Comments for helping people help themselves

Comment on VPI Board of Advisors Charts New Territory! by Emmanuel Ofumbi

Emmanuel Ofumbi — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:48:04 +0000

Change the World!
In 1913, a young man about twenty years old took a walking tour in the rural province of Provence (pronounced Pró váhnce), in southern France. A walking tour is when you hike through the countryside with a backpack and sleeping bag, walking mainly on the back roads or trails and sleeping at campsites or local farms or villages.
Provence was a rather barren and desolate area at the time, as it had been almost totally denuded of trees due to over-cutting and too-intensive agriculture. The topsoil had then been washed away by the rains, as there were no tree roots to hold it in place.
Little farming was being done now because of the poor condition of the land. The villages were old and run-down, and most of the villagers had moved elsewhere. Even the wildlife had fled, as without trees the protective undergrowth had thinned, food was scarce, and few streams and ponds remained.
The young hiker stopped one night at the humble cottage of a shepherd, who, although gray-haired and in his mid-fifties, was still strong and stalwart. The young man spent the night there, enjoying the shepherd’s hospitality, and he ended up staying several days with him.
The visitor observed with some curiosity that the shepherd spent his evening hours sorting nuts by lamplight-acorns, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and others. He would lay them down in a row, carefully examine them, cull out the bad ones, and, when he had finally finished his evening’s work, put the good nuts in a knapsack.
Then, as he led his sheep to graze the next day, he would plant the nuts along the way. While his sheep were pasturing in one area, he would walk several paces and thrust the end of his shepherd’s staff into the ground, making a shallow hole. Then he would drop in one of his nuts and use his foot to cover it over with earth. Then he would walk several paces more, push his staff into the dry ground, and drop in another nut. He spent all his daylight hours walking over this region of Provence as he grazed his sheep, each day covering a different area where there were few trees, planting nuts.
Watching this, the young man wondered what in the world the shepherd was trying to do, so he finally asked him.
“Well, young man,” the shepherd replied, “I’m planting trees.”
“But why?” the young visitor asked. “It will be years and years before these trees ever get to where they could do you any good! You might not even live long enough to see them grow!”
The shepherd replied, “Yes, but some day they’ll do somebody some good and they’ll help to restore this dry land. I may never see it, but perhaps my children will.”
The young man marveled at the shepherd’s foresight, vision, and unselfishness, that he was willing to prepare the land for future generations, even though he might never see the results or reap the benefits himself.
Twenty years later, when in his forties, the hiker once again visited this same area and was astounded at what he saw. One great valley was completely covered with a beautiful forest of all kinds of trees. They were young trees, of course, but trees nevertheless. Life had sprung forth all over the valley! The grass had grown much greener, the shrubbery and the wildlife had returned, the soil was moist again, and the farmers were again cultivating their fields.
He wondered what had happened to the old shepherd, and to his amazement found that he was still alive, hale and hearty, still living in his little cottage-and still sorting his nuts each evening.
Our visitor then learned that a delegation from the French Parliament had recently come down from Paris to investigate what seemed to be a new natural forest.
They eventually learned that the entire forest had, in fact, been planted by this one shepherd as he watched his sheep, day by day and year after year. As a result, the whole valley was covered with beautiful young trees and underbrush. The delegation was so impressed and grateful to this shepherd for having reforested this entire area single-handedly that they persuaded Parliament to give him a special pension.
The visitor said he was amazed at the change, not only in the beautiful trees, but also in the revived agriculture, the renewed wildlife, and the beautiful lush grass and shrubbery. The little farms were thriving, and the villages seemed to have come to life again. What a contrast from when he had visited there twenty years before, when the villages had been run-down and abandoned!
Now all was thriving, just because of one man’s foresight, one man’s diligence, one man’s patience, one man’s sacrifice, one man’s faithfulness just to do what one man could do, day by day, day in and day out for a number of years.
But that’s not the end of the story. Remember how the young man told the shepherd, “You’ll never live to see if you accomplished anything good or not”? Well, as it turned out, the shepherd lived to be eighty-nine. He did live to see his forest fully-grown and beautiful, transforming an entire region. God blessed him with seeing the results of all his hard labors, how he had succeeded in changing his world. He lived to see what God had done through him.
It reminds me of what Paul wrote in the New Testament: “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). So who knows? You too may live to see the day when the world is changed and was changed through you. In Heaven, if not on earth, we will all live to see the day when we have changed the world.
So if you’re sometimes discouraged with the world the way it is, don’t give up! We read that great empires and governments, armies and wars change the course of history and the face of the earth, so sometimes were discouraged and think, “Well, who am I? What can I do?
It all seems so hopeless and impossible! It looks like there’s nothing that one person can do to change things for the better, so what’s the use of trying?”
But as proven by this humble shepherd, over a period of years one man can change the world! You may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change your part of the world. You can start with your own heart, your own mind, your own spirit, your own life,
through receiving Jesus into your life and reading His Word and putting its principles into practice in your life. Change your life, your home, your family, and you’ve changed a whole world-your world!
Then you and your little family can start trying to change your neighbors and friends and the people you come in contact with from day to day. You can make a special effort to reach lonely, hungry, needy hearts who are seeking love, seeking truth, seeking they know not what, but seeking happiness-desperately seeking to satisfy their yearning hearts that are so empty and barren and desolate for lack of the water of God’s Word and the warm sunshine of His love.
You can start individually; personally, just you or your little family, planting seeds, one by one, in heart by heart, day by day, by doing loving deeds for others and by telling them about Jesus. You could also give or recommend Christian materials to those you meet, to help them understand God’s Word. Patiently plant the seeds of the truth of God’s Word into that empty hole of an empty heart, then cover it with God’s love, and trust the great, warm, loving sunshine of
His Spirit and the water of His Word to bring forth the miracle of new life.
It may seem only a tiny little bud at first, just a little sprig, just one insignificant little green shoot. What is that to the forest that’s needed? Well, its a beginning. Its the beginning of the miracle of new life, and it will thrive and grow and flourish and become great and strong, a whole new “tree,” a whole new life, and maybe a whole new world!
Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot to change someone’s life. It reminds me of something that happened while my family and I were visiting the Montreal Worlds Fair in 1967. One day I took my mother, who at eighty years of age was still an enthusiastic Christian, to tour the Soviet exhibit. As we entered the pavilion, the director, a tall, clean-cut, good-looking young
Russian, came forward and offered a wheelchair to my mother. Then, for some reason, he volunteered to escort her around the pavilion and explain it to her.
For the next two hours, they became quite interested in each other and engrossed in deep conversation as he pointed out to her the various new inventions on display. But as I found out later, they talked about a lot more than just mechanical gadgets. At the end of our visit, he bade us a fond farewell, saying, “Please come again!” He was quite hospitable and seemed to have become very close to my mother in that time that they talked together.
A few weeks later we received a letter from him in which he said, “You have changed my life! I have received Christ as you suggested. You have changed my whole way of thinking, my way of believing, you have changed me! But I have a wife and three children and I am living in a communist society where it is against the law to practice Christianity, so now what do I do?”
My mother’s advice to that young man in the letter she wrote back to him was, in essence, “Change the world! Change the world you’re living in! Start now!
Tell others what God has done for you, what His love and His truth have done for you personally, and you can start changing your part of the world-even a communist world!”
If you’re faithful to plant seeds of God’s love, like the old shepherd that the government rewarded for his efforts, God is going to reward you one of these days when you finally come to your reward. He’s going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:21).
You can change the world! Start today! Change your own life, change your family, change your home, change your neighbors, change your town, change your country.
Change the world!

