What its all about

I have now finished my fourth week at Lifeline. This week I worked on all kinds of activities that dealt with sponsors of Lifeline. Lifeline has a sponsorship program where people in the US can sponsor a child in Haiti and Honduras. Monday and Tuesday I worked on processing gifts that sponsors sent to their children. It was so fun because it was Christmas in July. The gifts coming in July will be given to the kids at Christmas. Sponsors can send gifts to their sponsored children four times a year. I had to go through all of the gifts, check them, label them, and put them in bags and then put them in boxes. It was so fun to see what the sponsors sent to their kids. One day I also went through correspondence from Honduras children to their sponsors. I had to read the letters and get them ready to send to the sponsors. It was so fun to see what all of the kids said to their sponsors. I also worked on gift in kind sheets for donations made to Lifeline. These forms are for all donations that people make to Lifeline that aren’t money, whether it be food, clothing, or medical supplies. These forms help the donors get tax breaks on their donations and it helps Lifeline keep track of their assets. I had to go through these letters and make sure they were in the donor database and get letters ready to send to the donors, thanking them for their donations.
Without the support of donors Lifeline would not be able to continue the work that they do. These donors can have a personal relationship with kids living in poverty. The thing that I love the most about Lifeline is that they pair people in the US with people in the Haiti and Honduras. So often, we want to help those in poverty but we never know where to start. Through programs like missions trips and child sponsorship he pairs those of us with plenty with those who have not enough. I so enjoy seeing how God uses people’s talents and resources, whatever they may be, to further the work of Lifeline. It is so great to see how people so willing use what they have to help, and it is always what we need. Peoople are able to help a kid who needs it. People are able to help those in other countries both from the US and on the field. That is what it really is about for me.

VBS in Springfield

It has been a busy, busy week! I have hardly had a moment to catch my breath with all of the excitement that has been going on. I have been the Lifeline representative at a church in Springfield this week for their VBS. This has consisted of me speaking to the children every morning about Haiti. They were trying to raise $2,000 to buy 20 new desks for the children in Haiti because theirs were destroyed in the earthquake when their classrooms collapsed (this will give 60 children somewhere to sit in school). They also want to raise an additional $500 to ship 2,000 pounds of food to Haiti. A lot of relief food has been donated but it costs money to send it to Haiti. So every morning I have been talking to the children about the children in Haiti, helping them to see how their lives are different and similar than those of the Haitian children. Every morning I spend a little time with the kindergarten and pre-K group, then a little time with the 1st through 6th graders, and finish with some time with the 3 and 4 year olds. At the closing program every morning I find out how much the kids have raised and let them know how many new desks they have bought.
The kids have far exceeded my expectations. They exceeded their goal by $800. Their total was $3300 which means that they raised enough money to buy 20 desks and ship 5200 pounds of food. They were excited and I was excited!
It has been a joy to watch the excitement of the children. I have taught them a few French words and every day they greet me with “bonjour Miss Heather.” Their parents have told me several stories about how determined they are every morning to bring in their offering to buy new desks. One girl had it in her mind that she was going to take the desks to Haiti-a missionary at 5 years old! After VBS every morning they seek me out and ask me questions wanting to know more about the kids in Haiti.
This has also been a great week because I have been able to reunite with a group of ladies I was good friends with in Haiti. We had met at the airport on the way to Haiti and they befriended me right away. I hadn’t seen any of them since we parted ways at the airport and it has been great to see them. I have stayed with one of them a couple of nights this week and I have had numerous lunch dates with a few of them. It was been great checking up with them and talking with people that I shared the experience with.
I am living a nomadic life as you might call it, lol, since arriving in Columbus. I have now stayed with three different people in the course of my three weeks here. Every house has been different but I continue to be amazed at the generosity of the people that have opened their homes to me and allowed me to be a part of their lives for a while. Many people in the church in Springfield have also offered a place to stay for me because it is a long way from Columbus. I have returned two days this week to work in the office but stayed Tuesday so that I could talk with a group of ladies about Lifeline and Friday night for the closing program on Friday.
It has been a busy week but it has been great to talk to the kids and connect them with the kids and Haiti and watch them make a difference in the lives of children who need help still for a long time.

