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Karl has decided to invest in a young man in Ocean View
named McKyle. McKyle is nine. He lives with his mother,
three other siblings, uncle and his grandparents…
all in a two bedroom flat. His father is addicted to tick
(meth) and not involved in his life.
I am excited for this opportunity and pray that
God would show me how to communicate the love of his true
father, Jesus Christ.
 Today
we met with Richard, the director at Living Way (a local
non-profit here to serve the community with job training).
He was excited to learn we have about a dozen
women who have been pounding the streets selling diapers,
brownies, carrot cake, and sausages to earn money for
the class.
 We
are thrilled that they will have a chance to get to know
Richard – a man with a compassionate heart and love
for Jesus, who can gently show them how to change their
life through good choices, hard work and the power of
God's amazing love..
Please Pray: We pray the Lord will
use this course to change lives – as these women
experience the high value God had already placed on each
one of them.
Every week our Baby Safe team of girls meets
to pray for our clients and friends in the community.
Many women struggle with prostitution, HIV, unemployment,
and depression. We have seen many answers to prayer and
are SO EXCITED God hears us and cares for these precious
women! We shouldn't be surprised - but often sit in amazement
that He is changing lives before our very eyes!
After Joe built an inner city sport
complex in a very poor part of Dublin, Ireland,
he met Bishop Tutu at the grand opening. Bishop
Tutu cut the ribbon and then Joe told him about
how his next project was slated for a poor township
of South Africa (Ocean View!). Tutu's eyes lit
up when he realized we were moving next to his
own beloved country!
Plans for the Ocean View Community Life Center
are underway, and this is an important two weeks.
We are raising funds and meeting with local business
leaders, non-profits, a member of parliament and
residents of Ocean View.
We are excited to see what these two weeks hold
and pray that the reality of a community center
begins to take shape.
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This is Joe with Bishop Tutu from
South Africa
The Community
Sports & Development Council is a non profit
community development organization that provides creative
solutions for the design, funding and development
of community enrichment centers and state of the art
youth & family sports facilities.
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Julie is so proud of these women!
Some are prostitutes and women with HIV
– but they have made a choice that they
want something different for their life –
they are daring to dream that life can go beyond
survival to success. They are beginning to see
God is FOR them!
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Claudine, our Ocean View client liaison, has helped
us choose the right snack products to sell (chips, brownies,
and carrot cake). She loves Jesus and has helped
disadvantaged women in her community dream big. |
Update on the fundraiser: The women
all tried selling kimbies (also called nappies –
known as diapers in the US), but some found that customers
wanted a higher quality diaper (that was too expensive
for us to acquire for them). SO INSTEAD they are now selling
brownies from the local whole sale bakery- and have seen
great success!
Please pray: We are asking the Lord
to bless their efforts, so that they can raise the $30
needed for their portion of tuition (sponsors have already
paid $170 toward each woman’s $200 tuition).
Success Already: It is incredible to
see how surprised they are with themselves already –
that they can do a little bit every day to work towards
a bigger goal. Even the small successes they have recently
experienced (by selling brownies and making money) have
been life changing for them. They are beginning to see
that THEY have the ability to choose a life
of purpose over a life of passive
resignation to poverty.
Please Pray: We pray the Lord would
reach down and speak directly to them…showing them
each that He has an amazing plan for their life.
 Have
you ever thought about the desire to be noticed? Different
kinds of people seek it in different ways.
There are the Hollywood Paris Hilton types. There are
kids at a soccer tryout, hoping the coach saw them score
that goal. What about the little girl who dresses up in
her princess outfit, hoping her dad at the computer will
take a break and tell her she is beautiful?
Sometimes when we have nothing, all we can hope for
is to be noticed. There are those here in Africa that
physically and spiritually have nothing. They have lost
all hope and question whether anyone truly cares or loves
them. DOES ANYONE NOTICE THEM?
It’s what they yearn for, it’s what they
hope for… it says to them “I care
and want to hear your story. I want to hear your hurts
and troubles. I want to let you know you are loved”.
Back in March I met a guy who begged for money on the
side of the road. I gave sometimes as the Spirit led,
but I noticed over time that my friend (Paul is his name),
got to be more and more excited everytime I saw him. Whether
I gave him something or not, he was just plain excited
to see me.
I would ask him questions while waiting for the light
to turn green, "How’s the family? What can
I pray for you about? Have you found work lately? Do you
know Jesus loves you?"
