What are those funny-looking boxes in your magazine?
In our upcoming issue, you can use your phone to find videos and extra content. (Ryan Smith/WV)
In our summer issue (mailing next week!), you’ll notice some small, strange-looking barcodes. These are called Quick Response codes, or QR codes—a way to use a smartphone to immediately connect with information online. How do they work, and why in World Vision magazine?
Let me share my experience. When I read magazines, I’m usually sitting on my couch. If I see a web address for additional content, I’m often curious, but getting up and logging onto my computer gets me distracted. I usually wind up checking my email and not looking at the site I intended to visit.
This is where QR codes help. I usually have my iPhone sitting with me on the couch. Scanning the code in a magazine takes me directly to what I want to see: videos, photos, extra stories.
In this upcoming issue of World Vision, we’re using QR codes to share things that can’t be translated to the printed page. You’ll hear the passion in Rich Stearns’ voice as he describes a scene in a Haitian church as “one of the most moving things I’ve seen.” You’ll see the joy on the face of a woman in her newly constructed home in Haiti.
As editors, we want to continually improve the way we present our stories—both on the printed page and online. I think these codes are a good way of bridging the gap. Do you agree? We’d love to hear if you liked using the codes, disliked them, or if you have a better suggestion.
If you’re not familiar with QR codes or how they work, check out these instructions for the iPhone and Android phones. And whether you own a smartphone or not, we’ve created wvmag.org as an easily remembered location for all the links in each issue.
An obituary many years in the making allowed me to share Lorraine Pierce’s wonderful story.
Lorraine Pierce (right) and Jane. (Greg Schneider for World Vision)
When Lorraine Pierce, the wife of World Vision’s founder, passed away last week, our magazine staff barely had time to include a memorial in the almost-on-press Summer issue. We had been aware of her failing health, however, so we had a piece ready to go.
I started writing this tribute nearly nine years ago. In spring 2002, Lorraine became very ill, and her daughter Marilee Dunker asked someone from my team to fly down to Arcadia, Calif., to interview her—for the last time, we feared. I was honored to go. After working on the 50th anniversary magazine, I was fascinated by the Pierce family, and I’d read Marilee’s honest and poignant book about her parents, Man of Vision, Woman of Prayer (original 1980 edition, 2005 edition)
Click on the image to see page 1 of the story Jane wrote about Lorraine.
Lorraine didn’t feel up to seeing me the first few days. I’m from Arcadia, so I stayed at my parents’ place and waited. Finally, Marilee arranged for me to take Lorraine to a doctor’s appointment. I found myself chauffeuring her in her Cadillac sedan along the streets of my childhood. We chatted while waiting at the doctor’s office and later at her gracious ranch-style home, the one she once shared with Bob Pierce. Those first conversations were off the record; she was not at her best. But eventually she geared up for an interview, during which I saw glimmers of the great lady she was.
Soon after I left, a pacemaker and better medications gave Lorraine a new lease on life. Back in Seattle, as I transcribed my notes and delved into her previous interviews, I was deeply moved by her faith, humor, and transparency. And I started feeling uneasy about simply waiting to write Lorraine’s obituary. I wanted to celebrate her in her lifetime. In 2004, I found an opportunity. The magazine did a feature about people who embodied the qualities listed in the Beatitudes, and we selected Lorraine for “pure of heart.”
Click on the image to see page 2 of the story Jane wrote about Lorraine.
My past journalism professors might say, “You blew it—you got too close to your subject and strayed from your assignment.” Maybe so. But at World Vision, we writers look at our work a different way. We become guardians of people’s stories, stewards of their voices. If in the process we lose a little objectivity, I’m OK with that.
I was privileged to steward and share Lorraine Pierce’s voice. What she talked about, always, over and over, was love—God’s constant love, which alleviated everything that went wrong in her life. Hers was a beautiful love story, surely one of the best I’ll ever tell.
Jane Sutton-Redner’s memorial essay about Lorraine Pierce appears in the Summer 2011 magazine, mailing later this month.
