Sower of Seeds International Ministries » Motivation

In the News: Water And Our World by Steven M. Hilton, Huffington Post

Sower of Seeds Admin — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:29:01 +0000

2.5 billion people — nearly half of the developing world’s population — still lack access to improved sanitation facilities. 1.1 billion people — 15 percent of the global population — still practice open defecation. 626 million in India alone.

And every day, nearly 3,000 children under five die from diarrhoeal disease caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

They are among the poorest and most vulnerable children in the world, deprived of nearly all their needs, and denied their right to reach their full potential.

These harsh markers of such elemental inequity should spur us on to do even more. Now is the time — with success on clean water in sight, and failure on sanitation an unsettling prospect — to redouble our efforts.

We must use the momentum of this milestone to focus greater effort and investment on reaching the most disadvantaged children, their families, and their communities. This is a moral imperative, and a practical one, too.

more at Steven M. Hilton: Water And Our World. – Huffington Post

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March 22nd is World Water Day – Help Spread the Word

Sower of Seeds Admin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:25:50 +0000

If you are not familiar with SOS’s 777 Project, please check it out. It is an easy way for you and your friends to help give communities in India water. Every year, on March 22nd, World Water Day aims to draw attention to a different aspect of the world water crisis.

SOS has provided over 500 wells to date in India. While the average cost of a well is $4,800, The water crisis in India is so severe that every personal donation counts. We designed 777 to make it easy and simple for you to give one person water every month.

To help you spread the word this year, would you consider embedding a picture in your email signature or on your blog?

Google apps allows you to attach an image to your email signature and add a link. If you have a blog you know what to do with the following:

The address for this image is: http://www.sowerofseeds.org/mail/sticker_savealife.jpg

The link is http://www.777water.org

Help save lives!

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Congratulations, Michael Reiswig for completing the New York city marathon Last Sunday, November 6, 2011!

Sower of Seeds Admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:12:05 +0000

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Michael sent us this message 6 months ago:

“I was introduced to Sower of Seeds by a business partner. After being introduced to Sower of Seeds, I feel compelled to make a contribution. My story is one of a personal goal to do something at the age of 55 I have never done.

Well over weight, 1 year ago I began the task of getting physically fit. After 1 year, I was challenged by my personal trainer to set a physical goal for 2011. As a result, I entered into the 2011 New York Marathon. I am not a runner, have never been one. Since I have set this goal, my training has started running each week.

Along with my physical goal, I set a spiritual goal in my life. A life long Christian, helping others has been something me and my family has always participated in. However, Sower of Seeds appealed to me particularly with your goal toward re-directing the lives of young through the Red Light Rescue.

I would like to raise funds with my run in the New York Marathon through financial gifts \”per mile\”. I will complete the 26.2 mile run on November 6, 2011 in New York and while completing this, raise money for Red Light Rescue.”

“As a 55 year-old bussinessman with a busy career, my health has never been a top priority in my life; that is until my wife, Marty became ill with a serious neuromuscular desease, Guillain-Barre. Watching Marty unable to walk , stand or move freeely as I had become accustomed was a wake-up call. It was at that time early in 2010 I realized how important I was in her life and my health had to become a priority.

My wife was counting on me in more ways than I had ever imagined. Some 85lbs overweight, terrible nutrition and a less than personal disciplined attitude toward my health in general, I made the decision to get healthy and fit. I owed that to my best friend and wife of 15 years.”

Michael completed his first marathon at the ING New York City Marathon, all 26.2 miles.

“Going into the day, I had a fractured toe and it was not healing well. My goal was to simply finish. The last 6 miles were difficult but I joined with a struggling fellow runner, Professor of Religion from Yale and together we talked, prayed and jogged ourselves through to Central Park. At approximately 6:30 EST, I ran across the finish line. Total time: 7 hours 36 minutes 15 seconds. It was not the time I had hoped to complete the run but my goal was to simply finish it without further injury. Mission accomplished.”

