their protection.

Dayan works hard in his classes at the CDC and is making progress in learning to speak again.

In developing countries, 90% of children with disabilities do not attend school (UNESCO). Many live their lives as some of the poorest of the poor. In Sri Lanka, the church is working to provide education, support, and love for children in need through an NCM-supported child development center.

Summer 2015 | 7

Connection Points.

COMPASSION CONNECTION

From the Inside: Changing the Face of Poverty

by Jimmie Presley, NCM Communications

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n one of the most difficult days of their lives, John and Lisa Mollett called their pastors. John had been diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer, and the couple needed the prayers of their church family at Turkey Creek Church of the Nazarene in Martin County, Kentucky.

What they weren’t expecting was the practical support from their church community: money, gasoline, Christmas presents for their three children. People called regularly, sent cards, and offered to drive their children wherever they needed to go.

“It was like a burden was rolled off,” Lisa says. “They helped us through a very difficult time.”

This all-encompassing compassion is what Pastors Dwayne Mills and his father, Garrett, are working to emphasize in this small church located in the coal fields of Eastern Kentucky’s Appalachian region.

THE FACE OF POVERTY In 1964, Martin County, Kentucky, became the face of poverty in the United States when

ppor t the You can su f a CMC nt o developme ounty at in Mar tin C /CMC ag ncm.org/m

President Lyndon Johnson visited and declared his proposed war on poverty. At the time it was the poorest county in the U.S. Today, unemployment, drugs, and unhealthy family patterns are among the persistent causes of seeming hopelessness in the community.

In fact, drug addiction has touched nearly every person there, whether through a family member or friend, and generational poverty is still a problem today, more than 50 years after Johnson’s visit. At the time, the poverty rate in Martin County was 60 percent. Today, that percentage is down, but it remains one of the poorest counties in the U.S., with a poverty rate of 35 percent, which is more than two times the national average.

“We’ve got to break the cycle of what they know,” Dwayne says.

The pastors have known the cycle for a long time. Garrett pastored the church from 1975 to 1983 when Dwayne was a child. Dwayne felt called to return after Tony Campolo spoke at a chapel service at Olivet Nazarene University, asking students, “Why would you be in a place where God can use anyone? Why wouldn’t you go to a place where he could only use you?”

“Two words came to mind in that moment, and they were Martin County,” Dwayne says.

Dwayne feels his calling is not solely to the church, but to the county, too. He is active within the local school system, sits on various boards and committees, and is connected with the local community center.

“I’ve always been a huge proponent of the church having to care for the whole person, not just the spiritual,” he says.

A SAFE HAVEN Much of Martin County’s poverty is found in the hollows, or “hollers” as they’re called, between the Appalachian Mountains. Every week, Christi Brown spends more than an hour driving a passenger van to and from those hollers so young people can go to church on Wednesday nights. Though trust forms slowly, the route offers a chance to connect with youth from difficult situations.

“The greatest thing is when they want to invite their friends,” she says.

For 16-year-old Megan Preston, life hasn’t always been easy, but she has found encouragement in the church, even while many of her peers have become hopeless, dropping out of school or turning to drugs.

“Some people feel like they can’t be much of anything so they don’t try,” Megan says. “When

Christi Brown

Pastor Dwayne Mills

8 | NCM Magazine

GLOBAL FOCUS

Clean Water: Refreshed in Bangladesh

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ccess to clean water is a global struggle. Every day, nearly 1 billion people go without it. The shortage is sharply felt in Bangladesh. Some of the country has access to water sources such as rivers and canals, while the rest rely on ground water, which easily becomes contaminated and causes water-related illnesses.

Part of the church’s compassionate work focuses on clean water, including installing tube wells and educating people about healthy hygiene practices. Thanks to recent initiatives, more than 1,200 people now have easy access to potable water, and their communities are learning how to keep illnesses at bay.

These are stories of people in Bangladesh whose lives have been refreshed through access to clean water:

they finally came to our church, it opened up a new door for them because they never knew a life that way.”

Suresh

Photos courtesy of Turkey Creek

Megan Preston

Babul, a fisherman, lives with his wife, Ambia, and their two children on the coast.

They used to wash their hands with plain water from whatever sources were available, and water-related diseases, including diarrhea, dysentery, and typhoid were seen regularly in their home. Babul had to borrow money at a high interest to keep his family healthy. But after going to a hand-washing event put on by Nazarene Compassionate Ministries in Bangladesh, Babul’s family committed to use clean water and practice healthy hygiene. A month later, the family was disease-free. “It is really a miracle that I don’t have to pay the doctor for treatment and medicine for illness, which we used to suffer previously,” Babul says.

Babul

Suresh lives in a village in Bangladesh where the population is scattered and remote. During the rainy season, the only way to get from one place to another is with a boat. The shortage of tube wells and lack of communication have long made it difficult to collect safe water, and water-related diseases are prevalent. With the installation of a new tube well, his neighbors have stopped using water from the canals and ponds for drinking, cooking, and washing. Community health has improved dramatically.

Photos courtesy of NCM Bangladesh

A CALL TO STAY Dwayne’s dream is to see more resources invested in rural areas like Appalachia, where less than 40 percent of the population have a church home.

The Turkey Creek church is working toward opening a Nazarene compassionate ministry center (CMC) to address some of the needs of families in the county.

The church’s dream is a CMC that would partner with the local community center to facilitate after-school programs, GED classes, parenting training, and eventually a crisis pregnancy center. Dwayne hopes the center will also allow them to invite as many as 30 short-term teams a year to bring skilled laborers to the area.

It could also welcome students from Christian universities for a semester with skills in health care, counseling, education, and ministry.

“For it to work in Appalachia, people have to understand culture,” Dwayne says, “and we’ve got to be very inclusive. … “It’s going to be a God thing if it happens, there’s just n o d o u b t about it.”

Ratna

Ratna and her family used to draw water from a nearby pond for drinking, cooking, and washing. She and her husband didn’t understand why her two children were sick so often until she attended a courtyard meeting and learned the benefits of using safe water. Most water in the coastal areas of Bangladesh is salinated, so Ratna has learned how to boil water so that it is potable and safe for her family. “This program has given life to my family,” she says, “and we are so grateful.”

To learn more about the work of the church around the world, go to ncm.org/mag/projects.

Summer 2015 | 9

Connection Points.

Photo courtesy of Steve Jeter

We do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

— Romans 8:26

PRAY WITH US DEAR LORD, we are overwhelmed sometimes by the pain and need we see around the world.