A film about top surfer Bethany Hamilton helps make sense of life’s bitter blows.
Bethany introduces Thai children to the delights of surfing. (Jon Warren/World Vision)
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, a top surfer, 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 the next great wave. That spirit gave World Vision an idea. Following the Asian tsunami, fishing communities we were working with in Thailand had become petrified of the ocean from which they derived their living. Could Bethany help?
AnnaSophia Robb stars as Bethany Hamilton in "Soul Surfer." (Mario Perez, courtesy of Film District)
Bethany traveled to Phuket, where she talked with villagers about her own devastating ocean experience. One of her key points: Shark attacks and tsunamis are rare events; we ought not allow them to dictate the way we live the rest of our lives. Bethany persuaded some village youngsters to head into the ocean with her, where—much to their delight—she gave them their first-ever surfing lesson.
With the movie coming out soon, I got in touch with Bethany, now 21. She’s delighted with the way the film has turned out. She had a hand in picking AnnaSophia to play her, assisted with the script, and acted as a technical consultant on the surfing scenes. Her biggest buzz, though, has been audience reaction to the previews—including a girl about 7 years old who was born without an arm and was thrilled to see another single-armed person succeed. She had even written a book, A Dog Without a Paw, which she proudly presented to Bethany. In return, Bethany gave her signed poster of the movie.
“She was really sweet,” Bethany says, “and it was cool to show her that you can make the best of out life with one arm.”
Bethany’s own life proves that point. She still spends about six months of the year on the women’s professional surfing circuit, and last year she placed 25th on the women’s world rankings. I ask her if she ever fears another shark attack, and she just laughs: “I try not to focus on that. I just try to focus on having fun.”
Her message to others who have faced a terrible blow: “Things happen for a reason, and good can come out of it. In my experience, so much beauty has come out of a terrible thing.”
Shaping the print magazine to reflect breaking news.
This was our original design for the Summer issue. But breaking news forced a change.
It’s standard fare, in magazine publishing, to make changes to an issue up to the last minute, as the world changes around us. For the last few weeks, we’ve been finalizing our Summer issue, with its feature on Haiti. Right on schedule.
Then, Japan. Earthquake. Tsunami. Nuclear threat.
Needless to say, we’ve been making some changes.
Go back with me to early February. At that point, we were wrapping up a two-page spread of infographics, comparing the January 2010 Haiti earthquake with two other quakes that followed soon after: February 2010 in Chile and September 2010 in New Zealand. Our goal was to convey the compounding factors that affect the extent of devastation.
Then, on February 22, when the second quake struck Christchurch, New Zealand, we quickly changed our infographic [see our first draft above] to reflect this more deadly crisis.
Before we knew it, the morning of March 11 was unfolding with news from Japan, whose otherworldly images kept us glued to our screens. In tandem with the world, our anxiety over nuclear disaster grew, as did our confusion over conflicting reports, and our grief over the absolute nothingness left behind.
We told you about our editor-in-chief’s tough decision, but we also knew that our quake graphic needed to change yet again. As I type this, the ending is not yet written for Japan and its present, let alone its future. How many are still lost to the sea’s fury? What will happen at the nuclear plants? How high will the death toll rise?
We should never become numb to numbers that mark lives lost, regardless of how one crisis compares to another.
And yet, and yet, we still come back to Haiti, to this country built upon such extreme poverty and shaking foundations, and its astronomical death toll.
Diane McDougall
Stay tuned for our Summer issue, to see what we did. (And follow breaking news on www.worldvision.org.)
And please, keep each of these countries in your prayers.
Diane joined the World Vision magazine team in February 2011 as interim managing editor. She serves as editorial director at Journey Group—a custom-publishing firm in Virginia.
Yesterday was World Water Day, and to mark the occasion Kari Costanza appeared on the local television show New Day Northwest (see the segment above) to talk about her experience with water in Kenya, which shared in the story “In Sabina’s Shoes” in our Spring 2011 issue.