Willing to Learn and Serve

My second week at Lifeline is completed. The week actually started on Sunday. Me and the host family that I was staying with traveled to Troy which is near Dayton to a food packing event. They were having a strawberry festival there and one of the churches there set up a food packing event as one of the tents. As people came by, we would tell them what the food was and why we were packing it. They were also given the opportunity to pack food for a while and/or donate funds. Many people stopped and learned more and a lot of them were really surprised at finding out how great the need really was. Many people were introduced to Lifeline and its ministries and the need to Haiti that never had before, some of whom weren’t even Christians. The rest of the week has seen me doing a lot of duties around the office. I have helped copy many things (including 2,000 charts for the clinic in Grand Goave!), taken mail to the post office, organized work team forms, planned VBS material that I will be representing next week, answered phones, packed sponsored gifts, and other things I am sure I can’t remember now! This week has really taught me flexibility and the importance of being willing to help with whatever needs to be done. Schedules are made but they often have to be changed because there are always things that need to be done. I have been able to help many of my co-workers with tasks that needed to be done and were time consuming but that they couldn’t get to, with all the rest they had to do. Offering a helping hand can go a long way. Whether you have the skills or not, there is always something that you can do to brighten someone’s day as long as you are willing to learn and serve. You can literary lighten someone’s ever increasing load. The tasks might not be fun or glorious but they all have to be done. One of my co-workers, who is an assistant to the founders, talked about it. She said that she doesn’t mind doing what she had to do because it enables them to be able to do their job. If they had to pay attention to every little detail they couldn’t do what they need to. That is a good way of looking at it. I am enjoying the variety of tasks. I am also enjoying getting to know my fellow workers. I have gotten to know them a lot better this week as I have been bouncing all over the office and am staying at my second host family.

Touching the foriegn field from the US

My first week at Lifeline is complete and I am already learning all the work that goes into working at a non for profit. When it comes to missions, people only think about work that is done on the foreign field. They often don’t think about all that must be done here in the US to make the work on the field possible. There is so much that must be done to send people on mission trips, to gain support in all forms, and to support those missionaries on the field. Those who work at offices like Lifeline are unsung heroes who keep the mission work in foreign countries up and running from the US. They do a lot of work that most people don’t even know needs to be done and that requires a lot of time and effort. This became apparent to me in a small way in the past two days. Today and yesterday I helped work on a two mass mailings that needed to be mailed out. One was two page letter that needed to go out to about 2200 people. I never knew how much work went into to getting a mailing like that ready! Today me and a volunteer worked on the letters, me all day and her a half day, and we still didn’t get them finish. In fact we only got half of them done. Even with a machine that printed the addresses on the envelopes and a machine that folder the letters it still took that long to stuff the envelopes. And they still need to be sealed and postage put on them. It really opened my eyes because I never would have known all the work it took and that is just one of the many things that are done stateside. There is a lot still to learn and I am glad to be here to be a part of this life changing work. Because whether we feel like it or not, the work we do here makes a huge impact on the field and I know it for a fact because I have seen it.

Day One Complete

Hey everybody! Today was my first day at Lifeline and it went very well. I thank all of you who have been praying for me. I arrived safely in New Albany, OH last night just in time to have dinner with my first host family. I am staying with my supervisor and his wife (both of whom are Lifeline staff) and their three boys. They all have been very hospitable to me, and have done a lot to make me feel comfortable. The boys are also fun because I never had brothers and its been a long time since anyone in my house has been that young  For the first week that I am at Lifeline I will shadowing a different staff member every day and working on a food packing event. Today I worked on a few details about food packing event I will help plan. Me and my supervisor brainstormed about locations and dates for the event. I also shadowed the staff member that is responsible for planning all work teams. I learned about how she books plane tickets and gets all the information for and from work team members. I also helped her pack some materials that will be sent to the field soon with some of the staff. Tomorrow I will be shadowing the staff member who is responsible for child sponsorship program. I look forward to learning this area because sponsorship programs are especially close to my heart. On another note, tonight I experienced my first tornado warning. It wasn’t too severe, but the siren went off and we had to go in the basement for a few minuets. This just seems to be a year of first for me, lol. Thank you again for your support and prayers. Please continue to lift the work of Lifeline up in prayer and for my guidance as well.