Would you please give us the words when we don’t know how to pray?

“I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come?” — Psalm 121:1

“The LORD is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him.” — Nahum 1:7 Lord, we also pray for others around the world who are experiencing crises. We pray for children and families forced to flee their homes in Syria to seek safety somewhere else, 10 | NCM Magazine

“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.” — Isaiah 54:10 Lord, we pray for friends and neighbors who are experiencing personal crises that may remain silent and hidden. We pray for the words to say—or to leave unsaid. We pray they would experience and sense your compassion.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” — Isaiah 52:7 Lord, we pray for our churches around the world, that we would be people who seek to live out your good news in our communities. AMEN.

Photo courtesy of Steve Jeter

On April 25, an earthquake ripped through Nepal’s Kathmandu valley. A couple of weeks later, another earthquake struck near Mt. Everest. More than 8,000 people died, and more than 500,000 homes were completely destroyed. Another 200,000 homes were damaged. Millions of people were fearful.

Lord, we continue to pray for those in Nepal who were affected by the earthquakes. We pray comfort for those who lost loved ones and peace for those whose lives are still in upheaval. We pray particularly for vulnerable children and elderly adults who most need your help and protection.

and we pray especially for those who had no way to leave or nowhere to go. We pray for those being terrorized in places like Iraq and Nigeria, and we pray especially for the children who are particularly vulnerable to unthinkable violence. We pray for those who continue to be affected by diseases such as Ebola and HIV and AIDS—both for those who have lost loved ones and those who are lonely and scared.

Prayer is the foundation of all we do as we seek to participate in God’s redemptive work in our world. Join us in praying for children, families, and communities in need at ncm.org/prayer.

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Through workplace giving, you can improve the lives of children and families around the world.

Combined Federal Campaign Between Sept. 1 and Dec. 15, all U.S. federal employees and members of the military can support a charity through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). To give to Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc. (NCMI), designate CFC #11735 on your pledge card.

United Way

If your company participates in a United Way giving campaign, you can support Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc. by writing “NCMI, 17001 Prairie Star Pkwy, Ste 100, Lenexa, KS 66220” on your donor choice card. Some companies may even match your gift to double your impact!

www.neighbortonation.org

State and loCal government CampaignS If you are a U.S. state or local government employee, check to see if your employer conducts a charitable giving campaign. If so, you can contribute to Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc. by including code 482057 on your pledge card.

Summer 2015 | 11 Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc. • 800.214.4999 • ncm.org/workplace • workplacegiving@ncmi.org

Photo courtesy of Steve Jeter

I

HOW THE CHURCH IN NEPAL RESPONDED WHEN EARTHQUAKES SHOOK THE COUNTRY

by Gina Grate Pottenger

12 | NCM Magazine

ndra Shrestha and her daughter-in-law were home, sleeping in their bed with Indra’s young granddaughter, Rajani*, when the ground beneath their three-story house began to shake violently. Startled awake, the two women had the presence of mind to dive under the wooden bed frame. Indra’s daughter-in-law covered her child’s body with her own. Her protective action saved the toddler’s life. As the stones and planks of their house piled on top of them, Rajani’s mother was struck in the head and died instantly.

Several hours later, Rajani’s cries from beneath the rubble alerted other members of the community that they were alive. Those who had not been buried were following the small, intermittent puffs of dust rising from the ruins, indicating someone breathing, to find anyone who was still alive. Their neighbors

When Ramkrishna Shrestha’s house fell on him and his family, neighbors pulled them out of the rubble.

to assessments conducted by the local Nazarene disaster response team.

Indra’s family had to to live with as many as 55 other people in a large, temporary shelter the community constructed by stretching plastic from greenhouses over poles.

Their village was one of many that received no outside help for several days following the disaster. For the first few days, people were forced to drink dirty water from a poultry farm. Thankfully, no one got sick.

RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF CRISIS

“OUR HOUSE HAS BEEN DESTROYED. WE DON’T HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE. WE ARE JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE.” Photo courtesy of Gina Grate Pottenger

were able to successfully dig the child and her grandmother, both unhurt, from the ruins of their long-time family home in the village of Sangbote, Nepal.

Indra and Rajani are among the thousands of people directly affected by the April 25 earthquake that devastated entire districts in Nepal.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 8,600 people and injured many more. “[Rajani] cries at night and asks for her mother,” says her aunt, Sony.

Indra’s family lives east of the capital city, Kathmandu, in the Sindhupalchok District, which has reported the highest number of earthquake-related casualties—more than 3,000, according to ReliefWeb—and where, in some of the remote communities, as many as 100 percent of homes were either destroyed or are unlivable, according

The local Nazarene disaster response team, made of pastors, volunteers, and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries staff, began visiting settlements in Sindhupalchok days after the earthquake to assess needs and determine a response.

In one community, Ramkrishna Shrestha told the team how he was at home with his family the morning of the April 25 earthquake. Their house fell on them. Neighbors pulled out two of his family members before helping him escape through a hole in the pile of rocks and wooden planks. Four hours later, two more of his family members were rescued. One son came out with a broken leg, and a daughter sustained a minor head wound.

On the bottom floor of the house, they had kept a water buffalo and some chickens— their total supply of milk, eggs, and meat. The animals all died in the collapse, and the rest of their food stores were buried with the rubble.

“Our rice, millet and corn—everything is mixed with mud,” Shrestha said.

In the face of such widespread destruction, the people of Sindhupalchok demonstrated resilience while they waited for help. Where possible, they repurposed salvageable materials from the rubble, such as corrugated sheets of metal, to construct temporary structures. Others re-used tarps or sheets of plastic to make crude tents. These shelters shielded them from the sun, but they couldn’t protect them from the monsoon rains that came in June.

and there’s no good market, no good school, and no good roads,” Taran said.

He communicated his vision to leaders in the church, who shared his desire to bring hope and community development initiatives to the impoverished district.

The Church of the Nazarene has more than 300 congregations in Nepal, but none yet in Sindhupalchok—an area that could greatly benefit from the church’s community development model, which is thriving in other parts of the country.

The most recent census reported nearly 300,000 people living among 79 settlements or villages of Sindhupalchok, across an area of nearly 1,000 square miles. The residents scrape by on low-yield agriculture, which provides food to feed their families but not enough to sell for income.

Most of the houses in Sindhupalchok, as in other rural areas of Nepal, are built by hand with stone and mud and roofed with sheets of metal or thatch. When the ground shook violently for more than a minute during the earthquake, the walls simply crumbled.

