Thursday, June 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Mission Team Update from Cotui, Dominican Republic (Ernie Taylor)
We just concluded Thursday in Cotui. It has been a great week with the team from NY.
They spent Sat and Sunday without me but the schedule was great for them. Sunday they had a special open air service beside Milagros house. Hundreds of children and adults were there. A pastor on the team preached, several others gave their testimonies and there was lots of music. They also did a walk thru the community stopping to pray with people and sharing their testimonies.
Monday through Thursday we worked laying concrete blocks for 2 of the classrooms. It was blistering hot in the full sun. The women had almost a hundred children each morning for the VBS program. It was a wild time but when they shared the stories about Noah, Abraham and Adam and Eve, the kids were attentive and quiet.
This team includes people from three churches. We also had two men here who had been part of the church who sponsored the first 13 VTI children in 1997. They had never met their sponsored child before so it was a real emotional time for them.
They spent Sat and Sunday without me but the schedule was great for them. Sunday they had a special open air service beside Milagros house. Hundreds of children and adults were there. A pastor on the team preached, several others gave their testimonies and there was lots of music. They also did a walk thru the community stopping to pray with people and sharing their testimonies.
Monday through Thursday we worked laying concrete blocks for 2 of the classrooms. It was blistering hot in the full sun. The women had almost a hundred children each morning for the VBS program. It was a wild time but when they shared the stories about Noah, Abraham and Adam and Eve, the kids were attentive and quiet.
This team includes people from three churches. We also had two men here who had been part of the church who sponsored the first 13 VTI children in 1997. They had never met their sponsored child before so it was a real emotional time for them.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
TANZANIA Update: Matt Storer, Jim Ross and Stacey Davis
Matt, Jim and Stacey completed 3 days of work in Morogoro, Tanzania. This new program is the result of a partnership with Pastor Alex of Morogoro Baptist Church. Because this project is new, we spent most of the time working on fundamentals and ministry foundational principles to ensure that will have a soid partnership in the future. In response, the team signed a Partnership Agreement that outlines 4 pledges: Ministry, Management, Finance and Beliefs.
The programs in Tanzania serve nearly 400 children in two projects. Both project sites are beginning with children from pre-school age and are in their early stage of development. We have a long way to go to bring a high quality of health, education and discipleship - but we have a great team on the ground!
Thank you for praying.
The programs in Tanzania serve nearly 400 children in two projects. Both project sites are beginning with children from pre-school age and are in their early stage of development. We have a long way to go to bring a high quality of health, education and discipleship - but we have a great team on the ground!
Thank you for praying.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Matt Storer & Jim Ross in Zimbabwe and Tanzania
QUICK UPDATE: Jim and Matt just finished 4 very hot and long days in Zimbabwe. They have established a new partnership in a village called Zunga that is about 1 hour south of Masvingo. It is 1 of 17 villages in the area served by our new project. Currently, the project has 240 double orphans (that means the child has lost both parents). Approximately 400 additional single orphans need assistance in this area as well. It is hard to comprehend the mass volume of orphaned children. AIDS and malaria are the primary cause of death among adults and children.
They leave for Tanzania Wednesday, Jan 27th. VisionTrust began a new partnership there last August so they will be doing training, establishing structure and communications.
Please pray for safety, health, wisdom, God’s leading in all things, patience and clear communication.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
NEWS: VisionTrust's Response to the Earthquake in Haiti
While VisionTrust does not work directly in Haiti, we do have programs in the neighboring country called the Dominican Republic. Nelson Paulino, the VisionTrust Dominicana Executive Director, reported that, “The DR side of the island is pretty much ok, almost everywhere we felt the earthquake and it was scary, today [Jan 13] in fact many schools are not open in case there is a second one today that may affect us harder, but so far we are ok. After the movement is was difficult to make a phone call, so it was not until later last night when I was able to confirm that everybody was ok on our programs.” Our ministry in the Dominican Republic includes many Haitian immigrants. One program in particular serves primarily Haitian refugees in the Haiti border town of Comendador.
VisionTrust is not providing direct relief support in Haiti at this time because we do not have a ministry presence there. However, we do anticipate that the Haitians participating in our Dominican programs will soon be asking VisionTrust to help them help their family members that live in Haiti. Please remember to pray for the Haitian leadership, the international relief agencies and the people of Haiti.
If people would like to help these families, they can go to https://portal.visiontrust.org/donate/default.aspx and then select General Donation and write “Haitian Family Support” in the comment field. VisionTrust will make sure that these families will receive your gifts.
