Spring 2008 Report
posted by Wayne Sneed — July 16th, 2008
Well here it is almost July of 2008, and once again we find that it's
been several months since we've written an update to you. It's just
amazing how quickly time gets past us, and the next thing you know it's
been months. As you will read, we've not exactly been sitting around
since January.
Wayne
went back to the Amazon River in Colombia to visit Lucy Palma at the
little orphan home called "The Quiver." He really enjoys encouraging
Lucy because she is such a dynamic lady doing a wonderful work in a
dark little corner of the world. Wayne took two men with him this
time, so it was a short trip in and out with minimal logistics. He was
there on his 45th birthday, so Lucy arranged for a little "adventure"
for him. Another missionary in town has a river boat, so they took
Wayne "Anaconda hunting" on a tributary of the Amazon River. Since you
know Wayne, you will not be suprised that he loved the opportunity.
And since you know Angela, you will not be suprised she was thousands
of miles away wanting NOTHING to do with that action! The kids at the
home all thought he was nuts too. "Uncle Wayne, why would you go
looking for one of those things?" You can imagine the conversations
that ensued.
Later in February our home church here in Memphis
had their annual missions conference again. We both attended different
portions of the event and had a lovely time. It's always nice to see
our work and passion heralded from the leadership of our church.
Wayne
did a quick 4 day trip to Mexico to set up a team going there in June.
More on that in a minute. It wasn't too hard a trip but it was great to
see our team member Sarah Godfrey and spend some time with her at Dulce
Refugio!
The next big event happened in April. India is not a
place either of us have had any desire to visit. The stories we've
heard of the poverty and crowded conditions just don't appeal to us.
It's not that we don't have compassion, it's more that our hearts are
more drawn to the Latin world than to Asia and South Asia. Due to a
series of circumstances and invitations, Wayne ended up agreeing to
travel with Grace and Jim Stock (from the Orphanos Board of Trustees)
to pay a visit to two orphan homes in south east India. Wayne came back
saying India was everything he was afraid it would be.
"India is
such an all out assault on all your senses. Their are people
absolutely everywhere, so there is noise all the time. Various odors
constantly bombard your sinuses. Your eyes never get a rest moving from
one neon sign to another billboard to another mass of people. There's
just a constant palate of colors and shapes and movement that unless
your eyes are closed they don't ever seem to be able to rest and enjoy
what they are taking in. The places we visited were also overun with
trash. With so many people, it's really hard to keep things cleaned
up."
"One of the amazing contrasts we noticed was in the faces
real people on the street, and what 'Bollywood' films portray as
normal. On any given day we rarely saw Indians expressing any kind of
emotion. The mass of people move about their day with nuetral
expressions. Few people smile, and few people get angry. No one
seemed to hold hands or express any kind of affection for another. But
turn on the television and the wow! Every film or show was heavy with
expresions of emotion. Singing, laughing, touching, dancing, and
more. It's as if every Bollywood actor/ess was doing their best to be
as animated as possible. I'm sure there is a cultural lesson there as
well as a spiritual one, but I'm just not sure what it is yet."
The
two homes we visited stood in stark contrast to each other, and even in
some ways to the culture at large. Master's Home with over 100 children
there is mostly well funded, very clean, and very organized. We spent
two days here hanging out with the leadership and with the kids. Wayne
even got to play a little "Cricket" with the kids. ( They clobberred
the clumsy and old American man, to their great delight.) Kids Home is
not nearly as well funded, and they have only about 50 children living
there. However, these kids seemed to have had their "happy buttons"
switched on because we didn't see one kid there who wasn't smiling
their faces nearly off. Our visit was clearly a huge day in their
year. We played games with them, ate with them, told them Bible
Stories, and Wayne even used an old guitar he found and led them in
some hilarous singing. It was really a lot of fun and very encouraging
for both them and us.
During the visit the little Orphanos team
actually spent time in: Bombay, Visag, Calcutta, and New Dehli. Along
the way we made quick side trips to the Taj Mahal and Mother's
Theresa's home. It's a trip we won't soon forget.
The next big
thing that happened is the annual Short Term Mission Leader's
Conference in Minneapolis. Once again they invited Wayne up to lead
worship (which he loves doing) but also teach some of the workshops.
Wayne's friend and co-author Roger Peterson and his team at STEM are
always so gracious and kind, and we love going there and spending time
with them while serving them at their conference.
The day after
returning from the conference in MN, Orphanos hosted it's first ever
Golf Tournament Fundraiser. For a first time event, we felt like it
went really well. Not only did we have a lot of fun, we raised enough
to pay the bill for the event as well as had some left over to help
with office expenses. Thank you to each of you who played, donated,
and volunteered!
OK, on to the next big event.... In May Wayne
once again boarded an airplane. This time he went to Florida to speak
at a conference on Orphan Care. Campus Crusade for Christ's Family
Live Division teamed up with Focus on the Family and about 50 other
smaller organizations to for the "Christian Alliance for Orphan
Care." Orphanos is a member of this, and they contacted Wayne and
asked him to come and speak on how to do short term mission trips to
orphanages. Since he has a "little" experience with this kind of
thing, he quickly put together a workshop on the topic. We heard that
it was one of the best attended workshops at the summit.
Later
in May all three of us (Audrey, Angela, Wayne) went back out to North
Carolina to visit Faith Evangelical Church. Most of you will remember
that Faith Evan is where Angela basically grew up as a child, and this
church is sending a team with us to Mexico. (in fact, they are in
Mexico as we write this update) Wayne went out there to do a weekend
team training to help the group get ready, and Angela and Audrey went
to spend time with Angela's second mom and dad, Anne and Mark Price.
Wayne actually came back to Memphis on Sunday, but Angela and Audrey
stayed behind and got a few days in at the beach. It was a great visit
for them. The Price's are always such great hosts and very enjoyable to
be with.
That pretty much bring us to June 2008. And guess
what?!?!? We're not going anywhere. !!SHOCK!! It's true. No travel
in June, and possibly none in July! However, we're all going with the
Crichton College mission team to an orphan home in the mountains of
Jamaica the first part of August. This will be Audrey's second mission
trip, and probably the first one she will remember or that will have
any impact on her. We appreciate your prayers for her spiritual growth
during this time. We're trying to balance teaching her about poverty
and orphans with the fact she is only 5 yrs old and can't be expected
to understand it all just yet.
Well, that's been our lives the
last few months. Oh, throw in the mix that each of us had birthdays,
we had our anniversary, we did a little remodel project on the floors
in the house, and both Wayne and Angela held down full time office
jobs. Whew! We could use a few slow days this summer!
We
appreciate your prayers for our ministry, our family, and your faithful
financial donations. We feel a keen sense of responsibility to you, our
support team. Thanks for "sending us" to the kids of the nations. We
appreciate you.
Audrey, Angela, and Wayne
Leave a Reply