I hadn’t seen Paul for about a month now. I was
beginning to worry about him. Yesterday as I was driving,
I heard someone yell at me. It was Paul walking on the
side of the road. I couldn’t stop, as traffic was
packed, but as I looked back in my rearview mirror with
my hand out the window pointing upwards, all I
saw was Paul with both arms raised high into the sky with
a huge smile on his face. He saw that he was noticed and
knew that he was loved!
Julie and Zamo checking out our diaper inventory
(Zamo is an incredible women on our Baby Safe
team who lives in Masi
- she has encouraged the women and translated for
our meetings)
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Well – this is quite
the ride!
Julie's Ocean View women have NOT sold very
many diapers – but they are still coming to the
follow-up meetings (she meets with the
women twice a week to collect their earnings, check
their records, provide more diapers to sell and bring
promotional flyers). Julie is encouraged they keep
showing up!
They appear to be trying but say they want to sell
a higher quality diaper (Huggies instead of the generic
ones they are selling now). We're just not sure the
profit margin on the Huggies will allow them to ever
make enough money for the class (plus I’m we're.)
One woman wants to sell brownies and another make-up.
We’ll see how this turns out!
In Masi they say no one wants to buy this kind of
diaper – and many women turned their diapers pack
back in to us. They would rather sell meat and ice cream!
Maybe we’ll give that a try! Maybe a
meaty ice cream would work? |
 Karl
has been working with short term teams that are planning
a missions trip to Africa! He loves being able to connect
people to this amazing place.
This could be...
...a goup of dentists that want to
provide dental care to disadvantaged Africans
...skilled workers that want to repair
someone's shack (often a small one room home for a family
of 6)
...high school kids that want to work
to children
...soccer players and coaches that want
to offer clinics for youth
Let Karl know if your
church or group would like to come and serve the amazing
African people!
We are offering Sisterhood of Success to the
women of Ocean View and Masi. It’s a job
skills class offered to mothers in crisis that
works to change the mindset of poverty from the
INSIDE OUT.
Because we are using curriculum from an international,
proven program, there is a cost to the materials,
the approved trainers and facility. The cost per
student is about $250 each – that’s
about a month’s salary. It’s hard
for those in poverty to save $1 – let alone
$250 on something like a class. There is not a
high value on education here–most of them
didn’t get past the 7th grade. There is
also not a high value on planning for the future
(like spending time getting trained to improve
your future circumstances).
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Jensen helps run the meeting! We
passed out the diapers and helped the women brainstorm
about ideas for selling them.
|
So…the word around here is that even if
you offer a FREE class – it’s VERY difficult
to get anyone to actually show up. That’s why it
seems crazy to offer a class for $250. Who would attend?
I’ve thought to myself, “Is there any way
this can actually work? ANY WAY?”
Many people from the US have caught the vision and said
they want to be a part of enabling and blessing these
women! We now have enough in donations so that each woman
only needs to earn $30 (instead of $250). It’s amazing!
These women, who are holding tightly to this
small glimmer of hope, are so thankful for each of you
who gave!
All of that to say…the women met today to collect
their packet of diapers to start selling in the community
– to fundraise for their portion of the class.
How the meeting went...
1. A STORY JESUS TOLD: I shared the
famous story Jesus told 2,000 years ago about the rich
man who went away and left his servants in charge –
giving them different amounts of money. When he returned,
he found that two of his servants worked hard and doubled
their money. He was so impressed with them! But one
servant simply buried his money in the ground, doing
nothing and squandering time. The rich man was furious
he didn’t even try.
2. STEWARDSHIP: So we talked about
“stewardship” and what it means to work
hard, try and be accountable.
3. LOGISTICS: We showed them how
to track the sale of each diaper and did some role playing
on selling the diapers and recording the sale on their
“record sheet.”
4. PRAYER: As I laid my hands and
prayed blessing on each women, I couldn’t help
but think, “Unless the Lord comes through BIG
– and I mean really, really BIG - there is no
way these women can raise this $30 and maintain interest
in this class.” Some of the women are prostitutes
and it’s not unlikely they would sell the diapers
and use the money for drugs (most likely “tik”
– aka crystal meth).
I recently heard someone say we only need to do what
God has asked of us and obey. Maybe it's just 2% - and
He will do the remaining 98%. It's not all on us to make
"it happen." Thank goodness - because even though
I thought my flyers were pretty spiffy, the fundraiser
idea pretty solid and my "inspirational speech"
not too bad - I know there is NO WAY even one of these
women will attend the class if God doesn't come through
with the inspiring, requiring and desiring.
Journal entries:
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Jan
29th - My New Little Brother
