Village People
July 2013
Dear Friends,
Just a shot in the dark – given that it is July – it’s hot – your
air conditioning is on – or at least a cooling fan – your choice of
beverage for the day – ice tea or tasty lemonade. My wife and
I are spending the first week of July at a Christian Conference
Centre in Oregon getting some much needed rest and spiritual
refreshment.
Much has been on my mind of late – in truth it will not escape
me on my week away from the office.
hour later she wakes the children so that she can groom them for
school without interference from her close neighbours.
Private living quarters are two small rooms off an even smaller
corridor on the second floor of a two story apartment building. It
takes a stretch of the imagination to fully appreciate how small
and how cramped this family of nine occupy. I think she has room
to complain – but she does not. She says “I am so thankful to the
Lord for a roof over my head.”
Like polka dots indiscriminately scattered across green
fabric, lay hundreds of small villages sheltering some of the
poorest people in the world. While my life consists of many
comforts and a greater number of conveniences, villagers like
Lyubov suffer much discomfort and very little in the way of
convenience.
Consider, the average home in North America boasts of at
least two, if not more,
washrooms. The
washroom facilities for
Lyubov until recently
has been an outdoor
privy shared with seven
other families that live
in the same run down
tenement block in her
Communal Washroom
village.
The landlord has recently completed an indoor facility for
the tenants that Lyubov, her husband Arkadiy and their seven
children share with all the tenants in the block. They share the
kitchen too. The kitchen is small but clean. Living in community
with so many others creates its own unique set of problems –
stress being the least of these.
Lyubov works around it – rising at 5 am she is able to find
time in the kitchen to prepare the family breakfast. One half
Mission Without Borders
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email: [email protected]
Communal Kitchen
Besides those housed over the same roof, Lyubov’s entire village lives in poverty. Many are despondent – home ownership is
not an option and little employment is available.
I have been in Lyubov’s village with its pot filled gravel roads,
undecorated crumbling apartment blocks, abandoned buildings,
and pools of oppressed seated on broken timber masquerading
as benches. Stray dogs and eyes of local citizens that betray
hopelessness and despair.
It is easy to deeply feel great pity – easy to be discouraged –
difficult to understand the vast difference between life in North
America and those who live in the villages we provide aid to.
It is this reality that dogs
my effort at tranquility – it is
this truth that allows me no
escape.
In Lyubov’s village we
minister to 159 families and
948 children. By that I mean
P.O. Box 2007, 200-2306 McCallum Road, Abbotsford BC V2T 3T8
Lyubov and son Ivan
There are those in the village who ask us for food and we cannot give it.
There are those who ask for help and we cannot accommodate them.
sleep six in a bed and share communal cooking and cleaning facilities with seven other families.
Please understand I am not including you in my perplexity – I know you get it – I know you understand my troubled
thoughts. That said, it really is critical that we continue to
reach out and support the spiritual and material needs of the
village people, thus I would be grateful – I mean very grateful – if you could help with a financial gift this month.
Lyubov praying with her children
we make regular deliveries of food and material items. We also
encourage believers with the Word and we share the hope of the
Gospel with those who are not believers.
Lyubov is a believer – her sparkle, her unfeigned joy, her sincere happiness, her deep gratitude, her love for her children, her
successful marriage and her confession of faith is evident enough
to convict her as such. She and her family exemplify the words of
Timothy “godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Lyubov and her husband are crazy about their children, deeply
love one another, walk humbly with their God and confess their
satisfaction with all that they have. Their happiness does not
depend on things material.
There are other believers in the village. There are also many
who have yet to be taught the way, the truth and the life. There
are many who endure the futility of life without work, without substance, without hope, imprisoned physically and mentally within
the walls of ghetto like tenement houses or in crumbling straw and
mortar shanties in Lyubov’s Village.
Together we can reach a village for Christ and I believe
God has privileged us to do so.
Thank you for whatever you are able to do and if you cannot give thank you for your prayers. Have a great summer
and may God give you peace and rest.
I remain, yours in His service,
Doug Fraser
National Manager
Mission Without Borders
PS: It is my great joy to partner with you in this work and I
am deeply deeply grateful to the Lord for you. Thank you for
your visits and words of encouragement – I cannot overstate
how much you mean to me – be blessed as I am. Doug
The cost of everything is rising. Food prices, gasoline for transport, small but necessary increase in staff wages, taxes and the
list goes on. I speak of the cost of providing services to the poor in
Lyubov’s village.
There are those in the village who ask us for food and we cannot give it.
There are those who ask for help and we cannot accommodate
them.
I am perplexed at the great disconnect – those of us who call
Him Lord and have much and can justify all manner of excesses
– and those – brothers and sisters – God’s workmanship – that
Time alone with his Father
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Lyubov and daughter Anna