SERVING IN SINDHUPALCHOK A young man named Taran* grew up in one of the remote, agricultural communities of Sindhupalchok. Already a Christian when he moved to Kathmandu for work, he joined a Nazarene church. It became his dream to see the Church of the Nazarene reach out to his home village, where his family still lives.

“I wish you can come to help our villages, which are under-developed and uneducated

Indra Shrestha lost her daughter in law in the quake.

Summer 2015 | 13

Clockwise from above: Photos courtesy of Gina Grate Pottenger

More than 500,000 homes were destroyed by the earthquakes.

Taran asked the church to come to his home village.

When the response team showed up in Tindhara, Asmaya told them she had not eaten in days.

Families crowded together in whatever shelter they could find.

“WE ARE ALSO THE CHURCH. ...

NO MATTER WHO COMES AND THEN GOES, WE REMAIN THERE. WE ARE WITH THE PEOPLE, WE ARE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUFFERING, AND WE SHARE THE PAIN THAT THEY HAVE.” 14 | NCM Magazine

The district lies in the Himalayan foothills, and settlements are built on the hillsides, reachable only by winding, narrow dirt roads.

Traveling just 50 or 60 kilometers by truck takes hours.

In mid-May, the Kathmandu Post reported that the Sindhupalchok and Dolakha districts (the latter of which was the epicenter of a second, 7.3-magnitude earthquake on May 12) still had not received adequate relief because of damaged roads and telephone services. It took the Nazarene disaster response team several hours to reach rural communities.

“YOU CAME AND ENCOURAGED US” In the days following the two major earthquakes, the Nazarene response team made multiple trips to both districts, spreading out among the villages and settlements to conduct assessments.

By mobilizing community members to conduct questionnaires with their neighbors and help determine priorities for the aid distribution, the team enabled them to participate

in their own process of restoration—a foundational element in the church’s approach to community development.

The assessments revealed that crops in the area are typically harvested in July, December, and January. That meant the earthquakes struck when people already needed to ration the food they had stored from the winter harvest. In one terrible span of 90 seconds, the family food supplies representing months of hard work was destroyed.

The village of Tindhara was among the many communities that went without help for several days after the earthquake. The Nazarene response team arrived in Tindhara 10 days after the earthquake. They were the first group to show up.

“We are unable to eat, we do not have food,” a woman named Asmaya shared. “We just boiled water and take that water, that’s all since the earthquake. We are in the wilderness. We are unable to live and we are unable to die.”

The response team brought families in

Tindhara large bags of rice, along with oil and salt—enough to last a month.

“We thank all you people, you helped us get this food,” said Wanjel Lama, a man who sustained a serious injury to his hand while rescuing his family from their falling house during the first earthquake. “We are very happy because you came in this small village and encouraged us.”

The response team returned to numerous villages with supplies, including food, water filters, vitamin packets, disaster hygiene kits, and blankets. Many of the supplies were purchased locally, while others were donated through a partnership with Heart to Heart International. Through a grant from Canadian Foodgrains Bank, 1,000 households in Sindhupalchowk District have also received three months of emergency food rations until the next harvest.

FOR THE LONG TERM Emergency aid helps people eat and create shelter in the short-term. But the church has a bigger vision to provide long-term, holistic community development so that people will not only survive the earthquake, but they will rise above the pre-existing cycle of poverty to thrive.

According to Rev. Dilli, who serves as both the church’s district superintendent and NCM coordinator in Nepal, the approach of the Nazarene disaster response team is different from those of other organizations.

“We are here, we are in the [affected] places because we are also the church. … No matter who comes and then goes, we remain there. We are with the people. We are with the people who are suffering, and we share the pain that they have.”

The words of a woman named Juamaya in Tindhara indicate the church is doing what it’s supposed to do. “If we did not get this food, we may die. Because you give food, we will live,” she said. “You came while we suffered and you brought us these things. We are giving thanks from our heart.”

Beyond emergency relief, the church’s plan is to continue implementing wide-ranging community development strategies to equip people through training and tools to work together to overcome their ongoing challenges.

“We go to where people are badly affected,” Dilli says. “There will be many [communities], but we select a few places where we can … operate the programs that affect, that impact, people for the long term.”

The church’s community development approach in Nepal is rooted in ministering first to children and then, by extension, their families. As the church establishes work in a new community, they will first create a child development center (CDC), where children come to receive education, supplemental nutrition, life-skills training, hygiene education, and periodic health checkups. They also gain social skills and friendships as they participate in sports and games, and they experience God’s love through Bible stories, songs, and prayer.

Next, the church reaches out to the children’s parents to provide opportunities to improve the well-being of their families.

Mothers form self-help groups, where they work together to save money and create small businesses. Families also receive seeds and training to plant home gardens that increase their nutrition and provide an opportunity for earning income through the sale of surplus produce.

Through all their efforts, the church wants people to experience God’s love for them. “We represent Someone who is not seen, but who speaks to our heart,” Dilli says. “That’s actually the message: By our life, we would like to testify, and this is also the opportunity that He has given us.”

After the earthquake, Songita, 18, doesn’t know how she is going to fulfill her dream of pursuing a degree from a university. As a

resident of a village where nearly all the homes were destroyed in the earthquake, Songita is among the 50 or so others who shared one tent for weeks as they worked to establish sturdier temporary shelters in preparation for the monsoon season.

Songita graduated from high school last spring, and had wanted to move to Kathmandu to study economics.

That was before the earthquake.

“Our house has been destroyed,” she said.

“We don’t have a place to live. We are just trying to survive. We don’t have any income sources.”

As small-scale farmers, her family lives day by day on what they can grow with their hands. Nepal would benefit from smart young people like Songita studying economics in order to contribute toward building up the country. If her family can move past the setback of the earthquake to create streams of income, Songita might be able to live out her dream.

Through a church in Nepal that cares about Songita, and will invest in the well-being of everyone in her village, Songita may get that chance. n *Names changed for protection Gina Grate Pottenger serves as communications coordinator for the Church of the Nazarene’s Eurasia region.

Clockwise from above left: The Nazarene disaster response team conducts an assessment.

Juamaya said, “Because you give food, we will live.”

Pastor Dilli (left) listens to community members talk about their experiences in the earthquake.

Songita hopes to be able to one day pursue her dream of a university education.

Summer 2015 | 15

OUT OF THE P

ritish* (right) was washing clothes at the community water tap on April 25, 2015, when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake destroyed her village in Nepal. She ran between the falling houses to a cornfield where she thought her grandmother would be. Her home was destroyed, but the family is thankful everyone is alive, even if they’re sleeping outside.

