Venti Africa

I recently received a Community Newsletter from World Vision that contained an update of some of the Guraghe ADP accomplishments over the past year. All of their work is bathed in prayer and practiced by faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Our sisters and brothers who make up the Guraghe ADP staff are bringing real help and hope to people in real need - and they are doing so in the name of Jesus Christ.
Our partnership with the people of Guraghe and the ADP staff helped World Vision accomplish the following:

HIV and AIDS

• Supplied nutritional food to 350 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) improving their health;
• Provided educational materials to 600 orphaned and vulnerable children improving their self esteem;
• Trained and strengthen 200 Community Care Coalition members promoting care and compassion to the chronically ill;
• Distributed four sheep each to 357 orphaned and vulnerable children improving their household income.

 Food and Agricultural

• Trained 120 farmers on vegetable and apple production and pest management improving crop production and food security;
• Educated 120 households on cattle, sheep, and goat management increasing production and food security.

Health Care

• Educated 244 community members on primary healthy cae improving thier health status;
• Provided medical support to 1,005 needy children improving their overall health and well-being.

Education

• Distributed 500 desks, eight blackboards and tables and chairs to schools enhancing the learning environment.

Birthday Celebrations

• Celebrated birthdays with 2,030 children distributing t-shirts and improving self esteem.

We praise God for this encouraging report. The staff requests that we pray for these two specific items:

• The successful implemenation if new initiates in the areas of child well-being, gender advocavy and Christian commitment integration into programs;
• God’s guidance in developing and implementing a clear vision in serving the poor.

Thank you for your parternship in the Gospel.

Dream venti…

For the past couple of Fridays I have been joining with sisters and brothers around the world and praying the Micah Challenge. You know the words from Scripture: “He has shown all you people what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

The Micah Challenge is part of a global Christian campaign. Its aims are to deepen engagement with impoverished and marginalized communities; and to challenge leaders to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and in doing halve absolute global poverty by 2015! Micah Challenge USA is a movement of churches, organizations, schools, families, and individuals united by their desire to see the end of Extreme Global Poverty.

Each Friday, Micah Challenge USA sends an email inviting prayer around a focal point. For example, today’s emphasis was on learning that people need to leave their given identities behind in order to be a blessing to the nations. The Scriptural basis was Genesis 12:1-3 and Galatians 3:28-29:

‘In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.” (Galatians 3:28-29, The Message)

As well, each week prayer is focused around one of the one of the nine Millennium Development Goals. The week it is Goal 6: To Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and to have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases. Did you know that each year, 424,000 people develop MDR-TB, a form of TB that does not respond to the standard treatment. It emerges when there is mismanagement of drugs and under investment in quality TB control. It can also be spread from one person to another.

I have found the Micah Challenge to be a powerful connection point with God, others and our world through prayer. Why not join the movement today? To paraphrase Len Sweet, let’s not settle for making a difference in the world, let’s make the world a different place.

Dream Venti…

I just made a loan to someone in Africa using a revolutionary new website called Kiva.

You can go to Kiva’s website and lend to someone in the developing world who needs a loan for their business - like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent - and you get updates letting you know how the entrepreneur is going. The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back - and Kiva’s loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly.

I just made a loan to an entrepreneur named Maureen Kakyazzi in Uganda. Maureen is 36 years old. She has a canteen for home product sales. She wants to use the extra profits to re-invest in the business. Ruth has a public pay phone and wants to use the loan to buy more air time cards. Betty has a charcoal selling business and wants to add in stock. Juliet and Specioza both have retail shops and want to increase capital. This is a group loan. The loan funds will be distributed among the group members, each of whom will invest in her own business. The members mutually guarantee one another’s loans. If one member does not repay, the other members are responsible.

They still need another $1,050.00 to complete their loan request of $1,775.00 (you can loan as little as $25.00!). Help me get this entrepreneur off the ground by clicking on this link to make a loan to Maureen Kakyazzi too.

Tuesday morning update: I just made a second loan. Tatu is 30 years old and is single. Tatu owns a food vendor store which she started in 2006. She works every day from 6 am to 5 pm at her business. In the past, Tatu has taken out one successful loan from BRAC Tanzania to expand her business. She now hopes for a loan to buy more food items for her business. She will share this loan with her subgroup members, who have businesses dealing in genge (small food vendors) and drinks selling. Learn more about this group here.

You have one life - make a difference. Would you join me in changing our world - one loan at a time.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Give a woman a micro credit and your feed her, her family and her community for a life time.”  Bono

Dream Venti…

From ONE.org

President Bush is flying to Africa on Friday. This is his second trip to Africa, making him only the second U.S. president—along with President Clinton—to visit Africa while in office. It’s critical that the next president strengthen the relationship between America and Africa and keep this tradition alive.

