We’d like to welcome Cynthia Speckman as a Storehouse venue leader in international disaster relief. Many of you will remember Cynthia from the time she spent here in Omaha; but since that time, she has been in Missouri preparing for this exciting next step. She says, “The past five years have been a time of preparing me for a new season in life. This new season is not just a new job/career, but also a new way of seeing the world and interpreting the Kingdom of God. Not that core belief system has changed, but my experiences of the past five years have deepened my dependence on god, challenged my trust of God, and caused me to question much about Western ‘church’. I believe I am coming forth from my cave as a better, more balanced individual with deeper convictions and greater faith.
“When she was accepted into the Social Work Master’s Program, she knew she wanted to do an international practicum/internship that would give her overseas experience. And, after pursuing opportunities for five months, she chose a challenging position with World Relief as a program consultant in Indonesia. The details were finalized at the end of 2009. She will be doing a variety of needs assessment, data gathering, evaluation and training throughout the country within World Relief’s five primary target areas of disaster relief, child development, HIV/AIDS awareness and education, maternal and child health, and micro business. In addition, she will be teaching English, and responding to any disasters within the country.
Her first stop will be West Sumatra, working with the disaster funding project. The October 2009 earthquake left great devastation, and the World Relief program will be constructing 350 temporary shelters (accommodating over 2,000 people) within the next six weeks. The project is being funded by three countries and two faith based organizations/churches. All five supporters of the program must receive final reports by March. She will be doing the final evaluation of the programs and preparing the five reports. Two of her learning goals for this semester were 1. Learn more about international funding sources and reporting processes and 2. Do final evaluation/report writing. Disaster response is an area she is extremely interested in and this will be great experience. In West Sumatra, she will be living in the volcanic mountain community and traveling daily to the project site—40 miles of mountain roads.
She knows she will be challenged, but she is excited! She will be in Indonesia from now through April with final report writing and submission of evaluation tools/etc in May. When she returns, she will spend time with her daughter Kessaya, while transitioning to a “real job” in her area of interest “hopefully” by July!
If you’d like to connect with Cynthia, her email is cynthiaspeckman@gmail.com. To learn more about World Relief, the organization with which Cynthia is traveling, visit http://www.wr.org/. And, if you’d like to support Cynthia financially, you can send your check to: The Storehouse, P.O. Box 540782, Omaha, NE 68154. Please attach a note “for Cynthia” instead of writing on the memo line.
