Author Archives: Tony M
Ringing in the New Year
2012 is here! And the blogosphere is buzzing with New Year’s resolutions, end-of-the-world theories, and political campaign predictions. With the holidays behind us, society’s focus has shifted a little more toward personal weight loss goals and a little less toward feeding the hungry. But of course, hunger never takes a holiday. I’m sure many people … Continue reading
Dreaming Big through Education
We often write about the value of education in the struggle against poverty. But I think the message is more compelling when it comes from the mouths of the Christian missionaries who are actually working with the children of the poor on a daily basis in Cross-sponsored schools. Here is a letter from a staff … Continue reading
Black Friday in Nicaragua
I don’t need to tell you about the Black Friday mayhem of crazed shoppers, big bargains, long check-out lines, and subsequent buyer’s remorse (or in my case, a quiet day at home putting up Christmas decorations). But there’s another Black Friday story you may not know. A story of Nicaraguan villagers turning on their water … Continue reading
The gift of life
Christmas is coming! No matter how early you start the holiday planning and shopping, the big day always seems to arrive too soon. When I was a boy, though, the month of December seemed to drag on for eternity. I remember lying awake in bed at night, thinking about how many days were left until … Continue reading
New Restavek Center
We got to meet Alexander Venell, the pastor of a brand new MEBSH learning center in Lakawann, Haiti. Cross has been helping dozens of church-operated literacy centers provide food, education, and the gospel to restaveks (a Haitian word for children forced by poverty to work as domestic servants). The Lakawann school has only been open … Continue reading
Letter from Haiti
I’d like to share excerpts of the latest update from Christian Light Foundation, a Cross ministry partner that is radically changing the lives of the poor in Haiti through evangelism, housing, nutrition, and education. The letter spotlights the tremendous work of the ministry’s dedicated staff, who, like Christian Light Foundation founders Emory and Mary Wilson, … Continue reading
Hope on Wheels
Twenty Buffalo bicycles just like the one you see here are now in the hands of volunteer health workers who will use them for making home visits to the chronically ill in rural Zambian villages. Cross held a special, one-time fundraiser for the bikes after we heard about an immediate need for transportation for the … Continue reading
A village transformed
These Zambian villagers are pumping clean, refreshing water from their new well that was installed last year through funding from Cross. The name of this remote village is Kalinda. It’s a traditional, close-knit African community that also happens to be very poor and has, for a long time, suffered from a lack of safe water. … Continue reading
Say Cheese!
I snapped this photo as I was being swarmed by a pack of school boys on a playground in rural Nicaragua, where Cross is working with Amigos for Christ to build clean water systems for the poor. The kids love to have their pictures taken, and they love to see their extreme close-up shots on … Continue reading
The importance of dignity
Is this the face of poverty? If I hadn’t been standing right there in this child’s Nicaraguan village, snapping her photo under a blazing hot sun while perspiration seeped through my clothes, I never would have guessed her difficult circumstances. I wouldn’t have known that she lives in a house with no bathtub, no toilet, … Continue reading
