Faces of Compassion

Arville and Sheila Earl

Macedonia: Kindergarten Educational Development

Project Natives of Marshall and Gilmer, Arville and Sheila live in Skopje, Macedonia, and work among several ethnic groups, including Albanians and Romany Gypsies. Macedonia is one of the poorest nations in Europe, with over a third of the population falling below the poverty line. A major focus of the Earls’ ministry is the “Future of the Family” kindergarten, which reaches out to an impoverished area of the city primarily populated by ethnic Albanians, who are socially outcast in Macedonia.

Sheila reports, “In the beginning we noticed that the parents, especially the women, had little social contact with each other and the outside world. They have learned to trust us and we think that’s the basis for reconciliation. Trust is the most important element, and it seems that they are more able to trust God again when they trust us and one another.” The kindergarten operates as a free pre-school providing basic pre-school education and daily nutritious hot meals for students. TBOWH funds are used to underwrite the cost of preparing meals.

Taylor Field

New York: Graffiti Community Ministries

Taylor Field is pastor of East Seventh Baptist Church in New York City. Alluding to theologian Francis Schaeffer’s comment that “People are magnificent, even in ruin,” Taylor contends that “People are precious to God, so cities must be his treasure.” This conviction is the ground for his long-term commitment to ministry in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The church calls its community ministry “Graffiti” as a reminder of the spray-paint art which characterized this neighborhood twenty-five years ago.

When Taylor began his ministry at Graffiti, the neighborhood was drug-infested and dangerous to walk through. Because of the congregation’s continuing outreach, many youth and young adults are leaving the drug economy and finding honest, self-sustaining employment. Graffiti reaches out to the needy in multiple ways: Wednesday night meals, meals for the homeless in a nearby park, job training classes for youth, meals and snacks for children after school and during the summer,and a food pantry. “We reach 600 people per week through our 26 ministries,” says Taylor, “the same people with the same problems, week after week. But, eventually, we see lives transformed.” TBOWH funds have helped to make transformation possible.

Brenda Lisenby

China: Angel House Education and Rehabilitation Center

A Tyler native, Brenda Lisenby works with Angel House Rehabilitation and Education Center in Guangxi Province along China’s southern border. Angel House is one of the few schools in the country designed specifically to serve children with cerebral palsy. The Guangxi region is largely rural and regarded as one of the poorest provinces in China. There are about 60,000 children with cerebral palsy in this province alone, an incidence rate which is five times the U.S. average.

The residential program at Angel House allows both parents to work during the week, enhancing their ability to provide for their families. TBOWH funds will be used to subsidize the cost of student meals for children attending the Center. “We definitely work among a marginalized segment of society,” Brenda says. “This work gives me an opportunity to impact whole families, and even the community at large, as the Chinese learn how to affirm and welcome special needs individuals into their society. I am amazed at how God works.”

Judy Cooper

Lubbock: Mission Lubbock

Judy Cooper is director of Mission Lubbock and multihousing coordinator for the Lubbock Area Baptist Association. Nearly 60 percent of children in Lubbock Independent School District are considered impoverished and are on the free or reduced lunch program. Judy reports, “Lubbock has significant poverty, including the working poor. Many who have jobs just don’t get paid enough to make ends meet. There are children who are leaving school on Friday and not having another meal until Monday when they get back to school.”

When Cooper started Mission Lubbock two years ago, her focus was to provide clothing and other household items. Soon she discovered the prevalence of a more basic need: food. “We realized that so many of the people we were trying to minister to had nothing.” Because of the distressed economy, Mission Lubbock projects a large increase in the number of people needing food assistance. TBOWH funds will be used to purchase nonperishable food items, fresh meat, milk, eggs, vegetables, and fruit for food boxes which are distributed to needy families. Funds will also be used to provide food sacks for the homeless.

Cindy Timmerman

Dallas: Exodus Ministries

Cindy Timmerman is Executive Director of Exodus Ministries in Dallas. Exodus assists Dallas County female ex-offenders who are re-entering society after incarceration and have demonstrated a willingness to make positive changes in their lives. “These women are dealing with the pain of having been separated from their children for long periods of time and do not have the immediate financial resources to sustain their families,” says Cindy. “Exodus helps them by serving their spiritual and physical needs.” Inmates leaving prison typically arrive in Dallas with $50, no job, a few friends, and little hope.

Exodus Ministries provides each woman a furnished single-family apartment and all basic living needs, including medical care. In addition, the ministry provides life management and parenting skills, substance abuse recovery and support, family budgeting and financial planning skills, and job readiness and job placement services. TBOWH funds are used to stock the pantries of new residents and their children. “It’s so exciting to show a new resident her furnished apartment with a full cupboard and refrigerator and see faces full of gratitude and hope,” says Cindy. “When I see spiritual and social growth in one of our families and that the generational cycle of crime is being broken, I realize that we labor not in vain – that God is working through us, and the resources provided by our ministry partners make a life-changing difference.”

Dickson Masindano

Kenya: Water Well Project

Since 2001, Dickson Masindano has directed Buckner International’s ministries to children in Kenya. From a one-building orphanage housing 26 children in Nairobi, the ministry has grown to a comprehensive center caring for more than 50 children, with four stone buildings, a medical and dental center for the community, a school, and a vocational training program for teenage girls. Additional ministries have been initiated in Kitale, Busia, and Bungoma, which serve over 300 children in Kenya’s Western Province. Living standards in the province are low, and social amenities like running water and electricity are not generally available. Less than half of the rural population has access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities.

In the past two years, TBOWH funds have helped to drill water wells in Busia and Kitale, and both communities now have a healthier population, better crops, and more social services. With the introduction of a new water well in Bungoma, other services and ministries will follow, benefiting the entire community. TBOWH funds will be used to underwrite the costs involved in drilling the new well. Dickson has also been instrumental in shaping Kenya’s foster care program. He is a graduate of Hardin Simmons University and was honored in 2008 as a recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni award.

Larry and Joy Johnson

Peru: Villa Milagro Ministries

Larry and Joy Johnson are Texans who call San Angelo home when they are in the United States. Both are members of First Baptist Church in San Angelo and Monte Sion Baptist Church in Cajamarca, Peru, where Larry serves as President of Villa Milagro Ministries. Since 1984, Villa Milagro Ministries has engaged in hunger relief and development projects in economically depressed areas of Peru, including water well drilling, road construction, youth scholarships, micro-enterprise development, medical and dental clinics, and school construction. Several locations in the coastal valley north of Chiclayo do not have access to safe water supplies. Residents have long recognized their major health problems were directly related to contaminated water, and health officials report that the overall health of the villages receiving new wells has improved by 80 percent or more. The health benefits of potable water for these villages and schools where new wells have been placed are manifold. Because accessible aquifers offer pure water in the proposed locations, boreholes will be drilled and wells established. TBOWH funds will be used to help underwrite new well construction.