Cancer Survivor Touches Lives Worldwide
BELTSVILLE, MARYLAND (ANS. APRIL 26, 2015)
-- Some people go through life wishing they could make a difference.
Others actually make a difference. Norma Nashed belongs to the latter
group.
Through her ministry Restore a Child, Nashed (born in Ramallah,
Palestine but raised in Jordan) helps meet the needs of economically
disadvantaged children and those orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and living on
the streets in Africa and elsewhere.
Nashed said she works mainly with American missionaries who she
knows personally, or who have been introduced to her by trusted
Christian friends. Nashed said she has a lot of input into ministries
enabled or assisted by Restore a Child, and her involvement goes beyond
just funding. She visits the projects where her ministry money is being
involved, and regularly monitors progress.
In an e-mail interview, Nashed said her ministry has been in
existence since 1999. She said she works alone in a small den in her
apartment, directing “this huge global ministry for poor and orphan
children.”
Nashed said she does get an occasional volunteer. She said she
relies on United Nations Online volunteers all over the world, some of
whom are Muslims, for graphic design and web development and
translation into Spanish and Korean.
I asked her the motivation for founding the ministry. Battling
cancer was a big part, she said. She added, “I felt God call me to leave
my career and dedicate my life to serve Him through suffering humanity,
especially disadvantaged and orphan children.”
Nashed said her penniless and widowed mother with seven children,
whom she called her mentor and role model, also played a part.
Her mother, Nashed said, “Was a woman of great faith and unashamed
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and would give Bible studies and share
her faith even with Muslims in Jordan. She taught me to give Bible
studies to adults when I was around 14 years old.”
She said that at age 12 she began bringing children from the
neighborhood to her one room home, and would sing with them and pray and
teach them about Jesus.
Nashed added, “These years were the highlight of my youth. I loved
children even when I was a child, and wanted to share what I learned
about Jesus.”
Returning to her mother's influence in her life Nashed said, “Very
frequently through my adult life, knowing how sensitive I was to God's
call for believers, she would tell me, ‘Norma, leave your job and go
serve HIM, and HE will take care of you.’”
Nashed said while the idea appealed to her, that was initially as
far as it went. She said, “I did not have the courage or enough faith to
trust God to do what He promised to do when He said, ‘Why do you worry
about what you eat and what you wear... I will take care of you.’”
But all that changed when she was diagnosed with cancer.
Nashed
said she works in 15 countries, mostly with Christian missionaries who
have dedicated their lives to serve the poor, to bring the lost to the
knowledge of Jesus Christ.
She added, “These missionaries sacrifice their lives, and they have
all responded to the call of ‘Who shall I send?’ saying, ‘Here am I,
send me.’”
As a result, Nashed said, she trusted God and believed His
promises, and launched out into a new journey of faith having no idea
what was waiting for her.
Nashed knew she still needed treatment for cancer, and leaving her
job, she had the potential of not being able to afford medical insurance
or pay for rent. But, she said, she believed God would take care of
her.
He did. Nashed said one day a friend and his wife called her from
Egypt, having heard about her situation and promised to take care of all
her expenses.
She said, “He faithfully did for three years which amounted to over
$100,000, until I called him and told him I was well enough to work."
Not having to work, Nashed said, allowed her to start her ministry,
take care of her health and still spend a substantial amount of time
daily studying the Bible.
She said, “I was never as happy in my life before than during these three years.”
In 2007 Nashed's ministry was growing, and she started building the
first orphanage in Ethiopia. One morning she left to Ethiopia to check
on the construction.
That evening she received media calls asking to interview her, because her home and office had been devastated by a fire.
Nashed continued, “I stayed doing the work, for there was nothing
for me to come to. I did not cry when I had cancer, but I cried when I
heard that. Why would God allow this to happen when I was serving Him, I
thought?”
Nashed said area media kept checking when she was coming back, and were all at the airport to meet her with their camera crews.
All the publicity had an unexpected effect. Dr. Mitchell Davis
from Washington D.C., saw her on FOX5 News and called to say, “I am a
Jewish man who wants to help this Arab woman.”
Nashed said Davis gave her more than $300,000 for her ministry. He
also helped her with dental bills. Nashed said Davis still donates more
than $30,000 annually.
She said God continues to take care of the ministry. More than 80
percent of her funding comes from personal friends who are Christians
from the Middle East, particularly those originally from Iraq.
In addition, Nashed said, she occasionally speaks in churches,
schools and even organizations which invite her to share her testimony.
She picks up a few donors from that.
Local and international newspapers and magazines articles, several TV and radio interviews also help attract new donors.
