5 Month Mission Trip

Life

Courtney (who came with me to Sierra Leone) and I were doing our homework in a coffee shop when I told her about a trip to Spain I heard about. Then and there we decided we were going to apply. From there we realized that the trip to Spain is only three months long so why not take advantage of the opportunity! What if we took off a semester and traveled the world going on different missions? And that is how we left the coffee shop; with big dreams. A month later we got accepted, and now it’s weird to think that our big dreams are starting to become a reality. God opened the door for us, we prayed about it, and decided to walk through.

Doors God has Opened:

Spain: January 15^th-April 13^th

The College of Education is partnering with the government of Spain that has a program that is sending ten students to Spain to teach English for 3 month with all expenses paid for.

Sierra Leone: April 14^th-May 9^th

I have not stopped missing my kids from Sierra Leone since I left. There are times I just cry thinking about them going to bed at night with out a hug. So I am so excited to return and see them. Courtney and I will be returning by ourselves and will be living in the orphanage again. Our goal in going here is to live and talk with the children in the orphanage and the people and children in the villages, and come up with different story lines to create a children’s book. Once we have the story line we will have students draw pictures for the story. Then when we return to America we hope to get these stories published for these children. Hopefully, we can bring enough awareness to this so that we can have people purchase a book to send overseas to a child, house, or teacher to use.  We hope to bring this idea into other developing countries around the world for children.

India: May 10^th-June 10^th

I have also felt a strong calling to India so after Sierra Leone Courtney and I will be traveling to India where we will be staying a month with a missionary couple that works with Pioneers. Here we will be letting God guide us as we build relationships with people and reach out to the community and specifically street children.

What God Has Placed on My Heart

My heart goes out to the children who are poor and orphaned in the world. These children are not tucked into bed, they are sleeping on the streets. They are alone, invisible, and unloved. I have felt a strong calling from God and I have prayed about the fact that so many children need a mother. They need someone who will live with them, love them, give them support, and make them feel wanted for the first time in their life. God has given me a mission heart for children who are the poorest of the poor and for people who have never heard the truth of the gospel. I am taking a step of faith to see where God is calling me.

My family will be far away, nothing is secure, heartache and sadness will come. But when I think about the opportunity to love even one child…its WORTH IT! And a life for God is a life surrendered to God and to follow his purpose for my life.

Support

This is a journey that I would love for you to be apart of with me. Together through pray and support we can transform the lives of children who WILL transform their nation. We CAN do it if we WILL! If you are interested in being a part of this new journey with me either by partnering in prayer or financially please email me at jesi.shearhod@gmail.com so that I can have your email to update you while I’m away. The total for India and Africa is going to be an estimated cost of $5100. 

There are two ways to financially support my trip: please email me at jesi.shearhod@gmail.com if you would like my address or if you would like to give me your address to send a support letter.

 You can support me directly by clicking on the donate button to the right of the blog. (this is not tax-deductible and will go towards my trip to India) 

Or For Sierra Leone:

If you are sending a check make it out to Children of the Nations and include the team code (SL_TJS411) on the memo line.

I send the money I receive to Children of the Nation every other week

By Computer:

Donate online at http://www.cotni.org/opportunities/7

In the subject line put my name (Jesica Shearhod) and my team number (SL_TJS411)

Children of the Nations will then notify me of funds received.

 

 

 

They are Real

I have always known that people are affected much more with issues of slavery, sex trafficking, starvation, and malnourishment when they personally know the people who are being affected. If your son was starving you would do anything you could to feed him. If your sister or your wife was being trafficked for sex or if she was raped (even one time) you would want to do anything to bring her justice, and stop it from happening again. If your best friend was being worked 6 days a week for 15 hours a day, treated horrible, and paid nothing you would get them out of that surrounding. You would never purchase anything from the company exploiting him/her. And yet there are sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands, friends dying from starvation, scared from being trafficked, overworked from slavery and yet we do nothing.

The other day I had the most amazing opportunity to watch a 2 week old baby and she was so precious. I loved to watch her sleep because in her I saw innocence. Then I begin to think of this innocent little girl in the conditions of children around the world and it made my heart sink. I put her name on the girl dying of starvation and malnourishment, on the girl lying on the brothel floor praying that she wont have to give herself to another man, on the girl who has been injured numerous times by the machines she works with all day and doesn’t have a chance to a childhood. Then it began to become real. This child could be me… this child could be someone I love. This child is someone who is loved by someone. 

