For the last couple of weeks, the interns and I have been all over the place.  We’ve been hanging out at Mission to Ukraine’s two summer camps, going to Banyas, and even taking trains all the way across Ukraine!

Lauren on the train out to our retreat in the Carpathian Mountains. Also, the photo at the top of the page is Krystallin.

We’re learning a ton about the Ukrainian people, about disabilities, about orphans, and especially about ourselves.  The only problem with all of this is that we’ve had next to no internet access the whole time.

Sure, I’ve been able to zip back to Zhytomyr for a night every now and then to send a few articles off to be posted on the website, but for the most part we’ve been completely in the dark.

Anyway, since I am not able to check the articles when they go live, I’ve made two big mistakes that I feel should be addressed.

First of all, the recent Culture Guide, “Surviving Dinner,” was not, in fact, written by me (as it indicated at the bottom of the article).  It was written by our intern Lauren Schneider!  It was a simple mistake on my part, but one that took a few days for me to notice.  Oops!

Sorry Lauren. 

Chris checking out some graffiti in the city of L’Viv. So far I haven’t messed up any of his articles. I suppose it’s just a matter of time!

The second mistake I’ve made is probably a bit more serious.  Krystallin’s recent article, “Curbs Without Ramps,” was a fantastic perspective on the limitations faced by those with disabilities in Zhytomyr.  Unfortunately, due to a mix up in files, I accidentally posted her first rough draft instead of the polished final version.

Once again, I didn’t realize my mistake until it was too late! While we were having a blast at camp, everyone back home was reading Krystallin’s rough draft.

Needless to say, with both of these mistakes I feel just terrible.  I just hope that our end-of-summer retreat in Italy will help the girls to forgive me. 

Anyway, thanks again for being such committed readers.  More powerful and engaging articles are on the way!

Stay tuned…

Well thanks to you, the readers of World Next Door, I was able to experience just that… when Marika got her very first camera.

The Marika Project

A little over a week ago, I wrote about a remarkable little girl at Mission to Ukraine who seemed to have a real talent for photography.  Her name was Marika.  Although blind in one eye due to a tumor when she was an infant, she radiates joy and life everywhere she goes.

Marika, a very talented little girl! (photo by Amy Gentry)

Watching her take pictures with my camera gave me the idea of giving used digital cameras to some of the kids at MTU’s summer camps to get their perspective on the week.  The plan is to post their best pictures here on World Next Door at the end of the summer so that you can share in their point of view.

Marika with her very first camera. (photo by Krystallin Baker)

I called the idea “The Marika Project,” and now it has officially begun!

The First Camera

Since posting the article, we have had four cameras donated (one of which has already made it to Ukraine!).  So, a few days after camp began, I presented Marika with her very first digital camera.

For someone like me who loves giving gifts, it was heaven.

After I placed the camera in her hand, Marika was stunned.  For a second, she couldn’t even look at the camera she was so surprised.  Her mother, standing behind her, was completely blown away.

Of course, for an outgoing girl like Marika, it only took a few moments before the shock wore off.  Within minutes, she was snapping pictures like she’d been doing it for years.  People, buildings, flowers… I can’t wait to see her pictures when the week is through!

I’ll continue to keep you posted as the other cameras are given out. And there is still a bit more time for those of you interested in donating your camera (see below for more info).

For now, enjoy the video of Marika getting her very first camera!

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If you would like to participate in the Marika Project, please sign up below. We’ll be in touch with you soon with more details.

MTU’s new playground is a beautiful place for kids to play!

The commissioning was great.  One of the classes of disabled children put on a little skit, we sang songs, there were snacks… But one of the coolest things happened when I met a little girl named Marika.

Before the ceremony began, I was goofing off with a few of the kids; doing magic tricks, taking pictures, making silly faces… At one point, I impulsively decided to let one of the little girls use my camera.  I put the strap around her neck, showed her which button to push, and let her snap away.

To my surprise, she seemed to know what she was doing.  She was framing pictures well, reviewing her shots after she had taken them… she was a natural!

