Classroom at the School at the House of Hope

The school room, which had just been completed, was now being occupied with several students as the school has been opened to others in the community providing early education to about 40 children.  Also, there has been an addition of a computer lab, which several in our group worked to get the handful of computers up and running.  The garden has expanded about three times the size and has several coffee trees growing very well.  There is a structure of a future greenhouse to also support the HOHH.

The guys set the rain barrel onto the concrete base to collect water.

Even with all these projects being completed and several more dreams in the works, the greatest project and most important continues to be the relationships with all 23 kids and Joel and his family.  Everyone who makes this trip is changed – and the kids are so amazing with their spirit, faith and dedication to the Lord and their education.  I look forward to returning.

Our 2010 trip focused on two primary construction projects – the addition of a rain collection system attached to the school and the expansion of the outdoor kitchen.  The rain collection system was funded entirely from the young people of FBCJC and the kitchen was funded approximately 50% from FBCJC.  Both were a great addition to the HOHH and will greatly help the Home.  The big need for the HOHH is the deep water well which the FBCJC youth are working diligently on providing the funds.

“Nobody is so poor that he or she has nothing to give, and nobody is so rich that he or she has nothing to receive.” -
Pope John Paul II

Jenny Allen with new friend, Julius.

Having just returned from a visit to the House of Hope Home in Kenya, these words by Pope John Paul II are the clearest way to explain the encounter I had with Jesus in Naivasha, Kenya. Over the years, my walk with God has led me to the simple truth that we are called to love others concretely; to offer all we have to give to those in need.  It wasn’t hard for me to realize that I don’t do a good enough job at this and that I needed to stop making excuses, so I began to pray for a way for me to share God’s love in concrete ways. The Lord placed Africa on my heart through this time of growth, so when I learned of our partnership with House of Hope, I was eager to jump in and make the journey over to Kenya.

During our trip, there were many things I had anticipated that came to fruition and many things I could hardly have anticipated. I had made many preparations for the trip. I did research on Kenya, made several packing lists and I was fully prepared to give; to offer supplies and time and love. What I did not fully expect was the amount of love that I would receive. My time there quickly became less about giving and more about sharing. We shared stories, meals, prayers, laughter, tears and tremendous amounts of love. How foolish of me to go into this experience thinking that we were the only ones who had something to offer.

Our mission to the people at House of Hope is so much more than helping to put roofs on buildings and digging wells. I still believe we are called to give in these concrete ways, yet there is something so much deeper at stake and I learned that to be relationships with people.

May we always give as much as we possibly can while keeping our hearts open to letting people in; to knowing them and loving them and learning from them

Word and Way Newspaper

The first was a feature article about Dr. Lory Feeler, team leader for our partnership with Servant’s Heart Ministries in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  Dr. Feeler has been a doctor for many years in our community and was just honored in May as a Zonta Woman of Achievement.  The local magazine, Jefferson City Magazine, published an article about her love and passion for our partnership in the Dominican Republic.  You can read about it here.  Our latest team returned from the Dominican Republic at the end of June.

The most recent article was published today in the Word and Way, a Baptist newspaper committed to accurately informing Baptists and others of relevant news, to promoting the work of Christ and encouraging inspirational living.  They included a short article about our partnership with Wings as Eagles Ministries on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  We were so blessed to spend a week with them in June.

Enjoy this great articles celebrating what God is doing and please forward them along to others so they can learn about these great partners.

Youth shovel mulch in the rain.

Thirty-eight youth and adults are spending the week in Madison County, North Carolina, partnering with local contacts to help repair and improve homes and schools in the county.  We departed on Sunday very early and arrived Sunday evening around 9:30 pm to Mars Hill College where we are staying for the week in apartments with all-natural air conditioning.

Foreman Julie Watson ready to work.

On Monday, the youth were divided between two locations:  the Madison County Elementary School and the Madison County Middle School.  At the Elementary school, the middle school you worked hard indoors and out.  Indoors, they painted walls and cleaned. Outside, they pulled tons of weeds and moved tons of mulch — in the pouring rain.  It rained hard and steady all day until the bus came to pick them up.  At the middle school, the high school youth moved a lot of student desks and chairs back into classrooms that had had the floors waxed.  Then, they moved a lot more student desks and chairs into the hallways from rooms that had yet to be waxed.   A small team of mostly adults when to locate the houses we would be working on this week and to make a supply list so we could purchase materials.  The county is huge and the houses are back on some small, windy cutback roads on the mountains.  Beautiful, beautiful area.

