November 17, 2008
Each of these updates bring with it a new albeit sometimes consistent attitude on my part, I find myself today, with a challenge to myself. That challenge is urgency.
Now there are no issues in the village of Rionchogu that are any more urgent today than they have been for decades or longer, but the awareness of these issues, for me and for you have brought more visibility and I hope, in each of our hearts a sense of urgency and possibility, that we would not have had otherwise. I know I would not have had any sense of my own ability to influence the future for so many to such a drastic degree.
I look over the email list of friends, associates, brothers and sisters of the faith, family and co workers and each of you I see in my mind. So, you might understand this is personal. Maybe it should not be, but the recipients of our assistance are so full of promise and new hope and even planning on a future when just a few months ago many of them still lived in a world where the only question of future was, will we have food today, it is personal.
There was no hope for water, or education, no planning for the future and certainly no educational future for most of the children. Today all that has changed and before us, you and me, is an opportunity to do something very special.
It will, however, take some courage and some possible paranormal thinking. No, no space aliens and such, but, trust and financial support, even at a very low level on a regular basis, for what we are doing. I have shared over the past months the steps we have taken, for many, even the process of verification and my own sense of hesitation. We have shared the initiation and the greeting and the first steps and the small hope and now the new hope.
On December 5th the grade scores for the students will be reviewed for all those who have been on scholarship this year. Each will be interviewed with their parents, as will the 8th graders who are finishing up their National test for secondary entrance. Application will be presented for the 2009 school year and we expect 33 students will be presented for this opportunity. These do not include students whose parents could afford the education. These are kids who may well lose a life opportunity or at the very least have it made nearly impossible, except for the potential of us to help.
I could go into the detail of our desire to fund a Malaria eradication effort for which the local government officials have offered to train the villagers. I could go into detail on the project for clean water and the drilling and all the official authorizations we are involved in. This could happen at any time. I could go into detail about the danger surrounding the current latrine situations and the dire need to help with this. I could talk to you about the economic potential that will come with electricity when that is funded and approved. I could share with you all the plans and opportunity that will come when the vehicle is delivered. These are all worthy issues and in their time will be overcome. Greater than any of these, in my opinion, the urgent issue for today, is for us to gather the 1000 who will come alongside in a small way and open the doors to the future for the village of Rionchogu..
It would be great if a few people with the financial ability would step up and help here, but my spirit has not followed that course, rather, I am believing that if you and me, each of us who receive this will tell just a few and genuinely ask for their help at $10.00 or $20.00 a month, we will not have any issues of finance for such potential that exists. My goal, our goal, has been for the past year, to find 1000 people who are willing to give up a lunch a month to change the future for this village.
There are so many things on the horizon that can make such a difference. We are not called to change the world, but to come alongside this village for a season, to reach out in love and encouragement and to find some way to provide resources for the season they need to become self sustaining.
We have upgraded our web presence. Go to either www.goanddolikewise.org or www.gadkenya.org. You will find video of current issues. You will also find a link to the DVD of our April trip and the comments of the travelers that went. It is found in gadkenya-the story. We have secured a new web location for our truck driver friends.
Soon you will find all this on www.truckershelpingchildren.org.
I am not asking someone else I am asking you, help me, please.
If you are one who has already reached out, thank you so very much. If you are still wondering if this is for you, the answer is yes. You are called by association. The price you pay for knowing me.
All abundance comes from our God, I pray that This God of our eternity and history will bless you and keep you in His favor.
Just know that this is a letter of love, for the village and for you.
I can not keep it to myself, in His love and by His Grace,
Be blessed
Bud
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
November news from Rionchogu
November 12, 2008
A hearty hello and thank you to all who have continued to encourage and support what we are working for in Kenya. I am reading the news of the continued violence in Goma, which is on going since the Rawanda genocide of 20 years ago. It is tragic, truly tragic. Pray for Anastasia and her friends the Lusi's, the Lusi's are in the Goma area working in the hospital that is serving those injured in this latest violence.
For us we are two countrys and ten months away from the violence that comes with the poverty, lack of education and hopelessness that surrounds the clashes for power. In just a short time we have seen, hope raise and people begin to work together for a larger outcome than just their personal circumstance. I just finished reading a book called Velvet Elvis, don't ask, it is very good and speaks to the need for recreating the church throughout history and the necessity for us to rethink the who and what and why of our communal ministry. One thought at the end is that we are to put our selves past the limits of our comfort to reach out and help. In our communities, in our regions in any place the Lord has brought us to be His body.
I think of that as I look at the near future and the opportunities in the area of Kenya we have been called to. We just received the list of funding necessary to begin and for the most part accomplish the priorities of the village leadership for the near future. At the very top of the list are education scholarships. They are expecting that they will receives a large number of applications and that they very well may be accepting as many as 10 additional requests for education assistance. As you remember, these are students who received total scores above the national requirement for continued education into what we would consider High School. This is a very great opportunity for the village poor, even the bright ones would many times miss the opportunity due to their poverty.
