Kim, Darryl, Grant and I did 5 events yesterday. Eastern Mennonite School chapel (300 students) Eastern Mennonite University Chapel (70) Brownbag lunch hour at Gift and Thrift Shop with volunteers and staff (20) Seniors at Virginia Menn Retirement Community ( 25), and finally, an evening concert at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church (120 people). Wonderful people everywhere.
A woman at the Retirement Center approached Kim and said ... she so appreciated the fact that our work and our faith in Christ were very clearly connected, and the song Be Thou My Vision, for her, was the theme of how and why we do what do.
Kim and Darryl's music, at the Harrisonburg Menn Church, as at all the concerts, was warm, engaging ... people respond with joy and appreciation ... at every place.
Today we did an hour's program at Mennohaven Seniors Home (Penn Hall), where a woman who is 91, came to Kim and Darryl after the program and told them she LOVES Kim's voice and the supporting guitar and harmony of Darryl. They make a great "combination" she said.
This evening was a concert at a BIC Church in Chambersburg. Not a big crowd, but they were very supportive and very interested. Maybe one of the more enthusiastic responses we have had. May be invited back to this area, in November for a weekend plus. Will see. A local group that supports Meat Canning and other MCC work, hosts an Annual Fundraiser in November. We would love to come. They want stories and a concert.
The past two nights we have stayed with Ruth and David Emswiler. The parents of Jan Emswiler, who introduced MCC Alberta to the world of AIDS, via Dave Worth. Jan went to Tanzania 12 years ago with MCC. She is a nurse and saw children in a hospital ward for Malaria patients, being given blood that was not tested for HIV before being given to the children. Her church in Harrisonburg provided funding for equipment and when the blood in the blood bank was tested, they showed that 10% was HIV Positive. Dave Worth brought that story to Alberta at an AGM. The first CD, (for "children of the World") was being born, and we made an AIDs trip with Sarah Adams to Nigeria and Congo. And in that context, MCC Alberta became more and more invested in raising funds and building awareness about AIDS.
We did some math today, and we estimate that the CDs, along with various events, annual fundraising campaigns, and the gathering of AIDS Care Kits in Alberta, have raised just over 3,200,000 for MCC's work with AIDS, since about 2003. The CDs and Concerts have given a voice and presence to the entire project, and, I think, in a way, have also given a voice to people with AIDS, who, in so many places, are marginalized and delegitimized as people who should, but no longer have a voice in the world.
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