“It was a memorable day running the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Harlem and Manhattan. Over 1 million spectators cheered and watched. The NY Marathon is an institution and the appreciation by those attending was overwhelming. It was a 26.2 mile block party.”

“I met many people from all over the world…France, Ireland, Russia and England to name just a few. Everyone had a story and reason why they ran. What I came away with is that all of them were running for a purpose. The compassion, the stories and the tears were all shared between strangers in an event of 47,000 runners. This experience proved to me that if the world treated each other like runners did last Sunday, there would be no need for Sower of Seeds. Unfortunately, there is.”

“Because of your pledges and this run, we have exceeded $17,000 for SOWER OF SEEDS – PROJECT RED LIGHT LIGHT RESCUE. I expect to receive more pledges in the coming days.”

…and the answer is YES, I have already signed up for the 2012 New York Marathon…..I have a time to beat and more money to raise! I will keep you updated. As pictures become ready, I will post them at: www.mrmarathon.us.

Thank you Michael! To honor Michael’s achievement and goal, please visit his web site: http://www.mrmarathon.us or leave a comment on this blog.

If you choose to donate to the cause and honor Michael, please make a note when you donate here.

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Fighting Bad Business with Good Business

Sower of Seeds Admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:48:22 +0000

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Mumbai, India’s largest commercial center is also home to Asia’s largest red-light district. Human trafficking is the commercial exploitation of men, women and children. In the dark alleyways and behind closed doors and cages, people are exploiting others for profit.

Businesses and churches from all over North Texas are working together and strategizing to do their part in helping put an end to the enslavement of women and children halfway around the world.

On November 5, 2011, Sower of Seeds will draw the winning ticket in their annual charity raffle (opening day of deer hunting season in Texas). The prize is a Customized 2011 Camouflaged Jeep Unlimited, sponsored by Denton-based Lone Star Conversions. Proceeds from this raffle supports Project Red Light Rescue. This is just one example how local business is helping to fight the commercial exploitation of women and children.

According to a Times of India article in April of this year, there are currently three million human trafficking victims in India, 1.2 million of them children.

While U.S. Department of State puts pressure on goverments to come up with solutions, this is no easy task in India, home to over 17% of the world’s almost 7 billion people. Much of the desired change will take place as a result of non-governmental organizations who source private funding.

The truth is that the non-profit sector cannot do their job without cooperation from the for-profit world.

Since 2000, Sower of Seeds International Ministries (SOS International) has helped local churches in India with funding and strategy to implement social programs with great success (water wells, schools and feeding, orphan care). These projects has been funded for the most part by local businesses, churches and individuals in North Texas. (Learn more about Charley Pennington, who’s North Texas business Charley’s Concrete has been partnering with SOS.)

In May of 2009, SOS International launched Project Red Light Rescue, their project to help fund the rescue (with a focus on rehabilitation and aftercare) of women and children trafficked into slavery in Asia’s largest red-light district.

With the help of local and international partners, Project Red Light Rescue not only raises awareness, but is helping to build an aftercare center and helps fund operational costs to offer a real, impactful solution to the human trafficking problem in one of the world’s trafficking hotspots.

Although significant progress has been made in promoting awareness and exerting pressure on governments recently, little has changed on the ground. It is still hard to get convictions against traffckers, and while organizations have made progress, police raids that remove women and children from immediate danger without a place to take them, limits the effectivity of these campaigns.

We cannot ignore the long-term causes and effects of intimidation and coercion that traffickers use on their victims. We believe the damage can only be undone by establishing effective counseling programs and by helping to fund good aftercare centers and programs for rescued women and children.

With no place to go and no-one to care for these girls, who will take care of them?

With a focus on partnership with local businesses, churches, schools and individuals, Sower of Seeds believes that business owners, teachers, school children, or any individual can make a difference in the lives of the women and children living in slavery today.

The bottom line? The average cost of caring for someone rescued is only $150 per month.

Will your business join us as we fight bad business by adopting a cause like Project Red Light Rescue?

(Read what others are doing here…)

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Meet the Team: Amanda Montgomery

LoreF — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:49:07 +0000

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Where are you from and what brought you to DFW?