GAD Kenya leadership has increased the level of acceptable grades, the students no longer need the minimum points over the national level, but must exceed by 20 points the required level. In addition there are still the requirements that the family sign agreement to support the children and to assist with the help the family is able to provide. Additional school supplies such as books, uniforms and other incidental charges are still needed.
Lat year we were delayed with the start of the school year which allowed us to go into January before we needed the funds for the scholarships. If you remember, last year we also began with eight students and added as more families realized this was a for real opportunity and completed their application paperwork and applied later in the year. No such luck this year, the beginning of the school year will be early January the fees are due by end of December. We estimate the total cost of the scholarship program for the term year ahead will be ks 800,000. This will be close to $14,000.00. I can not tell you how much hope there is in the opportunity of education. I think I told you the story of Emma, who used an entire weekend to travel from her school to the village, and back to school, just to take the time to say thank you. Oh, how I wish you might experience that in person. These young men and women and their families, and especially the village leadership understand the future is in the education of the children. Now for our part, we have some who have already made the decision to use Acceptiva to support us each month. We have some who support us through the local church. Believe me when I say, we need the help of everyone of you.
Education, though, is not the only urgent issue before us. We still have a water project before the regional water board which could receive the green light at any time. This project would bring clean water, with a purification module into the village and do away with the need to carry water in old infected cans for long distances. On the horizon is electricity which will open doors to an economy these folks have never been able to participate in. There are a variety of hopes and dreams the leadership has identified, all will require resource and all are firmly situated in either the health, education or the economy of the villagers themselves.
This brings me to the Urgent need of the day; health, specifically Malaria or the eradication of it in the area.
Highland Malaria is a major health concern in the area of Kenya in which we work. It is a leading cause of sickness and death among the children of the area. The local hospital records an average of 9000 cases of Highland Malaria a year and most of those are children. The local government, represented by Hellen Moseti has agreed to supply the training and a supervisor for no cost so the village might do a malaria eradication spraying in the near future. It is the rain that brings life to the mosquito and the heat that makes them active, these both are in place now and a malaria outbreak is only mater of time. The spray program includes hand pump sprayers and the people trained to use them properly and the spray material available through the government which kills the Mosquito and their larva.
To provide this eradication effort, even with the free involvement of the offer from Hellen will cost ks 125,000. The cost is for the sprayers and the materials. The geographic area of the eradication is planned to reach beyond the limits of the village for two reasons, one the gift for those in the surrounding areas and as important is the fact that the mosquito does not know the village boundaries and so to eradicate you must encompass an area larger than the target. So the request is for $2,200.00 which will complete the first step in keeping the babies and young children protected from the malaria which is so deadly.
My request is this. If you are a member of a group, work to see if they might allow me to come and speak to them about this place and people and what our God is doing. If you are a Pastor, please, consider a time for conversation to bring your council into an awareness of the Real and personal mission available through this type of involvement. And for any and all, if you have not yet gone to the website and looked at the ease of using Acceptiva as a means of supporting this purpose in Kenya, please do. Your help is greatly needed and appreciated. OH yes, feel free to forward this email to anyone you may think would be interested in what we are doing.
Finally for those of you who have taken the step to say, "I will help" to whatever amount, thank you so very much. Our numbers are growing and we have great hope for the goal of a self sustaining village by the year 2013.
And so I use two new words in this email, one word is the replacement for 'orphan' because the actual status of many of these kids range beyond just children without parents, they are without any network, abused, turned away by their families or just abandoned. These are bright and outgoing children who have no support, the term is "Abanya" . . .Children at risk. So we have learned and will continue, everyday there are Abanya who are eating, playing, getting educated and involved in a support network because of the work of the church in Rionchogu, the leadership there and your support. God bless you all.
The other term is Baka ekero tora`umerane, until we meet again, we have decided there is no 'good by' between brothers and sisters working in the purpose of the Lord, so there is only, Until we meet again . . .. . . .Baka ekero tora`umerane.
In His love and by His Grace alone
Bud
A hearty hello and thank you to all who have continued to encourage and support what we are working for in Kenya. I am reading the news of the continued violence in Goma, which is on going since the Rawanda genocide of 20 years ago. It is tragic, truly tragic. Pray for Anastasia and her friends the Lusi's, the Lusi's are in the Goma area working in the hospital that is serving those injured in this latest violence.
