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Thank you for your support of Dina, Berniece, and the Namankwan School this Advent! Gifts for Dina and Berniece’s education have been received and Dina is already attending school. Some of you have asked how we’re coming along with the Namankwan School. We still have a ways to go to raise the $1812 needed for windows, doors, desks, and metal sheets for the roof. I’m confident that each of us doing what God has put in our hands to do can raise the needed funds.

Our friend, Pastor Frank Mills, tells the story of another young woman who needs a helping hand this Christmas. Here is Hanna Sandow’s story:

Hanna Sandow is a very dedicated Christian from a pagan family. All her siblings and parents are idol worshipers. Hanna loves the Lord and always avails herself for ministry responsibilities. Her family began neglecting her when they heard of her willingness to serve Jesus. She is only 17-years-old and still needs the support of her parents for basic needs. She is still in school, but only with great challenges. Recently, her father began forcing her to marry an old man of 68 in exchange for 4 cows and other items he thought would benefit him and his family. In response Hanna fled her family to stay with friends. During this time she suffered from lack of basic needs like clothes, sandals, food, water, good shelter, etc. The church in her area later intervened on her behalf and her parents accepted her back into the home, but without proper care. Hanna loves to read even though she struggles with good English. She wishes to be a nurse in future. She currently owes $220 in her school and she has been asked to go home until she can repay this amount. A love gift of $220 will help to clear all of her bills at school and she will be able to go back to class. Because of the Wilbur Project which Joe has helped us start, she has already received two pigs which will help her make enough of an income to help meet her future educational needs. Thank you. –Pastor Frank Mills, Ghana

God bless you and your loved ones this Christmas with the peace and joy of the Christ child,

Joe

Dear Friends,

I’ve been wracking my brain as to what kind of gift I can give loved ones this Christmas and maybe you have, too. May I suggest that when you don’t know what to give this Christmas that you consider giving the gift of wood for a roof, desks, windows, or doors for the Namankwan school in northern Ghana?

The local Church of the Nazarene saw the pressing need of education for children in the Namankwan village and did something about it. In 2005 the nearest public school was 7 miles away from the village. In response to this great need, the church began gathering children and paying a visiting teacher to come teach the kids at the Namankwan school 3 times per week. Within the first two weeks, the student population rose from 5 to 30. Five years later the school has 210 regular students but no classrooms. Kids of all ages currently sit and learn from their specific teachers in the local church of the Nazarene chapel which makes learning very difficult and sometimes very chaotic.

The people of the Namankwan area are very poor farmers. They only farm during short, three month rainy periods in order to have food for their family until the next rainy season. As a consequence they do not have cash for the various roofing, door, and desks needed to complete the school. I’ve attached a couple of pictures of classrooms that village people have built using locally available materials to raise the building up to the roof level. They now need wood, metal roofing sheets, nails, windows, doors and furniture to complete the building. Our friend Frank Mills says, “The rains have already started and we keep praying that we are able to quickly roof the building before it is affected by the rains.”

Frank’s Estimates for the Namankwan’s School Materials: $1832

–33 pieces of roofing @ $15 each
–30 pieces of wood or logs for windows and doors @ $10 each
–31 pieces of wood or logs for the roofing structure @ $13 each
–70 pieces of wood for class desks, teachers tables, and chairs @ $10 each

Frank says that people in the Namankwan village are continuing to take responsibility for the project as much as they are able to by raising funds among church members toward paying carpenters’ fees.

Together we can make a school possible for children in northern Ghana. My Christmas shopping suddenly became a lot easier. Will you join me?

Christmas peace and joy,

Joe

Dear Friends,

As I count my blessings this Thanksgiving, I give thanks to God for your generosity and compassion toward our friends in Africa. Thank you to all of you who responded last week to Dina in northern Ghana’s need for secondary schooling. There was such a great response that we will be able to help 3-4 other girls in similar circumstances before the end of the year. Here is Pastor Frank Mills’ account of Dina’s response upon hearing the news about her schooling:

This is great news for Dina and the team on the Wilbur Project [this is the Pigs for Girls Project we started last Christmas. In the past year, 38 girls have received a pair of pigs to give them an ongoing source of income to meet their basic needs so that their parents do not marry them off as young as 14-years-old in a polygamous marriage arrangement].