The destruction caused by the April quake, followed by another major one on May 12, was devastating. The internal damage caused by trauma in so many lives was equally devastating.

In the first days after the disaster, people were focused on survival. Now, more than two months after the disaster, families and communities are taking steps on the long, hard journey to recovery. Throughout that journey, the church in Nepal will continue to walk alongside children, families, and communities.

Beyond aid, the church is working with communities to create long-term development plans. It will also build new child development centers and work with families to create opportunities to disrupt the cycle of poverty.

The church in Nepal will continue to reach out with compassion and serve the least of these in their communities. Because that’s what the church does.

16 | NCM Magazine

RUBBLE

IMAGES OF NEPAL AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE PHOTOS BY STEVE JETER

Summer 2015 | 17

In many ways, it was the remote communities that were hardest hit by the earthquake. Many of them waited several days before receiving any kind of outside help. Once the roads were cleared, the Nazarene response team drove hours upon hours to reach those in need.

The April 25 earthquake ripped through the Kathmandu valley, devastating both the capital city and surrounding rural communities. More than

Following a disaster, it’s important for children to regain stability. As churchbased child development centers reopen, children can return to a sense of normalcy and stability.

18 | NCM Magazine

8,600 lives were lost and more than 500,000 homes were completely destroyed. The rebuilding process will be years in the making.

A Nazarene leader in Nepal summarized the church’s approach to disaster response this way: “Other organizations, one day or the next they leave, but we never leave, because we are with the people. We work with them, because our heart is with them, we share the pain that they have.”

The church is focused on walking alongside communities as they shift from relief to recovery.

When the Nazarene team enters an area to offer aid, they also work with community members to create long-term plans that will ensure children are able to develop and flourish and will equip families to interrupt the cycle of poverty.

The Nazarene response team was the first group to visit the remote community of Tindhara following the earthquake.

They arrived 10 days after the disaster. Many people in the community had not eaten since the quake. That day, 300 families received enough food to last a month.

During any disaster, children are among the most vulnerable, yet they also offer signs of hope for a better tomorrow.

In Nepal the church uses a child-focused approach to community development, starting with child development centers that offer education, nutrition, and spiritual nurturing.

The church in Nepal will be walking alongside communities in their recovery and rebuilding process for many months to come.

To support to their efforts, visit ncm.org/mag/nepal.

Summer 2015 | 19

GENERATING HOPE In a Kenyan community shattered

by HIV/AIDS, a partnership project is helping widows and orphans build a future

by NCM Africa

own. The tragedy didn’t stop with the adults, though. “The younger children were becoming ill, too,” Nancy says.

Over time, Nancy cared for many children and then watched as death came to all but four of her children and stepchildren.

The fear and stigma surrounding the virus made Nancy an outcast in her community. Although she was desperate to provide for her family, employers refused to give Nancy work over and over again.

Through tears, Nancy shares about the devastation in her life. “My relatives called me names, thinking I was the one who infected my husband and killed their relations, but it wasn’t me,” she says. “The church I used to attend rejected me, too, when they heard the stories my relatives told. I never felt such brokenness and rejection in all my life. I had nowhere to turn.”

ON THE SIDE OF THE VULNERABLE

A

t the center of an ancient valley in Kenya, the Nyamasaria River brings to life everything for miles. The flow sustains crops, livestock, and the residents of surrounding villages.

Next to this river is where Nancy* (above) and her husband began a shared life. Here, they planted their first ears of corn, built their first home, and started their family of 12.

“It was a normal life with my husband and all our children helping to support the family,” Nancy says, reflecting on her past. “Life was easy then.”

But the valley is also where Nancy experienced death.

Today, she lives in a 14-by-14-foot mud home with her 12-year-old son, Peter,* and her stepson, Philip.* Two of her daughters are married with families of their own. Everyone else in her family has passed away.

20 | NCM Magazine

LOSING FAMILY In the Nyamasaria River valley communities, children are seen as a blessing, and men sometimes take multiple wives in order to have larger families. As Nancy’s extended family grew, she also witnessed it decline under the shadow of AIDS. Symptoms of the virus began to present themselves with greater regularity in her husband, then among his wives—including Nancy. In 2004, her husband’s immune system failed, and AIDS took his life.

“Immediately after my husband died, things started to become very difficult,” says Nancy. “I had to engage in casual labor on other people’s farms and sell food from mine to generate income for my family.”

One by one, the virus claimed her husband’s other wives, and Nancy became the sole caregiver to their children as well as her

Along the Nyamasaria, stories like Nancy’s are too numerous to count. In communities that have been ravaged by HIV/AIDS, grandmothers care for grandchildren, stepmothers provide for stepchildren, and neighbors care for non-related children in an increasingly fatherless society.

In response, local Nazarene churches have been partnering with Nehemiah’s Restoration, a faith-based nonprofit organization, to help women who have been widowed by AIDS and children who have been orphaned by the disease find health and stability.

Kenya’s local churches play a vital role in raising awareness about the plight of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and then caring for them through compassionate ministries. “The message the church is spreading is, ‘Though we cannot do everything for OVCs, everyone can do something,’” says Rev. Samuel Oketch, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries coordinator in East Africa.

The nutritional services, healthcare, and legal aid, as well as psycho-social, educational, and spiritual support provided

through the partnership of the church and Nehemiah’s Restoration have been valuable in the short-term, but providing for widowed women and children without fathers requires longterm solutions, too.

“There are times in everyone’s lives when the world around them is shattered and they end up ‘out on a limb’ in need of assistance,” says Rev. Rob Bollinger, founder and president of Nehemiah’s Restoration. “It is our job to support the limb until they can get off the limb themselves.”

teach participants to sew the bags and add artistic paintings, as well as how to purchase the materials. Nehemiah’s Restoration funds the purchase of materials and ships the bags to the United States, where they are sold, with proceeds going back to workers as income.

The project was chosen in collaboration with community members, particularly women caring for orphaned children, as many already had the skills needed to make the bags.

“There is no other group in the community creating something like this [project],”

“The church I used to attend rejected me too. ... I never felt such brokenness and rejection in all my life. I had nowhere to turn.”

PROJECT BOOKBAG While Nancy and other women have the desire and ability to work, they have no way to gain employment. Many are able to make jewelry, paint, sew garments, or produce other handcrafted items, but they have no funds to begin small businesses, and there’s virtually no local market for their products.

