Healing Hands – Helping Us !!

We conducted a two day seminar on drip irrigation here at the training center last week. We held it in conjunction with the week of “Farming God’s Way” training held for our church planter training course. The seminar was conducted by Ebenezer Udofia of Healing Hands International. I was introduced to his work by my teammate Gary Woods last year on a return trip from Nairobi. He had provided materials and instruction to the CMF center in Bissel, Kenya. I was able to get his contact information and ask if it was possible for him to provide our staff with instruction on drip irrigation. After about six months of trying to coordinate schedules we were able to fix the date to Thursday and Friday of last week. We had about 50 people participate in the seminar coming from all over Tanzania. One participant came from as far as Iringa in the south. It was a combination of center staff, center faculty, neighboring NGO’s, church planter course students, CHE group members (from a variety of areas), and CMF missionaries. It was a great cross-section of backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. Participants were able to get a combination of classroom and practical experience. Ebenezer did a great job of tying in biblical principle to the instruction of the overall course.

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It was great to see the students excitement as they learned. Ebenezer is a native Nigerian, currently working in Kenya. He is a Christian and is excited to be able to share with students who are eager to learn. His organization provided enough materials to outfit the center as well as be able to send home materials with the participants. The premise of the training was that the students would take what they learned and then establish a model within their villages or communities that they could in turn teach from and show others how to perform the techniques. Water is in short supply in many of these areas, but the students were able to discover how they could have the ability to grow food with very little water. Above and beyond the instruction on drip irrigation they also learned about building plant beds and how to make proper compost piles. Students were challenged by Ebenezer to focus on what they had at their disposal. What a great concept. What would happen if we all focused on the things that we have in an effort to produce positive change, versus the things that we lack. Students would say, in our village we don’t have that, Ebenezer would say, “ok. what do you have?” There was one part of the course where Ebenezer was teaching us how to make “chai” or liquid fertilizer that he jokingly called “tea”. He was talking about using a filter as a tea bag. Many students would say, but we don’t have a filter. He would then say, “do you have a t-shirt”, do you have this or that. He would say, “great use that as a filter, again focus on what you have”. It was a great opportunity to learn, to get our hands dirty, and to share experiences with a lot of really great people. At the end of the course, each CHE group was provided with a section of drip tape. This is essentially impossible to come by in the students villages or areas, so to get this free of charge was a real blessing to them. Elinipa and I will be able (as we make our monthly visits) to check on these groups and see how they are doing with their projects. Each group, as they received this gift, promised that they would use it as a training tool for their community. Elinipa and I are excited to see how they are doing in the next month!! Overall, it was a great learning experience. It was the first opportunity to conduct a seminar like this, and based on the success it should be the start of several other opportunities that we can provide to be a blessing and benefit to our neighbors in the surrounding communities and utilize our center in other ways to be a blessing. I hope that you enjoy the pictures, and thank you for your continued prayers and support of the ministry here in Tanzania. The people here have the ability to improve their own communities and their own lives. They need God’s grace and mercy and our willingness to come alongside and provide the opportunity, education, and support. They can impact their own communities, solve their own problems, and improve their own lives. Community Health Evangelism (CHE) is a testament to this, as is opportunities like we provided last week. I am excited to see how God uses this to the benefit of His people in the future. Thanks again for all the ways that you bless us here in Tanzania! Mungu awabariki!!

Thou shalt pulleth thine pin and counteth to three……….

