Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

The London Summer Olympic Games start tonight and I felt it was time to talk about a great organization that helps people enjoy athletics who would otherwise be alienated from them. Sports have been something to empower and excite me since I was an all star in my city softball league as a child in Florida. I then played tennis for over twenty years and became a city champion and went to regional competition in Texas.   Now, I have begun running 5ks. Frankly, I can’t imagine life without some form of exercise.   I also couldn’t imagine life without a leg or arm, but every year 150,000 people join the ranks of over four million amputees in the U.S. When you watch the superb athletes who compete in the Olympics these next few weeks, think of someone who has just lost a leg and doesn’t know how they will care for themselves or their families for the rest of their lives.   Trauma accidents, birth defects, motor vehicle accidents, and warfare are the primary c...

My son’s heart was broken a little a couple of weeks ago in his efforts to try and help others. Our church has been digging wells for communities in Zimbabwe.   The Children’s Ministry decided that it would be good for the children to “own” their own well by raising the money to dig it.   Great idea. I’m all for getting kids involved in charity.   So, they were selling water at the Sunday services for a couple of weeks. Then, they decided to send “wells” home with the students in which they could collect money.   These were little boxes covered in crumpled up brown paper with handles on them. (I think they were Chinese food boxes.   Only heaven knows how they came up with enough of them for all the kids.)   Christopher’s Sunday school teacher also had some bean seeds and gave them to the students so they could grow beans and sell them. That Sunday Chris came home from Sunday school so excited. We had brought a couple of his friends to church that day a...

Do you have 67 minutes?   It’s just a bit over an hour but it represents so much more.   Sixty seven years is how long Nelson Mandela gave to fighting for the rights of humanity.   Next Wednesday, July 18 th is Mandela’s birthday which is becoming known as Mandela Day, a day to devote yourself for 67 minutes to making the world a better place. I have been around for the destruction of the Berlin Wall, for the ending of the Cold War, but for some reason, the election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa in 1994 just seems to me to surpass all of these other events. Thirty six of the 67 years were spent in prison by Mandela and I have a hard time relating to that.   How could someone keep the faith while in prison for almost as long as I have been alive?   He must have had more conviction than I could ever muster. Of course the greater oppression against you, the greater you must be to overcome it. But not only did he overcome it, he create...

Have you been looking forward to your vacation for months? Going to a new place in the states or to another country?   As of right now, we’re not planning to take a vacation unless it’s a weekend trip nearby, but I would love one day to do a volunteer vacation.   You can go as an individual, group or even as a family. Like any vacation, you get to see a new place but with volunteer vacations you can also make a positive impact on that place.   The opportunities range widely, from tapping maple syrup at a Native American reservation in America to constructing a health center in Kenya. The Volunteer Family provides a list of companies that give families an opportunity to do a project together.   That’s the kind of trip I would really like to take. Another good source is Volunteer Guide because it categorizes the type of projects so you can choose between animal welfare, helping children, community development, environmental protection, health and sa...