The youth sing at Western North Carolina Baptist Home.

Last night the youth performed their first concert at the Western North Carolina Baptist Home in Asheville, North Carolina.  It was a great crowd – maybe 50 residents and the youth did an amazing job.

We are having a great time and everyone is healthy and happy! (no joke).   Today is a  hot day and very humid after the rains but it could be much worse so we are grateful – or trying to be.

I posted pictures so far here.  There will be more – maybe every other day since I have to drive to a different location to find free wireless internet.

They have finished their time at the House of Hope Home, the children’s home we partner with in Kenya.  They have played with children and took them to an animal reserve.  The have completed the rain barrel off the school which was funded by our children in First Kids who raised $300 this past year. They also completed a roof on the newly expanded outdoor kitchen.

They traveled today to Kijabe to tour the hospital there and a children’s facility.  They will be staying with our good friends, Tim and Lori Myrick, who are missionaries (field personnel) in Kenya with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Continue to pray for their safety.  They will be spending a couple of days at the Masaii Mara Game Park and then flying back on Friday, arriving home late on Saturday.

The kids (minus the five youngest) at House of Hope Home.

Our Kenya Mission Team is departing Tuesday, July 6 for a mission trip to our partners, the House of Hope, in Naivasha, Kenya.  The House of Hope is a children’s home that provides a stable home environment and quality education for children who have been abandoned or orphaned.  There are currently 23 children living at the House of Hope.  The home was the vision of Joel Karanji and he and his wife, Susan, have invested every part of their lives in fulfilling God’s vision to care for these children.  We are so blessed to partner with them.

The team of seven which includes, Rand, Carolyn and Kris Swanigan; Jenny Allen; Laura Laney; Stephen Banks; and Nathan Gilbert, will be working on building shelves for the boys’ rooms, expanding the outdoor kitchen hut; playing and loving on the kids and a variety of other things.

Please pray for the team as they travel and serve.  Pray for Joel and Susan as they daily minister to these children.  Pray for the other workers at the home – Florence, Mama Paul and Mama Rose.  Pray for the children – that they may proudly claim God as their Father!

Please continue to stop by each day for brief updates from the team before they return July 17.

Despite the grandeur of the building, the driving force behind the project, the building contractor Stepan Trubchik (Kobrin), stressed that the start-up would be extremely modest: “We will start with one, two or three Baptist guests. We’re beginning from zero – we have no professional experience in working with the elderly.” Residents from other sources would be exceedingly risky at the outset – Belarusian Baptists will need to serve as the initial guinea pigs. There is also no immediate solution for the high costs of care for the elderly; the home will not be able to accept more residents than the extent of its funding. Ivan Hrytsiuta, Deputy Director of Zhemchuzhinka, believes the majority of daily operating costs can be covered with the residents’ modest pensions.

Others are less optimistic, but the home’s Director, the Baptist barrister Leonid Petruchik (Brest), believes the first residents will be arriving in August. “The gas has not yet been connected,” he admitted. “So we still have no heat.” Government and Baptist Union documentation is also incomplete. Thanks to the children’s health camps being held next door, a doctor and nurses are already on the property.

For now, residents will be arriving on a trial basis. Not all possible clients are convinced they will enjoy living there and initially residents may be coming only for several days or weeks. Hrytsiuta added that Belarusian law does not allow them to take on residents initially for more than a six-month period. But if the stay is successful, that period can be extended indefinitely.