In December, you put presidential candidates on the record. Now, let’s put them on the continent.

Sign the petition and ask all of the presidential candidates to pledge to visit Africa during their first term here:

When the candidates commit to going to Africa, we’ll be that much closer to guaranteeing that the next president will join 2.4 million ONE members in being a partner in building a better future for millions of Africans and people living in extreme poverty around the world.

On his trip to Africa, President Bush will cast a spotlight on the kind of smart, bipartisan initiatives that are saving lives. In six days, he will visit Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia and witness the very real progress in fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and extreme poverty that has been made since 2003 when he last visited the continent.

Presidential trips are important. It’s one thing to receive briefings in Washington from bureaucrats and ambassadors. But it is another to witness first-hand the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. By the time President Bush returns from Africa, we want to have sent 50,000 messages to the remaining presidential candidates urging them to pledge to visit Africa during their first term.

Add your voice to this call.

Since President Bush’s last trip to Africa, ONE members have helped to secure historic advances in the fight to end needless suffering in that continent’s poorest countries. The evidence is clear—from providing life-saving antiretroviral drugs through PEPFAR to increasing economic prospects through the African Growth and Opportunity Act—our voice for bipartisan leadership in the fight to make poverty history is being heard and lives are being saved.

But the future is less than certain. If we remain silent, there is no guarantee that the next president will work to strengthen our relationship with the many vibrant nations of Africa.

Seeing extreme poverty up close is a transformative experience. Imagine the impact a trip to Africa has on the president. And imagine the power he or she has to shape policy and save lives. That is why it is so vital you ask the presidential candidates to pledge to visit Africa during their first term.

Dream Venti…

Strong relationships do not come easily. They require intentionality, attention, focus, discipline and lots of face time. And so the question is: how do you build a relationship with a child who is living half a world away in Ethiopia?

This Sunday our community will gather together to take the next step in building a meaningful relationship with the children and families of Guraghe, Ethiopia. After worship we will take time to share a meal and then we will share what little we know at this point about the 60 children we are sponsoring. We will pray for them, dream for them, and take time to write them all a personal letter from our community of faith. We’ll include pictures of our families (and hopefully won’t frighten them too much) and pray that it will be a another step in connecting our hearts together.

May the Spirit of God do something through this process in us, with us, and through us. May we encounter Christ in the faces of one another - near and far and everywhere in-between.

Dream venti…

January 2008

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

It is hard to believe that it has been almost three months since our visit to Guraghe, Ethiopia. First of all, I want to say thank you for the wonderful hospitality you demonstrated to us. The great food, the shared times of worship and prayer, the rides along the bumpy roads of Guraghe, the amazing people you introduced us to – we witnessed in your lives a solid faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, a deep and abiding hope, and an enduring love that is making a real difference in bringing the kingdom of God near in the world today! We were blessed.

I wanted to inform you of our decision to partner with World Vision and the staff of Guraghe ADP. During the month of December our church made a commitment to sponsor 60 children in Guraghe. We are looking forward to building relationships with these special children and we pray that the financial resources will empower you to bring real help and hope to all of the people in Guraghe ADP. As well, we hope to be able to make some financial gifts over the next three years to further your work. In prayer recently I had a dream that one day we would lead a group from our church to Guraghe to meet all of you and our sponsored children. Through the work of the Spirit, I pray that one day this dream becomes a reality.

Sisters and brothers, please know that our hearts are filled with love and joy and that we are grateful to God to have had the opportunity to travel to Ethiopia and witness first hand the amazing work you are doing in the name of Jesus Christ. We think of you often and whenever we do our hearts overflow with thanksgiving. We look forward to our partnership in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and pray His rich blessing upon all of you. Please let us know how your work is going and how we might best pray for you. Please pray that God would help us proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our community and that we would live by faith, be known by love, and be a voice of hope in our country.

We believe that God will do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all you can ask or even imagine – according to the power that is at work within you – may all the glory be unto Jesus Christ in the Church, now and forever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Dream Venti…

This past week I devoured a book - cover to cover, every single page. Now I read a lot of books, but rarely am I so captivated and compelled that I choose to stay focused until I finish the entire thing. My normal approach is to graze books - most of the time I am reading at least 3 or 4 at the same time.

There is No Me Without You, written by Melissa Fay Green, chronicles one women’s journey to bring real help and hope to orphaned and vulnerable children of Ethiopia. When Haregewoin Teferra’s husband and twenty-three year old daughter died within a few years of each other, her middle class life in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was shattered. Bereft and with seemingly nothing to live for, Haregewoin became a recluse choosing to live out her final days on earth among the dead (literally in a graveyard outside Addis). Her self-imposed exile was interrupted when a priest delivered first one, then another orphaned child into her care. To everyone’s surprise, the children thrived - and so did Haregewoin.

