My Loss is Their Gain!

Please help me in my new cause to help the children of Liberia have a brighter and more sustainable future. Go to www.losing4liberia.com and learn how your pledge can help feed, clothe, educate and medicate the children of our mission in Liberia, Africa. I am going to lose as much weight as I can for 6 months until November 15th, 2012 and am taking your pledges per pound. You can pledge whatever you feel like, $ 10 a pound, $ 5 dollars a pound, a penny a pound …… It doesn’t matter because every cent is going to help when I collect the money in November! No amount is going to be refused! 100% of the money will go directly to the children of Liberia Mission Incorporated in Blacktom Town, Liberia and it will help meet their daily necessities.

I also ask for your continued support of my book “Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant.” Every copy sold helps the children of our mission as well. You can order your copies from the links provided on this webpage or contact me through FACEBOOK or my e-mail: jeromecabeen@yahoo.com for a signed copy. If you live in the lower 48 states I will pay the postage. All of you have been such a huge blessing to our mission and our children. Please continue to help us help the awesome and beautiful children of Liberia Mission Incorporated!

To learn more about our mission and Franciscan Works please visit: www.franciscanworks.org

You have all my blessings and prayers,

Jerome

Looking for a few good LIKES on FACEBOOK!

If you haven’t had a chance to visit our FACEBOOK page please do so as it is a compliment to this website and while you are there PLEASE “LIKE” the page! We are trying to get as many likes as we can to show the kids at our mission in Liberia that the world thinks and cares about them. We are at 328 now and I would love to be at 400 by the end of May but ONLY YOU can make that happen!

Please remember all the children of the world in your thoughts and prayers and let us work to make their road a little easier after we have gone. IT IS THE RIGHT AND JUST THING TO DO!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Memoirs-of-a-Reluctant-Servant/170781402976204

Jennie Martin – Quietly being Loud for God’s Kingdom

Taking a page from her own script I will get right to the chase, Jennie Martin is fighting for her life in the most real and literal sense a person can be fighting. Jennie is many things to many people. She is a mother, a wife, a friend, a source of strength, an inspiration and Jennie is also warrior. For the last year and a half she has been in the fight of her life against a very agressive form of colon/liver cancer. Having said goodbye to my own father because of lung cancer just last October has made me keenly aware of the battle Jennie is now engaged in. There is fear with cancer. We are humans and no matter how strong our faith, how closely we walk with God or how brazenly we accept the crosses Christ gives us we still have that elemental degree of human fear. I have never met a human being that has faith in God, love for Christ and total belief in His will more than Jennie Martin does. I am not saying this because she is sick or because medical science tells us she might be running low on options, I say it because it is the truth.

So, who is Jennie Martin to me and my wife Clarisa?

First lets talk about the prior before we tackle the present. Jennie is the mother to four incredible children, three still working for the Kingdom here on earth and one who has already had the joy of sitting in Jesus’ lap, probably pulling on His beard knowing the Martins. She has a husband almost as incredible as she is that she has been married to for 34 years, listing her friends would be an exhaustive undertaking that would last well into 2013 so I will just say Clarisa and I are counted blessed to be two of them, she has been a rock and inspiration to thousands of people on this giant round ball we call earth and as I said before she is a warrior, but not for the reasons you might think.