Kari also created a documentary about her experience of hauling 70 pounds of water for two miles—a feat that Sabina completes twice per day.
Watching the heartbreaking tragedy in Japan while considering sending one of our own.
Rescue workers search for survivors in Minami Sanriku, Japan. (Mitsuko Sobata/WV)
What a heartbreaking week it has been as we’ve watched the unfolding disaster in Japan triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
Communications is a leading-edge response for World Vision during an emergency. When Haiti’s quake struck last year, James Addis jumped on a plane that same night. Just a few weeks ago, while James was honing his skills at a crisis-communications training course, reality hit close to home when a strong quake shook New Zealand, where James used to live. But he stayed put as World Vision’s local office handled the response.
Last weekend, I called James to put him on standby for possible deployment to Japan with a communications team. We have not sent him yet, in part because our colleagues at World Vision Japan are on the job. But also, the nuclear threat increased as the week wore on. Crisis-reporting assignments are never without risk—aftershocks, violence, illness, emotional trauma—but nuclear contamination is a whole new element, with altogether different consequences. While it’s never easy to send a colleague into harm’s way, this situation really scares me.
Usually, delaying a communications team from getting to the disaster zone is not the right choice. Given these unique circumstances, it seems the wise choice. Please pray with us for colleagues in Japan covering this historic and heart-wrenching crisis.
See World Vision Japan Humanitarian Emergency Affairs Manager describe the devastation caused by the tsunami.
Getting a crash course in reporting humanitarian emergencies.
World Vision communicators testing satellite phones, James Addis on the right. (Stephen Matthews/WV)
With the dramatic news flowing out of North Africa in recent days, you might well have missed a humanitarian emergency developing in Siamarea. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are pouring into the country, fleeing civil war in neighboring Camada. Government forces in Camada are trying to quell the Anywherian Liberation Front (ALF), which is attempting to establish a radical Islamic state.
The refugees have walked for miles. They are sick, their children are starving, and their women have been sexually abused. Right now, World Vision is establishing relief operations in Siamarea. To complicate matters, the refugees are known to include armed ALF fighters.
Haven’t heard about this? Yeah, I’m pulling your leg. This scenario was part of a training and simulation exercise I’ve just completed in Bangkok, Thailand. With this training, I can now be called away to any disaster zone anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. My task: to communicate the intensity of the crisis in words, pictures, and video for various World Vision publications and websites.
Before entering eastern Siamarea (in reality, a municipality about an hour from downtown Bangkok), myself and the other course participants were up until 1 a.m. putting out press releases and video logs, and establishing a website and social-media channels.
Print is not enough. James Addis rehearsing a video following the Haiti earthquake.
In addition to getting out our message quickly and accurately, we had to be prepared for some serious questions: Will your aid end up supporting ALF fighters and exacerbate the conflict? Does your assistance act as a magnet, drawing more people across the border and creating instability in a second country?
Once in eastern Siamaria, we raced around gathering pictures and stories from a refugee camp, food distribution site, and health clinic. While on the move, we wrote reports, edited footage, and uploaded it all via satellite phone. The scenario was as realistic as possible: Among the distractions was a grilling at a military checkpoint, a high-maintenance celebrity actress, and a barrage of pesky reporters. I gave an interview on camera to the “BBC” at a food distribution. During the interview, the distribution turned into a riot and descended into chaos.
What sustains us in training exercises and real life is the knowledge that when people are better informed about dire human needs, they feel empowered to do something about it. It’s a great job and I feel privileged to play a small part in it—though I hope I won’t have to put the training to use too often.
Getting ready for spring training in the Dominican Republic. (World Vision Staff)
I was browsing through some new images that arrived in our photo library, and I couldn’t help but smile at this one from the Dominican Republic.
Just in time for MLB spring training!
When seeking justice for the sexually abused, we could all use a “Popeye” moment.