VisionTrust is not providing direct relief support in Haiti at this time because we do not have a ministry presence there. However, we do anticipate that the Haitians participating in our Dominican programs will soon be asking VisionTrust to help them help their family members that live in Haiti. Please remember to pray for the Haitian leadership, the international relief agencies and the people of Haiti.
If people would like to help these families, they can go to https://portal.visiontrust.org/donate/default.aspx and then select General Donation and write “Haitian Family Support” in the comment field. VisionTrust will make sure that these families will receive your gifts.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Liberia: The Action (Day 3)
Wednesday, Oct 28 2009
Our VisionTrust Director, Robert, dropped Don and I off at Kathleen and James' new library at 8:45 AM. Then he drove Tim back to the school where Tim was to spend the day at Prime System School installing old-fashioned pencil sharpeners and talking with folks in the community (escorted by Principal John). Don and I visited with James and Kathleen because they are missionary friends we've made since we started working in Liberia (thanks to Jill C.). After catching up for about 30 minutes, we found ourselves in a heavy discussion for the next hour about how to leverage land for farming, training, to generate funding, etc. James and Kathleen have worked in Liberia for many years - James a native and Kathleen from Canada. They have extensive knowledge of "how to" and "how not to" run ministry programs in this country. After much debate and discussion, I concluded that this is such a broad and challenging topic that if they can't tell me, "Oh, just do this, then that, and you're done!" then perhaps no one can.
Kathleen drove Don and I back to the VisionTrust Liberia office where we met my next appointment, Pastor Vaye and his wife Rose. Pastor Vaye is a visionary and has worked super hard to plant Baptist churches throughout many parts of Liberia. I met him over 2 years ago when he and his wife shared with me their burden for the orphan and marginalized. Every time I come to Liberia, I meet with him and his wife to discuss their ideas for how to help orphans through the church and leverage the VisionTrust program. So this trip is the culmination of many talks.
We rented an old Toyota 4Runner for this trip up country to Todee District in the Northwest area. Robert, Don, Pastor Vaye, Rose, the driver and I got into the truck. Sounds easy right? Well Vaye, Don, Robert and I were all in the back seat. When we stopped to get the Mayonnaise Jars filled with gas to fuel up, I quickly volunteered to get into the far back cargo area with the cooler and bags. The trip would include a series of roads where each was would be in worse shape than the last. After 2.5 hours we got stuck in the mud. We got out and some men were offering to help push us out. Ironically, where we got stuck was the end of the road for us, we were at the village of Jawajeh.
Pastor Vaye walked us about 100 feet into the village and we sat in the front porch area of the local pastor's house that Vaye is working with. I sat on a bench along with Don and Robert…and waited for "instruction" on what to do next. About 40 people crowed in to participate. Vaye let us sit for a little while, somewhat in an awkward silence. When he was ready, he spoke up and quickly introduced us and our purpose. Then he looked at me and said like, "Ready?" The conversation got going slowly. For example, I asked how many people are in the village. The acting village chief (the pastor is the acting because the real chief is out on business in another village) said that the population is 64 people. Then others chimed in: no make that 130, no…make that 90… Well, I'm not real sure. We counted 15 huts and estimated an average of 7 people per hut so I am going with 105 people for now.
I proceeded to collect facts about health, schooling, economy, social structures, tribal information, religious beliefs, diet, water and sanitation. Then I asked Pastor Vaye to share with me what their plan was, what did they want our help with. He said the community is building a church on 25 acres of land that the village donated and wants to build a school, like a traditional mission school compound. As I looked around the outdoor meeting space, I noticed that about 15 children were wearing a school uniform. So I asked Pastor Vaye and the other villagers how many of these children DON'T go to school. Only 2 kids out of about nearly 25 that were there with us don't go to school. They told me that they go to Nye #2 Primary. After much discussion, I learned that the school was opened just 2 years ago. So this was the first school that these children have ever attended. This started a discussion about why start another school. My observation was that the village had enough resources to send their children to school without the help of an outsider - they definitely didn't need their own school. The village pastor told me that children from the surrounding village won't go to the public school. I asked why and one of the widows answered. She said that the "harman" will take her children and poke out their eyes for rituals and do other bad things. This needs a little explanation. Jawajeh is one of 8 villages in the surrounding area that has a remote location and is steeped in traditional beliefs like the Heartless Man, or the "harman" in Liberian English. Robert said to her that is not real, those are stories of old. Wow, did the discussion just get more alive at that point. Robert broke out in Kpelle tongue (his native language that these spoke too) and soon the conversation settled back down.
