Category Archives: Stories

The brighter side of a shark bite

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Bethany talks with 13 yr-old Ketsara Sae-Sia who lost her mother and home to the tsunami, comparing the lessons they learned on how to handle tragedy and loss. (Jon Warren/WV)
Imagine being a champion surfer and one day having a shark bite off your arm. Not only will you have to live through the rest of your life with one arm, your surfing career might well be at an end. Is there a bright side to this story? We wrote about Bethany Hamilton in the Spring 2006 issue of World Vision magazine. And her extraordinary story is now the subject of the major motion picture “Soul Surfer,” due for release on April 8 and starring AnnaSophia Robb, Helen Hunt, and Dennis Quaid. Bethany did indeed lose her arm to a tiger shark when she was just 13, but within a month she was back in the water, trying to find...
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A tribute to World Vision’s ‘birth mother’

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Lorraine Pierce at home in Carlsbad, California. (Greg Schneider/WV/2004)
Editor’s note: Lorraine Pierce, widow of World Vision founder Dr. Bob Pierce, died on April 4, 2011, after a brief illness. Mrs. Pierce was 94. It was by the vision and calling of Lorraine’s late husband that World Vision was founded in 1950. Today, Dr. and Mrs. Pierce’s vision and dream to help those around the world lives on. It is a time of mourning and also of celebration as the World Vision family honors the life of Lorraine Pierce, the spiritual ‘birth mother’ of World Vision, as many would say. I echo the words of our president, Rich Stearns, “The choruses in heaven must be especially sweet as this great saint is welcomed home.” As I spent time this...
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Suffer together, rebuild together — notes from a Japan aid worker

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In Miaygi, urvivors of the quake and tsunami gather their belongings and relief supplies. (Itoh Kei/WV/2011)
March 29, 2011- It’s 7:00 am, an aftershock shakes the building awake. It's big, lasts for maybe 30 seconds. Even two weeks after the quake and tsunami, tremors and ripples continue to wreak havoc and remind survivors of their fears and losses. I’m in Miyagi, one of the hardest-hit areas, with World Vision’s emergency response team. We’re.......
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Modern times, ancient stories

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Horn Of Africa Drought - The Effects Of Drought Bite Harder In East Pokot
Editor’s note: Abby Metty will be in Kenya with World Vision March 25-April 8. John Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors. Right now I’m reading his classic, The Grapes of Wrath, about the migration of farmers in the 1930s from the Midwest to California and the downward spiral of poverty they endured along the way. A central theme of the novel is hunger. It focuses around one family and their search for work and food in increasingly desperate conditions. He writes, “How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can’t scare him — he has known a fear beyond every other.” Over...
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