There are several people here who provide incredible support for the work of WEH. Ruth's husband, Raphael, has been paying the rent for the office since WEH was started a decade ago, and transportation. Leopold Ekwa Ngalle is regular in his giving of cash and sometimes provides transportation. He also donated a grinding mill for cassava and corn. Mme. Viollette Pency Soppo Priso provides cash to pay for children's schooling and school supplies and food. Jean Francois Cartier, the restaurant and hotel owner in Edea, provides used sheets, towels, curtains and food and soap bars and notebooks. Mme. Laurent Esso has donated fabric for the women. (On March 8 of every year Women's Day is celebrated with a lot of pomp and circumstance. Each year a fabric is made for the celebration and many women acquire it to make themselves dresses. Special fabrics for dresses here are the rough equivalent of specially printed t-shirts in the U.S. Ruth has shown me a dress that was made from specially imprinted fabric for her church women's group.)
A French football player donated 96 pairs of shoes for the children!
In America there are some amazing donors, too, who give to the Friends of WEH. Both the Church of Our Saviour in Lakeside and the Church of the Good Shepherd in Kearny made significant gifts for the truck. When Sherry Archer, a nursing professor with the Linfield students, and a member of the board of the Friends of WEH, married Bob a couple of years ago, they asked that in lieu of wedding presents they be given donations to WEH. And Sherry's Jewish humanitarian community in Portland made a significant contribution for orphans' schooling and sent clothes and other items as well for the children. Other significant supporters include Kenneth and Deborah Wood in Minnesota, David Groff of Linfield College, and Allan and Margaret Anderson of Washington state. Allan is the President of the Friends of WEH. All the board members of the Friends of WEH solicited donations from their family and friends for the truck. My large family gave gifts to the Friends of WEH rather than exchanging gifts, and then my cousins joined in the fun. On the website of the Friends of WEH there is a long list of donors all of which donated for the truck.
Joseph and Barbara Stone (and I) paid our own way to come here, nothing to be sneezed at. Barbara has invested a huge amount of time getting up to snuff on tropical diseases and HIV/AIDS.
Hi Carol,
ReplyDeleteI created a Google accout and I hope this works now.
I have hade two trips to Africa. In 2006 I joined one of my parishiohers who des missionary work all over the world for a group called: Discipling Nations Alliance. We first wen to Benin and spent 6 week there where he was teaching a conference to local pastors on themes such as: The Power of the local church to transform is society by elevating the status of women to equal that of men; that the power of God affects your daily life, not evil spirits, witches and curses; everything you need to do God's will in cour community is hee now and He will lead yiou to it, don't for a ton of money from the West. god will lead you to begin small projects with the resources at hand and he will multiply the fruit if you dedicate yourselve and allow God to inspire your creativity. It was an amazing event.
We then went to Kenya, did a three day safari in Maasai Mara, then visited a number of Mission Project in the slums of Nairobi carried on by the Church Mission Society of the Church of England and the Discipling Nations Alliance. We were there four day and then went to Uganda to visit the ?Watoto childen's Ministry started by the Kampala Pentecostal Church. This program rescues orphans and instead of creating an institution they create new families of 8 children and a widow who becomes their mother. New homes are build for each family on land acquired on the ourskirts of Kampala whee they build their own school, medical facility. water system, sewage and electrical system and essentiall create new villages. They have aabout 3000 children in hese families and Good Shepherd has sent working crews there for each of the past three years. Each year we build a new home using money raise at Good Shepherd to pay for the materials. We will send another crew in August, 2009.
My secont trip was in 2007 and this time we returned to Kampala and Kenyua and also spent a week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzaania with Bp. Mokiwa.
This last year I took a sabbatical after Scottie died and spent wo months on Ecuador with the diocese of Central Ecuador. They "hosted" me, ie helped me find an apartment, invited me to church events and parish activities, and were available if I needed any help. I had no obligations, since I was there to :heal" and I had all the free tie to just travel in and arround Quito, and to any other location in the country that I wanted. I just used the time to see as muich as I could, to ake thousands of photos and take a 10 day trip to Peru and of cours Macchu Pichu. It was fabulous. After I retire I will do some part-time work for the diocese and travel, back to Africa in Augus and agin to Ecuador and stay thee a ew more months. I will do more photography and hopefully work on marketing my work, which I have not had much time to do.
I loved Africa. It gets into your soul somehow and now you know that as vividly as I do. I will follow your blog and share your trip vicariously.
God bless you and your friends there. Do be careful!! I got horribly dehydrated in Kenya and had to go to the hospital. And live the experience to the fullest!!!!
Hugs,
Glenn+
Thank you so much, Glen. And I hope your sabbatical was, indeed, helpful to you. I have thought of you often.
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