Optimistic Voices
Vital voices in the fields of global health, global child welfare reform and family separation, and those intent on conducting ethical missions in low resource communities and developing nations. Join our hosts as they engage in conversations with diverse guests from across the globe, sharing optimistic views, experiences, and suggestions for better and best practices as they discuss these difficult topics.
Optimistic Voices
The Compelling Power of Altruism: Joy and Anger in the Face of Injustice.
When Barbara Sprout accompanied her daughter Kim to Sierra Leone on a mission trip with their church, little did she know it would mark the beginning of an incredible journey, not just for Kimberly, but also for her and her husband Rick, filled with deep connections and life-altering experiences. Rick joined a volunteer crew at the church to pack a container filled with hospital equipment in 2007 to ship overseas to Mercy Hospital in Africa, then traveled years later, humbled to see how his one mundane act had helped to save lives. Today's episode features the Sprouts as they recount their transformative work with Helping Children Worldwide, offering an intimate glimpse into the joy and fulfillment that comes from serving communities in Sierra Leone. From medical outreaches to family support, their heartfelt stories illustrate the profound impact of dedicated service and the visible progress achieved over a decade of commitment.
Have you ever considered the ripple effect your actions can have across the globe? The narrative unfolds as our guests share their engagement with Helping Children Worldwide, discussing the rewarding nature of building relationships and watching children thrive. The conversation takes us on a journey of growth, both personal and communal, showcasing the power of generosity to change lives and the evolution of child care from orphanages to family-focused support. Join us as we share inspiring anecdotes from mission trips and explore the true meaning of service, aiming to ignite a spark in others to discover the deep satisfaction found in helping others.
Helpingchildrenworldwide.org
Welcome to the Optimistic Voices podcast. My name is Emmanuel Nabil, commonly known as NAPS, and I am one of the regular hosts on this podcast. In today's episode, we are blessed to have two of our long-term supporters of this ministry. They are an amazing couple that I have come to know. I will have them introduce themselves.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Barbara Sprel. We are members of Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, virginia, and we've been involved with helping children worldwide for about 12 to 13 years.
Speaker 3:How I kind of got started was back in 2007, I think was the year when Floris was packing the semi-trucks with all of the hospital equipment. Oh yeah, and that was really my first experience way back when, and I'll never forget putting all of that hospital equipment on. Okay, and I think one of the things that starts me, and it often happens to a lot of us guys, is the women in our lives get involved in something and that draws us in. And so how I kind of got started is you know, Barbara and Kimberly had gone to a volunteer mission trip over a Christmas period and when I learned how it impacted them, it impacted me, and so then I started getting more involved.
Speaker 2:I remember our daughter was waiting to turn 18 because you had to be 18. And she asked me if I would go. And when your 18-year-old son or daughter asked you to do something halfway across the world to help others, you don't think twice. And so off we went, and that was life-changing for both of us.
Speaker 3:There's two stories. I really remember One. I had gone on one of the clinic outpatient visits to one of the villages, the medical outreach, the medical outreach and NABs.
Speaker 3:when we arrived there, there must have been 200 people who had come to that outreach and the first thing that really caught my attention was, before everything got started. There were 200 people that had spent hours getting there by foot and they started out with a devotion both in Muslim tradition and in Christian tradition. And I was just thinking in America you get there in 15 minutes to the doctors and then you're complaining that you're having to wait, and these people were joyful. It really was a wake-up experience. And then I think the other one that really impacted me is we went on a family visit to this really small little cement hut with no door and this family met us and the girl it was the student. She was dressed up, she was there to make an impression and the parents were so proud of her and of her going to school and her brothers and sisters were so proud of her. Seeing their sense of accomplishment when they had so little around them was also just really a reaffirmation that doing something is making a huge difference for people.
Speaker 2:I've been ever twice, once in 2010 and then, I guess, once in 2017. And it was quite a little bit different. 2010, we were there for vacation Bible school. It was very much in the compound of the Child Rescue Center. It was more of the orphanage residential model and spent a lot of time with the children, didn't get out into the far community as much.
Speaker 2:But I just remember going to church services and here everybody starts looking at their watch at about one hour into the service and there it's three to four hours if you're lucky. But it was just so joyful of an experience and you could just feel the Holy Spirit, god's presence. And I'll never forget coming back to our United Methodist Church and everybody's clapping so joyfully and I felt like I was in a funeral compared to the vibrant singing and celebration no-transcript, despite the extreme poverty that you see everywhere, people are joyful, they're willing to share whatever they have and that was my first experience. And then, of course, the second time we went, we went further out into the outreach. We saw the families that were supported by HCW and helping not only the child that was maybe put back into their family or reintegrated with that family, but how the support of the whole family was really that focus was starting to shift and again, like Rick said, they were just so proud of their children, their homes.
