Dear friends and family,
For the past many years, many of you have heard me speak about a burden that has been weighing heavy on my heart. In September of 2007, I had an opportunity to go through an interactive African village that World Vision had sponsored and set up at the Forks here in Winnipeg. I had no idea when I walked through that mocked up straw entranceway that my heart would be broken and my life would be changed forever. For the first time, I was exposed to the daily realities of impoverished families in some of the worlds poorest areas and I was impacted by the role that malnutrition and HIV was having on children and families.
You might assume that I would walk away from that experience feeling grateful for what I had, but that was not my response. You might also think that I would leave that day feeling overwhelmed by how ‘blessed’ I was for living here in Canada. Nothing could be further from the truth. I left that interactive experience forever changed and knew that it represented the beginning of a new journey in my life. It was hard for me to know where that journey would lead but my heart had been broken and my eyes had been opened.
Did you know that according to water.org,
*Kenya has a limited renewable water supply and is classified as a water scarce country.
*17.5 million lack safe water.
*31.7 million have no sanitation services.
*43.4% live in poverty.
*According to the World Health Organization report, in 2011 for every $1 invested in water and sanitation, there is an economic return of between $3 and $34!
Since that September day, many years ago, I have been led to accept a number of personal challenges.
1) Through intensive reading, I have become a student of the issues facing some of the poorest countries in Africa.
2) I began to pray for these issues, and have continued to ask God, “Is there something more that I can be doing?”
3) My family and I began sponsoring a child, Manuel, who lived in an African village similar to what I had experienced.
4) I became involved with an annual fundraiser for several years that raised much needed awareness and funds to fight the HIV epidemic in Africa.
5) I began looking for an opportunity to go to Africa.
I am thrilled to be able to tell you that a new chapter in this journey is beginning for me and I will be heading to Kenya this upcoming September!
As many of you are aware, my husband Bruce is a pastor at Waverley Church in Winnipeg. There is a family who attends Waverley who has directly benefited from the World Vision Child Sponsorship Program in Kenya. Waverley has partnered with World Vision to provide water in their home village. A team of 5, including myself, will be making the trip to this village with a 3 fold purpose.
A) To celebrate with them a well which will have just been dug in conjunction with World Vision and Waverley Church in their community, eliminating a 2 hour walk one way for water.
B) To develop a sustainable feeding program for the local school. Currently, there are about 800 students registered with an average attendance of 300 each day. 500 children are missing on average from school each day because they don’t have enough food to eat. For just under $30.00 a day, all these children can be fed.
C) To develop an ongoing relationship with the Moro church to support and encourage the Pastor and congregation. I am personally quite excited about the opportunity I will have to spend time with the two pastors’ wives as well, to encourage and build them up.
Would you consider partnering with me in two tangible ways?
1) Would you pray along with me for this opportunity? If you would like to receive regular prayer requests and updates, please send an email to monica_hollins@yahoo.ca .
2) Would you consider helping us as we seek to raise the funds necessary for this trip? We each need to raise money and every dollar helps! Charitable Donation Receipts can be provided for all donations.
Donations can be made through this website.
Thank you for considering this opportunity; it will make an impact in many Kenyan’s lives!
Monica :)
Additional details:
Here are some additional details from our Teams official support letter:
"In the fall of 2011, Waverley sent a small team to Moro on an exploratory basis to meet the leadership of Moro AIC, to see their needs first-hand, and to gain an understanding of how Waverley Church could come alongside Moro AIC to support them in the important ministry work in which they are engaged. At that time, the leadership of Moro AIC presented Waverley’s team with their own five-year strategic plan. With many of Moro’s programs being in response to the social, environmental and economic conditions in which they serve, their strategic plan covers a great spectrum of needs, from the training of an additional pastor to providing training for their women’s ministry leaders, provision of safe drinking water for their community, building a home for the pastor and providing medical assistance, to name a few. The team then had the opportunity to spend time with various members of the church and community who would work in, or benefit from, these various ministries.
As Waverley has sought to establish a partnership with Moro AIC following that exploratory trip, much discussion has taken place amongst the Kenya planning team as to what it would look like for Waverley and Moro to “have equal concern for each other” (v. 25b). As we pray for wisdom to discern what our involvement may be in this partnership, we have been cautious to not adopt the common Western mentality that we must “do for”, or “fix the problems of”, this developing community – rather, how can we utilize our gifts and abilities to support the work that the Moro church is already doing? Having said that, we must also acknowledge that we live in a particularly affluent society, and our abilities should include financial resources directed to the work of Moro. Even still, this partnership is not intended to be a one-way relationship but rather one that will have a tremendous impact on our home church..."
In the two-and-a-half years that have followed the exploratory trip, we have worked to find partners – other Canadian registered charities – through whom we could distribute funds for needs identified by the Moro church. As we have recently been successful in forming two such partnerships – one with World Vision Canada, the other with Global Outreach Mission Canada – we believe the time is right for another team to travel to Moro to further engage in this partnership.
The proposed trip will see the team depart on September 17/14 and return to Winnipeg on October 1/14, spending ten days in the Moro community. While an exciting component of this trip will be an opportunity for the team to participate in a celebration ceremony for the completion of the World Vision WASH Program at Moro, it is by no means the only objective of the trip. The team will also review Moro’s updated strategic plan and together strategize next steps, spend time exploring and encouraging each of Moro’s ministry teams, visit local schools and churches, and most importantly, spend time in fellowship with our Kenyan brothers and sisters.
As a team, we will be representing you, our church family, and our hope is that this partnership will be something that we can all get excited about as we anticipate another opportunity to reach out and be a blessing another corner of the world.
We want to invite you to pray for this team, that our trip would be fruitful in continuing to build vital relationships with the Moro AIC leadership, and in assessing the needs for which we can continue to partner with them.
On behalf of the team, we want to thank you in advance for your prayers, encouragement and financial support."