Marika (right) with her classmates before the ceremony.

Her name, as I found out later, is Marika.  She is six years old.  She was born with a malignant tumor in her head, causing her to lose vision in her left eye.  Although the tumor is now gone, the doctors say she must always live with the chance that it could return.

It’s a sad story, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at her.  Marika’s playful smile is contagious. Her energy and life is evident in the way she runs and laughs and plays.  Marika is still a six year old girl, and no disability can keep her from living that out.

After the ceremony, Marika ran up to me and said “Photografia!”

I thought she wanted her picture taken, so I lifted the camera to my eye.

“Nyet, nyet, nyet…” she said with a smile, and held out her hand. She wanted to take the pictures.

What else could I do?  I put the strap around her neck and watched as she snapped more photos.

One of Marika’s photos. It’s hard not to smile when she’s the one taking the picture!

As Marika walked around the new playground taking pictures of people, I was struck with an idea.  What if she had a camera of her own?  What if Marika could take pictures of her life?  Of her world?

Then my imagination started running a little wild.  What if a bunch of the kids at MTU’s upcoming summer camps had cameras?  What if they documented the camps from their perspective?  That would be an awesome way to show just how powerful their summer programs can be!

And of course, within seconds, it already had a name… The Marika Project!

Another shot by Marika. I’m telling you. This girl has a gift!

It’s a very do-able idea.  All it will take is a few donated digital cameras to get it started.

But gee… Where in the world could I find a bunch of used digital cameras? (That’s sarcasm by the way…) 

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got an older digital camera collecting dust in your closet right now.  Would you consider giving it as a gift to Mission to Ukraine?

With your help, we can get cameras into the hands of Marika and her friends, we can give them an opportunity to express themselves, and we can show off the fantastic work of MTU in a brand new way.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see the look on Marika’s face when she holds her very first camera…

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If you would like to participate in the Marika Project, please sign up below.  We’ll be in touch with you soon with more details.

To my surprise, it was Jole, who I had written about at the end of my New York trip!  (Click here to read the article)

In the article, I talked about my experience taking Jole to The Bowery Mission.  Jole, who had been homeless for more than a decade, was ready to turn his life around and begin the six-month program there.

As he checked into the Bowery, I knew that the odds were against him.  With the beautiful summer weather outside and his newly kicked habit of cigarette smoking, it was going to be very hard for Jole to stay committed to the program.

But there, on the phone, was a man who had overcome those odds.

Sure, he had only been staying at the Bowery Mission for a month and a half, but his life had already been changed forever.  In fact, he had accompanied the Bowery’s director, Tom Basile, to the Relief Bus staff meeting to tell his story of transformation.

We didn’t get to talk long.  Just enough to exchange a few words of greeting.  I tried to express how excited I was for him, but for the most part, I was simply speechless.

I’ll admit.  In my heart, I had definitely entertained some doubts about whether Jole would stick around.  But as I hung up the phone, I realized something significant…

The odds don’t matter to God.

We’ve been reading a stack of books in preparation for the trip.  We’ve been raising money.  We’ve been brushing up on our Slavic languages…

But now, it’s time to commission the team.  To cover the four of us in prayer as we embark on a new adventure half-way around the globe…

That is why you are invited to join us for our 2010 Intern Commissioning Party!

Here’s why you should come:

• Free coffee and desserts!!!
• Face-to-face interactions with the team
• Cool background music
• A chance to pray for and commission our summer interns
• A thrilling trivia game about the Cossacks! (tentative)

Here are the details:

• Date: Sunday, May 30, 2010
• Time: 7:00pm-8:30pm
• Location: Grace Community Church (5504 E 146th St, Noblesville, IN 46062)
• Room: Student Ministries East

To RSVP, please head over to the event’s Evite page and sign up!  If you have any questions, please email me at barry@worldnextdoor.org.

Don't you want to meet these three?

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We hope to see you there!

And as much as people enjoy our articles and photo galleries, there are a couple of things that I hear pretty regularly… Some people don’t understand how best to interact with our articles and not many people understand that World Next Door is more than an online magazine!