Being Paralyzed

In my post on August 2^nd I shared the quote about the feeling of being paralyzed “The very information that should move us is so overwhelming that is actually paralyzes us. It is like a big meal that’s suppose to provide fuel for our body but actually makes us feel like lying down and taking a nap. Instead of energizing us for action, the overwhelming injustice of the world actually makes us feel numb. We sense of hearts melting and our feet sinking into concrete.” I forgot what that feeling was like until today. I listened to a sermon by Francis Chan called “Lukewarm and Loving it” (if you want to be challenge your faith watch his sermon on youtube) and after processing it for like an hour I just feel numb and overwhelmed. From the sermon I started to think about how and if I am living my life for God. Am I surrendering my self fully for His glory? Or am I trying to hold onto things the world finds as important while justifying it in my mind. I had to go for a run to keep my mind from spinning and as I was running God was making so many things clear to me. He was saying to deny myself and focus on him and him alone in my decisions, he was saying to be ready to live in conditions where I wont always be happy or comfortable, he said to trust him to get me where I feel called, he said to be ready to leave people I love and a life I may find desirable to follow Him…after thinking through this I thought, how? How can I serve the poor? How can I be a voice for those who have no voice? How can I help people to see the light of God and the hope he has for them?...and that when I begin to feel powerless,and sad, and overwhelmed…the devil starts to work his magic by making me feel like I can’t do it.

            So what do I do? I seek God where I am now and I learn how to trust Him and follow him when he calls me. I grow in him and slowly drown the devil out. Most importantly I remember “Despair is a greater sin then any of the sins the provoke it.” 

Hell on Earth

Hell is on earth. Hell is when boys are soldiers who are forced to kill their father, mothers, sisters, and brothers. Hell is where children must watch as their pregnant mother is raped, cut open, and are then forced to watch as the fetus is cut out and roasted. And the child is not only forced to watch this but must also eat the fetus. Hell is where girls under the age of 12 are the highest percentage of women sex trafficked around the world. Hell is where 1 million children are exploited by the global commercial sex trade every year. U.S. Department of State, The Facts About Child Sex Tourism: 2005. Hell is women being forced to have sex (to be raped) by men 10 times a night.  Hell is when 32 billion dollars a year is generated by human trafficking industry every year. Hell is when a mother and a father sell their 10-year-old daughter to a man for sex so that their family can eat because a virgin is worth a lot of money. Hell is that 100,000 children and young women were trafficked into America at an average age of 11 and we as Americans are naive and think that all women in strip clubs and prostitute themselves do it by their own will. Hell is children being drugged to kill. Hell is children living on the streets with nowhere to go. Hell is when a father doesn’t have $2 that could save his child’s life from a curable disease.

Hell is where we read about this and do NOTHING.

Hell is on earth…what are YOU going to do about it?

Some people think “god left Africa a long time ago” but what we need to recognize is that God did not leave it WE left it.  Its not that God is not doing anything about it, its that WE are not doing anything about it.  

Watch these videos about what happened in Sierra Leone during the war: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLOf1V4eDqk&feature=related

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtwgU-LjkTI 

Sponsor a Child

It costs $30 to sponsor a child. $30 to make sure a child has an education. An education that can get them out of poverty and enrich the lives of their family. $30 to make sure this child is healthy. 1/3 children in Sierra Leone don't make it past the age of 5. Most children die from starvation a a preventable disease if the family had money. $30 for food. Everyday this child will be fed a meal at school. This could be the only meal they eat all day. 

More importantly then support them financially you will giving them the gift of love. I know it sounds corny but I couldn't think of a better word. When a child gets sponsored you are telling him/her that someone cares enough to him them. 

To support a child go to http://www.cotni.org/children. 

Its Paralyzing

“The very information that should move us is so overwhelming that is actually paralyzes us. It is like a big meal that is suppose to provide fuel for our body but actually makes us feel like lying down and taking a nap. Instead of energizing us for action, the overwhelming injustice of the world actually makes us feel numb. We sense of hearts melting and our feet sinking into concrete.”