So, I am minding my own business this morning going about my normal routine. As I prepare every morning, like most of you, I do this habitual series of events to start my day. Usually, as I get ready, I look out the window toward Mt. Meru. It is always beautiful in the morning. So, doing what I normally do I looked out the window. As I did, to my horror, I see this huge fire! I think I audibly said YIKES! Obviously troubled by the sight of a huge fire, (above the trees) off in the direction of the office building, I thought it might be a good idea to head out in that direction and see what was going on. So I hustled out the door in that direction. As I round the corner I see this gathering of our staff all circled around this huge fire. The fire is in the middle of the only road that runs through our training center, clearly blocking any way in or out. It is coming from a stand that is constructed out of an old 55gal. drum (who know the metric conversion??) that has been cut in half and welded to a small stand. It sort of looks like an outdoor grill that has been hand made. In front of it is a little man that appears to be holding some sort of class. Indeed! Back in the summer we visited our local fire department (the only one in Arusha) to take in our fire extinguishers to have them inspected and recharged if necessary. Why you ask? The law requires each vehicle to have a fire extinguisher on-board and that it has to be inspected yearly. Also, we have several larger fire extinguishers around the training center that also needed to be inspected. As part of the inspection process you get a license and stamp on each extinguisher. As we were going through this process we met the Arusha Fire Constable. He indicated that he needed to come out and also visually inspect each car as part of a new registration process. So, some weeks later, this past summer, he comes out and inspects all of the center vehicles and all of the vehicles for each missionary family. While doing this he notices that the center does not have a Fire Certificate. So, he tells us the process for obtaining the certificate. We pay him and he tells us when it comes in he will call us to arrange the training. Now this is back in June. This week he contacts us to tell us that he is ready to come and conduct the training. Today was the day. So, he had contacted our office manager to arrange everything. The premise was, he is going to start a fire and then have everyone go through the process of using the fire extinguisher. I found that, once again, I incorrectly assumed that everyone had a basic understanding of how to use a fire extinguisher. However, after the first few minutes it was clear that it was a good thing we had this class. So……here we are in front of this raging inferno in the middle of the road. A 55gal. drum half filled with water and half diesel/gas mixture. First staff member steps up, after careful instruction does a good job putting the fire out. The drum gets filled back up and we start again. The process is repeated about 15 times. Then it is time for Momma Happy. Now, I am not going to say that everyone did an expert job. Several people had never used a fire extinguisher, most had never previously touched a fire extinguisher. For some, at best, it was a bit rocky, but up to this point there were no “real” issues. Maybe some extra coaching, a few suggestions, some extra time, but no issues. Until Momma Happy steps up. So, realistically, she did a pretty good job for a first-timer of putting out the fire. The issue was the dismount. Isn’t it always at the dismount where the points are generally deducted…….diving, gymnastics, horse jumping….in this case, fire extinguisher usage. After putting the fire out she turns to return it to the location she initially had found it. As she gets back to her starting point she goes to put the extinguisher down. It is big, it is heavy. With the hose pointing up, she attempts to set it down one handed. As the weight of the extinguisher causes her to tip forward she shifts her weight to regain her balance. As she does, she applies pressure to the handle and thusly discharges the fire extinguisher into the middle of the “peanut gallery”. Everyone who was standing by watching the class had just been extinguished. In a split second, what had been a fairly orderly endeavor turned into bedlam. In the midst of this huge white cloud ran a Tanzania in virtually every direction as if scalded. Through the hoots and hollers and bodies was the poor little constable trying to regain order. It was just about the funniest thing I had ever seen. Of course, Momma Happy was horrified that she had just “shot” all of her co-workers with the extinguisher. I am standing over to the side laughing my head off. As everyone returns to class, you have this group of black people that now are covered with white powder everywhere. Because of the contrast in colors you can obviously see everyplace they were hit. Hats, clothes,shoes….it was everywhere on everybody. It was not like this little puff, Momma Happy laid on the handle for like 30 seconds. If you ever saw the end of Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen’s character finally meets the crazy colonel, played by Marlon Brando, somewhere in the middle of this Vietnamese jungle village. That…..that is what this looked like. Imagine all of the sudden being turned into a powdered sugar doughnut. It was crazy. So, class gets finished. Everyone passes…..well, everyone completes the training. CMF Ekenywa Training Center receives their Fire Certificate. As I read the certificate it states what is means, who it is for, why it is for, who authorized it. Then it goes on to say that it is good from June 2012 until June 2013, and that it was hereby granted to CMF International on this day the 9th of October, 2012? Nice. Ahhhhh…….life in Tanzania. You may not be old enough, so if not indulge me, but many years ago the US Army had a commercial that said something like, “in the army you do more before 0800 than most people do all day”. That is pretty much the way that it goes on a typical day here at the training center. Never a dull moment……….