Comment on VPI Board of Advisors Charts New Territory! by sylvia

sylvia — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:48:45 +0000

It is truly an amazing thing to be able to watch…
as the roof goes up on the Safe House and I think of the hundreds of children who will be helped by this building, I realize that is built not just with bricks and mortar, but with love reaching across the world to bind the walls together.

Comment on VPI Board of Advisors Charts New Territory! by Emmanuel Ofumbi

Emmanuel Ofumbi — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:14:42 +0000

The reasons for a group of people meeting some where very far from the little village of Papoli and passionately discussing the very pertinent issues affecting people so far away from them is something that an ordinary mind may comprehend little of.

The VPI Board of Advisors gathered thousands of miles from Papoli because they care about the people of this tiny village and what happens to them. This commitment brings looks of amazement and wonder to the faces of the people of Papoli. The children are in dire need of care, medication, food, as basics of life are a luxury to them; the parents and most of the community members are not any better, for the kids are theirs.

When you help one person, you’re impacting other lives as what you give overflows into the lives of all the people that person comes in contact with. Most people are so genuinely grateful when other people make them feel special that they never tire of showing their gratitude to those with whom they come in contact. As the lives of the members of our community are improved, they will have the capacity to help improve the lives of others. I see examples every day of the love and kindness that has been shown to us being duplicated in acts of kindness and helpfulness to others less fortunate in our communities.

