Project Mercy

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40 

 
As I was checking out the news portion of the LDS church website, I came across something referring to ATMIT, the nutritious supplement used in several countries to fight hunger and famine. Wanted to know more, I did some research and discovered that it has its connection with Marta Gabre-Tsadick of Ethiopia, the founder of Project Mercy. 


In 1977, Marta Gabre-Tsadick, and her husband, Demeke Tekle-Wold, (photos of the two) and their dear friends, Pastor Charles and Fran Dickinson, established Project Mercy, Inc., an organization dedicated to providing emergency relief aid, educational assistance, and refugee relocation help to African refugees.  In the 1980s through the 1990s, Marta initiated innovative food and sewing programs that enabled Project Mercy to distribute food and clothing to hundreds of thousands of starving, needy refugees from Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, and Ethiopia.


ATMIT was developed by Marta and today is supplementing the diets of children in several countries. An LDS church website made this comment about ATMIT.

"Atmit is an excellent source of nutrition," said Elder James W. Hansen, M.D., Ph.D., a medical adviser and a missionary for the Church Welfare Services Department. "It is a milk-containing oat-flour-based nutritional product that is a good complement to whatever nutrition might be available from local sources. It has been used successfully as a well-tolerated food in some cases of extreme starvation. It encourages self-reliance by requiring some preparation by the consumer and the availability of water and fuel for cooking."

Atmit also contains sugar, salt and supplemental vitamins and minerals. The formula was recently improved by Elder Hansen and Dr. Michael L. Dunn, Ph.D., a professor from the BYU Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science (see related article). A single serving provides 34 percent of the recommended daily allowance of protein, 43 percent of calcium, 99 percent of iron, and high percentages for a dozen vitamins and minerals for children under 5 years old. This formula helps them maintain some nutrition over a short period of time until crops are harvested and they can again thrive on a regular family diet.

For $6 dollars, US, this will feed a child for a month. What a value and what a wonderful use of our fast offering!

Volunteerism

We had a hospital auxiliary meeting on Monday evening.  One of the projects they needed help with was sewing Christmas stockings to put the babies in December in for their homecoming. I don't have a lot of time but wanted to assist this this project so took home two stocks. They are pretty cute and not hard to sew. I think I will look up the number of December births in 2010 to see how many are actually needed. My friend Mickie is also doing this project.

There is always a concern with how well the auxiliary is doing, we don't usually have many members attend the meetings but this meeting was the exception. There were about 30 there. We played a game called "Lucky Buck" where baskets are bid on. It was quite fun and an excellent fund raiser. I think over $300 was taken in on the game. All of the proceeds from fund raisers and membership go toward special projects for the hospital. I was quite impressed with what we were able to accomplish the fund raising. I will have to make some calls to find out what the projects were that the fundraising paid for.

Home for a few hours this morning before heading in to work a bit. Yesterday we completed the historical society fall newsletter and will mail that today. It is always a bit of a challenge to put together the newsletter. Right now we have so many things on our plate with the upcoming exhibit.
Britt spent the day working with the Sentence to Serve crew setting up our new exhibit platforms. They will be in again this morning. We have two new exhibits, a church exhibit and a parlor, music exhibit. It is a good thing we have the equipment we have to be able to do an exhibit such as this.
We do not have all of our exhibit poster designed yet. Have some of the info but not all of it. I would like to see us have more local photos but those don't seem to be coming in like we had hoped. Thank goodness we have photos from the Roseau Times Region from many years ago.

I just finished talking to James and Ashley. She is due to have their little boy in the beginning of February. They are very excited about that and have even considered the names already.

 They go to an English speaking branch for church. There is about fifty or sixty members from many nationalities including the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. On Monday they went to the temple. I hear the Hong Kong temple is beautiful.

Thought for the day:
"I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil." — Deuteronomy 30:15
"The Lord has left no doubt in defining His side and where the Saints should be in their thoughts, words, actions and practices. We have His counsel in the scriptures and in the words of the prophets. To ancient Israel, the Lord said through Moses: 'I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil' (Deuteronomy 30:15). The Lord counseled His prophet Jeremiah to instruct the people: 'Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death' (Jeremiah 21: 8). That is the contrast; that is the choice. Either we are on the Lord's side of the line or on the side of the adversary," said the late Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin during a CES ( Church Educational System) devotional on Aug. 2, 1992 (Ensign, March 1993).
"The line between those who are on the Lord's side and those who follow the adversary has been with us from the beginning. Even before the creation of this world ... [and] has persisted throughout the history of mankind and will continue until the day of judgment when Jesus comes again in His glory."
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/61456/A-thought-from-the-scriptures.html

Fall's Arrival

This summer complimented us with some of the nicest weather we have had for several years but like all good things it came to end last week when the temperatures plummeted thirty degrees and sent a killing frost.Our soybeans were spared damage only because they were the first crop we planted this spring. They will be ready harvest this week.