With my recent trip to Ethiopia in the forefront of my mind, this book resonated with me in so many ways. Green does a masterful job of interweaving chapters on Ethiopia’s history, culture, language, food, and music alongside Haregewoin’s story of compassion in action. Many of the things I experienced in Ethiopia made so much more sense in light of Green’s explanations. As well, Green has some hard hitting chapters documenting the origins of HIV and the role multi-national pharmaceutical companies could play in bringing real help and hope to people in real need. But the heart of the book is the powerful story of a women working to rescue her country’s children, one life at a time.

If you want to learn more about the HIV and AIDS pandemic and the impact it has had and is having on millions of children in Africa, read this book. If you want your heart to be stirred by the impact that one caring person can make, read this book. Your thinking will be challenged and I believe your heart will be enlarged. And you too can make a difference, right where you are.

Dream Venti…

One of my favorite texts in the New Testament are these words from Paul to the people of God in Philippi:

“I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:3-6).

The idea of partnership is very compelling to me. Partnership implies mutuality, teamwork, cooperation, and interdependence. Partnership has been a core value in our community of faith since our first days. To emphasize this concept we do not have church membership but instead invite people to consider becoming covenant partners.

This week we begin to invite people into partnership with the people in Guraghe, Ethiopia. During our journey in Ethiopia, I asked our World Vision host if there was a word in Amharic that captures the idea of partnership. He told me that while there is not an exact, literal word in their language, the word, “agarnet” comes closest to capturing the idea of mutulaity, cooperation, and interdependence.

One of the primary vehicles to build this agarnet will be through Hope Child sponsorships through World Vision. Our dream is to sponsor at least 50 children in the Guraghe ADP (Area Development Project). By pooling our gifts together ($35 per month) in this one region, we can impact not only the lives of these 50 children and their families, but we will also be able to bring real help and hope to the people of Guraghe through projects involving clean water, food security, HIV and AIDS care, education, and micro economic enterprise (the five fingered plan of World Vision all held together in the glove of faith).

I have a dream of one day returning to Guraghe with a group of people from our community of faith and meeting our sponsored children and celebrating with them and the World Vision staff the gift of life. Would you consider joining us in this venti dream? Drop a comment and I would be glad to help you connect to our dream.

Dream venti…

Every day, 6,000 children lose a parent to AIDS. Imagine living without Mom. Or Dad. For many children, it’s both - all because of this killer called AIDS.

During our adventure in Africa we learned some new language. One 3 letter word has captured my attention: “OVC.” “OVC” is shorthand for “orphans and vulnerable children.” Right now, in Ethiopia there are almost 5 million orphans and an estimated 11 million vulnerable children. As the death rate due to HIV and AIDS continues to grow on a daily basis, the number of vulnerable children in Ethiopia is projected to increase to over 15 million by 2010.

One of the ways World Vision is bringing real help and hope to people in real need is through Hope Child Sponsorships. For about $1 day, we can share from our abundance and provide tangible support to a child whose very life is at risk because of HIV and AIDS.

One of our venti dreams is to sponsor 50 orphans and vulnerable children in the Guraghe region of Ethiopia. If you would like to help make this dream a reality, please contact me.

Tomorrow, December 1, is World AIDS Day. Education yourself, pray, give, serve. Do something today to make a difference.

Dream venti…

This week U2 released the 20th anniversary remastered edition of “The Joshua Tree.” This is one of the most significant albums of all time and contains classic songs like “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For,”and “With or Without You.” The CD also contains some previous unreleased songs. One of them has touched me deeply this week. It’s called “Wave of Sorrow.”

“Wave of Sorrow” is a song based upon Bono and Ali’s experience with World Vision in Ethiopia in 1984. It is remarkable to hear these words in light of our visit to Guraghe, Ethiopia.

“Blessed are the meek who scratch in the dirt
For they shall inherit what’s left in the earth
Blessed are the kings who’ve left their thrones,
They are buried in this valley of dry bones.
Blessed are you with an empty heart,
For you’ve got nothing for which you cannot part.
Blessed is the ego, it’s all we’ve got this hour,
Blessed is the voice that speaks truth to power.
Blessed is the sex worker who sold her body tonight.
She had to use what she’s got to save her children’s lives.
Blessed are the deaf who cannot hear a scream,
Blessed are the stupid who can dream.
Blessed are the tin-canned cardboard slums,
And blessed is the Spirit that overcomes.”

Listen to Bono talk about the song and hear him sing it at iLike.

Update: watch a recent live performance of this song: [kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/oo-w7B4tNB4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /].

Dream venti…