Stepan Trubchik, who still suffers from the effects of a serious neck operation earlier this year, appears to enjoy the unqualified trust of his long-time friends from Missouri. The building contractor cannot feed 5.000 with five fish, but he can, according to an American friend who was along for the Kobrin festivities, “turn one dollar into three”. Thanks to low-cost and volunteer labour as well as excellent connections with suppliers, the Baptists of Belarus can achieve tremendous “bang per buck” with Western donations. The wooden beds were donated by the Russian-German “Friedens bote” mission from Meinerzhagen/Germany; the equally-attractive quilts on them were created by the Baptist women of Missouri. Some items are still lacking: Who for ex. would be able to donate silverware, plates and hardware for the kitchen?
How it all began

In 1990, the Southern Baptist Convention of Missouri began an official partnership with what soon became known as the Baptist Union of Belarus. The construction of Kobrin’s new Baptist church – its 1.400 seats probably make it Europe’s largest Baptist church structure – and the opening of the Zhemchuzhinka children’s camp in 1995 both occurred during the official Union-to-Union relationship. That partnership was to be of limited duration and after several short extensions, the partnership was finally terminated in 2002.

Stepan Trubchik, Building Contractor, and Steven Jones, President of The Baptist Home

Yet not all those who had been heavily involved in Belarus were capable or willing to pull up stakes and begin projects elsewhere. The creation of the independent, Jefferson City/Missouri-based “Future Leadership Foundation” (FLF) was one result of the unwillingness to drop Belarus. In 2005, FLF-President Roger Hatfield asked Steven Jones, the President of “Missouri Baptist Home” (MBH), if his organization would be willing to help create one of Eastern Europe’s very first Christian homes for the elderly. MBH-leadership agreed and began to gather funding for the construction of the Kobrin centre in 2006.

A common trait of Missouri Baptists: Their service organizations are interconnected and no organization is involved solely in one type of activity. MBH for ex. has helped fund a retirement home for pastors – and the printing of Bibles – in China. FLF is supporting the Baptist seminary in Minsk/Belarus. FLF is also involved in the 1976-founded “Crown Financial Ministries”, which train individual Christians and organizations globally on how best to apply Christian principles to their private and business finances.

In his short sermon at the dedication service in Kobrin’s church; Belarusian Union President Viktor Krutko noted, that the Good Samaritan had returned a second time to pay for the costs accrued at the inn. But the guests assured repeatedly that they were involved in Kobrin “for the long-run”. Steven Jones of The Baptist Home affirmed: “God also finishes what he starts.” MBH is committed to helping
Baptist House of Mercy-personnel receive the necessary nursing, housing and bookkeeping training they will need. It has even begun an endowment to help cover the on-going, future costs of the home in Kobrin.

The guests assured that they hoped the Kobrin model would prove to be “contagious” and a multiplier throughout Central and Eastern Europe. They confirmed their readiness to support other projects elsewhere – also in Russia. Yet Kobrin is to remain the centre and “mother hen” of Missouri Baptist efforts in Europe.  “We are not just into housing care,” Jones explained. “Home care is also an option. We are into churches reaching out to assist an aging humanity, wherever that may be.”

The camp and home in Kobrin remain the sole property of the Belarusian Baptist Union. Missouri wants to be only one helper among others and intends to play only a supportive and advisory role. It wants its efforts to be understood as a Christian, no-strings-attached love for all of humankind.  Missouri
would be happy if also Orthodox circles were involved in any future efforts.

Regarding the fact that general US-Belarusian relations are poor, Jones added that “we are not interested in politics. We are not here to confront or conflict with others. We are here to cooperate and provide help and humanitarian aid in the name of Christ.” Stefan Trubchik reported that government approval for the work of the camp and the new home remains clear: “We have no real government barriers.” But the church is very much on its own in financial terms.

Zhemchuzhinka has been doing agricultural work on its property in hopes of improving its income.  Soon Baptist House residents will be awakened early by the aroma of baking bread: A bakery with seven employees and material assistance from Germany is to open next door in August or September. Trubchik is already thinking of further projects: A centre on the property offering massage, water and many other forms of physical therapy to the general public for a fee would also be a helpful source of income. Dental equipment has been in use for a number of years.

The situation in Eastern Europe

The first Protestant-owned home for the aged in the lands of the former USSR may well have been the “Tabita” home begun by the Reformed group “Holland-Help“ in Iabiona/Moldova in 2000. Russia’s first Protestant-owned home for the elderly is the 24-bed Lutheran “Carl-Blum-Haus” opened near Gussev in the Kaliningrad (Königsberg) enclave in 2006. Kobrin is a third home – the first one in Belarus. Trubchik reports that the Belarusian Orthodox run a type of sanitorium; all other of the few homes for the elderly in this nation of nearly 9,5 million are government-run.