The solution? Project Book Bag, a cooperative effort, provides those affected by HIV/ AIDS a chance to earn income. Local NCM staff

Oketch says. “It creates good income for the caregivers to help provide for their families.”

As a result of the partnership, about 400 orphans and vulnerable children now have essential needs met, including food and nutrition, psycho-social support, shelter and care, child rights, healthcare, education, and economic opportunities.

Nancy learned about Project Book Bag through a local Nazarene pastor. Through it, she has been able to feed her children and send

them to school, and she has also been able to reconnect with her extended family.

“My relatives have started to see me as somebody again,” Nancy says. “Some of them now attend [church] with me as I lead worship in my Nazarene church.”

Oketch and Bollinger are grateful for the changes they have seen throughout the community. The children of the participants look healthy, and women who were initially un-churched have begun attending worship services.

“Nancy is now dedicated to church activities because she has seen love and compassion,” Oketch says. n *Names have been changed.

Rev. Rob R. Bollinger is an ordained elder of the Church of the Nazarene and the founder and president of Nehemiah’s Restoration, Inc., a faith-based nonprofit organization helping to restore the “Mind, Body, and Soul” of the mentally, physically, and spiritually broken people of our world.

Rev. Samuel Oketch is the NCM Africa East Field coordinator. He has been working with orphans and vulnerable children since 2004. He earned both a bachelor’s degree in theology and a master’s degree in religion from Africa Nazarene University and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree. Samuel is married to Sarah Mboga, and they have a 3-year-old son.

G E T I N V O LV E D

Photos courtesy of Rob Bollinger

To support women and children affected

by HIV/AIDS by purchasing a handcrafted book bag, visit ProjectBookBag.net.

Nancy is able to provide for her children and stepchildren through the sale of handmade book bags.

To learn more about the work of Nehemiah’s Restoration, visit NehemiahsRestoration.org.

To learn more about NCM’s work with orphaned and vulnerable children, visit ncm.org/mag/KenyaOVC.

Summer 2015 | 21

HOPE,

HEALTH, AND HIV

“I

thank God for the fact that there are people who care about lost and hopeless people like me,” a woman named Katia* says. “I cannot turn life back and change [my circumstances], but what happened in the last two years has taught me to appreciate every single moment of my life.”

For the past two years, Katia has been attending a weekly HIV/AIDS support group at the Nazarene church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine.

After discovering she was HIV-positive, Katia, 39, did not want to live and believes the only thing that kept her alive were her children. She began going to the support group more than a year ago because she felt she had no other option, yet she thought she would never be able to trust anyone with her story.

Soon, though, she realized how the members of the group were like her and could best understand what she was going through. Katia felt she could trust the group, and it gave her optimism that perhaps she could live a meaningful life after all.

“Even then I realized that I can tell everything to these people,” Katia says. “I can honestly say they brought me back to normal life.”

Throughout most of her life, Katia had not had a loving relationship with anyone, including her parents. But after a failed first marriage, she met a man who truly made her happy and who felt the same way about her. Their joy abruptly ended, though, when her partner told her he was HIV-positive and when she soon discovered she was also carrying the virus.

“I do not know the right words to describe my pain and fear at that moment,” Katia says. “[It is] the feeling that you are on your own with the beast that devours your life piece by piece.”

Tragically, her partner has since passed away. Katia’s story is not only a common one, but it’s also part of an epidemic happening throughout Ukraine as its HIV infection rates are among the highest in the world.

A YOUTH CRISIS

IN UKRAINE, CHURCH-BASED MINISTRIES SUPPORT CHILDREN AND FAMILIES AFFECTED BY HIV AND AIDS

by Andriy Tahktay , NCM CIS, and Jimmie Presley, NCM Communications

22 | NCM Magazine

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is seeing one of the steepest rises in the spread of HIV and AIDS worldwide, according to UNICEF. The epidemic is fueled predominantly by drug use and unsafe sex practices, particularly among intravenous drug users, sex workers, and migrating populations.

The lack of hope and opportunity caused by Ukraine’s faltering economy also contributes to risky behaviors that are speeding the spread of HIV. Increasingly, HIV is gaining a younger

Photos courtesy of NCM CIS

face as children are infected by mothers and as adolescents engage in risky behaviors.

While they are the most vulnerable, young people are not being educated about the risks and how to avoid them, and HIV-positive youth are also less likely to have access to services they need, compared with adults. Often, vulnerable young mothers who are HIV-positive are abandoning their children

Churches minister to children whose families are affected by HIV and AIDS.

THE CHURCH’S RESPONSE The Church of the Nazarene in Ukraine has not only responded to the emotional trauma of people living with HIV and AIDS through support groups, but it is also addressing the lack of education and prevention training throughout the country. Its programs are based on biblical principles encouraging sexual purity, abstinence, and marital fidelity. The church is also supporting drug-and-alcoholuse prevention and rehabilitation centers to help individuals escape addiction.

“I learned about God who loves and helps people like me.

I accepted Christ ...

My life is no longer covered with darkness and fear.”

For several years now, local churches have formed ministries to meet the needs of those affected by HIV and AIDS. In Khmelnytskyi, the local congregation has focused on ministry to HIV-positive children and their families.

The program encourages and enables children to take part in summer camps and attend Kid’s Club meetings. Ministry leaders provide English language textbooks, conduct English lessons, and help children with their homework.

Leaders of the ministry, together with the youth from the church, also organize special events for children during Christmas and Easter where children have the opportunity to learn about Jesus’ love for them. During these holiday celebrations children also receive special gifts. The ministry purposefully includes both children from the local church and children who do not normally attend the church so

Katia attends a weekly support group.

You can support the church’s HIV and AIDS ministries in Ukraine and other countries in the CIS Region at ncm.org/mag/aids. they can interact and learn from one another.

Zhanetta Serdiukova, the ministry’s leader, has also reached out in other ways to support children and families affected by HIV and AIDS. “One of the practical ways we show people God’s love and care through this ministry is to provide necessary grocery supplies to a family who was left with no food or means to buy it,” Serdiukova says.

In Vapnyarka, the church goes out into the community to conduct HIV-prevention trainings. Through a small-group approach, the trainings reach students at local schools as well as drug-offenders and others in jail or on probation.

Together with social services and law enforcement agencies, the program continues to develop partnerships and educate those who are at risk about HIV-prevention.

