Archive for the ‘Project Updates’ Category

Roof is raised on vocational school!

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

inflatable waterslides

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Chicken business feeds orphans in Kenyan village

Friday, October 21st, 2011

 

Joan tending to eggs in Kitale, Kenya

From Steve DeMoss:

Below is an email from a pastor and his wife who discovered us through our website a year ago. I met them while I was in Kenya and gave them funding to start raising chickens.  They have taken it and used it extremely well, by stretching it to begin a chicken business. They use the profits to support their small community of orphaned kids!

They have asked us to come and visit them whenever we travel through Kenya again to minister in their small community.  They are very poor people and I am very impressed how they used these small funds and gave a fine account and documentation of their efforts to us. They are very dear people of God.buy bouncy castle canada

 Hello my beloved brother in the Lord,

I hope and trust that you are doing well in the Lord. Actually we are doing well at Kitale and always praying for you and your family. I would love to know if brother Robert improved from sickness, because it is now some time when we don’t communicate, otherwise we could have got information about him. Joan, the children and the church are doing well and have greeted you so much, praying that God willing they love to meet you at Kitale next year. The chicken project is really doing well and with the little you gave ustian xiao cheng, we have moved a step. We are now selling eggs and male chickens to buy food for the orphans daily through this project. For now we are having 70 chickens and by December we shall have 100 of them. Out of this we shall sell 50 and remain with 50, and those will keep us running. From what you gave us in Nairobi, it was  38,000 ksh.

· We used 20,000 to improve the the structure of the chicken, this including  materials and labour.

· We bought food for the chickens worthy 10000 ksh

· Drugs for the chickens 4000 ksh

· We used 3000 to purchase more chichen spieces to add on what we had.

· One thousand is still in the account.

This is how we spent the amount you gave us while in Nairobi. I have attached some photos of the project and Joan taking care. Please have a look at them. We really appreciated your kind help to us and the orphaned children. Thank you and may the Lord bless you and your family. Hope to hear from you as well.

Pastor Alfred

Response from Brother John, mentioned above:

Great achievement!  Reminds me of the parable of the talents…they were really diligent and God increased your gift many-fold. Wonderful. Thank you Lord.

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“So many come and preach, but I can’t hear because my stomach is so empty. You feed us something and I have heard all that was preached and I will never forget!”

Friday, October 14th, 2011

A Message from WID Founder Steve DeMoss

     In April, I went to Kenya, East Africa, to meet with Pastor John who we became friends with through one of our board members.  Pastor John works with refugees from Congo and Sudan whose families were slaughtered in civil unrest and who barely escaped with their lives.

     I preached from Ezekiel 37 about the Dry Bones and how God can bring new life to their seemingly dead situations of no jobs, no family, and no homes.  They received the word like it was tasty bread, and savored every moment we had together. Pastors came from the corners of Kenya to meet with me, telling me their stories and asking us to bring teams to their villages.

     Pastor Edward from Uganda met me in Kenya to aid in the outreach.  Even he who is accustomed to devastation and challenging situations was nearly overwhelmed. One night I needed to go to bed because of the exhaustion I was feeling and he begged me to stay with him even though it was 11pm already. People were all around us until late into the night, each wanting ten minutes of our time.

    The needs in Kenya are powerful and almost overwhelming. We need to pray for Pastor John and the church of Kenya.

     After a week in Kenya, I travelled to Uganda to visit the works going forward there and to meet with the ministry director of First Fruits to review the work they have helped us with–building the vocational school and a guard house for the clinic.  We had an amazing two days together where we not only had ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but also went deeper into the villages to a place where the people are 75% HIV positive.  She was very affected by what she saw. She has been all over the world, yet said she has not seen such poverty as this village.  By the time she left, she affirmed her commitment to continue to help us help the poor in Uganda!zorbs for sale

      In addition to the above, four pastors and I travelled a good distance (we got lost by 10 hours!!! over bumpy roads!) to go on a pastor’s retreat!  It was the first one they had been on in all their years of ministry.  I opened up God’s word and encouraged them in their faithful service and challenged them to keep pressing forward regardless of the setbacks they face every week.

     The Lord blessed the trip mightily and I came home energized to do my part in raising awareness, personnel, and finances to continue lifting people from poverty into richness in Christ in both word and deed.