Yes, Jennie has battled this debilitating disease for almost 2 years and has kept swinging long after others, myself for sure, would have thrown in the towel. But for me Jennie Martin is a warrior for a much different reason and the world is and always will be a better place for her valiant efforts of love and sacrifice for the poor of the world, more point specifically the “poor children” of the world. It doesn’t matter that she is on the Board of Directors of Franciscan Works or she is a small business owner and recently won the 1st Annual St. Francis of Assisi Award presented to her by Franciscan Works (Clarisa and I had the honor of making the presentation). I would venture to say the children of Honduras and Liberia, the least of them, the hungry, the scared, the dirty, the uncertain, the crying, the lonely, the abused, the marginalized, the sick, the Marias, the Kensys, the Tanyas, the Sandras, the Miguels, the Musus, the Jameses, the Zinnahs, the Sianaes and all of the other of thousands of children she has brought the love of Christ to, THESE are the diamonds that deocate the crown of her heart. I met Jennie in 2005 when she and her husband Deacon Ed Martin led a group of Catholic missionaries from their parish church in Louisiana to the mission I was volunteering at in Honduras. This started a deep and abiding friendship with not just the both of them but the wonderful people that made up their group that has only grown stronger up until this very day. It became very apparent, very quickly that Jennie was determined to brighten the lives of the children we served and do it with an abandon that I have not seen in anybody else. Her ministry of love wasn’t confined to their week long trip in the country or yearly trips after that. When Jennie is most effective and “dangerous” is when she is sitting at home in Louisiana rallying the troops, making priests and bishops sweat because of her constant requests for help and when she is filling 30×50 containers full of items to ship off to Africa or Central America that instantly raise the level of living for the people they are intended for.  Her effort is non-stop and her love non-regulated. A great illustration of just how much of an impact that she has had in the lives of others is the fact that although she has never been to our mission in Liberia upon hearing of her battle against cancer the beautiful children of our mission not only wrote her letters to cheer her up and make her smile but they called her and along with the Liberian house parents prayed for her and her condtion right over the phone. The children had the blessing of meeting Deacon Ed as he came to Liberia right before Clarisa and I departed and they quickly adopted “Uncle” Ed and “Aunt” Jennie as their own. This is the type of servant “Aunt” Jennie is and those are the type of children we serve in Liberia.

Now to answer the present question. Who is Jennie Martin to me and Clarisa?

For Clarisa and I Jennie is a hero, a saint, a friend and a sister that has made us, especially me WANT to be a better husband, WANT to be a better man, WANT to be a less reluctant servant and more than anything else WANT to be a better Christian. St. Francis of Assisi taught us to preach the gospel of Christ always and only when necessary use words. Jennie didn’t win the St. Francis of Assisi Award because she has cancer or there is a chance she might not be here to win the 2nd Annual award, no Jennie Martin was given this award because she exemplifies St. Francis’s exhortation as well as it can be exhorted. She has spent a lifetime preaching the gospel and love of Christ and very rarely has she ever needed words to do it. Jennie never needed to practice what she preached because she has always operated from a higher level of “if you just go ahead and do the right thing you don’t have to worry about talking about it.”

Tomorrow, Friday, May 11th Jennie goes in to begin radiation treatments. On a recent trip to Louisiana she expalined to us in detail what she was going to go through with the procedure. Once again I had the thought that only Jennie would be able to go through this. I have spent a lot of time with Jennie the last month and a half. A board meeting in Wisconsin sandwhiched between two trips to Louisiana and I have enjoyed every second of them, not because of the nature of her present health, but because Jennie is Jennie, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale world. We are all “scared” that Jennie will eventually run out of bullets in her fight but she told me something recently that made me realize that everyday is a precious blessing. She said “Jeronimo (my name in Spanish) we are all terminal, one way or another.” And she is right, none of us know what the next 5 minutes holds for us or if tomorrow will even come no matter how healthy we are. I do know one thing for certain there will be no white flag of surrender waved by Jennie Martin in this war. She is going to fight like hell until she runs out of ammo and when the ammo is gone she is going to bite and when the teeth are gone she is going to scratch and when the nails are gone she is going to kick and when the feet are gone she will find some new way to fight…..she will never give up, and I would expect nothing less from a person who has fought this exact way for the poorest of the poor and those she loves the most.

As for me, I told her the only way Clarisa and I were going to let her have the St. Francis of Assisi Award was if she agreed to be here next year so SHE could be the one presenting, she agreed. I am not a man who wagers money often but I would not be surprised if she held up her end of the bargin. Jennie Martin is one person you would be fool hardy to bet against. But really it doesn’t matter because she already has beaten cancer, living is not the measure of victory, the impact one has on the world and the love they leave behind is and this is something cancer has no way of touching, especially in Jennie Martin.

Here are 10,000 Words (plus a few extra) for the World !

What we do….or don’t do….echoes in eternity. What lasts is love and all of our material gains evaporate quicker than our lives did. Live for yourself and you have already enjoyed our glory. Live for others and share eternal life with them.

HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!: “Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant” thanks all of you!!!!!!