Thank you so much, Joe. We do not know all your friends who are supporting our ministry in northern Ghana, but we do pray that God will be with them at the point of their various needs. GOD BLESS YOU AND ALL YOUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE GIVEN TO HELP.

I visited Dina’s home this afternoon and she could not stop the tears of joy that kept flowing from her eyes.

Frankeeeeee

It’s an amazing blessing to be part of changing the world for Dina, isn’t it? Here is the story of another young woman in northern Ghana, Berniece:

Berniece Salifu is 17 years old. She is a student and a Pastor of one of our recently planted churches called LOVE OF JESUS NAZARENE CHURCH. Bernice is a very hard working youth who loves the Lord and loves children. Her father passed away about a year ago and her 70 year old mother could no longer take care of all Berniece’s needs. She nearly dropped out of school but God provided funds through individuals in her local church to enable her to complete her primary education. She has not been able to continue to secondary school because she cannot afford the various fees. Like Dina, first term fees and necessary books will cost about $250. Berniece has never lost hope but keeps trusting in the Lord for a miracle for her to be able to continue her secondary school education. She has refused the advances of men who want her to sleep with them. She continues to wait upon the Lord.

Frankeeeeee

Bernice Salifu standing in front of her church

If you would like to send a gift for any of our projects in Africa, you can send and make a check payable to “Compassion for Africa.” Please be sure to tell us which project you’d like your gift to go toward.

Thank you, again, for your generosity and prayers. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email or phone (303.809.8895).

God bless you and your families with a wonderful Thanksgiving,

Joe

Dear Friends,

Life has been a blur since I gave you an update in August regarding “Gifts with a Purpose’s” transition into “Compassion for Africa.”

Since August Shelly, Jimmie, Annie, and I have moved from Denver to Nampa, ID, sold our house in Denver, and are anticipating closing on a house here in Nampa on November 23. I love teaching at Northwest Nazarene University. The students and my colleagues have been wonderful. A theology class I’m teaching on-campus is a little over halfway to raising $2,000 for a well in northern Ghana. I’m still in the process of incorporating “Compassion for Africa” as a 501(c)(3) coroporation with the IRS, but I hope to have this taken care of by Christmas.

Here’s the latest from Ghana: Just last week Frank Mills emailed me, telling about a nineteen-year-old woman named Dina Laari .

Dina lives in a small village called Yapala in northeastern Ghana (it’s such a small village that I couldn’t even find it on Google Earth—Joe) where girls’ education is a great challenge. She is a daughter of Konlan Laari and Grace Laari. Mr. Laari is married to two wives, including Dina’s mother, Grace. Dina has 10 siblings who are all struggling in life to make ends meet. Dina’s Dad is 75 years of age and is not able to walk or go to the farm any more.

Dina struggled to complete her primary education. In order to pay for her tuition and books, she cleared weeds on peoples’ farms. Dina was admitted to secondary school, but her parents could not afford to pay the admission fee of $200. Again, she did her best to clear weeds to raise some funds, but she ended up using the small amount she earned on personal needs and could not save the needed amount.

Dina has now stayed at home for one year without schooling. I never knew about this until Dina rushed to my home one morning recently to ask me to pray for her. She kept pressing me to ask God for forgiveness on her behalf. She wept bitterly and could not control herself. She told me she wished she was dead. She did not understand why God wouldn’t help her in her educational struggles (she is the only dedicated Christian in her family).

I prayed with her and read few verses in scripture to assure her of God’s presence even in the midst of our struggles. After a long time she calmed down enough where she was able to tell me how she nearly had sex with a married man who promised to pay for her schooling. She said the man kept asking her to agree to his proposals and that he promised to take care of all her educational needs if she will have sex with him. She refused for months, but her friends kept telling her to just agree to the man’s demands so that she could go to school like they are doing. She finally agreed to the man’s proposal. The man asked her to come to his room for the money for her schooling and he tried to force her to have sex, but she refused and ran to my home.

Please Joe. We will be very glad if you and your friends are able to help Dina with $200 to be able to pay the school registration and first term fee.

We have some funds to help her with her school books. We also plan to buy her two pigs to help her take care of her future educational needs.