     One man who I would buy a small breakfast for each day (my driver) was so impressed by the idea of Word and Deed that he said, “So many come and preach, but I can’t hear because my stomach is so empty. You feed us something and I have heard all that was preached and I will never forget!”    It was so fun listening to this dear Kenyan man who was so rejuvenated by a little bread and tea and testified how he ‘gets it’ in terms of Jesus the ‘Bread of Life’.

      Thank you for caring about the poor and needy in East Africa!

 

Sincerely,

 

Steve DeMoss

Word In Deed Ministries

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Vocational school nears completion!

Friday, October 14th, 2011

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“It was just a mind blowing experience that I wouldn’t trade anything for and I would trade EVERYTHING to go back.”

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Below is an unedited email from Temple University student Amy DePoy, who ministered with Word In Deed this summer:

Hello ALL!

 Wow.

That was the most amazing and indescribable trip of my life. However, I am going to do my best to describe all that I saw and experienced. 

I wanted to thank you all again for the prayers and support. I asked for a lot of prayer and I definitely felt the effects of your prayers. No back pain whatsoever. I had the most patience I’ve ever had in my entire life (and trust me, there were circumstances that demanded patience.) 

I’ll start with saying that God is SO GOOD. (to which you might reply “Amina” (AH-MEEN-AH) which is Amen in Ugandan.) Our first day in Uganda arrived and we walked off the plane with high hopes and tired eyes. We’d just gotten off the second of our two flights. But we were finally here! “Ah, Entebbe Airport!” I remember, my teammate and plane buddy, Linda Clemens announced. (I already loved her so much, she was always smiling.) We were warmly greeted with a HUGE smile by that of none other than Musumba (this is the Ugandan word for Pastor. Pastor Edward-but we all called him Musumba.) We then all piled into his small car and the safari-like van with our faithful driver, named Christoper, telling us of the sights. And let me tell you- it was a sight to see! Cars actually FLOWING with traffic. It’s a scary sight for an American- cars not stopping for other cars but somehow not hitting each other while centimeters away, trying to get into the “flow” of traffic along dirt roads with people everywhere. And where we were there was staring. I think they thought to themselves either, “Oh look, a white person!” or “Hah, good luck guys.” 
When we first arrived at the compound (or Musumba’s house) we were greeted with maybe 30-40 little kids shouting/singing “muzungu! muzungu!”(which is Ugandan for traveler or person who is not native) I had never been so happy to see kids before in my life. There was no turning back after that. My heart instantly melted for these kids and for all of Uganda. 

Let me tell you about “what we did” while there. The first days we went to a town called Mpunge ( the M is pretty much silent) where we were greeted with even more smiling/singing/dancing children. (Can I just say their classrooms are literally a few sticks and a chalkboard.) We take what we have for granted SO much. At least I do. There we taught them the wordless Bible using the ‘bracelet technique.’ (the five colors on a bracelet) We handed them out to each child and then asked some of them to come up and tell us what they learned. Which they did so well! We got to teach the younger women (mainly 19-25) all of whom had babies of their own.  Steph (my best friend Stephanie Schwoebel, who I’ve known since Junior High got to go on the trip with me as well and it was a huge blessing!) I told them our testimonies with a translator and they were very eager to know all about it and even had many similarities and some of the same struggles. The next day we got to talk with the Elders and teachers of that particular village and share testimonies and even got to eat with them (homemade food!) Later on we even partook in football (soccer) with the young kids and some of the young girls followed us all around because they looked up to us so much. 

I want to be specific in saying that I could go on for days and days talking about this and I will if you would like! But I’m going to try my best to be “brief.”  So we taught Vacation Bible School (or VBS) to about four different villages and got to make friendships with some of the kids and teachers while doing so. We even passed out lollipops to the kids and they were overjoyed. We also provided them with soccer balls and they went absolutely NUTS over them! Such a blessing to be even a tiny part of that. I took in a lot while I was there and a learned a lot even just through sitting back and observing. A big part of why we were there for a few of the days was to teach them simple things like “how to brush your teeth” and “how to wash your hands.” I demonstrated both and probably looked pretty silly, but I just wanted them to actually learn and also laugh. I think we accomplished that. We handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste everywhere we taught this (which was nearly every village) 

Another big accomplishment for our small yet humble team (consisting of seven lovely women and one brave man:) ) was that we helped paint a local church (planted by Word in Deed). We painted nearly the whole church (what needed painting) one day and the next day we re-painted for a top coat. It turned out just great! They were all so very thankful and thanked us with an amazing meal of rice and chicken and sent us off with love and hugs. Their smiles were enough for me. 