Speaker 3:I think Mercy Hospital also kind of really made an impression on me and it started because, you know, I did some of the loading of that equipment and when we went to visit Mercy and we walked around we saw that equipment there and the nurses that were treating patients there, I mean they were just so happy to have that equipment that it made a difference for how they were able to treat patients. And so you kind of saw yeah. I did something so mundane as loading equipment. It made a huge difference for these people here.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, and just to kind of piggyback on what Rick said, I came back here and I'm oftentimes reminded quick complaining. You know the choices that we have in the grocery store where there's no grocery stores there, waiting at the doctor's office. You know having to be on hold on the phone. Yeah, you know, it's just a reminder how much we have but yet how much we complain.
Speaker 3:I think two nabs I was thinking about the 2007 and loading the hospital equipment and I think sometimes in life you get a little knock on the door and you say yes to it. You don't know where it's really gonna take you, yeah, and then all of a sudden you're like doing more and getting more involved and getting closer to the people that are involved, and so sometimes you say yes to a little thing and it really grows into something much bigger than that. Yeah, and I think that's partially what happened.
Speaker 1:That's how God works with us in the mysterious ways, and sometimes the smaller things we do end up carrying the largest impact. It's awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you to you both. What joy have you found in all of these and that you would like others to experience that same level of blessing and joy in serving vulnerable children and families like the way you guys do?
Speaker 3:So it's interesting that you asked the question about joy, because I think part of what compels me is actually anger.
Speaker 1:Anger. Okay, Tell me more about that.
Speaker 3:So I really, when we were in Bo Okay, seeing that people don't have electricity, seeing the very simple thing of not having food when those things should be so easy to have, it made me angry. It kind of made me angry about why that economy had been so destroyed and made me angry for those people that were suffering, kind of, in my mind, needlessly. There's no reason in today's age why people shouldn't have electricity when they flip the switch. And I kind of keep using that because I don't know. It's the thing that sort of grabbed my attention. So I think a lot of times when we talk to people about why to participate, why we're still there yes, some of it that is about the joy and seeing those families impacted and those patients impacted, but a little bit of it is you got to kind of be a little ticked off about the injustice in that part of that country.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah thank you. Thank you. That's profound, Mrs Sprout. Any thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:You know, I have always thought one of my favorite scriptures says something about those who have much are expected to give much, and I think on some of our fundraisers I've used that scripture because we live in a very wealthy area and I think we are expected to do. And I think, for me, getting to know that HCW staff, seeing the children that we met over there or have sponsored grow into adults, it really brings home the fact that one person, together with others, can make a direct impact on somebody's life who may not have had any sort of hope when they started their lives and knowing that every dollar that we raise or people donate, it really does make a difference. It changes lives and that's a motivating factor for me. I'm always since I've been little, you know, I've always picked up worms off the sidewalk.
Speaker 2:I just have a heart for helping and and serving and seeing how we can make an impact. I want more people to have that joy and realize that you might not be able to solve world hunger, but you could solve a child's hunger and that's what keeps us, or me, motivated.
Speaker 3:I think it's also the other people we've met. You know, I think about all the people that we have been involved with in this mission, and one of those faces always smiles through to me is Bishop Yomisou, and I remember, you know this man. He would walk around Bo, and he had this smile that just invoked your participation.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I mean just think of the Morales and the Berlin's and the almonds and all of the other people who are very good friends of ours that we have, you know, worked with and experienced this together.
Speaker 2:For me a lot of it is. It has so expanded my small vision of the world. You know, I grew up in very, you know, in Lancaster, pennsylvania, with Amish people and everybody looked like me and I have really gotten to know people from a place in the world that I would have never dreamed to be involved with and it has just made my world so much better and bigger and I'm just a better person because because of whom I've met through helping children worldwide, the children, the staff, and just being involved with this wonderful organization that is doing good around the world.
Speaker 3:Well, I was thinking also. I remember it's been, I think, a year there was a mission team from Ohio, oh yeah, and I helped to drive them to the airport and you know they, a few of them had never been overseas, much less go to Africa.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And I remember there they were some nervous looks in those faces and some real concerns about what have I gotten myself into? And I knew in my heart everything's gonna be fine and I had remembered my own feelings of what have I got myself into. But I was there when they came back. And when they came back and got to the curb at Dallas Airport to unload their stuff and they were so happy and felt like they had done so much, all of those fears were totally dissolved and seeing how enriched their lives were by those two weeks was really incredible to see before and after.
Speaker 1:Wow, generosity people talk about that in the generosity, not necessarily financially, but just your service, your support, your prayers, thinking about your thoughts it's just one of those key components of happiness. It's very, very much critical to that, you know, just, it's important just seeing that, wow, I think I have the means, I think I'm able to make somebody smile, I'm able to help somebody. Somebody's life can become better a little bit just because of my, a little bit of my influence, which God has given me to do. And so it's very important that when people like you just decide to say you know what, I can make a difference. I don't have much, I, the little I have, I can bless somebody, somebody else, somewhere around the world. Some of these people you may not even meet, some of them you don't even know. So it's just very cool to be able to do that.
