Last note

Many of the tree seeds that Steve Fitch left have germinated and they learned much through some of the challenges they faced with some termites eating some of the seeds. He is ready to keep trying and we will send more Mango seeds in a couple of weeks when Juli and a medical team return to Kolmarek around May 3rd to be there until the 9th. Pray for this team please. They will be staying in tents on the Kolmarek property. The winds and rains are present and could present a challenge.

Steven successfully returned to Kolmarek a couple of weeks ago after coming to Kenya to visit his wife and his new son. Yes - his wife delivered a boy while she was in Kenya. His other son Immanuel (now 2 years old) is still not doing very well health wise so Steven and his wife took him to Nairobi to see the doctor that did the first surgery on the baby. We arranged for Steven to again take a large truck all the way to Kolmarek with school books, cement, chalk boards, food to feed the orphans and school children. Praise God that he traveled safely during the several day trip and nothing was lost. God is good.

You remember how so many of the children had flies in their eyes and how that can lead to blindness (trachoma). Juli and Allison and seven others from our ELI staff in Kenya are flying on May 3rd to join with Steven for a mobile clinic and health trainings. David Tarus and Pastor Peter Maru from our Kipkaren Staff are also going to hold several hours of seminars and discussions with the local pastors. We want to help these Christian leaders grow in Christ and leadership. David is especially god at encouraging pastors and we hope to learn more about how we can partner with these local churches to help them grow and to help their members to grow in knowledge of Christ and also how to reduce the poverty and suffering that surrounds their daily lives.

The three structures that you remember seeing on the ELI property with you help will now continue to be built. One of the rooms will be used as a temporary health clinic during this teams trip in May. It will then be used as a classroom for the school and our training center and another of the buildings will be used to house the 15 orphans that we now have under our care.

We have 9 boys and 6 girls that we feed and educate at this time. There are 38 full orphans in the school.

Thanks so much KEVIN.

I'll send the important answers to question 2 asap!!!!!!!!!!!!

Serving together,

Don

Question 6

What information, if any, will the sponsor receive?

Photo and profile - ability to send and receive letters at least twice a year (via internet).

Question 5

What will this support pay for?

Daily food, clothing, parental care, education, Christian loving home environment.

Question 4

What will be the monthly financial commitment for a sponsor?

$90 per month per child

Question 3

Most specifically, what needs are being directly addressed as a result of funding from MCF?

Marina Christian Fellowship has been instrumental in helping this entire ministry to be launched into the Sudan! It was your initial investment of $10,000 that helped Steven to travel there to continue building crucial relationships with the local leaders and villagers. With this additional investment just received ( $20,000) we have been able to not only move further to reach our goals for Phase one but also to support the staff and feed these needy children and orphans.
These are the needs that so far have been directly addressed as a result of funding from MCF:
1. Enabled key leadership (Steven Reech, Zacharia Maluk, Abraham Mayen Kon) to move from Kenya and Uganda to set up life at the Southern Sudan ministry site of Kolmarek.
2. Helped with the costs of purchasing and trucking vital construction materials and supplies from Kenya to Kolmarek in January. These initial supplies include 100 bags of cement, roofing timber, iron sheeting, fence wire, food for the children, seeds.
3. Helped with the labor costs for constructing the roofs of the first three School and Training Center structures.
4. Helped with a second truck of supplies in April. These vital supplies needed to reach Kolmarek before the rains began (Apri15th) so that construction and the feeding program could continue. Steven personally escorted these supplies as well as carried funds given by MCF to pay the teachers and staff their compensation for their ministry service up through April.
NEEDS BEING ADDRESSED BY MCF:
* 180 children most of whom have been malnourished are now being fed three important meals each week.
* 15 orphaned children are being feed three meals a day and live in simple temporary shelters.
* Vital construction materials have been trucked into Sudan from Kenya which will enable us to complete one building for the school campus, one building for the Training Center, and one structure to house the orphans (while the permanent orphanage is constructed later this year and into next year - We already have a donor willing to cover this Orphanage/Boarding facility cost).
* MFC has provided funds to support the teachers in this new Christian School for the first several months of its existence. This is extremely significant in that this is the first school in this area teaching children for over a decade - all schools and in fact most of the village was destroyed during the war. MCF has helped initiate and support this important Christian school with food for the children and with support for the teachers and construction materials for several of the permanent buildings now being constructed.
* MFC has invested in the school books for the school. Steven Reech just two weeks ago returned to Kenya to be able to visit his family as well as to return with more construction materials as well as supplies for the school. he returned with over $1,000 value in school text books. Before this the teachers were teaching from the one book that they alone had as they would read out loud from the text book and then write some things on the chalk board (two of the four classrooms did not even have a chalk board).
* MFC has provided the chalk boards for each class room and writing books for each of the over 170 children in the school!
*MFC has provided a portion of the funds needed to be able to buy the fencing posts and wire to demark the Empowering Lives Sudan School / Children's Home / Skills for Life Training Center Property.

Question 2

What is the current status of the work in there? Some of this is addressed in the last email (3-29-06).