CHE – Designed to Include Everyone

When we discuss CHE, we generally discuss how it effects the community as a whole. However, there are times when CHE can be used to identify other needs in the community that are more individually based. Recently, we have identified that within the local community there are four families that have special needs children. As you can imagine, the Tanzanian health care system is not equipped to handle issues such as cerebral palsy. The health care system here struggles to handle basic medical issues. So, to present something as complicated and as “special” as cerebral palsy is a real challenge. It is a real challenge for the families and for the community. How do you address these issues? By utilizing CHE groups. Now, it is not perfect, but it is a start. We have one family that lives very close to the training center. The father actually works as a general laborer with us here at the training center. They have a beautiful young boy by the name of Peter. He has cerebral palsy.

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So, as we got to know Peter and work with the local churches and CHE group to identify ways to assist him, news began to spread and we became aware of other families. Lomayani (head of our Church Planter course) has been going to school for his Master’s Degree in Community Development. He was doing some coursework in other local villages and found several additional families with special needs children. As CHE is designed to assist and impact the community it is designed to impact everyone. This would include these “special” children. So, we had to ask, what are our groups doing? How can we assist “mommas” with these children. Let’s face it, life here if tough. As a mother of a special needs child it is incredibly difficult. There is not special equipment, chairs, aides, etc. Most often these children are laid in the floor of a mud hut. It makes for a difficult task to go about the daily tasks, to go for water (that often takes several hours), and to take care of the other children. We got together and talked about sustainable ways that we could assist these ladies. One idea was to offer volunteers to come and watch the children once a week or a few times a month that would provide the time for these ladies to do what they need to do. Another option is to provide funds for children to go to therapy in a town by the name of Usa River. The cost of the therapy is around $7/month (includes travel). The cost of this therapy is covered by the savings circles and tithes/offerings through local churches. Another CHE based idea that is used for the general public is water catchment tanks. These tanks catch the rain water from the roofs of homes that can be used for cooking, washing, etc.. The addition of a tank would be a huge help for these ladies as it would reduce the need for several hours of work on a daily basis to go get water. So, understanding how many challenges these are for these families, we wanted to address what we could do. So the local CHE group just finished putting a water tank at Peter’s home. The pictures associated with this recent post are of Peter, his mom, and his siblings (Musa and Stephen), and some helpers. The local CHE groups use a fundi (foon-dee) or worker that is very good at making these tanks. His name is Jackson. We were able to work through the local CHE’s to get this completed in time for the rains to begin. So we thought you would enjoy the pictures and knowing that CHE addresses the needs of the community. EVERYONE in the community.

CHE Committee Helps Local School

One of the great things about Community Health Evangelism is that it allows the community to address and correct its own needs.  The seed projects come from community suggestions.   One of the things that the local village of Imbibia is most concerned about is education.  If you talk with everyone in the community, they all stress how important education is.   They have a little school just outside of the village.  The school was constructed by the community and little- by- little, over time, it has been completed as funds have come available.   One of the last pieces to the finalization of the construction was glass for the windows.   For a few years the children have had to deal with dust, wind, rain, etc.  being blown into the schoolhouse as a result of not having glass panes in the windows.   The school sits on top of a high hill, very close the the edge of a cliff so it sees a great deal of wind.   While we were conducting the training for toilets in the community a few weeks ago, the CHE committee discussed the possibility of completing this project.  Working with a local pastor ,Julius Mollel a.k.a. Baba Mchungaji (pronounced bah-bah m chun gah g), the CHE committee asked if they provided the funds for the material if we could provide the logistics in getting it to their location.   Julius contacted me while our guests (Steve & Lynn Whitaker) were here and asked if we could assist.    We provided a micro-loan (which they have now repaid- in less than three weeks) , training, tools, and transportation to get the material up the hill to the village.   You have to understand that although it is only about a 30 minute drive from the village to the city it is one of the most difficult stretches of road in the local area to get to.  While you could probably get to most areas in the area in a normal SUV, this location requires something specifically designed for off-road/safari situations.      As is usually the case, the work is a bit different from what we would normally due in the US.   We would go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and get some specially pre-made in the container window glazing and have all exact dimension widow panes.   Here we have to mix the glaze  (it comes like a mortar mix), then mix it again with kerosene  to apply it.  The windows are not symmetrical.  Each pane is a different size.   When we took the measurements we forgot to number them so we spent most of the day trying to match the pane with the window.  There were still some panes that were incorrectly cut (too long) so we had to use a nibbling technique using pliers to get them to fit.   Again, normally in the US we would have had a glass cutter.   We provided several putty knives and some plastic containers to the CHE committee who had never attempted anything like this before in their lives.   In fact, most do not have windows in their own homes.  After a short demonstration by Steve and myself they took the tools, pushed us to the side, and went to work.   They did an outstanding job!   This process usually takes a few coats to get perfect due to the large gaps that have to be glazed and accounted for.   So we went back on a follow-up occasion for the windows to be finished.   Everyone was so excited to have the windows in and for the children to be able to work without any distraction that the wind and dust would previously have.  It was a real blessing to work with another CHE committee in another community and to see them solving their own issues themselves.   After we were finished we were blessed with a heavy rain shower.  This was see as a huge blessing by the committee, and certainly was much needed in that area.  Very blessed to be part of the efforts on this day and thought I would share their success with you.  Please continue to pray for the community of Imbibia as they work to make a better life for themselves in a difficult area.   Please also continue to pray for the community as the gospel is being introduced in the village and more people are hearing the gospel for the first time.  Pray that hearts will be opened and decisions made for Christ through the sharing of the truth.  Finally, as in all things, that God may receive the glory through all these efforts.  Thanks for all you do to support the ministry in Tanzania!!