Love,

Frank

More and more of us are looking for new ways to show love at Christmas, not only to family members and friends, but to children around the world. Giving a gift with a purpose enables us to celebrate Gods Christmas gift to us by giving gifts that keep on giving Christ’s love throughout the year in Rwanda, Congo, and Ghana.

What a great Christmas gift to give Dina the gift of education this Christmas or help finish a school in Namankwan, northern Ghana. Or, if you’d like to give toward clean water in Ghana, we have several wells just waiting to be funded. Frank Mill’s “Wilbur Project” that gives pigs to girls to help them earn money for school fees is another option as is buying a sewing machine for a handicapped person in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

If you would like to send a gift for any of our projects in Africa, you can send and make a check payable to “Compassion for Africa.” Please be sure to tell us which project you’d like your gift to go toward.

Thank you, again, for your generosity and prayers. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email or phone (303.809.8895).

God bless you and your families,

Joe

Dear Family and Friends,
When someone is leaving to go on a journey where Swahili is spoken, they will tell you, “Safari njema” (“Good/pleasant/safe journey”). In thirty two hours we’ll be back in Denver. Now that we’re on the tail end of our safari our time seems to have sprinted by, but living it forward it sometimes crawled along at a snail’s pace. We’ve had so many interesting and challenging experiences and met so many wonderful people that it will take us much longer than the four weeks we were away to unpack the memories we are carrying with us.
Jimmie, Chuck, and I arrived back in Nairobi three hours ago after two night and three days in Maasai Mara National Park. The place we stayed at was a tented campground (it has an electric fence around it to keep out any unwanted “guests”). The boys and I had three twin-sized beds, a toilet, a shower, a double sink, and hardwood floors in our tent-oh, and electricity! Ever stayed in a tent like this? It was incredibly nice. The meals were also fabulous-made to order omelets, crepes, fresh fruit and juice for breakfast, and amazingly good lunches and dinner. We came close to gaining back the weight we lost the rest of the trip, that’s for sure! I can hardly wait to start eating oatmeal again when we get home. J
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Dear Family and Friends,
The boys and I arrived in Nairobi Sunday afternoon. We will miss Rwanda and Congo, but it feels good to be onto the next step of our journey. The first thing the boys wanted to eat once we dropped out bags off at Mt. Carmel-the Church of the Nazarene Guest House-was pizza. It wasn’t quite Pizza Hut or Papa Murphy’s, but still tasted pretty darn good.
We had a very full day today. Our first stop was at the David Kendrick Elephant Orphanage where we saw twenty elephants from aged three-months to two-years. We also saw the cutest five-month-old rhino I’ve ever seen. We were even able to pet some of the elephants and the rhino for a few minutes. After this we stopped at Maasai Weavers who weave handmade rugs (we have several at home already, but I may have picked up one or two for Shelly J).
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Dear Family and Friends,
The boys and I had a very full and emotion-draining day. In the morning we drove forty-five minutes to the Nyamata and Ntarama Churches where over 15,000 men, women, children, and even babies were hacked, blown up, shot, and bludgeoned to death during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. Our guide at the Nyamata Church, Charles, was eight-years-old in 1994 and one of only eight who survived the mass murder of over six thousand. He survived by going out to forage for food at night and hiding under dead bodies in the church by day.
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Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you for your many encouraging emails about the house for Josephine and Julienne. The property is large enough that at least two more houses for the Ndengerea workers can be built on this same property.
With cash I had on hand and about $500 that Simon kicked in from the Ndengera Foundation, Simon, Caritas, and Josephine went to sign the contract and pay one half of the $3400 early this morning (the second half is due on or before August 1). Simon Pierre doesn’t mess around. When he has an idea he gets it done now. Part of his motivation for moving so quickly is that when he and Caritas travel to Kigali with the boys Continued

Dear Family and Friends,
Now that we are leaving Gisenyi for Kigali tomorrow, we just discovered that an internet cafe is 2 minutes away from Simon Pierre’s. The boys are happily updating their IPods on the wireless connection here.
Yesterday morning (June 17) Jimmie, Chuck, and I went with Simon to visit Veronique. Since we went in the morning only Veronique and Nicole were home. When I visited Veronique last fall there were so many banana trees in front of her house that the house was not even visible from the road. Today all those tree are gone. Simon says that some kind of disease has killed most of the banana trees in the area. Even so, it’s still a gorgeous area.
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