More than just an online magazine!

So, in an attempt to help people develop a better understanding of how World Next Door works, I want to lay out a few simple things that you may not actually know…

Interacting with World Next Door

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Links

I understand that some of our readers are not particularly tech savvy, so I want to point something out that might help you get a lot more out of our magazine…

Have you read our old articles from Ukraine?

Did you know that whenever you see red text in one of our articles, it’s a “link” to another page or website?  Clicking on these links will take you to related articles, informative web pages or illustrative videos.  Try it!

Email Subscriptions

Now, if you’re like me, you have a hard time remembering to visit websites and blogs.  Even if you add World Next Door to your Bookmarks, it’s easy to let it slip from your mind.

That’s why we offer email subscriptions to our article content.  If you sign up for email subscriptions (did you notice the link there?), we will send you a short reminder email every time we post new content on the website.  That way, you never have to remember to visit.  We’ll remind you!

Old Content

Did you know that every article ever written for World Next Door is still right here on the website?  If you’ve just recently begun following us, you’ve missed out on a lot of great stuff!

There are several ways to look up past articles.  You can simply browse the archives, which list all the articles sequentially or by month, you can look through our trip recaps, which have links to every article written on each of our trips, or you can even browse our articles by the issues they cover.
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More Than A Magazine

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As I mentioned above, World Next Door is not just an “online social justice travel magazine.”  Sure, it’s a major aspect, but we have other important ways of accomplishing our mission of turning ordinary people into wild-eyed social justice revolutionaries…

Justice Seminars

We can help you connect.

After traveling all around the world,  reading stacks of books on relevant subjects and interviewing a whole range of different kinds of people for this website, our journalists have become pretty knowledgeable about the inner workings and dynamics of the issues we cover.

Because of this, World Next Door offers Justice Seminars to help your church, business, small group or short term trip team get engaged.

Justice “Consultations”

One of the great things about traveling all over the world and interacting with a whole range of organizations is that we now have trusted friends and partners in just about every region of the world covering just about every issue you can think of.

But we realize that you don’t necessarily have that luxury.  So when you or a friend or family member wants to get involved with, say, a ministry helping orphans in Africa or an organization working with water purification in Central America, you might not know where to start.

That’s where we come in.  We can help get you plugged in with organizations that fit perfectly with what you care about.

If you want to talk with one of our journalists one-on-one, please email us at info@worldnextdoor.org.  We’ll set up a phone call or even a meeting over coffee to help make your dreams a reality!
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Join us!

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As you can see, World Next Door is more than just a magazine!  And now, as we prepare to move into a new season of discovery and exploration, we want you to be a part of the team.

Subscribe to our newsletter for the inside scoop, volunteer your time and energy, or even support us financially!

We really can make a radical difference in the world… but it begins with that first, small step.

And now, as we begin our preparations for the summer, I’d like to introduce you to our team of interns and give you a way to support them yourself!

Chris Cambell

Chris is a graduating senior majoring in Communication Studies at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. While we are in Ukraine, he will be working with a ministry called Last Bell.  Their mission in the city of Zhytomyr is to be an advocate for orphaned children who are at major risk of falling into drugs, alcohol and prostitution once being released from the ineffective  government orphanages.

Chris Cambell

Chris will spending his days with the orphans in Last Bell’s Shelter and Haven programs, writing articles focusing on the issues of cultural stigmas attached to orphans and the mentality of abandonment.

I am personally thrilled to see how he will capture the stark realities and unmistakable hope that exists among that community of “at-risk” teens…

Lauren Schneider

Lauren Schneider

Lauren is a sophomore Journalism major at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.  She will be spending her summer working with our partner ministry, Mission to Ukraine. MTU helps disabled orphans and provides crisis pregnancy counseling to stem the extraordinary tide of abortions in Zhytomyr.

Lauren’s focus for the summer will be on women’s rights in a post-soviet culture. Part of this will include a focus on Mission to Ukraine’s work with pregnant teens, but will also include their work with spousal abuse, widows and financial insecurity in single-parent homes.

