Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

Yesterday was Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday. I wrote about him two Fridays ago when it wasn’t looking good for him healthwise. Now the reports are looking up. People around the world celebrated his birthday by giving 67 minutes of service in his name.  I prayed to be more like Nelson Mandela, braver, kinder, thinking more of others than myself, willing to make sacrifices. But this was done by a white woman in the safety of her own home. Let’s face it, I’ve never been the object of racial discrimination. Well, there was that one time. Right out of college, I decided I wanted to travel and learn about other religions and cultures. I wanted to leave America behind and see what other countries were like. Sure, I’d been to Mexico and to Canada, but never for more than a few hours or days. I decided to teach English in Japan for a year. Japan is a safe place, right? Not for me. Let’s just say it was a year to remember. I got hit by a car on my bike. My house w...

I often brainstorm topics to write about for this blog. I keep a list of over 250 ideas to which I am always adding. But sometimes I miss the obvious. Have you heard of Volunteers of America ? Neither had I, until today. It’s a Christian organization that’s been around since 1896. It provides help for homelessness, people with mental health problems, children, communities, veterans, those with disabilities or substance abuse problems and seniors. It also provides emergency services for people in crisis. As its name implies, it provides its ministry just in America. It provides services to more than two million people in over 400 communities in 46 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. You can search for a local office near you at its website . I love its statement of Why We Do What We Do:   We are Volunteers of America. And we are the first to step forward, Taking on the most crushing problems. The dire. The hopeless. The untouchable. And we make a...

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...