About the blogger: Emily is part of a team of young adults from Focus One who have joined OBI for a week-long trip to California to serve the homeless, hungry and impoverished.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Today we worked with Operation Blessing serving at a local partner organization and it was truly an amazing experience to jump right in. We started off the day by helping to pack up food for those in need.

It was amazing to participate in welcoming people as they arrived—giving hugs, handshakes, encouragements, and blessings. You could see heavy shoulders raise, heads lift and smiles form on faces. I know that these people are walking away with not just physical food to meet their physical needs, but with the encouragement they need in their lives.

I was honored to meet a special grandmother and her little granddaughter, Destiny. She told me about how little Destiny, who is just three years old, was born with too many white blood cells in her body and when she gets sick, she gets really sick. This grandmother is doing her best to provide for this beautiful little girl in a difficult situation and the food she received today will go a long way in helping her.

I am so grateful for this experience serving others!

- Emily

From India to Africa and China to the U.S., Operation Blessing celebrates the beauty of mothers from around the world this Mother’s Day.

View more photos here!

LUTUNI, Kenya – After seeing desperate Kenyan women digging for water out of a dry river bed, Operation Blessing teams work to provide a much-needed solution for this drought-stricken village.

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – Sara isn’t a stranger to hardship, nor to perseverance.

When she was only 14, Sara was struck by a car and lost her left leg, but she never let it define her abilites. With the help of a set of crutches, Sara continued her life, eventually getting married and having two children of her own.

Even after her husband left, she was determined to provide for her children, Keila and Obed. So together, she and her mother opened a small store selling baby products.

But tragedy struck once more when their business was robbed—and Sara left seriously wounded in the process. The injury weakened her arms and without the strength to use her crutches, she could hardly get out of bed.

“I knew that I needed a wheelchair,” she said. “But I didn’t have the money to buy one.”

Without a way to get to her physical therapy sessions, Sara had little hope of improving her mobility, much less returning to work.

Then she received an unexpected blessing. An Operation Blessing team learned about Sara’s situation and brought her a free wheelchair through our partner Free Wheelchair Mission.

“God has proven to me that he takes care of me by this gift brought to my own home,” she said. “With this chair I will be able to go back to therapy and soon I will be walking again.”

KIMANA, Kenya – Every day, 6-year-old Nairiamu walks 14 miles round trip just to get water for her family. It takes so long, she can’t go to school. Her mother wants her to get an education, but they can’t live without water. See how Operation Blessing partners made it possible for Nairiamu to have both.

LANCASTER, Texas – Our disaster relief team found Mrs. Lue Verne when we were working in her storm-damaged neighborhood. She was in need of a “blue roof,” or tarp, to protect her home from rain after the tornado left holes in her roof.

While we were installing the roof, we learned that Lue Verne was uninsured. At 77 years old and battling health complications, she had no resources to pay for a permanent roof. Lue Verne also has two adult sons that live with her—one is disabled and the other recently lost his wife to cancer.

The family has been through a lot recently and this disaster was another layer of tragedy and struggle added to their life.

When we found out about Lue Verne’s situation, we knew we wanted to help her out in a big way. We decided we needed to put a brand new permanent roof on her home. When we surprised her with the news, tears filled her eyes. “This is too much!” she said. “I have never been given something this big!”

What Lue Verne did not know was that we were going to do more than that! We asked her to spend a day with her family as we finished her roof installation. And in seven and a half short hours, Operation Blessing staff and volunteers finished her brand new roof, painted the exterior of her house, installed new windows, new shutters and new landscaping!

When she returned home for the big surprise and saw her newly refreshed home, she was overwhelmed with joy, tears and smiles that will echo in all of our hearts for years to come.

For this precious elderly lady with such limited resources, we not only gave this tired home a face lift but a “heart lift” that forever changed Mrs. Lou Verne’s life!

CAJCA, Peru – Every afternoon on a Peruvian hillside, young Fabiana can be found tending her family’s sheep.

It’s the main source of income for their family, and Fabiana does everything she can to help, especially ever since her dad passed away, leaving her mom as the sole provider for Fabiana and her siblings.

But poverty has taken a toll on their family—especially on Fabiana’s little feet.

Unable to afford sturdy, protective shoes, Fabiana instead makes countless treks up and down the mountainside wearing only a thin pair of sandals.

Her feet are often blistered, burned by the harsh rub of her sandals and also the cold weather. When an Operation Blessing team came to her village with brand new TOMS Shoes for all the children, Fabiana was at first reluctant to remove her sandals and expose her calloused feet.

But when OBI’s Dr. Sandra Abaiza slipped the perfectly fitting new shoes on her feet, Fabiana’s face broke out in a wide grin. She would no longer have to endure the harsh weather without shoes to protect her small feet or feel such shame and embarrassment.

“Good health can come by good medicine,” Dr. Abaiza said, “but it can also be given in the form of a simple canvas shoe. These shoes showed the children that with each new day, better opportunities are possible. It gave them a new concept of hope.”

