Orphanage Founder Returns to Home Destroyed by Fire
posted 6:04 pm Fri December 28, 2007 - Beltsville, Md.
Palestinian-born Norma Nashed is the founder and director of Reaching Hearts for Kids. She was in Ethiopia finalizing plans for a new orphanage. "There is nothing left," she cried upon seeing the devastation for the first time.But this was not the first time she lost her office to fire. She had moved the files to her home office in Beltsville after an arson back in May destroyed her other files.
"She lost her office, which was located on church property in Laurel, transferred it over here, just to have another one take place," said said friend Kent Franz. "It's really sad."Nashed said she lost nearly everything in the December 17 fire in Beltsville - furniture, clothing, and the files she kept on her charitable projects. But she didn't lose her faith or her determination. "They can take all my possessions, but they cannot take the love I have for these children. So I will still be focused, and will continue, more determined, to serve my children as much as I can."
"These can be replaced," she said, gesturing at her charred possessions. " But the lives of children, if we waste them now, cannot be replaced.Nashed is already a survivor of cancer. She said her battle seven years ago awakened her to the needs of deprived children around the world.
Now she and her organization are pledging to fight on.
"We know that the god who has worked with us and for Norma is the god that rebuilds," said Pastor Michael Oxentenko of Reaching Hearts International.
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