Young girls sell sex in Cambodia. (Sopheak Kong/WV)
One of my eccentric hobbies is discovering theological insights from animated cartoons. A favorite is “Road Runner.” The dastardly coyote is always devising ever more fantastic means to capture the elusive bird, but his wicked schemes invariably and hilariously backfire, causing maximum pain and humiliation for the coyote.
“Road Runner” reminds me of the story of Mordecai and Haman in the biblical book of Esther. You’ll remember that Haman goes to elaborate lengths to secure the demise of Mordecai. He is so sure that he is about to achieve this end that he constructs a gallows in preparation for Mordecai’s hanging. Alas, it goes horribly wrong, and it’s Haman who ends up swinging from the noose.
I got another cartoon insight last week when an old colleague from New Zealand unexpectedly turned up at the Federal Way office to give a talk on child sexual exploitation in Cambodia for Women of Vision. Sue Hanna used to work as a fundraiser for World Vision in New Zealand. She was good at her job and dedicated to the cause. But something happened that persuaded her to go deeper. She had what she calls her “Popeye” moment—an idea she got from pastor and author Bill Hybels.
I’m not too familiar with Popeye, but apparently the inarticulate, weedy-looking sailor becomes transformed when somebody messes with the love of his life. Then, Popeye downs a can of spinach and is transformed into a titan, whereupon he saves Olive Oyl and—I gather—more or less goes on to save the rest of the world.
Which brings me to the serious bit. Sue’s “Popeye” moment had occurred on a visit to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, when she met 16-year-old Sokha. Sokha had been sold into a brothel at age 11 by her mother. At the brothel she then contracted HIV. Eventually, she became too sick to work, and the brothel owner kicked her out. With few options, Sokha decided to return to her hometown and reconnect with her mother.
When she arrived, neighbors told Sokha that her mother had remarried and disappeared. Sokha returned to the streets of Phnom Penh, where she was eventually found by World Vision and accepted into the organization’s trauma-recovery center—a residential program for sexually abused girls. Sadly, she was only there for about a month before she had to be transferred to a nearby hospital because she was so sick.
Sue at Sokha's bedside.
When Sue Hanna met her, Sokha was dying. Sue and another friend prayed for the 16-year-old to be released from pain and find peace.
Two days later, Sue was handed an envelope that had been left at the reception desk of her hotel. It contained a photograph of Sue and her friend at Sokha’s bedside (the picture shown here). On the back of the envelope was scrawled the message that Sokha had passed away the previous night. Their prayers had been answered.
Meeting Sokha changed Sue’s life. She resigned her fundraising job and moved permanently to Phnom Penh, where she manages shelters for exploited girls and boys for Hagar International—an organization that partners closely with World Vision in Cambodia to rescue children from sexual slavery. Sue says she’s used the photograph to tell Sokha’s story more than a hundred times, and she still can’t repeat it without getting upset. I can vouch for that.
It struck me that we could all use a “Popeye” moment in our lives, a moment when the injustice of the world prompts us not to indifference and not to despair, but a moment that empowers us to rise up and do something about it.
>>You can give hope for sexually exploited girls, providing assistance like medical care, nutritious food, non formal education, vocational training, compassionate counseling, and, where possible, reintegration into a loving family environment.
A Christ statue—one of the world’s largest—reigns over Cochabamba, Bolivia. (Jon Warren/WV)
This month Jon Warren is traveling in Bolivia, South America, with World Vision U.S. President Rich Stearns. His camera has captured stunning views and scenes from high elevations—up to 14,000 feet! These are too good not to share.
La Paz, Bolivia’s administrative capital, has more than a million residents. The city is shaped like a bowl, surrounded by mountains.
Water mirrors sky at this highland community where World Vision helped build a dam.
Greenhouse-grown produce is enough to feed whole families in Tiraque, where World Vision has been working since 1988.
The true beauty of Bolivia—children! Here, girls and boys are registered for sponsorship.
These lovely girls (3-year-old Nathaly, left, and Arcely, 5, with their mother, Asteria) are already sponsored, and they participate in an early stimulation program for children.
See more photos of Rich Stearns’ trip on his Facebook page.