It’s exciting to think about how Lauren will open our eyes to what real life is like in Zhytomyr and how God is working there…

Krystallin Baker

Krystallin Baker

Krystallin is a junior Communication Studies major at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.  She will also be spending her summer with Mission to Ukraine, but her focus will be on their work with physically and developmentally disabled children.

From physical therapy sessions to home visits to trips out to the Romaniv Disabled Boys Orphanage, Krystallin will be focusing in on the plight of this incredibly ostracized community and the amazing dignity they are receiving through the work of Mission to Ukraine.

I can’t wait to see what new aspects of the kingdom of God will be opened up to each of us this summer!

Want to be a part?

Now, do you want to be a part of these interns’ experiences for the summer?

Right now, each intern is in the process of raising $5000 to cover their expenses for the summer.  For a poor college student, that’s a lot of money!  But you and I can help make this internship a reality for the team.

I have already supported each of them financially (I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to invest in these fantastic young leaders!).  Now would you consider doing the same?

Please head over to our Give page and donate now!

Or, if you’d like to receive support letters from Chris, Lauren and Krystallin, please give us your address below and they’ll mail you their letters.

Thanks for thinking about investing in the lives of these three awesome people!!!

If so, you are invited to join us for the first World Next Door Justice Seminar on April 17 called “Journey Towards Justice.”

The seminar will be an interactive time of exploration as we look into the root causes and dynamics of global poverty, as well as the solutions that are working around the world.

I will be sharing stories from my own travels, showing thought-provoking video clips, leading discussions and providing lots of information on how you can connect with the issues that resonate with your heart. If you’ve ever wanted to get a better grasp on what causes and sustains global poverty and what can be done about it, this is the place to be!

Here are the details:

Date:  Saturday, April 17

Time:  9:00am-12:00pm

Venue:   Grace Community Church (North Auditorium)

5504 E 146th St

Noblesville, IN 46062

Cost: $5 at the door

To register, please go to the Grace Community Church website (click here).

If you have any questions about the event, please email us at info@worldnextdoor.org.

I hope to see you there!

]]> http://www.worldnextdoor.org/2010/04/journey-towards-justice/feed/ 1 http://www.worldnextdoor.org/2010/03/what%e2%80%99s-next/ http://www.worldnextdoor.org/2010/03/what%e2%80%99s-next/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:00:08 +0000 Barry Rodriguez http://www.worldnextdoor.org/?p=3267 If you’ve been reading World Next Door for the past week or so, you’ve seen that this particular trip has stirred up an incredible amount of discussion, reflection and action.  My experience living homeless for four days on the streets of New York City seems to have touched off something deep within our readers.

From conversations I’ve had to comments on the website to emails I’ve received, it’s obvious that people are worked up.

One of NYC’s thousands of homeless people.

Perhaps it’s because American homelessness hits so much closer to home.  We all feel bad about children starving in Haiti or massive slums in Kenya, but homelessness is something we see every day.  Every time we walk past a homeless person on the street we have a choice thrust into our faces; to act, to speak or to do nothing.

And while I would argue that it is just as important to commit our lives to the healing of international issues of injustice, I also see this as a fantastic opportunity to delve even deeper into a place that we all need to grow.

Off to the Bowery

That is why, for the next week, I will be continuing my exploration into the causes and effects of homelessness by living in the Bowery Mission in downtown Manhattan.

The Bowery is an old and respected homeless shelter in the city, and should be a source of some incredible new learning opportunities for each of us.  Check out this video to see a little more about what they do:

Now, I will not be living as a homeless person this time.  Instead of walking around quietly with a dour expression on my face to hide my identity, I’ll be my usual, happy self… asking lots of questions and hopefully learning a lot about what goes on behind those doors.

I hope to spend lots of time with individual people, learning their stories and sharing those with you here on World Next Door.

Stay Tuned!

Be sure to check back in all this week and next for more articles, photo galleries and stories from the streets of New York City.

