We Just Wanted to Help Her
Posted On: May 09 2008
You may have heard about how two Central Washington University softball players literally carried a player on the opposing team around the bases so she could be credited with a home run. Central Washington and Western Oregon were competing in an NCAA Division II conference tournament to determine which of the two teams would represent the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in the regional tournament with hopes of going on to the College World Series.
The diminutive Sarah Tucholsky, just 5 ft. 2 inches tall, found herself at bat in a crucial time of the game, with two runners on base. She had played sparingly her senior year, having had a total of just 3 hits in 34 plate appearances. Now, for the first time ever in her playing career, she struck the ball solidly and sent it over the fence in center field, giving her team an apparent 3-run lead. However, while watching the trajectory of the ball she missed touching first base. A few steps away from the base she turned to correct this oversight. As she did, her right knee buckled. It was later determined that she had torn an anterior cruciate ligament.
In pain, and unable even to crawl around the bases, it was obvious that her first ever home run would be relegated at best to a single, with a pinch runner replacing her on the base path. Knowing the rules, her coach, made certain that no one on the Western Oregon team or coaching staff touched Tucholsky, who was writhing in pain, because by rule she would be called out.
It was then that Mallory Holtman, the first baseman for Central Washington, a senior herself who has hit several home runs during her career and who owns just about every all-time hitting record for her school, spoke up. “Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each base?” With a possible bid for a national championship for her team hinging on her decision, she came forward to help a player she knew only as an opponent.
The umpires huddled and finally determined that it would be OK for the opposing team to help the injured player around the bases. So Holtman and one of her teammates picked up Tucholsky and carried her around the remaining bases, pausing for her to gently tap her uninjured leg on the base bag.
Upon reaching home plate, both teams were in tears, fans were crying while applauding the sportsmanship they were witnessing, and even the umpires were choked up. The game ended with Western Oregon winning, and Tucholsky’s home run providing the difference. Mallory Holtman said, “we didn’t know that she was a senior, or that this was her first home run. WE JUST WANTED TO HELP HER. It’s really not about winning and losing. She hit it over the fence and she deserved a home run.”
I hope we can all take inspiration from this story when it comes to helping others. There are so many people in need. They may not be on our team. They may not share our viewpoints and they may actually be working to defeat our own ideals. But when we see someone in pain, regardless of who they are, I would hope that we, like Mallory Holtman, would pick them up and give them a helping hand.
No Different From Your Own Child
Posted On: April 24 2008
We have discussed a number of issues in this blog that relate to poverty and victimization. What I would like to address today is a different, yet highly active kind of human victimization. The victimization I refer to is a multi-billion dollar industry that has been described by an Immigration and Customs enforcement officer as “on a path to overtake drug and arms trafficking” in terms of profits. Its victims are the nearly 1 million people who are sold as sex slaves every year and trafficked across international borders. Eighty percent of these victims are female and up to 50 percent are minors.
Human sex trafficking is an international problem involving almost every country in the world as a source, transit, or destination country. The United States, Japan, and Australia are the leading destination countries, while most of children sold into the global sex trade every year come from Asia, Africa, and South America. They come mostly from places where the problems of poverty, violence, and political conflict are strong fodder for human exploitation. Often they are kidnapped or orphaned, and sometimes they are actually sold by their own families, who themselves are on the brink of starvation and will do anything they can to scrape up enough resources to buy food. For these children, exploitation usually includes forced prostitution, participation in pornography, and other forms of sexual torture and humiliation.
According to David and Beth Grant, co-founders of Project Rescue, these children become so traumatized that they “move beyond hatred and into a hardened state of detachment; the light in their eyes visibly turned off. The dignity, with which we are all born, stripped from their souls.” Sold by someone they loved and trusted, these young women and girls find themselves trapped in a condition over which they have no control, wanting to escape but unable, craving love and affection where none is to be found. If given a chance they would rather play. And in this regard, they are NO DIFFERENT FROM YOUR OWN CHILD.
These kinds of victims need so much more than tangible help. They need restoration of the soul, reacquisition of meaning and purpose in life. And this is precisely the design of Project Rescue. The Grants have opened several Homes of Hope (in India, Nepal and Moldova.) These are places of safety that provide a holistic environment attending to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the girls who have been rescued from brothels and other places of sexual servitude. In addition to the Homes of Hope, Project Rescue also operates Vocational Training Centers, After-school Programs, Night Care Centers, and HIV/AIDS Medical Clinics.
If you would like to know more about Project Rescue please visit their website at www.projectrescue.com. I wholeheartedly endorse this program whose purpose it is to restore the lives of today’s young sex slavery survivors by giving them the love and ongoing support they need to restore dignity and bring meaning and purpose to their lives.
Program Accomplishments
Posted On: March 17 2008
In 1998, Convoy of Hope launched its international relief efforts. In addition to responding to natural disasters around the world, Convoy of Hope also has ongoing feeding and water purification programs in 20 countries. Convoy of Hope provides food for some 30,000 families in third world countries daily.
After the Asian tsunami of 2004, Convoy of Hope provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of victims, mainly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India. Shipments containing food, school supplies, tools for helping workers get back into jobs, water purification systems, and many other items were sent into the hardest-hit areas. Convoy of Hope also organized many volunteer construction teams who worked on homes, schools, businesses, and churches.
Convoy of Hope is noted as a first responder to U.S. disasters. When four hurricanes struck Florida in 2004 in rapid succession, Convoy was one of the first agencies on the ground. As a result, the organization received considerable press coverage. On September 8, 2004 in the wake of Hurricane Frances, President George W. Bush visited one of Convoy’s distribution sites in Fort Pierce, Florida. The President had this to say about Convoy of Hope. “The people here tell me that if it weren’t for you they would not have had hope.”
Convoy of Hope is still helping victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In fact, Convoy of Hope was cited in USA Today (July 19, 2007) as one of the top 7 faith-based relief organizations still active in helping victims of Katrina in Gulf Coast communities. To date, Convoy of Hope has distributed over 800 semi-truck loads of food water, and other relief supplies and helped 5.7 million people in 74 communities in the gulf. Convoy of Hope has also organized volunteer construction teams to help rebuilt/restore over 3,000 homes.
Ministry Needs
There are many ways to help Convoy of Hope fulfill its stated purpose of helping those in need. Please visit Convoy of Hope’s website at http://www.convoyofhope.org for up to date information on current needs.