This experience was a rollercoaster of emotions for me. Ngolala (gula) was one of my favorite villages to visit because of all the children. We would play games, chase each other, I would sit and hold any child that came into my lap. It was amazing. The first time we visited the village and left all the children followed us (as usual) and I was carrying two children in my arms. When we reached a point where we had to move on I set these beautiful children down. As I did this I looked into the their eyes and saw such innocence, then I looked up to their hair and saw that it was a light color and then down to their bloated bellies (both are signs of malnutrition) and I felt numb. Numb to the fact that these children may not make it past their 5^th birthday because they don’t have enough food. Malnutrition causes more then 55% of child deaths in our world.

Another time I was walking through a village and a young girl around 9 comes up and holds my hand. She was carrying her brother on her back and keeping track of her little sister at the same time. We were walking to visit a school in the area that some of our orphanage kids were showing us. As we were walking into the school this little girl looks up at me and says “my mom is dead” … I was speechless I didn’t know what to say so I asked her about her Dad and she said “my dad is dead” …again I was paralyzed. She said it without an ounce of pain, like she is so used to death that she no longer feels the feelings that come with it. It was then that I realized that the children in our orphanage are not the only ones who don’t have a mom and/or dad to care for them but that there are many children dealing with the same situations.

Then there was the movie night. I was watching house two girls and making sure that they were being looked after. Before the movie started I noticed the door to their home was open so I went in to see if any of the girls were left behind. I walked into their bedroom (10 beds in a room for 16 girls to live) and what I saw made me sick. There were no girls but there were many little cockroaches all over one of the beds. I went over to the bed to get them off but then more started to come onto the bed. I lost control. I was so sad, and mad that these young girls lived like this. I didn’t know what to do and how to act. I was thinking about the villages I saw earlier where children sleep on dirt floors, and wear one piece of clothing and that one piece has holes in it, I remembered seeing the little girls and boys with the light hair and big bellies.  And yet we live with more then enough resources to help them but we (myself especially) have chosen not to help.

What is one of the best was your can help? To sponsor a child. 

Money Consumes the Rich and the Poor

We flew into Sierra Leone around 9pm and stayed at a hotel the first night. The next morning we left for Banta Mokelleh around 6 am to catch the 8am ferry. The 30-minute ferry ride ended up being a three hour ferry ride because of complications. This delay ended up being a blessing because I got to talk with Mr. Ngonau. Mr. Ngonau was one of the men who looked after the team as we traveled. If you knew nothing about Mr. Ngonau you could just look at him and see the love of Jesus in his eyes.
When I asked Mr. Ngonau (gonay) what keeps people in Sierra Leone from accepting Christ into their life and becoming followers his answer shocked me. He said it was because of materialism. Now you are probably thinking what I was thinking at the time, “materialism? what materials do they want that they need to be worrying about.” He said that people are so overwhelmed with the need to make money and survive and help their families to survive that it consumes them. This opened my eyes and showed me that money has a hold on everyone no matter where you live. It controls both the rich and the poor. During my trip and when I returned people would tell me all the time, “Jesi, they don’t know what they don’t have.” I recognize that in their living conditions they don’t know what they are missing and that I agree with. They do see advertisements, listen to music, and watch movies that highlight the life we have. While on our trip Molly mentioned that it would be like us seeing the way a millionaire or billionaire lives. We think, “oh that would be nice” but we don’t envy and dwell on the fact that we don’t have that lifestyle. So when it comes to sleeping on the floor, living in one room with 10 other people, wearing the same clothes everyday it makes sense that they cant miss what they never had.
However, I think it is naïve of us in America to say, “well they don’t know what they don’t have” and make that our reason to continue to live how we live and not help others. We don’t realize that people KNOW they are starving, they know they don’t have enough food to provide for their family, they know they don’t have enough money (in most cases a couple dollars) to save their child’s life.

Movie Night

Every other week they try to have a movie night for the kids. This was incredible to witness. Kids talk about it all day and wonder what movie they are going to watch (even though the usually watch the same three movies over and over again) and they tell us how excited they are. The interns set up a TV outside of one of the houses and kids bring chairs from their homes and pile around this small TV to watch the movie. Sadly, that night it started pouring when they started the film. All the kids ran back to their homes but as it began to settle down kids started to bring their chairs back out with as many umbrellas as they could find. Then everyone piled around the TV again.            