Imbibia CHE Committee
Celebrating the windows (behind) just installed !!

CHE Training – Imbibia

Recently, we had the opportunity to travel to the village of Imbibia to participate in a CHE training. This village has between 300-500 families. With all of these families in this village there is not one home with a toilet. Can you imagine? Imagine your neighborhood or town without a restroom facility. That is the case in this village. As a result of the absence of toilets there is lack of sanitation this leads to sickness, etc. So, through the village government leaders and CHE committee we were asked to assist them with providing training on Community Health Evangelism (CHE) toilets. We were blessed to participate and provide some of the materials for the training. Joining us were some visitors (Steve & Lynn Whittaker) from Hazelwood Christian Church (Hazelwood, IN). The local CHE group was brought in and trained how to make slabs for choo’s (pronounced CH-O, like show with a had CH sound – this is the swahili word for toilets. They are simple in design but cover a traditional drop pit style of latrine. They are transferable (meaning once the pit fills it can be lifted off and moved to a new pit), and can be manufactured in roughly 30 minutes. As you can see by the pictures all you need for these choo slabs is sand, aggregate, cement, wire mesh, and mesh cutters. Each slab can be made for roughly $25. A contribution of roughly $200 can provide a truckload of sand, 15 bags of cement, pvc pipe (vent tube), and wire mesh. These supplies were enough to make about enough slabs for 30 families. We were greeted by traditional singing and dancing. After the entertainment we watched as the trainers assisted the CHE’s in making and mixing the concrete, preparing the form, how to properly fill the form using wire. This is the beauty of CHE. It multiplies throughout the village. After all the work we were provided with a nice lunch and then escorted back to our car where we received more singing and dancing. Steve even was fortunate enough to be asked to jump with the Maasai!! We pray that you enjoy these pictures. CHE is very simple and is a great tool that we can use to go into new villages and make relationships. Through these new relationships and these training sessions we can then begin to present the gospel message and ultimately work to plant churches. It was a great day and great opportunity to show our visitors about the ministry here in Tanzania. It was also a a great day to learn and work alongside our new friends in Imbibia.

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Drip Irrigation : Micro-Enterprise Ministry

We have really focused on ways that we can begin to practice what we teach (and preach for that matter) here at the training center.  Obviously, we want to be an example for the community.  The community can see our success(es) and ask how and why our crops are better, or our water is cleaner.  This provides us the opportunity to develop relationships, trust, and then later to present the gospel.  This season we began to utilize Farming God’s Way.  This is something that we teach to our students, and that our staff is trained in, but that we have yet to utilize at the center.  We also developed a large section of available (unused) area for the start of a second new “larger” garden plot.   The purpose of the gardens are to help to provide some of the food here at the center, and then to sell some of the surplus we can’t use to the local community through the small store we have at our entrance.    With the end of the rains, we need to become more careful with water.    The video below explains what we are doing from a micro-enterprise standpoint to solve the problem with water here at the center.  This is just one of the creative ways that we are using here at the center to be better stewards of what we have been blessed with, and to find ways to become self-supporting.   I hope that you enjoy this latest video clip.  Thank you for your support of our ministry here in Tanzania!!  Blessings!!