When Jim Powers, past-president and Webmaster for the Rock Valley Kiwanis Club in Rockford, Illinois, heard from Col. John Gessner about the needs of orphans in Afghanistan, he jumped at the chance to mobilize help by soliciting donations. It wouldn’t be the first time he had lent a helping hand to the children of a combat zone.
Powers’ first experience with homeless children and orphans came during his first tour in Viet Nam (1967–68). After sending pictures and writing to the parishioners at St. Patrick’s Church, Rockford, about displaced war refugees in Saigon, support poured in. Day after day, packages arrived (clothing, supplies, toys), sometimes completely filling his office.
Three months into his tour, Powers was transferred to Cat Lai, in a rural area about fifteen miles east of Saigon, where the members of his battalion took up a support role with a nearby orphanage. They worked off-hours on construction, played with children, and provided care packages from home.
“It seemed like an automatic response to their needs, such that it would have been unimaginable to not help,” said Powers. “We have so much in our great country, and when soldiers go to a foreign land and witness so many with so little, it is a natural match. Also, I believe the helping behavior helps soldiers cope with the pain of being separated from loved ones back home.”
Creating a website announcing the needs of the Afghan children was a natural both for Powers and for the Kiwanis Club, whose main focus is children. “If Americans are made aware of needs, particularly those of helpless children, they will pitch in. They need to be given information about the needs (the Internet being a perfect format) and then given the methods by which they can plug in. For me, the actions by all those who donated time, goods, energy and/or money demonstrated the wisdom of the late Mother Theresa: ‘We don’t have to do great things only small things with great love.’” The donations collected through Power’s efforts totaled thousands of dollars and hundreds of boxes of goods.
Lord, show me how I can help the needy in my own community.
“He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” (Proverbs 14:31)