Nashed
said she has plans for expansion. She said in 2009 the ministry built
an elementary school for Maasai children in Tanzania. Last year it
built Restore a Child Academy in Las Cahobas, Haiti. This year they are
building two new vocational training schools in Haiti and Argentina to
serve young boys on the streets.
She added, “I believe Christian education is where children learn
their value in God's sight, and start believing in themselves and start
to find a way out of their vicious cycle of poverty and have aspirations
for a better future.”
Nashed shared some examples of her ministry’s work.
Lina Situmeang, she said, is from a small village near Medan, North
Sumatra, Indonesia. She was born to a very poor family with five
children. After the age of 12 she could not go to school due to lack of
funds. A smart girl, she started cleaning homes so she could save for
her education.
Nahed said her ministry took Situmeang into the orphanage in Medan
in 2007, two years after the massive tsunami hit Indonesia in Dec. 2004.
“Seven years later,” Nashed said, “she finished high school with
honors, so we sent her to university and she graduated in 2014 in
mathematics. During my visit to Indonesia in November 2014, I had the
privilege to meet her and attend her wedding.”
Nashed said Situmeang’s husband also graduated with a math degree.
They teach in a Christian school near the orphanage in Kupang, East
Timor.
“They both tutor the children in the orphanage and give back some of the blessings they have received,” Nashed said.
Tshava, Nashed said, was an orphan from a village near Kinshasa,
Congo (DRC) living on the streets. He was picked up by the ministry’s
director in Congo, and was in the orphanage until he finished high
school with distinction.
Nashed said he became a Christian, and the ministry is sending him
to medical school because he wants “to be a doctor and help the sick
people.” He is now in his third year, and doing very well.
Nashed added, “It is no easy life these children have living in
poverty and destitution. But if only we give them a chance, God can do
miracles in healing their brokenness and lead them to the truth in His
word. What better way to live our lives, but to serve others and lead
them to the Master.”
Nashed said Restore a Child is a ministry of faith.
She said, “All I wanted is reach out, seek and find vulnerable
children and help them by giving them hope and a future – like one
American missionary who took me to their home as an orphan after my
father died, and gave me hope and a future.”
Restore a Child helps to provide the basic needs for protection,
nutrition, education, and health care of orphans and underprivileged
children so that they may become fulfilled and productive adults. The
ministry helps children regardless of race, color or religious
affiliation.
Photo captions: 1) Norma Nashed. 2) Some of the children she has
helped through Restore a Child. 3) Norma Nashed with two of the kids she
has been able to help.
About
the author: Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News
Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy
Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org.
He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New
Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in
Los Angeles. His newest book is "From Destitute to Ph.D." Additional
details on "From Destitute to Ph.D." are available at http://www.myhomelessjourney.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Elma. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@gmail.com.
** You are free to republish this or any of our stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).
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Chris graduated from Xavier
University in 2003 with a BA in Communications: Electronic Media. He
moved to Baltimore in the fall of 2003 where he served as a Jesuit
Volunteer for a year. During that time, he was a Case Manager at Chase
Brexton, met my wife Kate and felt God's calling to Student Ministry.
In the summer of 2004, heI was hired by the Roman Catholic Parish
Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland as a Middle School Youth
Minister. Today he oversees grades 5-12 as the Director of Student
Ministry. 
Leneita Fix is the founder
and lead consultant for Blue Sky/Green Sky Consulting whose heart is :
”Passionate about developing and training youth-oriented programs that
are looking to take a generation from surviving to thriving in Christ.
In 2012 she will reach the 20 year mark of experience in youth ministry,
suburban, urban and rural. Most of her time has been spent in the urban
community, living as a neighbor to those around her.
The FBI estimates that the number of murders in 2013 at 14,196.[2]
ALBUQUERUQUE, NEW MEXICO (ANS – April 29, 2015) -- For
those familiar with rock music, the names Stephen Christian and Aaron
Gillespie will be all too familiar. Both are architects of the modern
form.
I reached out to Brian Nixon—one of the co-writers of the song, Army of Love—to give some input regarding terrorism, Reload Love, and the song.
So
right after the meeting, Stuart Laws, Ryan Wylie, Tamara Aragon, and
myself went into a room and wrote the basic song structure. I came up
with the verse melody, Stuart did the pre-chorus and chorus, and Tamara
wrote the bridge melody. Then Ryan and Stuart took the song—worked out
the lyrics, chords, and arrangement—and it was performed two weeks later
for the Reload Love awareness campaign. People really seemed to like
it.”
“Aaron did most of the instrument work on the recording. I believe Kenny played some guitar and I played the Moog Synthesizer.”
Jon Bloom is the Executive
Director for Desiring God Ministries