Yes - my last email did cover much of this. The rains have now started in Southern Sudan so the possibility of getting more supplies into Kolmarek for construction, well drilling, or anything else is very limited if not impossible at this time. It was so fantastic to receive your gift from the church just in time for Steven to buy the cement, school supplies, chalk boards, food, and funds for salaries for the staff and teachers. What an incredible blessing! Our strategy is initiated with direct ministry to children while at the same time we are constructing the "Skills for Life Training Center" and some staff housing. All of these things weave together and overlap as we work to change and empower lives.
TREES / WATER - Trees (seeds) have been planted using the seeds that Steve Fitch brought and instructed Steven on. So far many of them have germinated and now that the rains have come they are planting more seeds in the plastic tubes since getting water to the seedlings was one of the biggest challenges they faced daily. The rains will help to relieve some of this burden until we are able to have a company come into the area and drill the borehole and install the water pump system. The company we were in dialogue with said that they must first finish a contract they have with US-AID before they can visit our area again -AND they must wait until the rains subside enough for their heavy machinery to be able to get in and out of the village. This might still be a couple of months or more before we can get the borehole drilled but we are hopeful that sometime sooner something can happen and it can be done sooner than we are now thinking.
SCHOOL - we are still using the community hall building across the road for the time being. There are 170 children but most likely more than that at this time. We are feeding the children lunch 3 times a week at this time. Corn must be brought in from Kenya so all foods at this time are expensive. We look forward to the future when we will have our borehole and demonstration farm - producing our own foods there locally for a portion of the cost and at the same time demonstrating to the people ideas for agriculture and food production.
SKILLS FOR LIFE CENTER: This center is next to and in fact a part of the future school and children's home. We want all of the great ideas that we will be implementing to be front and center in the lives of the children at the school and Children's Home (Orphanage). There were three iron sheet structures in February. They are going to be very useful when the medical team arrives in a couple of weeks. Even as I write we are hoping that Steven was able to borrow the cement block forming machine from the Fisheries (where we stayed) so that they can put in the foundation and walls for one or more of those three buildings.
All of these buildings will initially be used as classrooms for the school and one will be housing for the orphans while we are securing funds and staff for the Housing for Orphans.
ORPHAN CARE: There are 38 orphans in the school and 15 of them have no where to live. These 15 are the first group of children we feel God has brought to us and we are providing temporary housing for them at this time in simple mud structures we are borrowing. There are 9 boys and 6 girls. The girls are staying in the home of one of the women teachers.
We are feeding these 15 orphans every day of the week and providing their schooling.

Question 1

What are the programs and strategies (current and long term) NOW being used by ELI to address the needs in Sudan?


Our programs and strategies take into account the full life of the people. As you know we desire to see the oppressed empowered spiritually, physically, and economically. Though this may seem like a wide scope and difficult undertaking it is possible and we have already been doing it successfully as can be seen well at our Kipkaren Training Center ministry area.
Poverty is caused by many varied and often intertwining issues. To address only one issue (Spiritual needs) without addressing the hunger or malnourishment that the person is facing does not represent well the full love of God. God wants to know that persona and see that he or she has the basic necessities of life. A quick review of Matt. 25 makes this clear. Sorry if it sounds like I'm preaching here but there are many that will ask you questions like " Can an organization really do all those ministries well? Maybe they are spread out too thin and cannot do any of it effectively." Good question and the answer from my perspective is a resounding Yes - we can do all these things and integrate them well within the area and among the lives God has called us to serve. I mention all this because it effects the approach we feel God leading us to in regards to ministry in Southern Sudan - specifically the village of Kolmarek and the surrounding area.
PROGRAMS AND STRATEGIES for ELI in Southern Sudan
1. NATIONAL LEADERSHIP - We want to equip and empower a key strategic national team of change agents who understand the Gospel as well as the vision and strategies of ELI. We want to support this team initially with funds from outside so they can work well yet can still relate on a deep level with the villagers among whom they are hoping to change. The lead visionary and leader is Steven Reech. His relationship with the Kolmarek village goes back generations and his return to this village after over ten years in exile was celebrated by the local people. Relationally we are already off to an amazing start which if we used traditional approaches of sending in missionaries would take several years and even then not be as effective. Stevens role at this point is crucial and we praise God that his vision is beginning to be understood but more importantly that a trust level between himself and the local leaders and people is off to a wonderful start. Steven cares deeply for these people and has a Godly passion to see them helped. Having these Key people on the ground at entry level is an important part of the ELI strategy. Receiving financial support from friends and churches for these Key Nationals is essential to the present and future success of the vision and work.
Other key nationals are :Zacharia Maluk - Headmaster and Children's Ministry leader
Abraham Mayan Kon - Agricultural worker and trainer / Agroforestry implementation
ELS Christian Academy School Teachers
Parent couple to care for Orphans

Questions for Don Rogers

Hi again Kevin,
It was so great to talk with you the other day on the phone.
Since then I have heard from Steven Reech via Satellite phone. He is so thrilled with all that is going on. He sounds very happy because he is now seeing the vision becoming a reality!

This email that you're reading is NOT yet completed but I've had so much going on that I thought I would send what I have so far and get you the rest asap - hopefully by Monday. You need and deserve as much information as possible. SO SORRY for any delay.
In your last email you had sent me these questions. I now that we talked by phone about all of these things but I wanted to put them down here as well as add some other supporting information so that you and the amazing missions support team that has come into existence can have all you all need to fulfill the calling God has put on your hearts to reach out to and care for the orphans and needy people of Sudan. Truly you are a blessing and this partnership is very important to us.