Concrete Dam in Mbeere, Kenia

Bob and Hope Organization of Germany a huge thank you for partnering with us in giving the Mbeere People a Concrete Dam that was able to trap water that will provide water to the community until next rainy season..The leaders of our Ithera Christian Centre who are the managers of the massive Dam told me that they were able to put fish into the Dam as a business venture and the results are awesome, the community is now buying fish alongside fetching water..This is the gospel that is tangible! Edward Buria

A School in Lodja (DRC)

Lodja is just about the geographic centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was once quite a well-to-do city, bustling with life. However during the last 15 year three different armies marched through the city, leaving devastation behaind them. Rape, pillage and destruction was their legacy. A great number of the population to refuge in the jungle. Only during the last three years have they finally started to return.
Society has been devastated. All the factories have closed down. Communication with the outside world is difficult. Once you leave the city limits the road ar impassable. Hordes of children wander from one extended family to the other. Parents often have alcohol problems and cannot give their children any kind of example.
Pierre-Albert and Beatrice Ngueliele oved from Bussels  to Lodja a number of years ago. They went to do a classical missions ministry. However the problems they met changed their outlook. The market was empty of any vegatables und basic commodoties were head to get. People -Christians- sat around hoping that God was going to change things and through a miracle everything would change.
Pierre-Albert began to teach the people that if they didn't put seeds in the ground, there would be no harvest. God's provision was all around. People didn't respond too quickly to the message.
Although Nguelieles went to the Congo with lots of promises of support from people, this support never actually materialized. However they have built a primary school and been able to give around 200 children hope for the future.
HOPE has joined them and helped to provide new desks and benches and at Christmas we provide the pupils with new uniforms.
The first batch of pupils will leave the primary school soon and we want to build a secondary school. This will have three grades and two classes in each grade - the capacity for 180 - 240 children. We hope that we can help to really make a difference in Lodja and invite you to stand with us and support this worthy project.

Women carrying water cans to provide for their families

Tailoring training in Pakistan

Trainee tailors and dressmakers in Pakistan

An exciting project that we are starting is called ARTISTIC HANDS. 15 women from extreme poor backgrounds will begin training durch February 2013. The training continues for 12 months and after sucessful completion of the course, the participants will be in a postion to earn their own livings and also that of their families.

The target group as discribed by our Pakistani partnersare: widows, poor and needy, orphan young ladies, dull and over aged girls, prostitute ladies.After six months the women start earning money and this goes to pay for the sewing machines which they may take with them after they finish the course.

This is a real oportunity to empower people in poverty to rise up and take their future into their own hands. 

News from Kenya

It is with great joy that we received the news from Kenya that they have been able to distribute 150 pairs of shoe took place yesterday. Besides the shoes they are presented the pupils with socks and a number of lockers were brought to the school for the children to use. A number of these pupils must walk long distances to school and sometimes they do that barefoot.
It is moving to know that the children are given breakfast at 6,30 am and during the day they also get lunch. Most of them wont have anything to eat later in the day.
Education is a key factor to bringing the children out of poverty.

We are so glad that we are able to partner with EDFRI International, who's headquarters are in Meru, Kenya.

Children get their new shoes

Christmas activity

We had a Christmas drive to gather funds and called it FULL OF LIFE. We had some bags made and offered them to people for 30 Euros. The cost to make them was around 2 Euros. We said that we would give them the bag and give the contents to a child in Nepal, India, Kenya, Congo or Ukraine. Many people didn’t actually want the bags! But they generously gave funds for the contents. We haven’t got the reports in yet with all the photos etc., but we were able to send money to all of the places mentioned about. We are supporting 14 orphan children in Nepal. They have got new school bags with the necessary school equipment. They also got new shoes, school uniform, warm winter jackets and quilts for their beds. Four children got beds! Many others were given similar things.