            Before starting Step Up they showed a COTN movie of the children. This would be like the movies you see on television asking you to give many to help feed children in developing countries. The children loved it! They would say “look its Pastor” “look its Massah” “look its me.” I have watched so many of those short commercial films but sitting their with these kids who have this need and seeing how excited they were that people watched this and cared about them was indescribable. What was even crazier was the fact that I was sitting with these wonderful children while watching it!

            To top off the night I met Emmanuel for the first time. Molly (another girl from my team) and I were standing in the back getting soaked by the rain and trying to see what we could of the TV. Emmanuel saw us and came over with his umbrella and told us to stand under. This little boy NEVER gets to watch a movie and instead of being focused on the movie he was more concerned about Molly and I and are needs.  

Pastor and Olive: Left for Dead

07-02-10

“I came back to my quiet time under the Baffa (picture to the left) and see alittle boy sitting on Courtney’s lap. At first she was reading the bible to him and now he is just drawing in her notebook. He is maybe three years old and as soon as I was about to sit in my chair he says, “too dirty” and gets up and starts to clean it off for me. Even at three these kids are concerned for others.”

This was my first experience with this little boy who I soon became very close with. His name is Pastor. Pastor will win your heart as soon as you meet him. He is the boy who will push you to the limit and melt your heart at the same time. His real name is Julius but when he came from the malnutrition clinic he would go around tell everyone to pray and he is always the Pastor in “church” (kids in America play “house” kids in Sierra Leone play “church”) and the name stuck. The reason I am telling you about little Pastor is because he is 9 years old. When I heard this I couldn’t believe it. He was left for dead with no one to care for him and was starved when COTN found him. He has come a long way since then but still has a long way to go. Many of these have similar stories to Pastor and it makes your heart ache to hear them.

Little Olive (the girl in the picture) was also left for dead. She lost both of her parents to AIDS and when COTN found her she was nearly starved to death. Now she is much healthier and living an active life. She is the girl you needed to chase down for a hug, she wouldn’t just give one to you even though I could tell she desired affection. 

We see and hear the stories, now its time to TAKE ACTION!

“I come from the Marcy projects, in Brooklyn which is considered a tough place to grow up, but visiting Africa showed me how good we have it. The rappers who say, ‘were from the hood,’ take it from me, your not from the hood.” – JAY-Z

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18           

Journal entry: 07-10-10 

We have eyes to see injustice. We have ears to hear the stories and the cries of children. But we try to ignore it so we don’t feel guilty for not helping. So we can continue having our starbucks coffee every morning, or give up something, something that is a pleasure for us, not even a necessity. Something like a new shirt, picture, or piece of furniture that we would live without. And we don’t understand that choosing to give that up and help a child WILL save that childs life. We turn our back on the poor because we don’t want to disrupt our lives. We feel like we deserve these pleasures because we work hard for it. But these people, these children, work 5 times harder, at younger ages and don’t even receive what is needed for them to survive. 

Faith

During this trip I realized how important both faith and hope are.

"Faith is being sure of what we HOPE for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1

"Let us hold unswervingly to the HOPE we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10: 23 

Without faith we could not continue to hope for an outcome that may seem impossible in the beginning. The people a had the privilege of meeting and hearing their stories showed me that with faith and hope even what seems impossible can be achieved. 

On the second to last day of our trip we were introduced to Quame and the story how he and three others began building the orphanage during the war. The war in Sierra Leone reached every part of the country and went on for about 10 years, finally ending in 2002. But during the war violence was everywhere. Quame lost his father in the beginning and began to workout to be able to better protect himself from the rebels. The rebels for fighting a war for no reason (at least they never gave a reason for starting it.) 

Around this time Chris and Debbie Clark from Seattle Washington decided that an orphanage needed to built in Freetown (the capital of Sierra Leone.) So Chris went to Freetown to visit churches to get people to begin building the church and Quame was one of the men who volunteered. At this point he was only around 17 years of age. He and three other men began to build the orphanage. But as the war came closer to Freetown it became harder and harder to build without parts of it being destroyed or supplies being taken. But they still had hope and believed in the cause and persevered. 