CHANGED LIVES The child-focused ministry in Khmelnytskyi was able to reach Natalya*, a young girl who was born to parents who were addicted to drugs. Her father’s addiction led to his HIV infection, and ultimately his death from AIDS-related causes. For a time, Natalya’s mother lost parental rights, forcing the girl to live in an orphanage. But with God’s help and the support of the church, her mother stopped using drugs and worked hard to become a responsible and dependable parent.

For several years now, Natalya has been

living with her mother in a modest apartment.

Natalya is doing well. She now attends Sunday school at the Nazarene church and has made many friends. They are both thankful to God and to their church for their support.

Throughout Ukraine, church-based outreach programs have also integrated pastors who know from experience the challenge of living a life of optimism and faith while living with HIV. This is how Sveta*, 30, came to know Christ.

After Sveta and her husband both learned they were HIV-positive, she says, “The main thing for us became dealing with depression … and hiding from others.”

Sveta says that living in fear and panic ended when she met Nazarene ministers who were also infected with HIV and who were using their situation to minister to others. “I saw their openness, sincerity, and certain fearlessness … and it drew my attention to them.”

After a while, Sveta began attending the local church. There, she says, “I learned about God, who loves and helps people like me. I accepted Christ. … My life is no longer covered with darkness and fear.”

“Ministry to HIV-infected people … gives people like me an opportunity to live happily,” Sveta says. “I am very grateful to God for mercy and His church for support.” n

*Children’s names are changed for their protection.

Other names are changed for privacy.

Summer 2015 | 23

UN

by Simone Finney, NCM Communications

Photos courtesy of Jessica Morris

24 | NCM Magazine

IN THE MIDST OF BULGARIA’S JOB SHORTAGE, THE CHURCH IS HELPING LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS CREATE THEIR OWN OPPORTUNITIES

T

oshko Ilievi has fond memories of helping his grandfather care for goats, sheep and cows as a child on their large family farm in the Montana area of northwestern Bulgaria. During the past 10 years, Toshko and his wife, Eli, have also been watching her parents care for 10 goats on their small farm.

Seeing and tasting the fresh feta and other cheese products produced from his in-laws’ hard work has ignited Toshko’s desire to have a dairy business of his own. The couple began to dream of starting a business they could build together. The problem was how to turn that dream into reality. Now, thanks to the new Montana Business Development Center, supported by the church in Bulgaria through Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM), the family has a plan.

Fortunately for Toshko, the property from the Ilievi farm remained in his family, so he already has buildings and land. The buildings need to be remodeled, and they will have to purchase goats and a milking apparatus, but with startup costs at around 5,000 Euros, their business could be launched with a loan that could be paid back in two years.

At the moment, Eli spends her days working at a garment factory, while Tosho is a seasonal construction worker about two-thirds of the year. As active members in their local Nazarene church, they’re both praying for the resources to launch the dream that will help them provide for their two children.

THE SHORT AND LONG OF COMPASSION Montana was once the seat of Communism in Bulgaria. Then the government money that once flooded the city all but dried up, leaving it the most economically depressed area in the country—possibly in the entire European Union.

Since Bulgaria joined the EU in 2005, the lack of jobs has led many Bulgarians abroad in search of a living wage.

“Bulgarians outside the country feel like a people in exile,” says Jessica Morris, a missionary who helped start the Montana Business Development Center. “They dream of returning, but there’s no work.”

For years, the church has been organizing short-term projects in Montana to bridge the most immediate needs: seasonal food

distribution, soup kitchens, blanket drives, post-disaster counseling. But short-term projects always dry up.

“None of them address the long-term needs of helping people feed themselves,” Morris says.

A WAKE-UP CALL Bob Kagenaar has worked in banking for 40 years, and Alderik Bos is an entrepreneur with several Dutch companies. Both men attend the Nazarene church in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where several years ago, they formed friendships with, Nikola Dimchev and Aleko Nachov, men from Bulgaria who were leading

mayor, the chairman of the Montana Chamber of Commerce, and the managing director of Montana’s Cooperative Bank. From those meetings, several business opportunities became clear.

“There were opportunities, especially for tourism, agriculture, and small businesses,” the businessmen say, reflecting on their first trip.

But the challenges became clearer, too, including the need to start with the basics of business planning. During their second visit in 2012, Kagenaar and Bos led seminars for those who were interested in learning more about good business planning and practices.

“It introduced the idea of making a business plan, so you could say our visits were a wake-up call,” Kagenaar and Bos say.

RAISING A PLATFORM

the church’s work with Bulgarian expats in the Rotterdam area.

Dimchev and Nachov had moved there to find work, and as the Dutch businessmen began to learn about the economic situation in Bulgaria, they recognized an opportunity.

Kagenaar and Bos wondered whether it was possible to open a factory in Bulgaria where they could produce quality parts for a Dutch company at a lower cost. Their first visit came just as Morris was looking for ways to help people in Montana deal with the employment shortage.

“We wanted to encourage anything that would create jobs,” Morris says. “Not everyone makes an entrepreneur, but the reality here is that there is very little industry to employ people, so if they don’t do something on their own, there’s very little possibility for work.”

Dimchev and Nachov arranged for Kagenaar and Bos to meet with Montana’s deputy

After years of planning, the Montana Business Development Center officially opened in October 2014. The team, supported by Hermann Gschwandtner, former NCM coordinator for Europe, and Helping Hands, the German wing of NCM, conducted extensive research into small business programs and subsidies available through the European Union. The center then offered a series of seminars on the basics of business practices and how to research opportunities.

Like Toshko, Borislav Aleksandrov already has access to a family-owned facility where he could produce cheese, yogurt, and milk from goats. The business development center has helped him establish a plan to start the farm with 50 goats, expanding to 100 once the business is successful enough to acquire more land.

In these early days, most projects are at the same stage as Aleksandrov’s: having outlined a plan for a business, the next step is securing funding. Starter loans would allow Aleksandrov to remodel existing facilities and purchase 50 goats and equipment. Once the project begins, he can apply for EU subsidies earmarked for growth and expansion..

The purpose is clear: “We need to educate people on good business practices, encourage and mentor them—that’s a big key,” Morris says. “If there are options for what they dream of doing, they should be informed about what those are, and we want to create a cohort of people to help them along the way.”

The center’s two employees, Kameliya Summer 2015 | 25

say that’s not possible for a gypsy. I say, ‘Yes, it’s possible,’ and I’ve had these dreams a long time. But I didn’t have the opportunity. Now I have the opportunity.”

ONE STEP AT A TIME

Danielle and Sergo attend the Montana Church of the Nazarene with their daughter.