For us we are two countrys and ten months away from the violence that comes with the poverty, lack of education and hopelessness that surrounds the clashes for power. In just a short time we have seen, hope raise and people begin to work together for a larger outcome than just their personal circumstance. I just finished reading a book called Velvet Elvis, don't ask, it is very good and speaks to the need for recreating the church throughout history and the necessity for us to rethink the who and what and why of our communal ministry. One thought at the end is that we are to put our selves past the limits of our comfort to reach out and help. In our communities, in our regions in any place the Lord has brought us to be His body.
I think of that as I look at the near future and the opportunities in the area of Kenya we have been called to. We just received the list of funding necessary to begin and for the most part accomplish the priorities of the village leadership for the near future. At the very top of the list are education scholarships. They are expecting that they will receives a large number of applications and that they very well may be accepting as many as 10 additional requests for education assistance. As you remember, these are students who received total scores above the national requirement for continued education into what we would consider High School. This is a very great opportunity for the village poor, even the bright ones would many times miss the opportunity due to their poverty.
GAD Kenya leadership has increased the level of acceptable grades, the students no longer need the minimum points over the national level, but must exceed by 20 points the required level. In addition there are still the requirements that the family sign agreement to support the children and to assist with the help the family is able to provide. Additional school supplies such as books, uniforms and other incidental charges are still needed.
Lat year we were delayed with the start of the school year which allowed us to go into January before we needed the funds for the scholarships. If you remember, last year we also began with eight students and added as more families realized this was a for real opportunity and completed their application paperwork and applied later in the year. No such luck this year, the beginning of the school year will be early January the fees are due by end of December. We estimate the total cost of the scholarship program for the term year ahead will be ks 800,000. This will be close to $14,000.00. I can not tell you how much hope there is in the opportunity of education. I think I told you the story of Emma, who used an entire weekend to travel from her school to the village, and back to school, just to take the time to say thank you. Oh, how I wish you might experience that in person. These young men and women and their families, and especially the village leadership understand the future is in the education of the children. Now for our part, we have some who have already made the decision to use Acceptiva to support us each month. We have some who support us through the local church. Believe me when I say, we need the help of everyone of you.
Education, though, is not the only urgent issue before us. We still have a water project before the regional water board which could receive the green light at any time. This project would bring clean water, with a purification module into the village and do away with the need to carry water in old infected cans for long distances. On the horizon is electricity which will open doors to an economy these folks have never been able to participate in. There are a variety of hopes and dreams the leadership has identified, all will require resource and all are firmly situated in either the health, education or the economy of the villagers themselves.
This brings me to the Urgent need of the day; health, specifically Malaria or the eradication of it in the area.
Highland Malaria is a major health concern in the area of Kenya in which we work. It is a leading cause of sickness and death among the children of the area. The local hospital records an average of 9000 cases of Highland Malaria a year and most of those are children. The local government, represented by Hellen Moseti has agreed to supply the training and a supervisor for no cost so the village might do a malaria eradication spraying in the near future. It is the rain that brings life to the mosquito and the heat that makes them active, these both are in place now and a malaria outbreak is only mater of time. The spray program includes hand pump sprayers and the people trained to use them properly and the spray material available through the government which kills the Mosquito and their larva.
To provide this eradication effort, even with the free involvement of the offer from Hellen will cost ks 125,000. The cost is for the sprayers and the materials. The geographic area of the eradication is planned to reach beyond the limits of the village for two reasons, one the gift for those in the surrounding areas and as important is the fact that the mosquito does not know the village boundaries and so to eradicate you must encompass an area larger than the target. So the request is for $2,200.00 which will complete the first step in keeping the babies and young children protected from the malaria which is so deadly.
My request is this. If you are a member of a group, work to see if they might allow me to come and speak to them about this place and people and what our God is doing. If you are a Pastor, please, consider a time for conversation to bring your council into an awareness of the Real and personal mission available through this type of involvement. And for any and all, if you have not yet gone to the website and looked at the ease of using Acceptiva as a means of supporting this purpose in Kenya, please do. Your help is greatly needed and appreciated. OH yes, feel free to forward this email to anyone you may think would be interested in what we are doing.
Finally for those of you who have taken the step to say, "I will help" to whatever amount, thank you so very much. Our numbers are growing and we have great hope for the goal of a self sustaining village by the year 2013.
And so I use two new words in this email, one word is the replacement for 'orphan' because the actual status of many of these kids range beyond just children without parents, they are without any network, abused, turned away by their families or just abandoned. These are bright and outgoing children who have no support, the term is "Abanya" . . .Children at risk. So we have learned and will continue, everyday there are Abanya who are eating, playing, getting educated and involved in a support network because of the work of the church in Rionchogu, the leadership there and your support. God bless you all.
The other term is Baka ekero tora`umerane, until we meet again, we have decided there is no 'good by' between brothers and sisters working in the purpose of the Lord, so there is only, Until we meet again . . .. . . .Baka ekero tora`umerane.
In His love and by His Grace alone
Bud
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