In India, we support a children’s home and there too all the 120 children got new shoes, but besides that, AIDS orphans were helped with clothes and school things. 200 children in Kenya got new shoes. 200 children in Congo got a new school uniform. When you think that they hardly have anything else to wear, this is quite something. They wanted the children to know that the uniforms came from us, so they had HOPE (our organization) printed on the t-shirt. Unfortunately there was a mishap and they forgot the letter “E”. HOP – considering that in French, you don’t pronounce the “H”, we have been relegated to being “OP”! In the Ukraine 200 families were provided with food parcels.

We were so pleased that we reached our goal and were able to bless so many people!

The Floods in Pakistan continue to bring devastation

The flooding in Pakistan continues. Fortunatly we have been able to gather donation and later today, I will send them to Pakistan. They will hopefully bring relief to many people.
These last few days, I have been preoccupied with the events in Pakistan and more or less holding my breath as money has been donated for this tradgedy. In the midst of this, I received good news from India. The school that we had collected for in March/April was opened last week.

No respite for Kenya

Famine in Kenya from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Bad News from Kenya

Meru, Kenya: Bad news has reached us from our friends Edward and Fridah Buria in Meru, Kenya. They report widespread starvation in the Samburu area of Northern Kenya. The famine has been caused by the ongoing drought. This drought is party man-made as Kenyans have been cutting down large areas of forest for revenue for the timber. The climate in a place like Samburu is very harsh and without man's interference in the environment, life is still hard.
Buria claims though that this famine is more severe than the one they had in 2006. People look to him and his co-workers for help. The weak, aged and the very young are the most vulnerable and they suffer more than the others.
Groups of people have been coming to the church meeting places waiting for help of some kind. For a number any help is already too late. They have buried their dead on ground besides the churches.
Buria had appealed to friends all over the world to come forward and help. Since the famine of 2006 the price for food had increase enormously. Edward Buria is normally positive even in the most difficult situations, but this time, he confessed: "I have never seen such hopelessness."

Pakistan

I got this email today:

Today I would like to draw your attention over the distress condition of God's people in Pakistan, the Clashes between Government forces and militants in north-west Pakistan are continuing to uproot people from their homes, with nearly 130,000 people being registered daily as displaced.

The provincial government authorities have noted that the number of uprooted from the Swat, Lower Dir and Buner districts registered in a fast-track process since 2 May has now reached almost 2.4 million people, still these figures are being verified and could change.

We had identified food, safe water, medical assistance and shelter from the sweltering heat as priorities, also recognizing the need for displaced children to continue schooling and for mothers and babies to access special health and nutrition assistance.

There are 250 Christian families affected by these clashes between Govt. Forces and Militants. These families need our support. We are urging the churches and ministries to show their solidarity with the nearly 2 million people who have been driven from their homes by violence in Pakistan’s north-west.

We emphasized the urgency of rising over $30,000 this month to assist some of those affected Christian families by the clashes. As founder and president of ministry, I would like to extend an invitation to work with our organization to in Pakistan to help others, we will sent you reports and pictures after all campaigns.
Please prayerfully contribute and sow your seed in this kind act. You can contribute $ 500 for 10 families and $1000 for 20 families.

Some of our Ministerial fellows has been there to see all these families and they were crying over that situation and asking for urgent help.

Genocide in Rwanda

15 years ago today, the genocide began in Rwanda. It lasted until mid-July and cost around 800,000 lives. The world stood by and watched.
Romeo Dallaire's book "Shake hands with the devil" has the sub-title "The failure of humanity in Rwanda." He was the UN General in Rwanda at this time and tried his best to save as many as he could. In the end he "only" managed to save around 30,000 people, which caused him a decade of depression.
The Canadian is to be commended for his moral and physical courage.
Rwanda is still in turmoil but of a different kind. It is a country that is trying to enter the 21st century, the president wanting to make Rwanda the Hi-Tec centre of Africa. However they are struggling to get young people through elementary school.
We are engaged in building clinic in Rwanda, in a suburb of Kigali. Our expectation is that we will be up and running by May.

The Global Village?

This is a very interesting clip that helps us to get things into perspective.

During 2009 let us hope for a more just distribution of wealth.



My New Year's resolution would be to live more simply and to be content with what I have.