MOLI, Niger – In the small village of Moli, Niger, a country where malaria is endemic, lives Chafa and her 9-month-old daughter, Aichatou. Their village is blessed to be situated alongside a river where they can fish, bathe, wash clothes, have rice fields, and irrigate their gardens. But this branch of the river gets cutoff from its main source during the dry season, causing the water to stand stagnate—becoming the perfect breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

As I held Aichatou and talked to her mother, I learned that Chafa had been diagnosed with malaria just over a month ago, was treated at the hospital, and is now taking medication. Her daughter Aichatou easily could have been the one to get malaria, especially at night as she lies down next to her mom on their single mattress in a small home that has unscreened windows.

Operation Blessing Niger’s Medical Director, Dr. Idi, explained about the growing problem of malaria in Niger. Not only is it endemic, but he also told me that the people of Niger are becoming more resistant to the medications that doctors have used to treat it. For babies, it can be especially hard to treat because mothers sometimes wait too long to bring in their sick child. They assume their baby is only sick and will get better soon, so when they do go, it is often too late and can turn into cerebral malaria, which can cripple or kill the baby.

Malaria is curable, but the best solution is to find ways to prevent it. One simple solution to combat this deadly disease is a mosquito net—and that is what we gave to more than 100 of the most vulnerable families in this village, all with children under the age of 3.

Each bed net provides these children and their families with a safe barrier of protection between them and the malaria-carrying mosquitoes—giving them a fighting chance for survival and a healthier future.

OGATSU, Japan – Last year, Mr. Takahashi watched helplessly from the safety of a hilltop as his business was swept away by a tsunami wave more than 100 feet tall.

“Everything was destroyed,” he said. “When the water started to return to the sea, it scattered all my belongings.”

Mr. Takahashi is an inkstone craftsman—an ancient craft passed down to him by his father and grandfather. Ogatsu inkstone is a rare, black, dense rock that has been quarried in the village for more than 600 years.

Mr. Takahashi and other local craftsmen have learned the intricate and ancient craft of cutting, carving and polishing the black rock into specially shaped inkwells, designed for grinding ink sticks and mixing water to make the ink used in Japanese calligraphy.

Before the tsunami, the region around Ogatsu produced 90 percent of Japan’s inkstones, Mr. Takahashi explained. So when the tsunami hit, Mr. Takahashi wasn’t the only one to lose all of his equipment and supplies.

Working together, the local inkstone craftsmen pooled their resources and bought a few pieces of machinery to share. Still, they lacked some of the necessary equipment to set up shop once more.

So Operation Blessing provided Mr. Takahashi and the inkstone guild with several key pieces of equipment they needed to get back to work, such as a refurbished forklift, routing tool and belt sander, and a myriad of other hand tools.

“Even here in Japan, not everyone is familiar with inkstone culture,” Mr. Takahashi said, “so the fact that foreigners have come to help us sustain this traditional craft is something that we’re very grateful for.”

With the new tools provided by OBI, Mr. Takahashi and the other craftsmen will be able to produce more inkstones than ever before.

“After the tsunami, I was concerned for the future,” Mr. Takahashi said. “Now we are able to do things that we weren’t able to do before. This craft has been around for 600 years, and we want it to be around for another 600.”

KIMANA, Kenya — Drought in the third world is crippling to families who do not have a direct connection to a water supply. No rain means no crops. No crops, no food. If they are lucky enough to live near a river, they may be able to dig a canal to bring the water closer to their crops and carry back-breaking bucket after bucket of water to irrigate their plants, but often this is not the case.

During a recent visit to Kenya I met a young Masai boy and his family who battle hunger every day. Three-year-old Lampati was so hungry that he rushed to try to get and get some of the hot porridge his mom was cooking over an open fire in their home and it spilled on him. I was in Lamapati’s village to celebrate the opening of a new school built by Operation Blessing and also a well that had just been drilled that day.

Our Kenya office had been working with Lampati and his mother to treat his burns and wanted our team to meet them. I was introduced to Lampati’s mother, Lasoi at the well ceremony, and his 6-year-old brother Tihayo at the new school. Lasoi was really excited about having a water supply much closer to her home and the opportunity for her children to get an education. We told her we would stop by later that afternoon.

When we arrived at their very humble home – even by Masai standards – we stood and talked with Lasoi. Inside their mud-and-straw hut, I saw her two other children sitting in the room next to us. I smiled and took their picture, but as I looked into the eyes of Tihayo and Roisorwa, I could only see desperation and I couldn’t take any more pictures. At this point my Kenyan colleague informed me that two of her other children had died from malnutrition the year before. My heart was filled with compassion for her and the difficult struggle she is facing.

“Where is the father? “ I asked.

“He doesn’t live here. He raises cattle for only $12 a month. It is not enough,” Lasoi responded.

“I cut fire wood to sell at the market, but it isn’t enough… I also do work for other people to help raise a little money to buy food for my children.”

“Is it enough for your children to eat at least once every day?” I asked.

“Not enough. I feel bad because some of my children have to go and beg for food from my neighbors.”

Fortunately, there’s a solution in place to help Lasoi and other struggling families.

A food program is about to start at the new OBI school that will provide children with a hot meal and a snack each day. And now with the new well in place, construction can also begin on an irrigation system that will supply water to a community farm where Lasoi and other villagers can grow food to eat and also sell to earn income.

I have not stopped praying for Lasoi, her son Lampati, and the other struggling families as they work toward recovery. When life gives you drought, it’s never good…but I’m so thankful that Operation Blessing and friends like you are there to give people hope through sustainable solutions that are fighting hunger and saving lives.