Oh, and if you haven’t had a chance to read all of the articles I wrote while living homeless last week, be sure to check them out here:

On the Streets

A few updates as I prepare to live homeless on the streets of New York City…

Click here to read this article…

On the Streets: Day One

On my first day living homeless in Manhattan I developed a whole new perspective on panhandling.

Click here to read this article…

On the Streets: The Station

After sleeping on the floor of Penn Station for a night, I learned how important it is to remember the invisible…

Click here to read this article…

On the Streets: The Shelter

After two nights living in a homeless shelter, I’ve had my understanding of homelessness totally changed…

Click here to read this article…

On the Streets: Alone

After four days on the streets of NYC, I’m realizing how disconnected the homeless can become from everyone else…

Click here to read this article…

I’ve met some fascinating people and learned a ton about the world.  These experiences have shaped who I am as a person and have totally reoriented my perspective on issues of social justice and the kingdom 0f God.

Well, now I am about to start a new experience that will undoubtedly affect me deeply.

The Plan

Starting tomorrow, I will be living on the streets of New York City for four days and four nights.  My goal is to experience, if only for a short while, what life is like for the many homeless men and women in our nation.

I will not bring any money with me.  Any food I eat will be from money I get panhandling or from visiting shelters.  I will be sleeping at least two nights with other homeless people on the streets (I have been told where to look) and will also be checking myself in to one of the many homeless shelters in Manhattan.

I have a feeling that the sight of The Relief Bus is going to be rather uplifting each day!

Each day I will be meeting up with the Relief Bus wherever it happens to be in the city and sending off short day-by-day accounts from my time on the streets.  I will include a few pictures, but I hope you understand that I will not be taking my nice camera with me this time.

A few caveats

Now, I want to make sure I clear a few things up before beginning this experience.  It would be easy to misinterpret what I am doing.  So, with that in mind, here are a few caveats…

#1 – This experience will not make me fully understand what it’s like being homeless. It just won’t.  For one thing, I know that my time on the streets will have an end. For another, I have a whole bunch of safety nets in place.

I’ll have my old cell phone in case of emergencies.  I’ll have a ton of people praying for me.  And I’ll always have the opti0n of just taking the subway back to New Jersey if I decide to give up.  Truly homeless people don’t have that choice.

A photo of me last week outside The Relief Bus.

The experience will undoubtedly open my eyes, but when I’m done there will still be so much more to learn.

#2 – I absolutely do not want to be exploitative in this. I could see how someone would look at what I’m doing and think of me as some reckless young guy out looking for adventure.  And I could see how that would appear to cheapen or degrade the experience for people who are truly suffering with homelessness.

But that is not my intention at all.  I am doing this to get a glimpse of a life that I don’t yet fully grasp and to share what I learn with you, our readers.  I will be doing this to learn and to serve… to bring awareness of the reality of life on the streets so that others (including myself) can more accurately love and care for people in that position nationwide.

#3 – I am doing this with the blessing of The Relief Bus staff. I have discussed my plan at length with them and they are aware of what I’ll be doing and where I’ll be going.  They have been extremely supportive, and many have even expressed jealousy that I get to have this learning opportunity!

So I am not going into this alone…

What I need from you

How I look right now. Hopefully a little less gentle!

The biggest thing I need from you right now is prayer.  There are plenty of unkn0wns heading into this and I am definitely a bit apprehensive about just what I’ll experience.  If you could remember to pray for me a few times this week, I would be very grateful.

The second thing I need from you is understanding.  I know that I won’t touch on every issue you care about here.  I may even come to some conclusions that you flat out disagree with.  But please bear with me through it all.  I am learning as I go along.

Finally, I need your attention!  For this experience to bear any fruit, I need you to stay tuned to World Next Door… to let the things I learn and experience mess you up and get you into the game.  Remember guys, I am not doing this for me.

I’ll be posting occasional updates via Twitter while I am on the streets, so feel free to follow me (www.twitter.com/barryrod) if you want to keep up with it all.

Off I go

And with that, I’ll say goodbye.  By this time tomorrow, I will be on the streets of Manhattan.  I can’t wait to see what God has in store!