The conversation continued a bit more. For example, I asked, "What does your diet consist of?" They said, "Rice." I said, "Is that it?" The reply came, "Yes." Then I asked again, "What do you eat?" Then they said, "Oh, cassava and cassava leaves." Then I asked, "What will you eat tonight for dinner?" They replied, "Maybe a little fish from the stream where we get our drinking water." They eat more than rice as you can see. This is one of the challenges in working cross-culturally.
After we finished learning about each other, about half of the crowd walked with us about 15 minutes to the donated 25 acres. This is when I realized that Pastor Vaye wanted to build the traditional mission complex out here. I was thinking that what these people needed was training on how to grow better crops and teach them to work hard, planning and market information. It didn't seem that they needed "free" schooling in a traditional mission school. I could be wrong however. One thing I know for sure is that Pastor Vaye and his wife are super people and have a servants heart.
My initial reaction to this project? The VisionTrust concepts of simple and low-cost, empowering way of helping children didn't match his more traditional way of buildings and starting new organizations. While this was disappointing, it was good to come to a conclusion after 2 years.
The drive back was long and a bit grueling on me…I was in the very back again. By the time we made it back to our guesthouse, I had a super bad headache. After dinner, I showered and laid down and tried to relax for a couple hours, then read for an hour…and finally tried to sleep. It wasn't a fun evening.
Our VisionTrust Director, Robert, dropped Don and I off at Kathleen and James' new library at 8:45 AM. Then he drove Tim back to the school where Tim was to spend the day at Prime System School installing old-fashioned pencil sharpeners and talking with folks in the community (escorted by Principal John). Don and I visited with James and Kathleen because they are missionary friends we've made since we started working in Liberia (thanks to Jill C.). After catching up for about 30 minutes, we found ourselves in a heavy discussion for the next hour about how to leverage land for farming, training, to generate funding, etc. James and Kathleen have worked in Liberia for many years - James a native and Kathleen from Canada. They have extensive knowledge of "how to" and "how not to" run ministry programs in this country. After much debate and discussion, I concluded that this is such a broad and challenging topic that if they can't tell me, "Oh, just do this, then that, and you're done!" then perhaps no one can.
Kathleen drove Don and I back to the VisionTrust Liberia office where we met my next appointment, Pastor Vaye and his wife Rose. Pastor Vaye is a visionary and has worked super hard to plant Baptist churches throughout many parts of Liberia. I met him over 2 years ago when he and his wife shared with me their burden for the orphan and marginalized. Every time I come to Liberia, I meet with him and his wife to discuss their ideas for how to help orphans through the church and leverage the VisionTrust program. So this trip is the culmination of many talks.
We rented an old Toyota 4Runner for this trip up country to Todee District in the Northwest area. Robert, Don, Pastor Vaye, Rose, the driver and I got into the truck. Sounds easy right? Well Vaye, Don, Robert and I were all in the back seat. When we stopped to get the Mayonnaise Jars filled with gas to fuel up, I quickly volunteered to get into the far back cargo area with the cooler and bags. The trip would include a series of roads where each was would be in worse shape than the last. After 2.5 hours we got stuck in the mud. We got out and some men were offering to help push us out. Ironically, where we got stuck was the end of the road for us, we were at the village of Jawajeh.
Pastor Vaye walked us about 100 feet into the village and we sat in the front porch area of the local pastor's house that Vaye is working with. I sat on a bench along with Don and Robert…and waited for "instruction" on what to do next. About 40 people crowed in to participate. Vaye let us sit for a little while, somewhat in an awkward silence. When he was ready, he spoke up and quickly introduced us and our purpose. Then he looked at me and said like, "Ready?" The conversation got going slowly. For example, I asked how many people are in the village. The acting village chief (the pastor is the acting because the real chief is out on business in another village) said that the population is 64 people. Then others chimed in: no make that 130, no…make that 90… Well, I'm not real sure. We counted 15 huts and estimated an average of 7 people per hut so I am going with 105 people for now.
