NO Tricks yet What a Treat
|
Greetings!
I hope the season and final two months of the year find you in peace with your own sense of your purpose and hope for the future. As for me and the current issues facing the work in the rural village of Rionchogu we look forward in wonder and awe, all be it there is a significant amount of "HOW" mixed in. Yet, I think, for any look forward you need to look at where you began. We need to remember what they have done.
 | | with hope there comes joy and smiles |
I have to pinch myself when I think it was only January of 2008 when we began the work of encouraging the leadership in the small rural area as they seek to find the path to become a self sustaining community in the midst of chaos, poverty, illiteracy, political corruption and social indifference. Our support is given in a variety of ways; mentoring on methods of interacting in a larger world, encouraging their walk on a journey that frankly few have the commitment and passion to undertake, laughing with them and crying before them, communicating to help define the path to this future they envision and financially providing for their efforts as they strive to become selfsupporting in an almost hopeless situation.
In this short time of less than three years they have begun to provide transportation for sick and injured so they might be able to get medical help where before there was none, lives have been saved. They have provided latrine slabs for the elderly and those who were in significant danger of disease and have constructed complete latrines for at risk children at area schools. They conduct training for women in better farming techniques and hold seminars on better child raising practices and sanitation and hygiene.
 | | learning to provide their own nutrition |
The community has accepted to work together and provide for the widows and children without support so they are not abandoned. This is a new idea for them, taking care of each other, outside their immediate family group. Perhaps most importantly they have worked with the very poor to provide their children access to an education that was impossible before. Perhaps most astonishing, as I reported earlier, the inclusion of student hopefuls from another area (Maasai) breaks down barriers that have been generational walls of conflict and separation.
In short, the efforts in Rionchogu are not about providing aide, rather they are about encouraging, with a hand up, a people who want to participate in a new future. This is nothing less than an amazing opportunity for a new future and a new community. It does not take millions of dollars but it is not free. We can and are making a difference
What a treat as we see the progress and the hope for future, people extend a hand to help others, that is Going and Doing, that is teaching to fish not giving a fish.
|
|
SO, WHERE DOES THE NEXT BLESSING COME FROM?
 | | Providing seed, a function of the church |
Well for right now, I do not understand how we are going to provide funding for the the balance of 2010. This is not about a lack of Faith on my part, it is about my inability to see into the hearts of the people that have been connected to us in this. Provision will come, perhaps you will help. Would you?
To some our immediate needs for 2010 may seem small, to some they may seem huge, I guess it is all perspective. But then, all is perspective.
 | | Getting ready to take the test for Secondary |
Here is what we need to complete the simple plans we have for the balance of 2010:
- $1600.00 for church support for the efforts to provide for the elderly and the children without support networks (orphans). These monies also help supplement the teachers salaries at the church run school.
- $800.00 for tires for the emergency vehicle. (The roads are among the very worst and the rocks and holes challenge even the very best of equipment.)
- $22,000.00, estimated School fees for 2011, 10% of this is in hand from those who are supporting individual students.
School fees are the flagship of our efforts, they are paid at the beginning of the school year which is January. Because the fees are paid directly to the schools at the beginning of the term year, and not the families, the timing is such that funding is required at the end of the previous year. So 2011 school fees are needed at the end of 2010.
You can go to our web site and review the current students who will require support so they might continue their education. In Mid December we will receive the names of the students who have passed the test in November and who have applied and been accepted for Secondary fee sponsorship. (We expect to add 20 or more students this year) My heart breaks at the thought of telling a young person their hard work to pass the test will not result in the chance they so desperately want. To tell a family their sacrifice for the chance will not be answered. This simply must not happen. Will you help me?
These final months of 2010 for us all are reminders of what we have received and the blessings of life. Most certainly we are most blessed.
I am asking you to share the blessing, please.
Bud
|
|
|
|
| Quick Links...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
| Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
phone:Bud Potter 714-231-4863
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
|
|
