Yesterday, I wrote about this book, Gervelie’s Journey: A Refugee’s Diary, and today, I thought I would include a short list of resources for people who are interested in learning more about helping refugees.

• Interfaith Refugee Ministry: “Interfaith Refugee Ministry (IRM) is an outreach ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina established in 1992. Working in affiliation with Episcopal Migration Ministries, New York City, the IRM staff resettles refugees, and provides services to secondary migrants and asylees that have been adjudicated. “
• Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee, which is about a refugee girl in Great Britain, has a ton of information on his website.
• UN Refugee Agency: “The United States Association for UNHCR (USA for UNHCR) supports the UN Refugee Agency’s humanitarian work to protect and assist refugees around the world. We strive to meet the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people, building support and awareness in the United States for UNHCR’s life-saving relief programs. Established by concerned American citizens, USA for UNHCR is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.”

They asked us to view a video, which you can also watch here. In the video, a mother has a potty mouth, and the child, of course, repeats after the mother. Then, the parents try to recover from the potty mouth moment. I find the video absolutely hysterical–from the mother and her mouth to the cute baby to the father who looks a little in shock about everything. I mean, let’s be realistic, whether we use language as “bad” as the mom in the video or we say something like “stupid”, we all say things we don’t want our children to repeat. Currently, every time my stepson hears us say, “STUPID,” he says, “Oh, you said a bad word!” So, he definitely keeps our potty mouths on track.

However, he did have an incident with his mom, which is pretty funny. When he was in 3rd grade, some girls were teasing him in the hall (because they liked him:). And he turned to his mom and said, “Those girls really p*ss me off!” Obviously, he didn’t think it was a bad word, or he wouldn’t have said it to his mom, and obviously, he had heard it enough in the right context from adults. So, potty mouth incidents happen–let’s not beat ourselves up over them!

My husband and I do the best we can to monitor what my stepson watches, reads, hears, and sees. We try to talk only about “appropriate” subjects in front of him, and we will do the same with the baby due in December. But again, nobody’s perfect! I found the book below on Amazon.com if anyone is interested. LOL!

Before I get to the book Three Cups of Tea, I would like to reveal the winners of the books from Rubicon publishing! And the winners are (using Random.org): 1st choice of books: Clara Gillow Clark, 2nd choice of books: Irene Roth, and 3rd choice of books: Joyce Lansky. Congratulations to all these winners. Thank you for leaving comments about these awesome books! Now, on to Three Cups of Tea.

Most people have heard about this book by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I first read Three Cups of Tea as a book club choice and then reviewed it for The News-Gazette. It is an amazing book about Greg Mortenson, who almost died trying to climb K2, and wandered into Korphe, a village in Pakistan. While there recovering, he discovered that the children had no school, and he wanted to give back to these people who had basically saved his life. So, he went back to the United States and started on an incredible mission to build a school for these children. And he did it–he also built a bridge so they could get supplies back and forth easily. The story is amazing, and once again, a book like Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Rein shows how one man can really make a difference in the world.

The whole point of his mission, which he has now built over 131 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is to give kids another source of education besides the “terrorists” schools in many of these areas. They also give girls a chance to go to school–a chance they might not get if it wasn’t for Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute. 58,000 children are being educated in these schools–40,000 of them are girls.

Three Cups of Tea chronicles Mortenson’s struggles and successes, and it is an inspiring story. Besides the book for adults, he has a book for youth and children. I’ll talk more about the children’s book tomorrow. The youth book is pictured below with the Amazon link. If you are interested in helping Greg Mortenson with his mission, the Three Cups of Tea website has some great ideas here.

Before I share a story from the trenches, I would like to announce the winner of last week’s book giveaway of the memoir, When Ties Break, by Margaret Norton. And the winner is. . .Sandy Young! Congratulations, Sandy. If you didn’t win this book and are interested in reading a memoir about loss, grief, recovery, strength, and stopping abuse, then please go to Tate’s website to purchase it!

The story from the trenches is one that I read yesterday in church. We have a visiting priest, Rev. Fr. Tony Fevlo, from Africa, who will speak to us next week about his work in St. Joseph SMA Parish in Plateau State, Nigeria. He is currently raising money to build a new church in his parish that will accommodate 1500 people. The existing church is too small and also has structural damage, including cracks in the walls and a leaking roof. This is a wonderful mission, of course, but this is not the actual story I want to share with you today.