Today “Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant” celebrates its 1st anniversary of publication as well as the launching of this website. Each and everyone person who has in someway helped make a dream a reality has my undying thanks and appreciation for your support. We have had over 6,400 people visit this website from over 60 different countries. It has been an incredible undertaking trying to tell the world about our mission but very much worth the work and effort. The children of Liberia Mission Inc. and the incredible people of Liberia were my motivation in writing, “Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant.”Living with people who literally have very little or nothing in ways of material goods yet have so much in love and faith made an indelible mark on my heart and soul. Clarisa and I are honored and blessed to be a part of their lives. It has been an incredible first year and I have no doubt the second year will be even better as we continue to put out the message about the children of our mission. Please tell your family and friends about this website as well as our mission’s main website at www.franciscanworks.org. Franciscan Works is the parent organization that funds our mission in Africa and we want you to join our team  and be a part of the incredible success we are seeing in Liberia. Everything Clarisa and I do is for the kids. They are so deserving of love and hope, as every child on our planet is.

We would be honored to have you LIKE our FACEBOOK page as well for “Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant.” If you haven’t purchased a copy yet please contact me through FACEBOOK for a signed copy. The book is $15 USD and if you live in the lower 48 I will pay postage. Additionally you can buy your copies on-line at AMAZON, Barnes & Noble, Trafford, Borders and other retailers.

A special debt of gratitude goes to my writing partner Barbara Pawlikowski who helped me edit, shape and SEE what writing a book really entailed. Her inspiration and support was the push I needed to get over the proverbial hump. An even bigger salute goes to all the wonderful children at Liberia Mission Inc. and my wife Clarisa for helping me see the very best in myself and believing in me when everything seemed to be going wrong. My love for them and Clarisa has no end!

Finally thanks to ALL OF YOU for an incredible first year and thank you for LOVING and CARING about the children of Liberia Mission Inc.!

Innocence Erased: Child explotation and slavery are robbing children of their childhoods

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” – Matthew 18:6

The picture the United Nations paints of world-wide child exploitation is an ugly reminder of the regressed level global society operates at.  Estimates state that 700,000 to 2 million children are trafficked around the world for purposes of forced prostitution, labor and other forms of exploitation every year. Looking at the staggering reality that 7 BILLION dollars is raked in annually at it is not surprising so many people have entered into the fray of selling and exploiting children.

The defensless children are subject to human rights violations that include rape, torture, forced abortions, starvation, female circumcision, castration and threats against family members. Often coming from countries that have deep reputations for govermental corruption the children are left voiceless. Their protests stop at the pockets of officals who have been bribed with big dollars to lend a blind eye to those who deal in their trafficking. Afghanistan, Equitorial Guinea, Haiti, Guinea, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Myanmar, Iraq, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangledesh and Chad are the front runners in the child trafficking and slavery market. In Liberia, where the problem ran amok for many years, the situation under President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf , has gotten progressively better but still has its challenges. I met several people who recounted to me that they had lost children to organizations that had recruited  under the guise of a Christian mission only to be told later that their children had run away from the mission and disappeared without a trace. Depending on the age, sex and size of a child an unscrupulous person can make up to $25,000 selling a child into slavery on the international black market.

What makes the situation more repugnant is that children are being stolen form their families in developing countries because of the high demand to buy one exists in more economically sound countries. There isn’t a blade of grass in the world free of the stain of this horrible sin. Children stolen from Africa, Eastern Europe or the Middle East wind up in countries such as the United States, Australia, Brazil, France, India, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands,  Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and Germany.

Even more alarmaing is organizations that have waged war against such malfeasance has enemies with-in their own perimeters. In the summer of 2001 soldiers with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Eritrea were purchasing ten-year-old girls for sex in local hotels.  Before the arrival of 15,000 UN troops in Cambodia in 1991, there were an estimated 1,000 prostitutes in the capital. Currently, Cambodia’s illegal sex trade generates $500 million a year. No less than 55,000 women and children are sex slaves in Cambodia, 35 percent of which are younger than 18 years of age. Over 5,000 women and children have been trafficked from the Philippines, Russia and Eastern Europe and are forced into prostitution in bars servicing the U.S. Military in South Korea

So who is engaging in this lurid business of evil? You might be surprised to at the answer.

1) Traffickers are  members of highly sophisticated networks of organized crime. Ukrainian officials uncovered and detained a criminal group in the city of Dnipropetrovsk, which trafficked Ukrainian girls and women to the United Arab Emirates. They made $2,000 on each girl forced into prostitution. This gang managed to traffic more than 15 Ukrainian young women aged between 16 and 30 to the United Arab Emirates.