Speaker 3:I think it's also saying yes when you have a lot of trepidation, okay, right. So sometimes we say yes and we're like, oh my gosh, I don't know whether I really am up to this, yes, I don't know whether I really can do anything. I don't know that I have something to contribute. And it kind of really reminded me when I saw that Ohio trip come back. There were people that left thinking, ah, I don't really know what I can do here, and they came back with such a sense of they did do something, yeah. And so a lot of times I think people are fearful to step out. But when you step out with another group of people and when you step out with God on your side, great things happen, great things happen. And so I try to remember that story. When people are maybe fearful about becoming a missionary Go, just do it, it will work.
Speaker 1:Thank you, wow, thank you. Thank you very much. So again, yes, we are really. You guys are very instrumental in a play key role when the CLC transformed from an orphanage to a family care model. You know as a committer, you know as committed supporters of this ministry, you embrace this change.
Speaker 2:Well, I think one of the things that jumps out to me it's really maybe not quite answering this question, but when you think of the definition of an orphan. You know we had this conversation. What's an orphan? It's the white man's definition of a child that has no living relative or parents. Yeah, well, we have found out that 90% of the children in orphanages and I put that in quote have a living parent or relative. Yeah, that was just mind blowing to me.
Speaker 2:Never thought about it right, and If I would have never met you and had the discussion about moving from orphanages and understanding what, who made that word up? Who defined that word? And the conversation of, oh my gosh, this child has a parent that probably the only reason that they were in the orphanage was because of poverty, and that parent who would do anything for a child? Well, we parents would die for our children just to get them fed or clothed or get to school. I mean, that's all great, but that bond has to be kept. I don't even like when my children go on vacation, you know, without me, and to be separated is just beyond my comprehension. But you know what? I've heard the word orphanages, and there's bad orphanages and good orphanages, without even thinking that these children are separated from their parents and not by any choice of their own.
Speaker 3:I think just to sort of add on to that, I remember when Flores kind of really started this mission and Tom Berlin called for Flores to get involved and you know I frankly had never really had that much inside air experience around orphanages here in the US, much less overseas. But it sounded like the right thing to do. And, of course, bishop Yamaso, he asked for help and so he started down a path and we said, yes, we did good things and it made a difference for those children.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think that you learn as you go along the way and you learn maybe there's a different way of doing things and keeping your mind and your heart open to learning and having a different way of making a difference. It's really, it's part of what we all as Christians have to do. Yeah, and we did that, we learned and when I saw that family in that village that we went to visit, that father and that mother and the brothers and sisters were so proud of their sister and that was the embodiment of the family being surrounded to help that child be successful. Yeah, and so you know, you kind of live through those transitions and you may start out. It may not be exactly the right model, but you grow with it and you keep making a difference and you keep looking for a better way and that's what make transformations all about.
Speaker 3:A lot of times I'm at the HCW's table in the Northex in talking about people who might consider sponsoring a child, might consider going on a mission trip, and I think one of the things that kind of I like to emphasize is about being taking care of the Good Samaritans in the story of who's your neighbor, I think, like Barbara, when you take care of your neighbors in your subdivision, neighbors in your church, but you really remember that your neighbors are on the other side of the pond in Africa. Your neighborhood becomes so expansive and you become so rich because you are participating with your neighbors. So when Jesus said, who's your neighbor? They're here in my backyard, they're here in my church, but they're also over in Sierra Leone and say, yes, I can take care of your neighbor there, take care of your neighbor at home, but go get involved.
Speaker 2:Kind of saying what Rick said in another way. Just do it.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:My word is sustainability. Sustainability, okay, because you know it's an investment in the future and it's not just shoveling money at a problem. Yeah, and just one name. Many, many, many names, but think of Aruna. Much like you, somebody put some money on the table, somebody put time on the table. Aruna got visited by people. People cared about him and he knew that. Yeah, and money helped him go to school. Yeah, that young man is the doctor. He's the man taking care of people in Boe at Mercy Hospital. Yeah, and there's a lot of other names that I don't even know well, but this mission is about. It transforms and it lets those people then give back in Boe. Yeah, they're finding jobs, they're finding their ability to make their families sustainable, and so we're not just I don't know people think, you know, I just give donations and it doesn't do anything. Yeah, but it really is a sustainable model.
Speaker 1:Thank you Well, thank you. Thank you so much. We hope that you enjoy hearing Barbara and Rick sharing their experiences of being in partnership with Happy Children Worldwide. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Optimistic Voices. It's a big messy world out there and there's no shortage of need, but we here at Optimistic Voices believe that with radical courage and radical collaboration, together we can change the world. Thank you very much. Thanks, Taps. Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it with others, post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest from us, you can find us at Helping Children Worldwide on Instagram, linkedin, twitter and Facebook Hashtag Optimistic Voices Podcast.
