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You are remembered

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Schenk's Uncle Wilfred and his bomber crew. Photo courtesy of John Schenk.
Editor’s note: This Memorial Day, we honor the sacrifices made by men and women in the military — as well as others whose service and sacrifice is equally worthy of recognition, even if it wasn’t done in military uniform. There’s a movement in some quarters to expand the roster of those honored on Memorial Day beyond the veterans of formally declared wars. My uncle returned from World War II a decorated bomber pilot for 24 completed missions, and my father, his younger brother, came back shell-shocked and on the brink of ruin. But for me, it takes nothing away from their sacrifices to honor others this day who suffered and/or died to make a better world, even if they didn’t...
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6 reasons to tune into Comrades

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Runners during the 2010 Comrades ultra-marathon near the 60-kilometer mark. ©2010 Andrea Peer/World Vision
Fifty-six viciously long miles of uphill and downhill, racing a 12-hour ticking clock that could result in either one of the most rewarding or disappointing experiences of your life. Complete the track in time and cross the finish line — but one second too late, and your name won’t even be recorded. That’s the challenge seven Team World Vision runners are up against this weekend at the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. After running the race last year, we’re returning to take up the ultimate cause once again — 56 miles for 56 sponsored children; one sponsored child for every mile of the race. That may be the only reason we need to be at Comrades this year. But here’s...
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Why care about the G8 Summit?

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Jennifer holds her baby, Gladys, after washing her with water from the gravity-fed water system installed by World Vision in her village. ©2011 Suzy Sainovski/World Vision
Every year since 1976, the heads of state of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia (which joined the group in 1997) have been meeting to discuss the global economy, security, and, increasingly, development issues. These leaders, known as the G8 (or Group of Eight), will hold their annual summit in Deauville, France, today and tomorrow. It can be difficult to understand why citizens of these countries should care about high-level policy meetings like this one. But these meetings set the course for critical priority decisions that affect what programs and issues are addressed, and which ones are set aside. These meetings result in financial commitments made by individual countries....
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Observations from Missouri’s tornado zone

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Outside Irving Elementary School in Joplin, Missouri, the devastation following the May 22 tornado is hard to comprehend. ©2011 Phyllis Freeman/World Vision
Editor’s note: Joplin, Missouri, is a small town in the U.S. Heartland. Its official population is 50,150. But now, it is tragically smaller in every sense, after the May 22 tornado that left 122 dead, 750 injured, and more than a quarter of the town destroyed. Phyllis Freeman, our domestic emergency response director, is on the ground in Joplin. I went looking for a school and found Irving Elementary School. It was mangled, the bricks blown apart. You can only think about the children who lived through this, seeing the skies turn black, hearing the roar of 200-mph winds, and watching the tornado chew things up, literally. Then they emerged to find their home gone, not knowing what’s happened to...
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