I proceeded to collect facts about health, schooling, economy, social structures, tribal information, religious beliefs, diet, water and sanitation. Then I asked Pastor Vaye to share with me what their plan was, what did they want our help with. He said the community is building a church on 25 acres of land that the village donated and wants to build a school, like a traditional mission school compound. As I looked around the outdoor meeting space, I noticed that about 15 children were wearing a school uniform. So I asked Pastor Vaye and the other villagers how many of these children DON'T go to school. Only 2 kids out of about nearly 25 that were there with us don't go to school. They told me that they go to Nye #2 Primary. After much discussion, I learned that the school was opened just 2 years ago. So this was the first school that these children have ever attended. This started a discussion about why start another school. My observation was that the village had enough resources to send their children to school without the help of an outsider - they definitely didn't need their own school. The village pastor told me that children from the surrounding village won't go to the public school. I asked why and one of the widows answered. She said that the "harman" will take her children and poke out their eyes for rituals and do other bad things. This needs a little explanation. Jawajeh is one of 8 villages in the surrounding area that has a remote location and is steeped in traditional beliefs like the Heartless Man, or the "harman" in Liberian English. Robert said to her that is not real, those are stories of old. Wow, did the discussion just get more alive at that point. Robert broke out in Kpelle tongue (his native language that these spoke too) and soon the conversation settled back down.
The conversation continued a bit more. For example, I asked, "What does your diet consist of?" They said, "Rice." I said, "Is that it?" The reply came, "Yes." Then I asked again, "What do you eat?" Then they said, "Oh, cassava and cassava leaves." Then I asked, "What will you eat tonight for dinner?" They replied, "Maybe a little fish from the stream where we get our drinking water." They eat more than rice as you can see. This is one of the challenges in working cross-culturally.
After we finished learning about each other, about half of the crowd walked with us about 15 minutes to the donated 25 acres. This is when I realized that Pastor Vaye wanted to build the traditional mission complex out here. I was thinking that what these people needed was training on how to grow better crops and teach them to work hard, planning and market information. It didn't seem that they needed "free" schooling in a traditional mission school. I could be wrong however. One thing I know for sure is that Pastor Vaye and his wife are super people and have a servants heart.
My initial reaction to this project? The VisionTrust concepts of simple and low-cost, empowering way of helping children didn't match his more traditional way of buildings and starting new organizations. While this was disappointing, it was good to come to a conclusion after 2 years.
The drive back was long and a bit grueling on me…I was in the very back again. By the time we made it back to our guesthouse, I had a super bad headache. After dinner, I showered and laid down and tried to relax for a couple hours, then read for an hour…and finally tried to sleep. It wasn't a fun evening.
Liberia: The Action (Day 2)
Tuesday, Oct 27 2009
New project research day! Exploring potential project sites and meeting new people is really my favorite part of my job. While it is emotionally, mentally and physically taxing - it is where the rubber meets the road so-to-speak. We drove to the Red Light market (it is not what you think) and met up with Dennis Aggrey a Liberian church planter with a goal to help his people help themselves, including educating village children and helping orphans. I met Dennis' wife when I jumped into the front seat of his classic safari type Land Cruiser complete with a water crossing package - you've got one don't you? You know, the auto package that allows you to cross small rivers?
New project research day! Exploring potential project sites and meeting new people is really my favorite part of my job. While it is emotionally, mentally and physically taxing - it is where the rubber meets the road so-to-speak. We drove to the Red Light market (it is not what you think) and met up with Dennis Aggrey a Liberian church planter with a goal to help his people help themselves, including educating village children and helping orphans. I met Dennis' wife when I jumped into the front seat of his classic safari type Land Cruiser complete with a water crossing package - you've got one don't you? You know, the auto package that allows you to cross small rivers?
Project 1: Woupugiyema Community School
Dennis drove about 40 kilometers in 90 minutes and arrived in Kpondah Town comprised of 7 villages. The school is named Woupugiyema Community School after village that it is in and is made from adobe bricks, sticks and sheet metal. A total of 58 children attend this little dirt school complete with 4 classrooms at this point: ABC class (pre-school), Kinder (kindergarten), 1st-3rd graders; and 4th graders (only 2 kids in the 4th, they share the same teacher with the 1st-3rd graders who is also the pastor of the local church). A church in the United States is helping out by paying the teachers $50/month. More interesting to me is that the community has worked hard to build the school. They've contributed 5 acres of land, some money and labor. They even conducted a "fund-raising" project like making charcoal and selling it to buy the materials for the school. The nearest primary school is a Catholic school 30 minutes away that charges expensive fees.
Village School Facts: No water, No electricity, No Restroom, No windows or screen, No books, No teacher resources. What they do have? Dirt floor, Dirt Walls, Open Air Construction. None of the kids would go to school if this school did not exist.
My initial reaction to this project? This has VisionTrust written all over it. It is community driven, simple and serves 7 villages that have no other alternative. The religious belief of the children are split (guessing 25% Christian and 75% Muslim/Animistic.)
