• The Bucknell class left on Sunday and had a good experience.
• Sarah is home from a successful speaking tour…thanks to all.
• Becca, Paul and the girls are in the Northwest of the USA.
• The roof of the spinning plant is up except for a cap to go across the top. It is quite impressive…see photos.
• We now have three volunteers working in the clinic: a public health intern (a rising 2nd year medical student from Alaska) and two students who are pre-med and pre-dental from Georgia (the state)... see photos.• We are taking surveys of people in Nueva Vida and patients in our clinic in an attempt to better our services and learn from the neighborhood.
• Our Shared Risk Investment Fund is getting a new name, logo, and tag line as well as a brochure and a description of the process plus answers to questions people have asked…more on that in a few weeks.
A brief thought:
As it is said about the first missionaries to Hawaii, they went to do good and ended up doing well. This can often be said re the Church…congregations and denominations are established to do good and then they do well. Afterwards they find it low in their priorities to do good. In other words maintaining themselves is more important than helping the poor.
My favorite news source on the television is Fareed Zakaria’s GPS. Last week during an interview with Michael Lewis, Liar’s Poker, Lewis commented about people in finance and financial institutions. He stated that they needed to consider “Doing good not just doing well.” We wouldn’t have such a disaster now if finance worked for the betterment of society as a whole.
It’s hard…so many institutions fall into this trap: governments, NGOs, religions, clubs, etc. But seeing the poor struggle like the Genesis cooperative (the spinning plant) it is easier to stay focused. -Kathleen
