What I am offering:
But first....
The charities I have chosen are smaller and less known. However, they are organizations that I personally know the founders through Kismet experiences. They are non-profit and serve a population that would otherwise be forgotten.
When this hop came available, I couldn't stop myself from being excited. This is my chance to share something near and dear to my heart. I discovered that everybody has something to offer to people who have less. A couple of years ago I posted a couple of stories that inspired me and my family (even small children can help!) to put together hygiene kits. You can read about my experience HERE.
My Charitable Choices
Kazembe Orphanage.
Blogging has opened the world to me in terms of friends I would never have met. One of my friends showed up on my radar about two years ago. I don't know when or how but it feels like she and I have been friends for years. She is simply one of those women that is genuine and someone I want to tell all my secrets to because she is so accepting and and Christ-like.
Turns out Amy lives her beliefs. She and her husband have six children. That, in and of itself, is service personified. But a few years ago both of these people felt a pull to travel to Zambia. How they found Zambia on the globe, let alone on a map is a mystery to me, but they felt spiritually led. Long story short, they found a great need for raising the next generation of children without hope. They started small. They opened an orphanage.
Turns out Amy lives her beliefs. She and her husband have six children. That, in and of itself, is service personified. But a few years ago both of these people felt a pull to travel to Zambia. How they found Zambia on the globe, let alone on a map is a mystery to me, but they felt spiritually led. Long story short, they found a great need for raising the next generation of children without hope. They started small. They opened an orphanage.
Are they just the cutest little things?
The truth is they are not all true orphans. These little guys are born into incredible poverty. If a mother dies in childbirth, a father can not care for the child. Formula is not a common staple for this third world country.
Tom and Amy, using the forced labor of their own children, take in any child under the age of 2. Proof of orphan status is not required. They offer safety, healthy food, medical care, education, and lots of hugs. These babies are not for adoption. Politics are not such that you get to choose one of these sweethearts and take him (Peter) home. Although I may have one picked out if I ever get to Zambia and can safely kidnap him. Tom and Amy are investing in tomorrow. These cutie-pies are Zambia's future doctors, teachers, engineers, or orphanage directors. No pressure, kids.
I've been following Amy's blog and emailing her and I feel invested in the work they have begun. When one of the babies gets sick, Amy blogs and asks for prayers. Sometimes they die. Not all of the children are healthy when they arrive. HIV rears its ugly head on occasion. I've been known to emit sobs while reading Amy's blog late at night.
For the most part, the blog is an incredibly uplifting experience. Oddly, Amy doesn't use her blog for fund raising purposes. Every year the Morrows travel to the states and do their heavy fund raising through congregations in a months time. I know I should probably know this, but I have no idea what the Morrow's religious affiliations are. They are simply followers of Christ and lovers of Zambian children.
This is Tom and Amy's son, casually eating his mangoes while holding a semi-venomous snake at bay. I don't know why.
This year's fund raising was disappointing. Last year they operated the orphanage at 50% of what they needed. I don't know why Tom and Amy do not actively seek donations through their blog but they have a little "donate" button on the right side.
Please consider offering a donation to the Kazembe Orphanage. It is a non-profit charity and you will be sent a receipt for tax write-off purposes. Spend some time getting to know Amy and reading about her African Adventure. It is heartwarming, hilarious, uplifting, and interesting. Kazembe Orphanage.
This blog post was composed, written, and published without the consent of Kazembe Orphanage, or Tom and Amy Morrow. In fact, they don't have a clue!
(This is Illens, giving instruction for clinic to open. The clinic is makeshift and, in this instance, is a Protestant church)
Illens Dort is from Haiti and the father of 6 children. He came with one of his sons to register for school which is where I met him. I wondered what brought him to Utah. It was the dream of a Ph.D. He attended BYU and needed a project for a class. After much research, he settled on the small task of organizing a non-profit organization that provided humanitarian aide. With Haiti's political tumult, it was impossible to breach the borders so he settled for the Dominican Republic. Every 6 months he takes time off his regular scheduled job and goes with a team of doctors, dentists, and other volunteers for ten days to serve the people of the DR.
I mentioned he has six children. One of his daughters is in medical school preparing to be a humanitarian physician. Another is still in high school and registered with her mother a few weeks after I met Illens. Mrs. Dort shared with me a small portion of the devastation wreaked in the earthquake. Her father still lives in Haiti. He could barely speak as he told her of the bodies littering the buildings, streets. The cries that rang in constant misery. Then the more horrifying sound of their silence. She estimates that 200 million have died as a result of the earthquake.
Unfortunately, the charity the Dort's have organized were unable to secure enough funding to go to Dominican Republic this year. The money he collects goes directly to the goods and services given to the people of the Dominican Republic. Nobody collects a salary or is paid for their time, hotel, or transportation. He has strongly encouraged me to take my 20 year wedding anniversary trip with my husband and serve in the DR. He is hoping to get a team of doctors and other volunteers organized with enough medical equipment to treat the inhabitants by November 2012. His charity and ways to contribute can be found HERE.
For the amount you might pay for a couple of books in a month, you can help support these awesome charities. Maybe you could trade books with friends, use the public library, or enter a few more contests. In fact, I'll offer one right now.
For the amount you might pay for a couple of books in a month, you can help support these awesome charities. Maybe you could trade books with friends, use the public library, or enter a few more contests. In fact, I'll offer one right now.
The Truth of All Things
By Kieran Shields
Two hundred years after the Salem witch trials, in the summer of 1892, a grisly new witch hunt is beginning....
When newly appointed Deputy Marshal Archie Lean is called in to investigate a prostitute's murder in Portland, Maine, he's surprised to find the body laid out like a pentagram and pinned to the earth with a pitchfork. He's even more surprised to learn that this death by "sticking" is a traditional method of killing a witch.
Baffled by the ritualized murder scene, Lean secretly enlists the help of historian Helen Prescott and brilliant criminalist Perceval Grey. Distrusted by officials because of his mixed Abenaki Indian ancestry, Grey is even more notorious for combining modern investigative techniques with an almost eerie perceptiveness. Although skeptical of each other's methods, together the detectives pursue the killer's trail through postmortems and opium dens, into the spiritualist societies and lunatic asylums of gothic New England.
Before the killer closes in on his final victim, Lean and Grey must decipher the secret pattern to these murders--a pattern hidden within the dark history of the Salem witch trials.
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