The men would take turns guarding the supplies to the best of their ability but one night Quame and another man were stripped down, and tied up with a number of other men by a man known as the "evil spirit"; the evil spirit was a man known for walking down the street and killing a man for no reason. One by one he went down the row of men shooting them in the head. Quame and his friend took turns praying and asking for their lives to be spared and then the other would pray while the other explained that they were not rebels and that they were building an orphanage for the children of Sierra Leone. As the evil spirit went down the row shooting each man he stopped and Quame and his friend and said "go and pray for our children"...and let them go!! 

What is even more unbelievable to me is that when Chris Clark heard about what had happened he told the men to leave Freetown and return when the war was finished and complete the orphanage then. But the men refused, they said that they were looking at it as if kids were already living their and they had faith that God was with them as they built the orphanage. 

These men risked their lives because they had hope in what was to come and faith in the God who would help them overcome all obstacles, as long as they kept their eyes on him in the process. And when you sit with Quame and look into his eyes you see Jesus. You see the amazing faith this man has. You see happiness for being able to use the building he built to house children who, he would later go out and get for the home. Children who have witnessed both of the parents murdered. Children who have been beaten and raped on the street. Children who have been left to die from starvation because no one will care from him. He sought them out, found them, loved them, and have them a their life. 

Mother Theresea once said "It is the greatest poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live how you wish." Quame gave his life for God and when he did that he served God in a way that would honor only him. He served him by worrying for others more then himself. Living a life with the risk of death at any moment is not ideal for anyone but he knew that if he didn't children would be faced with that reality...

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us". Romans 5:3-4

Its Hard to be Home

It’s harder to come back to America then it was going to Africa and seeing what I saw. Which may sound crazy…it does sound crazy. That it is harder for me walk into a nice house and lay in a queen size bed with a comforter. To drive down a paved road with restaurants and other nice cars around me then it is to see a family with a one room house made out of dirt and sticks while sleeping on the floor or straw beds. Then driving down a road where I see people on top of people carrying heavy objects on their head and in need of food. It is such an overwhelming feeling to be one of the 60% of the world that doesn’t have to worry about not eating today. And not only do I NOT need to worry about eating but I worry about OVEREATING! I laid in my bed last night and it was the first comfortable bed with a comforter since I got back and it felt amazing. But then I thought, “why me?” why am I blessed with a roof over my head with 4 bedrooms and three living rooms and a kitchen the size of the houses (huts) in Africa. Why doesn’t the little child who waked up at 6am every morning to work hard and goes to bed hungry just to wake up hungry and do it all over again get a nice bed to sleep in. God has put me in this life for a reason …TO SEEK JUSTICE FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE A VOICE. One thing I realized by being in Sierra Leone is that the reason bad things happen in the world is because 1. There are bad people who oppress others and 2. I let them. When Jesus came he sent his disciples out to the world to seek justice and so as Christians it is our RESPONSIBILITY to stand up for the poor, widowed, and orphaned. To stand up against the oppressors and shine light where only darkness is seen. 

A Light in the Darkness

While I was in Sierra Leone I learned two very important things. One is to focus on the light of dark situations and second is to BE the light in dark situations. I know what you are thinking easier said then done.It is easier to focus on a child's large belly and light hair from malnutrition and think of the fact that he may not make it past the age of five like 1 out of every 3 children in Sierra Leone do. Instead of looking at the heart melting smile and warm hand as he or she holds you as you walk. It is also much easier to be sad in these situation and negative towards them instead of looking for opportunities to seek justice for those who can not do so themselves. My trip has opened up my eyes in many ways. I have learned remarkable stories of faith, perseverance, and determination. But if I can't first understand the need for the light then I will not allow my heart to be transformed. When people ask me "how was your trip?" its hard to share. Its hard to know where to start. And so I created this blog to help show you what a life changing trip like this is like. If we live close I would love to get together and talk more about and show you millions of pictures! But I will be updating this as much as possible with all of my experiences of this trip. Thank you all for your constant prayers before and during my trip, God was listening and keeping us VERY safe and without complications through out the whole trip.