He shared the turmoil that happens around him with inter-religious clashes between Muslims and Christians. Every time, I hear stories like this I think: This is happening in the 21st century????? It is. In January 2010, 33 of Father Tony’s parishioners lost their property or had their houses burned. One of his parishioners was reportedly butchered to death and asked to renounce his faith before he died. Much of Father Tony’s finances for his church are currently going to these families to help them rebuild–since they are homeless.

The trouble didn’t stop there. In March 2010, Father Tony and his parishioners woke up to the news of a massacre of over 500 children, women, and elderly people living in the village of Dogonahawa (25 km from Father Tony Fevlo’s parish). The massacre was led by the Hausa/Fulani Muslims. Father Tony said: “Since the March 7th massacre, we live under constant fear in K/Vom and can hardly have a peaceful night’s rest.”

As I sat in church yesterday reading his words and thinking about the donation they were going to collect next Sunday, I wondered how I could get my stepson involved in this. And then when we walked out of church, Father Tony had actually posted pictures of his church and parishioners, and I knew this was the way. When Logan can see something concrete, he can then think about giving some money from his piggy bank to this cause. This also got me thinking that there has to be books out there that help us, as parents and teachers, teach children about giving and having sympathy for others–especially those less fortunate.

I found these two books that could be of some help. I am so thankful that there are people in the world like Father Tony Fevlo and that he shares his story with us. It makes me strive to be more giving, less materialistic–although I struggle–and I hope it will also help me to influence my children to be the same way.

*Young adult, contemporary realistic fiction
*2nd-year senior guy as main character
*Rating: The Killer’s Cousin grabs hold of you from the beginning and keeps you turning pages until you reach the incredible ending. It’s a thriller for teens with an unbelievable antagonist.

Short, short summary: David Bernard Yaffe is an infamous teenager for killing his girlfriend. Does it matter to anyone, including himself, that he was acquitted of the crime? To escape media attention and curious stares, David goes to finish his senior year of high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he lives with his Uncle Vic, Aunt Julia, and 11-year-old cousin, Lily. It’s obvious that Aunt Julia doesn’t want David there, and Lily is openly hostile. David is staying in his cousin Kathy’s upstairs apartment. She died there when she was 18 (four years ago). No one–Vic, Julia, or Lily–seem to be over the death; and the family has a lot of emotional issues–especially Lily, who starts to play vicious tricks on David, trying to get him to leave. All the while, David is still trying to deal with the death of Emily and his part in it. David soon realizes that there are secrets all around him. Until he can get his family to face the truth, there will be no peace.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Throughout the book until towards the end, the reader doesn’t know exactly what happened between David and Emily to cause her death. Teens can use the clues David gives them to try to figure out what happened before he reveals it. They should base their predictions on the clues throughout The Killer’s Cousin. The same is also true for what happened to his cousin, Kathy. They can predict things about her death also based on clues in the novel.

2. A great debate around this book is: what does it mean to be guilty? David struggles with this issue, and so does Emily. Is David still guilty even though he was acquitted of his crime? Should Lily be held responsible for her actions even though she’s a young child? Teens will have many different viewpoints on this issue. You can ask them to write about their opinions first before discussing them.

3. A lot of this book also deals with appearances and images. How much does someone’s appearance affect what people think about him or her? Does this seem to matter to David? Why or why not? David’s appearance doesn’t affect his image, but the fact that he was in the media so much does. Does this affect how he treats or views others?

A boy named Zach Hunter was 12 years old and a seventh grader when he learned in school that slavery still exists in modern day times. He was horrified as he learned more about the situation around the world and formed a group called: Loose Change to Loosen Chains (nicknamed LC2LC). In his first year, he raised $8,500. It’s now 7 years later, and this organization has gone crazy! The International Justice Mission, which I’ve talked about on this blog before, now has the LC2LC program as part of their anti-slavery movement.

According to Real Simple magazine, there’s $10.5 billion in loose change lying around American households. Like it says on the International Justice Mission website, “Imagine what you could do if you were to collect even just a fraction of this amount and use it for a good cause!” Loose Change to Loosen Chains has collected a fraction, and they are fighting human trafficking with it.

So, a seventh-grader, Zach Hunter, started this; and in 2007, when he was in high school, he presented to the White House a petition with over 100,000 signatures on it to encourage politicians to do more to stop trafficking. He wrote a book: Be the Change: Your Guide To Ending Slavery and Changing the World. He speaks to schools and church groups across the country about trafficking. If one person can do all of this, think about what 10 or 20 motivated modern-day abolitionists can do.

If Loose Change 2 Loosen Chains sounds like something you are interested in for your youth group, family, classroom, or community group, then go here to order materials. You will get a kit and information that will help you get started collecting loose change in your community to stop slavery and human trafficking today!