Sergo and Daniella are working to start an orchard to provide for the future.

“They say that’s not possible for a gypsy. I say, ‘Yes, it’s possible,’ and I’ve had these dreams a long time. But I didn’t have the opportunity. Now I have the opportunity.”

Munelska and Valentin Kostov are both members of the Montana Church of the Nazarene.

The center has already reached its maximum capacity of 30 registered participants, and the demand is much higher.

Kostov, a former government employee and business consultant, helps participants write business plans, secure appropriate registrations and licenses, and ensure their finances are in order. Each case differs depending on the proposed business, and each area has its own, often complex, requirements.

“It is impossible for us to fix all of the problems that exist in this region, but the people that we can help, it will bring hope to them and it will make a change in their income,” Kostov says. “We believe it will help people in this area to be successful, not just for themselves but for further generations.”

BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY Among those involved are Sergo Slavchevi and Daniella Evdokimova. For 15 years, the couple has been working at a local orchard owned by 26 | NCM Magazine

an Italian businessman, who exports fruit and nuts to Western Europe. Both have earned several promotions, but have always dreamed of purchasing land where they could have a home and manage their own business.

Sergo and Daniella are Bulgarian Romas, pejoratively referred to as “gypsies,” an often marginalized ethnic group. No one in their families has ever owned property before—but that isn’t stopping them.

The couple finally bought a home with a neighboring lot, and they later purchased 12 decares (3 acres) of land with a ready water source, making it ideal for planting fruit trees.

Their dream is to produce apricots and plums, both of which have a ready market in Bulgaria and abroad.

The Montana Business Development Center has helped the Slavchevis register with the government as agricultural producers, and when the time is right, it will help them apply for EU subsidies to expand their business.

“I want us to grow and I want us to have 100 decares (24 acres),” Slavchov says. “They

“We do whatever’s needed to help people succeed,” Morris says. “Some have educational challenges; others have master’s degrees.

We’re working with people from wherever they’re starting.”

One of the biggest challenges, regardless of education, is start-up funding. One entrepreneur hopes to launch a beekeeping business to produce organic honey, for example.

In order to apply for EU subsidies, though, he needs to first buy property and build his hives to EU specifications.

In the midst of the challenges, one of the foremost skills for participants to learn is perseverance. “Sometimes a person has found property, but it’s not zoned correctly,” Morris says. “If you can’t push through that discouragement, how can you handle the other challenges of running a business? It’s not about avoiding the difficulties—it’s about what we do in response, how we allow God’s grace to help us overcome them.”

Loans would help the center get some of the businesses—like the beehives—off the ground.

And seed funding would keep the center running for the next couple of years until it is able to operate off interest payments from the loans. A long-term hope is that new businesses could eventually employ others in the area.

And while the early days of the Montana Business Development Center have been punctuated with myriad challenges, the team’s commitment remains strong. Morris believes the potenitial for success is strong once a few of the projects get past the initial hurdles.

“I think it’s one of those things that’s going to snowball,” she says. “We’re right on the cusp with so many people.” n Simone Finney is a writer and editor based in London, England.

To learn more or provide for start-up loans for entrepreneurs through the Montana Business Development Center: ncm.org/mag/Bulgaria.

Called to Compassion.

Crazy Kind of Love Our church is being transformed into a place where the gospel is tangible.

by Matt Hastings

Rhonda: As soon as church is over, we’re going to go get them and bring them back for the second morning service.

Jessie: Ok, wait. So you’re saying we’re going to just show up at their houses and bring them back here? That’s crazy!

F

Rhonda: Where are our friends? They need to be here. They need to hear this!

Jessie: I don’t know where they are, but you’re right. They would like it—if we could just get them here.

Matt Hastings lives with his wife, Keri, and their five children in Tennessee. He is the lead pastor of the Estill Springs Church of the Nazarene, and he is passionate about teaching the church to authentically pursue their faith.

Matt Hastings (left) and Andrew have seen the gospel lived out in their church.

Photos courtesy of Matt Hastings

Rhonda: Listen, we’re the Crazy Church Ladies rom the beginning of my pastoral ministry, now!

I’ve been asking people to live the gospel And with that statement, our church has outside the walls of the church building. It’s been transformed. been my message, and I’ve hoped it would The drug court participants keep coming, connect. In every congregation, people have and our reputation in the community has done this to some degree, but over the past grown. “That’s the church where all those adthree years, I’ve watched as our church has dicts go, right?” been transformed into a place where the gosYep, it sure is. pel has become tangible.

I could share story after story, but here’s A few years ago, some women in our the latest: Andrew came to us on a Sunday church took an interest in people who were in night. He had just been released from rehab our county’s drug court program. The program, after serving a jail sentence. When the service which was started by a judge whose son died was over, he asked if he could play my guitar. from a drug overdose, offers drug offenders It didn’t take long to see he was really good. a chance at reconciliation and rehabilitation. He said, “If I could get my own guitar, I know I The statistical success rate is phenomenal, could stay out of jail.” but the ripple effect in our Well, some of those church has been immeasurable.

Crazy Church Ladies over“Dear friends, These women were relentheard him, and the next less in their pursuit of love. They day they were in my office let us love one babysat, held cooking classes, me what to buy. another, for love asking helped create household budA whole crew of people comes from God. pitched in to buy an acousgets, and recruited their husbands to fix things in people’s tic guitar for Andrew. They Everyone who homes. Their passion was perloves has been sistent. After a while they got a born of God and nickname among the drug court group: The Crazy Church Ladies. knows God.” Many of the drug court par— 1 John 4:7 (NIV) ticipants started to attend our church. I would sign their court papers, showing they’d attended. Some came to check the box, but others found a loving group of people who had issues not so different from their own.

Then something strange started to happen—they kept coming. Sometimes it was with their court paperwork, but many times it was without. One young mom identified herself as an atheist. She later told me, “It’s impossible to be an atheist at this church.”

Love has a tendency to do that.

Rhonda and Jessie had been coming for about a year when this conversation happened during the sermon.

wanted me to present it to him, so with his new friends around, I said, “This represents sobriety. The songs you’re going to create and sing are from your new heart. Those songs belong to God. Stay clean and share them.”

Andrew moved in with a family in our church. He found a job. He bought a car. He started tithing. Once he found freedom, a loving church family, and a meaningful way to express himself, there was no turning back.

Of all the years I’ve been in ministry, I’ve never seen such a tangible gospel in action.

People are finding wholeness. But it’s not just the public addicts who are being changed— their openness has given our longtime attenders permission to be real.