It is hard to believe that it has already been three weeks since I returned from my week in California. It went by so fast! It was the last time to see James and Ashley for quite a while. James had spent three weeks in Albuquerque in reserve working with his former unit with Ashley arriving the second week. They spent the last week in LA putting together their final shipping items. They have been staying at Cathay Pacific's hotel at the Hong Kong international airport where they have three months of time to locate an apartment. He is in ground school there now and received his roster for next month, his first flight with Cathay is to... Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Needless to say, he is very excited.

First thing, upon flying into LA, was to rent a car and head north to Michelle's and visit the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It was the first time I had seen our 18 month old granddaughter Keria and of course she was adorable. Breanne and I spend Monday in their pool. Damen and I enjoyed the time together. I found out that he loves to splash everyone and even enjoys being splashed himself.

Our sweet little Keria!

Keria and Grandma

The time went by way too fast and on Tuesday am, the highway beaconed and I was driving back to Brian's in LA.  That evening, Brian, James, Ashley and I went to dinner, something we did almost every night except the night Brian made us a fabulous chicken dinner.

We did spend one day at the beach. This sea gull decided to land about 10 feet from us. The day was beautiful and the surf something else! I am waiting for the photos the guys took of me with the surf behind me. Several people said the surf was the highest they had ever seen it. I walked out several times and when it came in a couple of time, the back flow took so much sand out from under my feet, I almost lost my balance.

Ashley and James enjoying their meal.

Ashley, James, me, and Brian at the Mexican restaurant on the last night.

Friday night, everyone wanted Mexican. I guess they don't have many Mexican restaurants in Hong Kong. This doesn't surprise me.We each had something different, but really didn't share much as we were too hungry. The night before James, Ashley, a friend of Ashley's and I went to dinner in Old Pasadena. We ate at this Argentine restaurant and I had a wonderful steak. When I am in LA, we hardly ever cook, just eat out. The variety of places to eat are endless which makes it such fun.

 We spend as much time together as possible, considering James and Ashley had many things to take care of with this being their last week of life as they knew in it the U.S.. On Saturday, it was on the two planes, one bound for Fargo ND and the other to Hong Kong, as James and Ashley entered a new phase of their life together.

Relay for Life

This year's Relay for Life was on August 12 at the Roseau City Park. The YaYa gang has their stall in the shelter on the far west near a parking lot. This is sure handy when we bring our things in.
Lots of people attended and the evening was very nice. I don't think any of the group was missing and the pot luck was delish!

This Relay for Life event honored both those who have had cancer and are survivors and those who did not survive. Within the past month, one of the families in our group had lost a loved one to cancer. A few years ago, another member had a son-in-law pass away. The luminaries tell the story of those who are now missing.My mother is one, although she was a breast cancer survivor who live an additional 30 years after having a breast removed.

JamesUpdate.

Spoke to James this morning. He has spent the past two days taking his finals for Cathay Pacific Airlines. He received his assignment, he will be flying a  A340 Airbus. He was first told a 747 but this was recently changed. He likes the routes for the Airbus, it flies to San Francisco and Vancouver in North America. He does not know where he will be stationed so that is still to come. He has about three months of more training in Hong Kong prior to this. Some is ground school.
It is another beautiful day in the neighborhood as Mr. Rodgers use to say. We have had a fabulous summer and it seems to continue to be that way. I am excited about the forecast for the Thursday, August 25, we are to have another nice day. We are hosting the singing group The WoodPicks at the Gazebo in Roseau. They play an acoustic mix of Gospel, Bluegrass/Country and Americana music, as well as their own songs. The first time I heard them was at the county fair this year. Great fun! Five talented guys!

Family Reunion

The past three weeks were so busy. Michelle and Dave spent a week with us in July during the Roseau County Fair. Between visiting, going to the fair, and keeping up on the yard work, the week just flew.It had been several years since Michelle was home, and Dave had never been to the farm so it was great to have them both here.
Summer is her best time to do things like this as she is out of school and her students cut back on lessons so she has more free time. It will be back to school for her within a week. I think several of her music students have already started school so she is teaching more again. School starts in early August at most schools in California. They have longer breakers at other times of the year.


Today Brian and his friend, Frank, start a week-long hike in Yosemite. I would love to go along but I don't think I am capable to doing something like that anymore!  They did suggest I come out and spend a couple of days at the Meadows where they would be camping at one time. Yosemite is one of our favorite places to visit when I go to see everyone. Last time James and Michelle did the bike riding thing. She said it was great fun going off the road and onto a trail where you see things you don't otherwise.


Last weekend was the Ross Family Reunion in Grand Rapids. I had planned on spending three days but was ill on Friday so didn't go until Saturday. There were about seventy of us, mostly the Minnesota clan. My Uncle Ron from Oregon has been in the Range area since my Aunt Renee passed away and at Uncles Bryce's for several weeks. It was great to see both of them and the cousins. Bob and Marie had vacation time and encouraged Beth to bring Jon. I hadn't seen my nephew Jon in years. It was great seeing everyone.  This year we were at Shelly's lovely home on Prairie Lake with fabulous weather. The kids tubed and fished and, of course, we all ate way too much!