I am originally from Saint Paul, Minnesota. At the young age of 5, my family decided to move to Texas to start a church.

What was your most outrageous dream when you were a kid?

I always wanted to have a huge house to take in all of the kids of the world in order to let them know that they were loved by another human and Jesus!

What do you do at SOS/Hope for North Texas (HFNT)?

I am the Administrative Coordinator for HFNT. Basically, I am responsible for our social media, data entry, and pretty much any other randomness, which needs to be done. We all wear many hats.

Three favorite things to do in the world?

“I love visiting unique places whether it be an earth conscious coffee shop, a rustic restaurant in a podunk town, or an old historical marker. I absolutely love making people laugh! And most of all I love just hanging out with friends and family. I don’t really have to do anything special as long as I’m with people who care about me and who I care about, then anything can be fun!”

Why did you want to work for a non-profit and if you didn’t work for SOS what other non-profits spark your interest?

Honestly, I had been working for my church and Starbucks before joining the SOS team. I enjoyed my jobs, but I had been volunteering with SOS and I always said that if I could just volunteer all of my time that I would do so with SOS. It just worked out that their local branch had a job opening!!! I love the vision behind SOS and HFNT. Eight years ago my heart was awakened to some of the tragedies that play out in India. Ever since, I have been drawn to organizations involved in helping the people of India. I have always believed that if you can’t be effective in your own community, you have to ask yourself what right you have to go anywhere else. So, it’s worked out perfectly with SOS’ focus in India and HFNT’s focus on North Texas.

Follow Amanda on twitter @frizzycurls2002

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Partner Profile: Jewelry made by survivors – Asha Unlimited

Sower of Seeds Admin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:20:11 +0000

Stacey Smith supports Project Red Light Rescue by developing and training women who have been rescued from human-trafficking to make jewelry.

“Traveling to India had long been a dream of mine, I had tried, but the opportunity was never quite right. It wasn’t until I went to a screening of Goodnight Red Light, a documentary about the red-light district in Mumbai, produced by Sower of Seeds International Ministries, that I know my opportunity has finally come. This film stirred my heart in deeper ways that I can imagine. The images on the screen were horrific: poverty, hopelessness, despair…

The next morning I looked at my husband and said, “I’m going to India to make jewelry.” I had no experience, so it sounded crazy, but it was like God opened my mouth and let the words fly out. I wanted a purpose, a chance to give something valuable to the rescued girls who had suffered so much.
Asha – the Hindi word for hope- was born. The ultimate purpose of this project is the ethical, gainful employment of women who have suffered at the hands of others, but who have so much to offer all of us.

Just as the lotus rise through the mud and muck and blooms into something pure and beautiful, so do these incredible women.”

Asha jewelry is available online at www.ashaunlimited.com.

For more ideas how your business can partner with Sower of Seeds.

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Water-How cool is that?

Sower of Seeds Admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:30:03 +0000

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by Mark Mueller

For a few years now my family and I have been raising money to drill a water well in India. I’ve been to India seven times and seen the full impact of what a water well can do for a village.

When a well is given through Sower of Seeds, a couple who is trained to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ will oversee the well. All people regardless of caste will have access to the water, and untold hours of labor will be relieved as women and girls no longer have to travel to the nearest river for the nasty groundwater that they find there.

We take for granted so many things living here in America. Access to clean water seems more like a right than a privilege. But if you were to go to the villages that I have seen, you find a different reality: parents feeling helpless as their children suffer from water-borne illness, many who will die without proper medical attention. Little girls who cannot go to school because they are needed as water carriers seem to dot the landscape. Dry and dusty fields reflect their heat, and relief seems so far away.

Now fast forward to a new well site. Smiling faces, happy hearts everywhere you look. I love to see the pictures of kids playing in the water coming out of the pump. It reminds me of the water fights I used to have as a kid. Cool, sweet water spraying them in the face, running down their necks and splashing off their hands.

Please consider helping me as I raise money to drill another well: www.championsforindia.org/muellerswell01

Water-how cool is that?

