This crumb is truly wonder-ful

It happened in Moche, Peru. Thanks to security officers making it public, a video clip of Victor Martin Angulo Cordoba was flashed around the world via social media. It shows him doing homework under a street lamp because his home had no electricity. Then miracles began to happen. First, mayor Arturo Fernandez Bazan helped Victor's mother obtain paperwork needed to prove she owned her home. This proof is needed to legally install electric service. The mayor also delivered school supplies, supporting Victor's desire to stay in school and become a police officer.

That was a wonderful improvement, but the best was yet to come. Yaqoob Yusuf Ahmed Mubarak is a 31-year-old millionaire importer from Bahrain. When he saw Victor's picture, it reminded him of his own childhood, so he flew nearly halfway around the world to meet him and his family. When he arrived last May and saw the condition of Victor's home and school, he decided he would rebuild the home, adding a second story for bedrooms. He also promised to update the school's infrastructure. He added furniture and a new computer center in Victor's honor. He also seized the opportunity to support Victor's mother in starting a small business.

A wheelchair giveaway

Ten years ago, Philip Pavone owned a pawn shop, and some of his old, motorized wheelchairs had not sold. So he placed an ad in the local Connecticut paper offering them for free. Within two weeks, he received sixty (60) letters from people who needed them.

"At that moment, I realized how many people out there were suffering," he said. Some who wrote to him had not been able to leave their homes for months, or years. So he bought, repaired and gave away four more used wheelchairs. Then he asked people to donate them, so he could repair them and give them away. Now his process of pairing recipients with their chairs culminates each year with a major event during the holiday season, when 100 chairs and scooters are given away free in a single day.

Back to school shoe giveaway

Carrie Jernigan too her 9-year-old daughter to a Payless shoe store in Alma, Arkansas, and to do some shopping. Her daughter asked a favor. "There's this boy in my class that loves Avengers tennis shoes, and his are two small. Could you buy him a pair?" Mom agreed, and on the way out, almost joking, she asked the cashier, "How much for all the shoes in the store?" Last February, Payless announced that all its stores in the US would close. The district manager called Carrie to say she could buy the store's remaining stock before it closed. She expect to buy about 350 pairs of shoes, to donate to folks who needed them.

When she returned to pay for them, she learned another shipment had just arrived, so instead of buying 350 pairs of shoes, she purchased 1,500 pairs. They only cost $21,000.00, and she decided to donate the shoes to local schools. "I wanted these kids to have brand new shoes to start school," she said. On August 10, she and a Baptist church will host a back-to-school event at the Alma Middle School gym where parents and children can get school supplies and a free pair of shoes just before classes begin.

The key to being a good neighbor

Bringing "fun" to the kids of Syria

Until recently, kids in war-torn Syria who had skateboards rode them sitting down. They'd never seen anyone stand on a board, until now. Right across from the Qudsaya school near Damascus, a bunch of strangers suddenly appeared recently and began digging in the rubble. Says one, "Every day on breaks or after school, hundreds of kids would swarm around, trying to figure out what we were digging. At first they assumed we were soccer players because, to them, white people play soccer. We had to sign a lot of autographs, and we put up signs that told what we were doing."

These men were building the first skate park in Syria, made with cooperation from Skate Aid  and SOS Children's Villages of Syria. The park is open now, and as you can see from the photo, kids are eager to stop thinking about the horrible conditions they've been through and start having fun again. Foreign activists from around the world volunteered to help build the park, and are willing to train Syrian kids on skateboarding. Said one 12-year-old proudly, "I fell lots of times when I first tried standing on my skateboard, and it hurt. But now I know how to do it."

The statue of liberty and McDonald's golden arches

U.S. authorities, unable to house a surge of asylum-seekers at the Mexican border, have dropped of thousands of immigrants in one of the poorest towns in one of the poorest states -- Deming, New Mexico.  When the first busload was dropped off at the Deming McDonalds on Mother's Day, town residents took the invitation on the Statue of Liberty to heart. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be breathe free."

Within 24 hours after the first immigrants arrived at the golden arches, the town converted an empty WWII airplane hanger on the fairgrounds into a migrant shelter, filled wall to wall with cots and piles of donated diapers, toiletries and clothing for migrants who often arrive hungry and have not showered for weeks. "We don't even discuss the politics of it here," says Chris Brice, who runs the shelter and is also Deming's jail warden. "They're here legally and they're human beings, so we're going to make them as comfortable as we can until they finish their journey. We give children information so they're not afraid. They've never seen a bus station or an airport before. We sometimes help them tie their shoelaces."

Among the migrants, Betsy, her husband, and their two children, ages 2 and 7, are thankful for a child-friendly space in Deming. She said drug traffickers took over her country, Honduras, and wanted her to distribute drugs. Her family refused and her brother was killed. She didn't want her children killed, so they walked for two months to reach America, struggling for food and shelter along the way. Brice says some migrant mothers pulled off astounding feats of courage. "We had a mom who has a paraplegic 12-year-old daughter, and carried her all the way in her arms." There have been few complaints from Deming residents since the first week. Some have taken migrants into their homes, and Deming churches are also providing shelter. Said one resident, "I have a lot of personal thoughts about it, but when I see a mother with a son who's having a seizure because he has a 103 degree temperature, that's going to hit you. We as Americans are just, and we're going to have an outpouring of being able to help these people."

Remember your 8th grade teacher?

Amonte Green does. Kate Demory was his 8th grade pre-algebra teacher at Glenridge Middle School in Orlando, Florida, during the 2014-15 school year. Because he started late in kindergarten and was held back in 7th grade, he celebrated his 16th birthday in 8th grade. Soon after he left Demory's class, his mother died. He dropped out of high school in 11th grade to work full-time at fast food restaurants. He bounced around group homes; got in a fight, and was sent to jail. While in jail he kept in touch with Demory, and when released, he told her he didn't have any family. She and her husband Craig Russell, who is a coach at Glenridge, retrieved his belongings from a group home and let him move in with their family.

On June 30, Demory launched a GoFundMe campaign, raising money for Green's housing, his 16-week high school completion program, a bus pass and a phone. One person donated $500 and offered Green a landscaping job, where he now works. He loves his job. In August Green will move into his own place. He says, "I can finally say I have a stable place where I'll be staying, and it's a big relief. Miss Demory has always been a mom to me."