All the above boil down to what Jesus said nearly 2,000 years ago: “Love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” How do you like to be loved and treated? Think about it. That’s how you should love and treat others. “All things whatever you would that men should do to you, do you to them.” It’s not just an abstract spiritual principle, but it’s something to base your life on!
Harold Kushner adds that– “When you carry out acts of kindness, you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, ‘Yes, this is how I ought to feel.’” Martin Luther King, Jr. concludes that — “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
I am personally so grateful that God has allowed me to be a part of what I see happening in this small corner of the world. Projects, plans and programs which have the potential of affecting the lives of thousands upon thousands of Ugandans for many decades to come have been implemented and others in the processes of being implemented that will make our village hopefully a model upon which great things can be done throughout Uganda.

I pass along the love, the appreciation and the gratitude of the people of my village for the kindness and support that has had such a dramatic impact on our tiny community. Our village has been so blessed as the lives of so many have been given the hope of a brighter tomorrow.

To our great friends in US, it is my prayer that God will continue to give His guidance and bless your efforts and that His Holy Spirit will direct you.

I conclude by quoting that “There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life — happiness, freedom, and peace of mind — are always attained by giving them to someone else.” –Peyton Conway March

Comment on The Children Our Future, When We Feed a Child, you Feed our Future. by Emmanuel Ofumbi

Emmanuel Ofumbi — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:01:55 +0000

Learn Dhopadhola

Dhopadhola is the language of people of Papoli village. There are other minority tribes like the Iteso and Samia too, but these two have so much been assimilated. The Jopadhola is of the Luo group who cross from Sudan, into DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya (where President Barrack Obama’s father comes from )
The prefix dho means “language of”. It can be attached to a nationality or speech community to imply the language of such a people. jo means “people of”. The infix pa means possessive ‘of’.
Dhopadhola thus means the language spoken in Padhola.
Padhola is the area or region where Dhopadhola is spoken.
Jopadhola is the plural of Japadhola – a person who speaks Dhopadhola. Hence, Jopadhola are speakers of Dhopadhola.
Ja is a prefix meaning the ‘doer’ or a person belonging to a particular place or position. The plural is Jo. That is, people who do something or belong to a particular place or organisation.
For instance
Jafwonji means a teacher.
Jakwathi means a herdsman/Pastor. Jofwonji means teachers.
Jawer means a singer.
Jower means singers.
Janywol means a parent.
Jonywol means parents.
Japach means a carpenter.
Jopach means carpenters.

Common communication words;
Yoga = Hi, Hello
Nitye nedi = How are you.
Anitye maberi = Iam doing fine.
Waluwa / Afwoyo= Thank you.
Kale kutho = Bye for now.
Gweno = Chicken
Wodi gweno = Cock/rooster
Mini gweno = Hen

Comment on VPI Board of Advisors Charts New Territory! by sylvia

sylvia — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:03:24 +0000

It truly is a miracle to watch how love , with God’s grace, can reach across the world to connect 2 people, so different yet so alike. The Pediatric Health Center, or Safe House, is a tirbute to this. Thank you to all in the world who reach out to touch another….
peace.

Comment on VPI Board of Advisors Charts New Territory! by Paul Clark

Paul Clark — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:39:51 +0000

What a wonderful a blessed meeting on July 23rd discussing the developments on the Popoli safe house and many other matters concerning the efforts of Village Partners International in Uganda and Haiti.

The whole atmosphere was one charged with enthusiasm, great emotion and a sense of thankfulness on the part of each participant to be a part of what is taking place.

The reality of knowing that due to the simple kindness by two wonderful individuals the lives of so many will be changed forever and that generations yet to come will benefit from this generosity is almost too much to comprehend.

May God continue to bring peace and contentment to them is our prayer.

Comment on Village Partners International by sylvia

sylvia — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:29:55 +0000

On this the time when we celebrate our own independance day, it seems that the miracle of what is occuring in Papoli is also an act of indepedence…for freedom, hope and healing are offered to those so far away, by those who care………..just becuase….
peace to allll

Comment on Village Partners International by sylvia

sylvia — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:02:23 +0000

The walls are going up at the Pediatric Health Center…It truly is a miracle to see this unfold, and know that this is a project that the entire village is helping to build….

Comment on Village Partners International by sylvia

sylvia — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:29:49 +0000

We now have collection cans to collect loose change so that the project that began with the kids at St. Mary’s can grow into more places!!

Comment on Village Partners International by sylvia

sylvia — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:54:10 +0000

The Kids at St. Mary’s have raised over $1400 from their Pennies project…and learned so much about what is important in life…and about other parts of the world and the great need that is there…
Congratulations and thanks to them all!!