|
|
|
When Hurricane George hit Pascagula, MS., the Cheer Up team
worked together with the Red Cross to help bring hope and comfort
to the suffering and needy. In January of 1999, when Hurricane
Mitch ravaged much of Central America, Cheer Up Mission
made their first trip abroad, in an effort to bring cheer, medical
treatment and humanitarian aid to the victims. Dr. Bob Guy and
his wife, Margarita, traveled with them and examined the children
in shelters while the Cheer Up team performed songs of comfort
and joy.
In the last two years, staff members and volunteers
of Cheer Up Mission have made 12 trips to Central and South
America (Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize, Cuba, Venezuela,
Ecuador & Peru) bringing medical aid and their faith-building
Musical/Clown and Magic Show to encourage people in their time
of need. During this time, Cheer Up Mission has shipped and
distributed 12 forty foot containers of medical aid, including
wheelchairs and hospital beds, and performed over 300 benefit
shows in hospitals, orphanages, and old folks homes.
Shortly after the January 18th earthquake in El
Salvador, Cheer Up Mission shipped off the first two of a number
of 40-foot containers of needed medical supplies, food, and
clothing for the victims. This shipment also included three
microsurgical projectors—equipment for viewing inside the
body. The team then flew to El Salvador to meet up with the
containers and oversee the distribution of the aid.
|
giveAID.jpg) |
orphan04.jpg)
Cathy giving this little boy some new clothes at Jardin de Amor
orphanage. At this particular institution, 30% of the children
had AIDS. |
kids.jpg)
Praying together at the end of one of our performances. |
Newspaper Article Links:
Other Articles:
On the ground in El Salvador
In the weeks following the earthquake, FCF Project "Refugio
de Paz," based in El Salvador, along with Cheer Up Mission, hosted
seven volunteers who came from the USA (Louisiana and Minnesota) to
help in the relief efforts. Some were medical students, one a Shriner
clown and the others missionaries. As part of this extensive Cheer
Up mission, we helped organize 18 presentations for the earthquake
survivors, which featured clown and puppet shows, skits and songs,
held in children's hospitals, orphanages, shelters, nursing homes,
and outlying villages. The Ministry of Health acknowledged that mental
and emotional healing is one of the greatest needs after a disaster
of this sort, and local television filmed one of our programs for
the evening news.
TVfilming.jpg)
Channel 4 filming our program and the reaction from the crowd. |
singing.jpg)
Refugio de Paz volunteers communicating comfort in song to
these precious needy people. |
Meanwhile we used the opportunity of the presentations
to distribute to the attendees items from the three 40-foot shipping
containers full of humanitarian aid shipped to El Salvador by Cheer
Up Mission: mattresses, clothes, food, wheel chairs and medical equipment.
The El Salvadorian military provided open flat bed trucks to transport
these items to different villages where the programs were presented.
truckin04.jpg)
One of the more memorable trips took us 3 hours through dust-laden
roads to a far away village devastated by the quake. |
Richard with homeless folks, after distributing to them beans,
rice, oil, laundry soap and clothes and blankets. |
KIDS.jpg)
Despair reflected in the faces of these two young boys |
skit.jpg)
Ken and Ben performing for the homeless at a tent shelter. |
Angiekids.jpg)
16-year-old Angie, bonding with the attendees after performing
in a skit. |
Praying together at the end of one of our performances. |
Cathy giving this little boy some new clothes at Jardin de
Amor orphanage. At this particular institution, 30% of the
children had AIDS. |
injured-boy.jpg)
Through prayer and the excellent care of the intensive care
staff, this little guy, who was buried underground in the
quake, survived. |
|