Mark Mueller is a licensed Certified Public Accountant with over 25 years of financial and accounting experience.

He is a graduate of Oral Roberts University. Mark serves as the CFO for S.O.S. In addition, he provides leadership for the office and staff in the areas of operations and strategic planning. Mark has served as administrative pastor on the staff of a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has owned and operated several businesses including construction companies and accounting practices.

Mark and his wife, Pam, have been married for 24 years and have four children. They are long term supporters of S.O.S. and Mark presently serves on the board of directors.

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Message on World Water Day from UN Secretary General

Sower of Seeds Admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:00:12 +0000

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL — MESSAGE ON WORLD WATER DAY 22 March 2011

via http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/download/waterday2011ENGLISH.pdf

“As the world charts a more sustainable future, the crucial interplay among water, food and energy is one of the most formidable challenges we face. Without water there is no dignity and no escape from poverty. Yet the Millennium Development Goal target for water and sanitation is among those on which many countries lag the most.

In little over a generation, 60 per cent of the global population will be living in towns and cities, with much of the increase taking place in the inner city slums and squatter settlements of the developing world. The theme of this year’s observance of World Water Day — “Water for Cities” — highlights some of the main challenges of this increasingly urban future.

Urbanization brings opportunities for more efficient water management and improved access to drinking water and sanitation. At the same time, problems are often magnified in cities, and are currently outpacing our ability to devise solutions.

Over the past decade, the number of urban dwellers who lack access to a water tap in their home or immediate vicinity has risen by an estimated 114 million, and the number of those who lack access to the most basic sanitation facilities has risen by 134 million. This 20 per cent increase has had a hugely detrimental impact on human health and on economic productivity: people are sick and unable to work.

Water challenges go beyond questions of access. In many countries, girls are forced to drop out of school owing to a lack of sanitation facilities, and women are harassed or assaulted when carrying water or visiting a public toilet. Moreover, the poorest and most vulnerable members of society often have little choice but to buy water from informal vendors at prices estimated to be 20 to 100 per cent higher than that of their richer neighbours, who receive piped city water in their homes. This is not just unsustainable; it is unacceptable.

Water problems will figure prominently at the forthcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, in 2012 – Rio + 20. My High-level Panel on Global Sustainability and UN-Water are examining ways in which we can connect the dots among water, energy and food security, with the aim of reducing poverty and inequality, generating jobs, and minimizing the risks of climate change and environmental stress.

On World Water Day, I urge governments to recognize the urban water crisis for what it is – a crisis of governance, weak policies and poor management, rather than one of scarcity. Let us also pledge to reverse the alarming decline in pro poor investment inwater and sanitation. And let us reaffirm our commitment to ending the plight of the more than 800 million people who, in a world of plenty, still do not have the safe drinking water or sanitation they need for a life in dignity and good health.”

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Toby Slough.comUpdate from Mumbai — Water Well – Toby Slough.com

Sower of Seeds Admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:06:09 +0000

Update from Mumbai — Water Well – Toby Slough.com.

Thank you Cross Timbers Community Church in Argyle, TX for helping to give people water in India.

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March 22 is World Water Day!

Sower of Seeds Admin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:20:59 +0000

Do something for World Water Day!

Between 1.5 Million and 2 Million children still die every year due to water-borne disease.

Sower of Seeds helps to fight this staggering statistic by providing water wells and developing water projects in India that provides safe, clean water to communities with insufficient water supply.

For little more than $7, you can help give water to one person.

You can either give online or simply give using your mobile phone by texting the word GIFT to 85944 and replying “YES” to give $10.00.

You can help by spreading awareness and taking action. Do a fundraiser, benefit concert, art night etc. Talk to people in your church, school, youth group, and put collection jars at your local coffee shop, car wash etc! Tell friends to help you raise support to give people water! World Water day gives you the perfect opportunity!

Be creative! Be active! Make a difference!

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Download this flyer and spread the word at your favorite coffee shop, workplace, school!

Watch the “Take a Minute” video