A photo of the Kobrin home can be found under: www.thebaptisthome.com/bhomhome.html ; it can be reached under “kobrincamp@mail.ru”. The “Future Leadership Foundation” has the address: “www.flfmissions.org”.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Moscow, 5 July 2010
Press service of the Russian Evangelical Alliance
“rea.org@mail.ru” or “kant50@gmx.de”
“www.rea.org.ru” (under construction)

Mobile for Yoder in Moscow:
+7-906-075-7199

A Young Lakota Boy. (Not John)

Suicide is epidemic on the Pine Ridge Reservation.   The teen suicide rate is four times the national average.

Tuesday night another child on the reservation hanged himself.  His name was John and he was twelve years old.   He loved the Dream Center, the ministry of our partners, Wings as Eagles.  God had plans for him, plans to give him a hope and a future.  Yet, John couldn’t see that hope or that future because of all the hopelessness around him on the reservation.

This is the third child in a month that has committed suicide on the reservation.

That is three children too many.

Reva's house

Rez Life

¨ Over 80% Unemployment

¨ Per capita income of $4,000

¨ 52 % of the households single parented

¨ Temperatures from 40 below to 120 above

¨ 8 times the United States rate of diabetes

¨ 5 times the rate of cervical cancer

¨ Twice the rate of heart disease

¨ High rate of teen pregnancy

Man asleep on the streets in White Clay on the reservation.

¨ 8 times the rate of TB

¨ Suicide rate more than twice the national rate

¨ Teen suicide 4 times the national rate

¨ Three times the infant mortality rate

¨ The lowest life expectancy in the U.S. and the 2nd lowest in the western hemisphere.

¨ 68 % school dropout rate

¨ High rate of Drug and alcohol abuse

¨ The poorest of USA’s 3,143 counties*

¨ 60% live below the poverty level

¨ No public transportation, no banks, no movie theaters, no bowling alleys, no recreation centers, no unused clothing stores, no nursing homes

*This was true in the 1980 and 1990 census. The recent census places Pine Ridge third from the bottom; Not because things have improved there, but rather, because things got worse on two other South Dakota reservations.

Our last full day in the Dominican Republic was a busy one (and also the first day we have been here without any rain!) as we hosted our second clinic at Liberacion. It was held at the church we had attended Sunday night and it was run very similar to the clinic held on Tuesday in Gasper Hernandez.  Each of us fulfilled our duties at each station. In addition to taking pictures, I was able to observe Dr. Feeler consult with her patients and prescribe the medicines for their needs. I even got to play doctor and learned how to take blood pressures and pulses thanks to Dr. Feeler! Gary, Amy and Pat were busy running the pharmacy with the help of Marlene between her breaks at the physical therapy station. Dale and Ron collected the registration sheets and led the patients to the appropriate areas of the clinic. Jamie and Lucy once again had their hands full entertaining the children who came through the pharmacy. Lucy was also handing out glasses and toothbrushes to those who needed them. At the end of the day at the clinic, they had helped the children create a colorful banner of a cross that was hung up on the church wall and left for the church community to admire. Roxy and Pastor Michael were able to pray with several patients who had requested prayers, as well as with one woman who decided to accept Jesus into her life. After working without a lunch break to finish visiting with patients, over 220 people had come through the clinic! Once all of our supplies were loaded onto our truck, we made our way back to the resort for some rest before heading to dinner.

Dinner was a special occasion, as we all went to Franklin’s (one of our interpreters) family-owned restaurant that overlooked the beach. The food was excellent and the company was great. Our whole team was there for dinner as well as Phil, Donna and the rest of the students who had helped us throughout the week. After finishing our meal, we enjoyed relaxing conversation as we reflected on the highlights and our thoughts of the mission work we had accomplished during our time since Saturday. Our team was able to work well together to achieve our goals of supplying medical aid and sharing the Gospel to the local communities of the Dominican Republic. As we have grown throughout this past week as a family of Christians alongside Servant’s Heart Ministries, we are blessed to have reached out and touched the lives of others in hopes that they will follow in our footsteps of doing God’s work.

-Sarah