We also had three nurses on our team and in each village we took their blood pressure and helped them with any specific needs. 

These people have many many needs and my eyes were opened to that even more from being there first hand. Even though we were there only a short time I think we made lasting impressions on these sweet people and I would love the opportunity to go back for a lot longer of a time next time!
  

I don’t want to leave anything out but I also don’t want to write so much that this goes on forever. That is the gist of what we did. It was just a mind blowing experience that I wouldn’t trade anything for and I would trade EVERYTHING to go back. I wanted to thank everyone who made this possible but I really wanted to thank Jesus in opening the door for me to go after having Uganda on my heart since I was little. I’m already praying more doors will be opened and I will receive a “yes, Amy go..” from God to tell me to go back. Doing what?…helping who, exactly?.. I’m not sure yet. But I do feel this on my heart everyday even more so now.

I’m going to share with you and leave off with this letter I received from my dear friend Mark (who is like the little brother I never had)  (keep in mind a lot of them thought my name was Emily or Emmy).

(written by a 10 year old amazing Ugandan boy) 

Dear Eimmy,

How have you been since I first meant you   I think you have been great  how can you not be great. I want to thank you for a good service you have given me  you have been a good friend or like a sister you and Stephan (he is referring to my friend Steph) I will miss you when you go back to U.S.A but I have hope you will come back.
from Mark

THIS is what I went for! God is so good. AMINA!! (say it with me:) !!

SO MUCH THANKS and LOVE,
Amy DePoy

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Teams add personal touch onsite in East Africa

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

 

This spring and summer, two teams visited existing projects and reached out to communities within the vision of future WID endeavors. First, founder Steve DeMoss travelled solo in April to Kenya and Uganda to visit WID farming initiatives and the rising Ntenjeru vocational school. In July, a seven-member team visited Pastor Edward Kasija at WID’s second home in Kampala, Uganda. The team of lay people and medical personnel visited WID projects and villages nestled around the countryside outside Kampala and Ntenjeru. Included was a trip to Mpunge, where all recent teams have visited to build relationships with the villagers at the site of a proposed new school building in the AIDS-ravaged fishing village near Lake Victoria Inflatable Water Game.

Queen Creek

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Vocational school groundbreaking in Ntenjeru, excitement mounts in surrounding villages.

Monday, March 7th, 2011

This year through funds from Vista Hermosa Foundation and a non-profit thrift store in Pennsylvania we have been able to start the building of a vocational school in Ntenjeru that will service twelve surrounding villages.

Pastor Edward, working on-site in Ntenjeru, reports this great news:  “The progress on the vocational school is opening doors for the gospel to go forward even before it is finished.  People in and around Ntenjeru are talking about it and are very excited and anticipating its opening!”

Vocational schools in Sub-Sahara Africa play a critical role in a nation’s growth and development.  Focusing on the world of work and emphasizing employable skills creates a way for young adults in developing nations to emerge out of poverty.  Over 80% of students who finish primary/secondary school are unemployable, lacking marketable skills for a sustainable livelihood.  Through trade, agriculture, and technical training, our goal with building this vocational school is to help young adults in these 12 villages to become gainfully employed.

In April Steve DeMoss will be going to Uganda to observe firsthand the construction that has begun on this school.  In Uganda he will be meeting with the executive director of Vista Hermonsa and Ugandan church leaders to strategize the next phase of the school.  The goal of leaders in Uganda is that  once built, this school will be self sustaining.   The school will have 8 classrooms and through Vista Hermosa Foundation and New Life Thrift Store over 50% of the funds have been raised and 4 classrooms are under construction.  Check back soon for photos!uk inflatable castles

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Guard house close to completion!

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

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Guard house worksite photos!

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

Our brothers in Ntengeru are wasting no time constructing the mandated guard house that will secure the existing medical clinic so we can continue serving local residents.  There is currently no medical care available within walking distance of this community.  Care is accessible only to those few individuals who have the funds or vehicles to travel to Kampala, which is at best about a ninety minute ride over difficult roads.

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Ground breaking for guard house in Ntenjeru

Saturday, December 4th, 2010

On Monday, volunteers broke ground for the guard house in Ntenjeru, which will provide security and allow adequate, safe staffing of the recently-built medical clinic.  Check back soon for photos!

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