And here’s the best part: I had nothing to do with it.

There wasn’t a planned program. There weren’t long, drawn-out, strategic planning meetings. The transformation came through love. A group of women loved actively, and others followed. They truly love Jesus. And they took me seriously when I said to leave and be the church.

Crazy. n

Summer 2015 | 27

Love in Action.

In the Shadow of Ebola

In the midst of the fear and loss surrounding the Ebola crisis, churches in Liberia and Sierra Leone brought light to their communities.

by Monica Carr, Africa West Field

M

arie was waiting to give birth in a hospital in Karnplay, Liberia, when a patient died from Ebola. The health workers were put under quarantine, and most patients fled the center.

Marie’s husband, Bernice, took his pregnant wife to a nearby village, and with no medical care, Marie delivered triplets. One child soon died, though, and Marie and the other two babies were not faring well. In desperation, Bernice called the Nazarene radio program he had heard broadcast in his area, hoping something could be done to save his wife and children.

The Karnplay Church of the Nazarene, which

FAMILY LOSSES The last time I saw Rev. Joe Sonkpah was in 2006. I was teaching a communications class in Monrovia, Liberia, where a civil war in the West African nation had just ended. Things were looking up, and many people were eager to continue their schooling.

Those were fun-filled days of essay-writing, interviewing, and speech-making. We could not have known that seven years later, Ebola would attack the country or that our mock assignments would give way to real ones—including Joe’s eulogy.

Pastor Joe Sonkpah and his wife, Hannah,

“We were mourning the death of our loved one and at the same time we were stigmatized by many people in the community.” produces the radio program, responded immediately, sending food, money, and clothing for the newborns. One week later, the healthy family came to the Karnplay church, where they publically placed their faith in Christ and dedicated their children to Him. Bernice and Marie’s family is just one of the many families who have felt the devastating impact of the Ebola crisis in West Africa—and they are also among the many who have come to faith in Christ as a result of the love they have experienced.

both passed away in 2014 after contracting the Ebola virus while helping a pregnant neighbor.

The three children survived, but they now have to face life without their parents.

These brothers and sisters are among an estimated 11,000 children who have lost one or both parents to the Ebola pandemic, leaving many children to face grief and stigma alone.

The epidemic has left us searching for the words to properly pay tribute to those we have lost.

And it has left us asking: Who will care for so many left behind?

Through the “21 and Free” campaign, churches in Sierra Leone have reached out to people who have been stigmatized

by Ebola.

ONGOING SUPPORT In Sierra Leone, Pastor James Fullah lost his wife, Isatu, to the Ebola virus. After his devastating loss, two of his daughters showed signs of infection and were taken to a treatment center.

One daughter was released, but the other tested positive for Ebola and remained at the center while the rest of the family was in quarantine at home. Fortunately she recovered and was eventually reunited with her father and siblings.

Clockwise from right: Youth in Sierra Leone share the “21 and Free” message that addresses the problem of stigma related to Ebola.

When the Ebola crisis hit, churches distributed chlorine buckets to fight the spread of the virus.

Pastor James Fullah (right) lost his wife, Isatu, to Ebola.

Churches reached out to their communities in the face of the Ebola crisis.

Photos courtesy of Vidal Cole and the Africa Region

RESTORING HOPE At the height of the crisis, Liberian churches, in partnership with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and Helping Hands Africa, distributed rice to about 3,500 people, offering much-needed relief to both Nazarenes and their neighbors, including orphaned children, widowed women, and the elderly.

“When the Ebola crisis reached its peak, almost everybody was fearfully hopeless,” says Rev. Boyou, pastor of the Ganta Central Church of the Nazarene in Liberia. “During this time, the Ganta church organized a group called Community Awareness and Response Group on Ebola (CARGE). This team, headed by Mother Edith Boyou, regularly met, prayed, and reached out.

They were among the first to restore hope.”

Congregations in Liberia and Sierra Leone have engaged in preventive measures, appointing their own members as community health ambassadors to distribute Ebola education brochures, provide training related to the virus, and pass out soap and chlorine buckets to slow the spread of the disease.

A resident of Pipeline, just outside Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, observed, “The Church of the Nazarene is truly with the communities.”

Across Liberia, 70 congregations in three districts have also launched “21 and Free,” a campaign emphasizing that those who emerge from 21 days of quarantine are free of the Ebola virus. The goal was to stop the stigmatization experienced by many survivors. The church has also continued counseling for orphans and other Ebola survivors.

Elizabeth Johnson, a counselor, is currently working with six orphans and 22 other survivors in the Logan Town community of Monrovia.

Gabriel Sonkpah, one of Joe and Hannah’s three children, shares how the program has made a difference in his life: “I do not know what life would have been like for me, my brother Tom, and our sister Grace without the Church of the Nazarene. We have lost both of our parents. … When we were stigmatized by our relatives and friends as well as the community … the church reached out to us with love and care. For this I am very grateful.”

“When we were stigmatized by our relatives and friends as well as the community … the church reached out to us with love and care.”

Fullah was grateful for the love demonstrated by the church in Sierra Leone during his difficult days.

“We were mourning the death of our loved one and at the same time we were stigmatized by many people in the community. Then two of my children got sick and were taken away,” Fullah says.

Only a few relatives visited the Fullah family during this difficult time. “But praise be to God,” Fullah says. “My spiritual family, the Church of the Nazarene, visited us every week of the four weeks of quarantine.”

When his daughter was taken away for treatment, Fullah grew worried that he hadn’t heard any news. The church was eventually able to trace her and report that she was alive and recovering. The church organized a prayer chain for the family that lasted throughout the quarantine, and today it continues to support the family with food

items, water, and money for other essentials.

“I am also grateful to the entire Church of the Nazarene,” Fullah adds. “For Nazarene people outside Sierra Leone also sent words of comfort to us. This helps us to [be] aware more and more that we belong to a worldwide family that cares for us.”

In the midst of a deadly crisis, the church in West Africa has rallied, reaching out in Christlike love. They have taken the words of Jesus to heart: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35-36). n Monica Carr and her family are missionaries serving in Ghana.

Summer 2015 | 29

Snapshot.

A woman waits her turn to receive aid following the earthquake in Nepal.

Her home is in the Sindhupalchok district, one of the areas that was completely devastated by the disaster on April 25.

The church in Nepal has been reaching out to communities affected by tragedy to offer a glimpse of hope—and to give people a reason to smile again.

30 | NCM Magazine

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