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17 December 2010 Dear Sponsors, Our recent trip to Africa (November 29th – December 13th) was a great success! We were able to visit the children in all 5 of the communities where there are children enrolled in the sponsorship program. As of this writing, we have 207 children in the His Hands for Africa program, 74 of which are currently sponsored. We were able to process 187 children on this trip – 31 in Goma, D.R. Congo, 43 in Rwankuba, D.R. Congo, 37 in Kigali, Rwanda, 64 in Kabale, Uganda, and just 12 in Ggaba, Uganda which will eventually be phased out of the program once the children who are already sponsored there have either completed their education or move out of the area. We had just 3 team members on this trip – myself along with Jamie Dennett and Marilee Colpitts who were both making the trip to Africa for their first time. It was a wonderful time for us to spend in fellowship with our partner, Pastor Stephen Bamuleke, and his wife, Siriaka. We hope to have photos from this trip posted to the “trip photos” page on the web site soon. We also have photos of MANY children waiting for a sponsor on the Child In Need page of our web site. Please help us spread the word about these waiting children! We have noticed that the greatest growth in any of our programs comes from word of mouth! When sponsors tell their friends about the needs of the children, when they point them in the direction of the website where they can see photos for themselves, and when they share brochures with them, this is the most effective tool for expanding the reach of the program. Won’t you please help us do that? There were some children who were absent when we were there to do their interviews. If your child was one who was absent, Pastor Bamuleke will try to go back to these communities in the coming months and will update the children who were absent, as he has opportunity. As soon as we receive this updated information from him, we will prepare it and send it out to you. Please notice that for those of you who have sponsored children in Kabale and Goma, your child’s new information sheet has new correspondence instructions on it. Please follow these new instructions instead of the previous ones you received. In addition to seeing the children in the program, we were also able to visit the homes of 3 women who received a pig through the Pig Project. For those of you who may not be aware of the Pig Project, Siriaka has a Pig Project to help single mothers and widows (both elderly and young widows) take care of themselves and their children. In a nutshell, ownership of a pig can provide a woman in crisis with enough income to take care of herself and pay her children’s school fees. At maturity, the pig can produce 3 to 4 litters per year and can have as many as 10 piglets in a litter. Selling those piglets can provide the necessary income for the family to sustain itself. When a woman receives a pig through this program, she is required to give away 3 piglets from the first litter produced by that pig. One piglet is given back to the project to be given to another woman in need. The other two piglets are to be given to other women in that particular community who are in similar circumstances. After that, the pig belongs to the woman without any further commitment. The cost of providing a woman in crisis with a pig will increase to $40.00 but if you are interested in giving towards the purchase of a pig, you may still send $35.00 as it states on the gift suggestion sheet enclosed but after Christmas the price increase will go into effect. If you or anyone you know is interested in helping out with this project, please let us know. We hope to have new photos of the Pig Project posted on that page of the website soon. We have also learned that Pastor Bamo and Siriaka are also giving goats and/or a rooster and 5 hens to women in crisis. The women are offered the choice of whichever animal(s) they feel better suited to care for and if they can manage to have more than one kind of animal, they may do so. The cost of a goat is $45 and the cost of a rooster and 5 hens is also $45. Again, if you or anyone you know is interested in helping out in this way, please let us know. We will also be posting some other suggestions on our website. One suggestion is the gift of a bicycle, which is $75. Many of the children live far outside of town and some walk as much as 1-1/2 hours EACH WAY to school and back. The gift of a bicycle would be a real blessing for children in these situations, especially for the older girls who often have to help with cooking or other household duties when they get home from school, before they can take time to study their lessons. Which leads us to our next suggestion – a battery or solar-powered reading light. For many students living outside of town, it often gets dark before they can find the time to study their lessons and without electricity outside of town, reading can be very difficult. We don’t yet know the cost of a battery or solar-powered reading light but Pastor Bamo will be looking into this and we will post the information on the website as soon as we know. If these items are something you might be interested in, please contact us first to find out if your child needs either of these items before sending in your gift. There are some children who may not need either one so please be sure to check first. As some of you are already aware, we are making strides towards increasing the capacity of our ministry as God brings new opportunities for service into our path. I have been instructed to try to delegate as much responsibility as I can to others who are capable of taking over some of these responsibilities. In light of this instruction, I have recently asked Marilee Colpitts if she would take on a large part of the responsibility of administering the Africa child sponsorship program, and she has agreed. From this point on, she will be handling communication with all the sponsors and will handle all new sponsorship requests. She has made this most recent trip to Africa with us and has been involved with our Haiti program as well so she is well-versed not only in how we operate as a ministry but she is also well-versed concerning how the program is run in Africa. Please feel free to communicate with her concerning any questions you might have. Her e-mail address is – marilee@hishandsforafrica.org. I will still be using the e-mail address in the header of this newsletter and if you have questions for me personally, you may continue to contact me at that e-mail address. Speaking of new opportunities for service, we are pleased to announce that the His Hands for India Child Sponsorship Program has been established through our new partnership with Pastor S.J. Michael in Southeastern India! Our initial fact-finding trip went very well and the program was started with 44 children, half of whom are now sponsored. We also gathered information on 7 pastors who need sponsorship and we praise God that sponsors have stepped forward for 2 of these men. We are still seeking sponsorship for the other 5 pastors as well as for the remaining children. Please visit our new website for the India program - www.hishandsforindia.org. Our new partnership with Pastor Merari Rodriguez in San Lucas, Guatemala is going well and we sent a team to visit there at the beginning of September. We updated all the children currently in the program and we also added about 25 new children to the program there who will need sponsors. We are still seeking sponsorship for teachers and staff members too which would be a great project for a church, business or civic group. If you haven’t yet visited our new website for the Guatemala program, you can check it out at www.hishandsforguatemala.org. We also covet your prayers as we begin another opportunity for service. Through our friends at Presque Isle Wesleyan Church we have partnered with Thabsile Thwala in Manzini, Swaziland to help support an orphanage called The Fortress. If you are interested in learning more about this new project, please visit our newest website – www.hishandsforswaziland.org. You may be wondering how we can continue to take on these opportunities and our answer is that we are simply walking in the good works God has prepared for us beforehand. As He brings us new opportunities, He also brings us new ways to increase our capacity. We continue to add volunteers all over the US and Canada who desire to work with us and they are able to remotely access our computers here in our office. We have established a large network of volunteers who tackle jobs such as typing up the children’s information sheets, organizing our mailings, coordinating the translations of the children’s letters and various other responsibilities for which we are extremely grateful! The responsibility of running the Guatemala program has been given to one of our volunteers - Jamie Dennett, the responsibilities of running the Haiti program have been divided between myself and Matt Lenfestey, Marilee Colpitts will be responsible for running the Africa program, and the responsibility of running the Swaziland program will go to Barb Halvorson – a volunteer who has made several trips to Swaziland to work at The Fortress. So we ask for your continued prayer for wisdom for our board and for God’s provision as we keep walking in these good works. Again, please tell your friends and family members about our His Hands for Africa program which is reaching out to help the children of East Africa. The needs in Africa are overwhelming but, one child at a time, we can begin to make a difference – with your help and with God’s blessing. We greatly appreciate your interest in the needs of the children of East Africa. We are excited about the ways God is using us to help the children of the Great Lakes region of Africa as well as the children of Haiti, Guatemala, India, Swaziland, and wherever else God directs us as we move forward in this ministry. Thank you so much for your part in this ministry and thank you for your continued prayer and support. For Him and for the children, Jamie Charles Child Sponsorship Coordinator |
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