Dear Oasis Family,
While I know some of you have been with us for many years and know the story of Oasis, we have many new sponsors, donors, volunteers, and friends who haven't heard it. In addition, many of you have asked good questions about how we partner with organizations in Kenya. To answer those, it helps to start at the beginning....
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Scott Hayward in Kenya 2003 |
The establishment of Oasis' first site almost 10 years ago was definitely a God thing. To begin with Oasis' founders attended the same church. Over a period of time God kept leading them to verses showing how much He cares for widows and orphans and that we should too. So, Chris Herden, Scott Hayward, Bob Boyack and some others said, "Hey, God keeps nudging us to serve widows and orphans... Let's do something about it!" One thing led to another, and soon they arrived in Kenya with a few possible contacts who might know something about the needs of orphans. They knew they could find resources but didn't know what to do with them.
A short time into their trip, they met a Kenyan man working in the Kibera slum, who had a vision of setting up an orphan care program near his home community in the rural areas occupied by the Maasai tribe. Touched and convicted by God to pursue and act on this meeting, they leaned into this partnership and soon were sponsoring 11 orphans in an area we now call the Hill. Soon the 11 sponsored children became 60, and before long they were serving 100 children on the Hill. They constructed buildings and even tore some down because they were so poorly built and then rebuilt them. Working 8,000 miles from home with poor communications, they muddled through triumphs, disappointments, miscommunications, funding shortages, incompetent contractors, and cultural miscues. The thing that kept them going was the kids on the Hill. These previously orphaned children now had a place to belong and overflowed with sincere gratitude for the smallest things that the Mzungu's (white-skinned people) provided. New donors joined in with the founders, sponsors were found for each child, and, understandably, the sponsors fell in love with their sponsored children. The children's spirits were lifted by the knowledge that someone on the other side of the world cared about them individually and specifically. (Most of the children on the Hill sincerely think of their sponsors as Mama and Papa, and their sponsor's children as brothers and sisters.) Other donors provided funds to build dorms, a fence for security, a chicken coop, and a kitchen to cook for 100 children. They also drilled a well for clean water and sent support for 18 staff members. God provides..... abundantly.
In the years following, Oasis grew. However, this growth did not happen without overcoming some very tough issues along the way. There were culture issues involving money, values and ethics. And, as we have learned, we must navigate the difference between how things get done in Kenya versus how things get done in America. We continue to learn more every day.
At present, the Oasis Board of Directors feels that God is calling us to rescue and develop more orphaned children.... a lot more! To do this, we need to become what some might term a "grown-up" organization. The days of doing things informally are over. We need to be deliberate about how we move forward when following God's leading. We will pray and we will think out of the box, but we need to be organized in a way that optimizes the resources He provides.
So, here are the two most important initiatives we are implementing to facilitate the growth of Oasis in light of our lessons learned:
In the U.S., we are developing a strong organization that includes some full-time staff to support our donors, sponsors, volunteer staff and missionaries with a high level of professionalism, responsiveness and consistency. We cannot move forward on volunteer help alone. Someone must be focused on Oasis 24/7 in order to effectively manage and direct our terrific volunteers and to continue to recruit more volunteers, who are the lifeblood of Oasis. For the first time ever, thanks to The Chapel Libertyville, Oasis has an office and a telephone! May not sound like much, but this little change has been a giant blessing to Oasis. People now know where they can find us, and many volunteers are coming forward because we run into them at the office. There is just a good feeling of gravitas about an organization with a permanent office that is much more functional than my basement.
Across the ocean, in Kenya, we are implementing a "gating" process as we evaluate new Kenyan partners. This process is designed to assure that we only make long-term commitments with organizations that can meet our requirements and are willing to work within our guidelines. There are four steps in the gating process. As a potential partner moves through the four gates, they provide us with information to verify their commitment to Christian values, proving that they can be trusted with little so that we can trust them with much more. They must demonstrate governance practices, church support, moral integrity, transparent management of finances and community support. They must complete a formal partnership application and provide documentation on their proposed project with the oversight of an independent Board of Directors. If all of this is completed to our satisfaction, we will fund a small project to see how they handle it. If that experience is acceptable, we go forward with a large project like a new children's home. We have found this process to be mandatory to help us avoid making partnership mistakes and to assure the success of our projects. Weak partnerships can put kids at risk and we aren't willing to accept that possibility.
I hope all of this information is useful to you. It has taken a lot of work to begin the transformation process, but we are on our way thanks to your support. So, hang on! Oasis is about to experience explosive growth with two new partnerships in process and another 100 child sponsors who will be needed. We will soon be a three-site organization instead of just one site. After that, we will have to see, but God knows and we will go where He leads.
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| Tom and Ruthmari Andersen |
Best Regards,
Tom Andersen
Manager of Oasis US Operations