2) Traffickers are  family members and friends of the trafficking victim. Victims of trafficking are later used to traffic other women and children. Traffickers from Benin see themselves as helping the home community–facilitators for families looking for some extra income. One trafficker commented, “Every girl who travels and who doesn’t get deported is a potential sponsor for more.” Children from Pakistan and Bangladesh are kidnapped or sold by their parents to traffickers who take them to Persian Gulf States including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, to work as camel jockeys. These children 3 to 7 years of age and are malnourished to keep their weight below 35 pounds. They suffer physical abuse from the traffickers and work all day training camels. Many of these children suffer extreme injuries or death from falling off camels during the races.

What about us, the land of the free, home of the brave….the country that supposedly is the hallmark for freedom and justice? The truth is a bitter pill to swallow for the United States.

1) 50,000  women and children are trafficked into the United States from no less than 49 countries every year. As many as 750,000 women and children have been trafficked into the United States over the last decade.

2) Women and children as young as 14 have been trafficked from Mexico to Florida and forced to have sex with as many as 130 clients per week in a trailer park. These women were kept hostage through threats and physical abuse, and were beaten and forced to have abortions. One woman was locked in a closet for 15 days after trying to escape.

3) Cases of trafficking into the United States include women and children who are trafficked from Honduras to Dallas and Ft. Worth, Texas; Latvia to Chicago; Mexico to Florida; Korea to Michigan; Japan to Hawaii; Cameroon to Maryland; Taiwan to Seattle; India to California; Vietnam to Atlanta.

4) In Fresno, California Hmong gang members have kidnapped girls between the ages of 11 and 14 and forced into prostitution. The gang members would beat and rape them into submission. These girls were trafficked within the United States and traded between other Hmong communities.

2) The Cadena smuggling ring trafficked women, some as young as 14, from Mexico to Florida. The victims were forced to prostitute themselves with as many as 130 men per week in a trailer park. Of the $25 charged the “Johns” the women received only $3. The Cadena members kept the women hostage through threats and physical abuse. One woman was kept in a closet for 15 days for trying to escape. Some were beaten and forced to have abortions (the cost of which was added to their debt). The women worked until they paid off their debts of $2,000 to $3,000.

The world obviously has lost its way and is in the iniquitous grip of evil and debauchery. A world that cannot, or better yet, will not protect its children must be re-evaluted for its worth and meaning in the universe. These statistics are sickening yet they are the truth. St. Augustine said that the first reaction to truth is anger and my friends if these facts don’t anger you nothing will.

Please consider supporting Chicago based Franciscan Works and its Liberia Mission Incorporated in Liberia, Africa as we fight daily against these human rights abuses that have plauged our world’s children for far too long. We are providing education (classroom and spiritual), food, clothing, health care, art classes, computer classes, sewing and woodwork classes and vocational farm training for 110 full time on-site Liberian children and another 325 day students at our school. This is done in a safe, structured and accountable setting where the child and their saftey comes first, second and last. As well please consider purchasing copies of my book “Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant” as it will help educate you more on the plight of child soldiers in Liberia as well as the daily struggle the country faces in recovering from two catastrophic civil wars. You can find out more about both at:

www.franciscanworks.org, www.readreluctantservant.com and you can find Franciscan Works and Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant both on FACEBOOK. Please take the time to LIKE our pages on FACEBOOK and visit often.

Protect our greatest commodity, the children and give your own sons and daughters long hugs of love today, because millions of parents around the world have lost that opportunity and millions of children just like the one below have lost their childhoods.

What’s in a Smile? For the children of Liberia Mission Inc. a Brighter Future!

So many times people ask me, “What kept you and Clarisa in Liberia for 2 years?” Our answer is always the same, THE CHILDREN. No matter how tough the road was to hoe in Liberia, no matter what problems we faced or how much sorrow came our way the children of Liberia Mission Inc. always were there with a smile or a hug or an encouraging word. They never failed us. It is so easy to think we were there in Africa blessing the Africans but the truth is when we left it was us who had been blessed, first by the mission children and then by the Liberians we had a chance to live with. I still become very emotional and tear up when I am giving a presentation on Liberia or my book and I bring up the kids. I love them and I miss them so much.

I know many people are suspicious of organizations that ask for financial help for children, and not without good cause. I have worked all over the world trying to help and educate the people of the developing world. I have run into hundreds of NGO’s, Non-Profits and volunteer aid organizations and I am convinced that Franciscan Works, the stateside organization that supports Liberia Mission Inc., is one of the very best. Please consider becoming involved with us at Franciscan Works. You can start by visiting www.franciscanworks.org and find out how you can start helping today.

