Face To Face: Praying with the 2007 CWS Calendar

SIMPLE PLEASURES
Brushing teeth is a daily routine most of us take for granted -- but not seven-year-old Mohammed, who has been living in a tent city where water can be scarce. He used to live in the thriving town of Balakot, situated in a stunning valley in northwestern Pakistan. Balakot is no longer. Mohammed's hometown was flattened in the October 2005 earthquake that devastated this region, leaving some 3 million people homeless.

CWS was one of the first relief organizations to reach survivors, some of them children who wandered into the refugee camps alone, having lost all their relatives. In the year and a half since the quake, CWS has been working to provide refugees with shelter, water, sanitation, schooling, CWS Health and School Kits, and medicine. It’s even organized children’s theater groups, as a way to help kids recover from the traumas they’ve experienced. “We had enormous success with similar children’s theater programs in Iraq,” explains CWS Communications Director Ann Walle. No matter the dislocation and pain they’ve suffered, children need to be children, and with a little encouragement, they can recover their delight in the world.

" It’s a constant battle for these survivors.”

Marvin Parvez, CWS Country Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan

	SIMPLE PLEASURES Brushing teeth is a daily routine most of us take for granted -- but not seven-year-old Mohammed, who has been living in a tent city where water can be scarce. He used to live in the thriving town of Balakot, situated in a stunning valley in northwestern Pakistan. Balakot is no longer. Mohammed's hometown was flattened in the October 2005 earthquake that devastated this region, leaving some 3 million people homeless. CWS was one of the first relief organizations to reach survivors, some of them children who wandered into the refugee camps alone, having lost all their relatives. In the year and a half since the quake, CWS has been working to provide refugees with shelter, water, sanitation, schooling, CWS Health and School Kits, and medicine. It’s even organized children’s theater groups, as a way to help kids recover from the traumas they’ve experienced. “We had enormous success with similar children’s theater programs in Iraq,” explains CWS Communications Director Ann Walle. No matter the dislocation and pain they’ve suffered, children need to be children, and with a little encouragement, they can recover their delight in the world. " It’s a constant battle for these survivors.” Marvin Parvez, CWS Country Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan
	Mohammed is adjusting to very difficult circumstances. When have you had to adjust to a sudden change in your life? How well were you able to cope? How is CWS assisting children like Mohammed to deal with all they’ve had to suffer?
	When the poor and needy seek water…I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. Is. 41:17-18
	God of refuge, bless Mohammed and those like him who have lost everything. Bless, too, the work of Church World Service and other agencies seeking to provide the basics of life: water, shelter, a tent, a toothbrush. May we never take our lives for granted, Lord, or assume that because we have enough, everyone else must have enough too. Open our hearts to your wounded world.
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