Our SEEDS international gift to Far Reaching Ministry’s ARMY of Chaplains, clothed and shod these heroic nations, and gifted them with sermons and Bible passages to fill their minds with hope and direction.  “Never before in the history of Far Reaching Ministries have we had a new class of chaplains funded fully for their uniforms and iPods!” After a year of training, these chaplain armies are deployed to the front lines, providing spiritual strength to the troups and protecting any women and children who need them. What a privilege to be behind them in some small way.

“Today’s Hope for Tomorrow’s Leaders”

We spent an afternoon with Willie Briscoe at Hope Leadership Foundation in Barrio Logan. He has taken his fatherless childhood and turned it into motivation to help youths in similar situations. Beginning with grade 3, he has constructed an after-school program that provides a safe environment, homework assistance, spiritual training, and field trips–SEEDS bought HLF a van. “We desire to help youth realize and actualize their potential by providing spiritual mentorship, educational and athletic support along with exposure to the arts, while helping them meet their most basic needs. We desire to see San Diego changed one kid at a time.”

Our local grant went to the amazing San Diego Rescue Mission! Most of us had never been to this hospital-turned-homeless shelter in city center San Diego. This non-profit, average gift of $35, runs a tight, but respectful and loving ship. We replaced their old dryers with new ones (yay! we know the impact that can have!), and also helped with some computer stuff. (This room is where the mothers and children sleep.)

Our international grant went to Ellilta International (EWAR), a ministry in Ethiopia rescuing trafficked women and girls.  We funded, in part, a skills/job training program that would allow these women to leave the sex trade and be able to support themselves and themselves and their families. EWAR has witnessed over 1000 women–  90% success rate – go on to lead a life free of prostitution.

Several of our Board members were familiar with Reality Changers, a group making significant changes in the lives of local at-risk kids. Under the leadership of Chris Yanov, they have given themselves to the gargantuan task of challenging young teenagers from depressed communities to buckle down in their respective schools, to work on their people skills, and to cooperate with tutors to get through rigorous classes and college scholarship applications. The results? Since its inception in 2001, 100% of participants meeting the program’s expectations have been accepted to four-year universities, even though less than 3% of adult residents in Reality Changers’ locality have a college diploma.

Mission Generation knocked our socks off with the power of their presence in Bolivia! They have created curricula to use in public schools (K-12) to cover the basics of a subject and interject, where appropriate, a biblical worldview and the Gospel. Students, parents, and teachers are reacting with great interest. The material is so well done that the Bolivian government has mandated its use in the public schools! For $1 we can buy one textbook for one student.

Purple Palace’s request in their proposal was for a large van to ferry the kids in their care to school, to sports, to church, and to other activities. They are accustomed to making do with older vehicles and have mechanics who help keep them runing, but their ‘youngest’ van is 13 years old. We were so pleased when co-founders Tyler and Connie Youngkin confirmed that the gift SEEDS gave them will be enough to buy a really good, slightly used, van!

GogoGrandmothers requested funds to introduce a soy crop into a small village in Malawi. The grandmothers (and grandfathers) there, who are caring for their own and others’ orphaned grandchildren, grow maize (corn) primarily and are in need of a crop with greater food value – thus, soy, full of protein, easy to grow, but difficult to process. Gogo Grandmothers provides the seeds, the training, and the motivation that will not only provide this nutritious grain for these AIDS-orphaned children but will also introduce a new avenue for entrepreneurship.

We have met incredible people over the years making incredible sacrifices of time, money, priorities, etc. Here is one memorable day:

A few of us visited a South Bay high school in early September 2012 (a site visit for one of our local ministry applicants for 2012) and sat in on a youth club that meets weekly over the lunch hour. We were impressed at how easily the games/worship leaders engaged the rest of the kids. (Get this for an ice-breaker: pair up into 2s, play “rock-paper-scissors.” The winner of each 2-some plays another winner, with the losers beginning to form a group behind them. When the final 2-some plays, the winning group gets . . . candy!)

The kids only had about 40 min. to eat (yea pizza!, provided by a church youth group connected with the school), play, worship, pray, and have a short message chock full of Scripture about not quitting, not being afraid, by one of their classmates.

A young couple walked in just before the activities, she great with child and he very attentive and caring for her. Afterwards, they introduced themselves, shook our hands. We asked about the baby–a little boy, due in November. “Thank you for not aborting that baby,” we said. “We know it will be hard.”

“It already is hard,” she said. And then, softly and somberly, “I hope I can be forgiven.”

“Oh, honey,” we said. “You ARE forgiven!”

Lord, please let her remember what we told her, how we held her hands, stroked her belly, smiled our forgiveness at her. Sometimes, just hearing words of forgiveness, even if they’re from an unaffected party, is so healing. Let it be so, Jesus!!!

You might have noticed that we have a new committee member, Peggy Keck. (More about that soon.) But who’s missing is our Lisa Liguori! Lisa is moving on to family philanthropic activities. She is one amazing lady and helped us SO much to be where we are today. Anything electronic is because of Lisa and our voting procedure is because of Lisa. She brought a younger perspective to our meetings as we worked to get ourselves off the ground. And there was always a lot of laughter as she mentored us on the world wide web!

Lisa leaves behind a huge void. We love her, we miss her, and she tells us we can still give a shout if we get in too much trouble!  We all thank you, Lisa xoxo.