Times are hard, individuals always assume that a different person will step up and help, many of us convince ourselves throwing a couple of dollars in the collection plate is enough but the truth is if not US then WHOM? If not NOW, WHEN? Come on board and join us in changing a country one child, and one smile at a time!

Charles Taylor’s Liberia – A Legacy of Destruction; A Being of Evil

Charles Taylor was a good bed fellow in that the demented warlord would hop into any comfortable situation as long as it benefitted him. Taylor used, raped, maimed, murdered and in some cases ate the Liberian people so he could further root his fear and charismatic hold over them. Once claiming to be a professing Christian, Taylor went from appearing in churches dressed in ceremonial garb and walking stick professing the gospels of Christ to venturing into the bush to celebrate pagan-anamist rituals and finally after being arrested in Liberia and imprisoned in The Netherlands he claimed to be a convert to Judaism.

I wanted the world, or those who cared, to bear witness to Charles Taylor’s handiwork in Liberia and Sierra Leone and make the judgement for yourself if he was a man of ANYONE’S god. Please study the pictures below and let them rest in your heart and decide if this was truly a man of God or Evil. Beware of those who pray on the street corners and as well be on guard against our adversary, for though they comes as an angel of light, their hearts are set on those they can devour.

A Liberian baby girl who will be reminded everyday of her life what kind of person Charles Taylor is.

An ex child-solider told me once in Monrovia that "the dead laugh at us." Charles Taylor made sure we all heard many voices from beyond.

Death, destruction, hopelessness and illiteracy: These are Charles Taylor's gifts to West Africa.

The children of Liberia still struggle to drink clean water. Charles Taylor will have all the clean, pure water he can drink in prison. As well he doesn't have to worry about Malaria or Typhoid. He still is making out better than the LIberians.

A life cut short: More of Taylor's handiwork.

Most presidents use concrete to pave their streets. Charles Taylor used AK-47 shells.

Franciscan Works? You Bet It Does!

Being able to serve the children of Liberia for 2 years outside of of Monrovia at Liberia Mission Incorporated was a blessing beyond measure for Clarisa and I. It changed our lives forever and esatblished a connection between the children and ourselves that will last for eternity. I am now on the Board of Directors for Franciscan Works, the stateside organization that supports, funds and directs our Liberian mission and again being associated with the people that run Franciscan Works is a blessing that has overwhelmed me with pride and honor. So many of us WANT to make a difference in the lives of others or spit-shine the world so it radiates a little brighter than it did the day before. We have that desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Becoming a partner and supporter of Franciscan Works is your opportunity to do just that.

One of the many reasons my book, “Memoirs of a Reluctant Servant”, has been so sucessful and well received was inpart because of the support of Franciscan Works. Clarisa, my wife, encouraged me daily to continue to write, my literary partner Barbara Pawlikowski challenged me to believe in what I was doing and taught me to think like a writer and the people of Franciscan Works supported my dream of telling my story about the awesome children of Liberia Mission Inc.

This is YOUR time to shine and become a big part, a lasting impact on the lives of one, or two…or ALL of our mission children. All you have to do to get started is visit our brand new and beautiful website at www.franciscanworks.org and learn how you can literally change a country for the better. Eight years ago I took a leap of faith when I moved to Honduras, Central America to serve the poor, in 2008 I took a bigger leap when Clarisa and I mutually decided to serve in Liberia, Africa and it has made all the difference. Don’t let the world define your possibilities or your limitations, the power and love you need comes from with-in. Visit us today at www.franciscanworks.org andstart making a change in a child’s life and your life as well!

G U I L T Y !!!!!!!! Pack Your Load Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor, "The King of the Zoes", reacts to his guilty verdict in The Netherlands. Justice finally came to the people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and the world.

Charles Taylor will never again be able to hurt, kill, maim or destroy the people of Liberia, Sierra Leone or the world. The 64 year old Taylor was found guilty today of war crimes against the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia in The Hague, The Netherlands. This is a day, especially for those that have died or were left maimed because of this psychopathic maniac, to rejoice and dance. Justice has eluded so many of those in Liberia for their heinous crimes during the civil war but the “Warlord of Warlords,” “The King of the Zoes” has been rendered useless. Liberia celebrates, Sierra Leone celebrates, humanity celebrates. Pack your load Charles Taylor.

This is wonderful day for the beautiful Liberian people!