Project 2: KTOE Comfort Orphanage
We said our good-byes and jumped back into the truck and drove back toward Monrovia for about another 60 minutes. When we pulled up to the front door of a war-torn white-washed building with a small sign that read Ktoe Comfort Orphanage, named after the women started it. Comfort and her husband, Peter, recently died (KTOE is the last name). Comfort's daughter, named Mary, is now running the home for 25 girls and 30 boys. The older children are in the home as a result of the recent war. The girls and boys live at opposite ends of the house: 25 girls in one room with 9 beds and 6 mosquito nets / 30 boys in one room with 11 beds and 6 mosquito nets. The youngest is 5 years old and the oldest is 14 years.
We said our good-byes and jumped back into the truck and drove back toward Monrovia for about another 60 minutes. When we pulled up to the front door of a war-torn white-washed building with a small sign that read Ktoe Comfort Orphanage, named after the women started it. Comfort and her husband, Peter, recently died (KTOE is the last name). Comfort's daughter, named Mary, is now running the home for 25 girls and 30 boys. The older children are in the home as a result of the recent war. The girls and boys live at opposite ends of the house: 25 girls in one room with 9 beds and 6 mosquito nets / 30 boys in one room with 11 beds and 6 mosquito nets. The youngest is 5 years old and the oldest is 14 years.
The home has a generator for lights but it has not run for days because they can't afford fuel. The home is poorly lit - I could not see what I was stepping on as I walked down the hallway to the bedrooms. I peaked into the locked storage room and praise the Lord, they have a food supply, although not large but sufficient at the moment. Currently, Christian Aid Ministries is donating enough food of 40 children each month. I also got a peak at the staff quarters, one room for 4 caretakers - all women. Mary has her own room. The children looked happy for the most part and seemed in good health given the situation. This was encouraging to me. Mary took us outside to see the new kitchen provided by Christian Aid Ministries. It is not complete, but in good shape for preparing food of 55 kids and staff. The grounds included 4 latrines and one hand dug well. Mary told us (and we inspected it) that the well water is not good to drink but can be used for washing clothes. It also dries up in the dry season. They carry drinkable well-water from about 150 yards away from the home. Imagine carrying enough water to care for 55 kids everyday - morning, noon and night.
To compliment the program, the founders started a small school just across the yard of the orphanage. I met with the Vice Principal named Micah. He explained to me about how the "footer" ditches between the sheet metal school and the orphanage will become a real cement block school someday. The current sheet metal school included classrooms without doors or windows, highest point inside was 5'6" - yes I would hit my head on the ceiling made from twigs complete with long nails coming down. The roof was made with rubber sheets that have been tied down. They are struggling to say the least. They have ABC, Kinder, and grades 1st through 6th. A total of 153 children attend the program, a mixture of children from the orphanage (free) and from the community (pay 475 LD$ or US$7).
I asked Micah, the VP, and Mary, the head of the orphanage, if other schools exist in the area? They told me that the closest school is too far, about 1 hour walk. This information seemed to conflict with my observation on the drive in - I saw a public Primary to Jr.High about 15 minute walk away. In addition, I saw one other "private" school just down the road too. I also asked if the community was involved in any way. For example, did they help put up the temporary school or dig the footer for the "hopeful" new school? Micah told me that they don't help at all - the family running the orphanage and school has done all of the work. He said, "In fact, some people here have told me that they will not send their children until it is a real school with real walls."
As we wrapped things up, I got to play around with some of the children. Don Lampe and Tim Debold from Calvary Church were with me too. Tim spent some time talking with one of the older boys to learn more, in the process he started a running race with a few of the kids - it was great to watch them play.
My initial reaction to this project? The people are good people at the orphanage and they are doing a good job with what they have. They need the kind of help that VisionTrust can offer. However, I am concerned that Mary may not have the "calling" that her mom and dad had. Will she have what it takes? Regarding their school start-up, I don't think that the are being wise in starting the school because it is a large burden for them - spreading themselves too thin. The children in the orphanage could just go to the public school and receive tutoring at the orphanage to help them succeed. The community appears to not need another school. More needs to be researched and clarified.
About 4 PM we got out of the hot sun and jumped back into the Land Cruiser, and headed back to the Red Light market to get Robert's car. We arrived at the guesthouse at 6 PM…just in time for dinner! Don, Tim and I talked while I did some work on the computer. After my daily night-time shower, jumped into bed and started reading the autobiography called "This Child will be Great" by the current president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Lights out at 11:30 PM.
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