Our team has been richly blessed by the generosity of family, friends, and strangers who have given unselfishly in an effort to share a little love and hope with the children, women, and men we will meet in just 16 days. These opportunities are incredible. Yet, there are so many opportunities in the world to give and to participate. We thought you might want to know about three such opportunities that are impacting our mission on our trip to Africa.
African Leadership And Reconciliation Ministries, Inc. (ALARM) has been featured on this blog before. ALARM is an African-led ministry that focuses on equipping leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to truly transform their communities.
With the help of friends and partners ALARM has trained close to 9 thousand leaders across east and central Africa in biblical theology, conflict resolution, forgiveness, mediation, leadership skills, and reconciliation. ALARM’s programs are designed for grass roots church and community leaders, women, youth, government officials, teachers, military professionals and Christian professionals (lawyers, police and chaplains).
Many of the countries we serve in have had years of war, tribal conflict, genocide and political turmoil. ALARM believes that the transformation and development of Africa rests in the hands of Africans who have been effectively equipped to lead, bring about peace and maintain stability. ALARM therefore focuses on equipping Africans through training, to transform communities through servant leadership and the Christian message of forgiveness and reconciliation.
ALARM is our primary host for our peace mission. On September 4, ALARM will celebrate its Big Day of Giving. With an opportunity to have gifts matched up to $50,000, ALARM is seeking new partners for their efforts. If you are interested in the great work of this ministry, we would encourage you to go to their website.
We also shared information about the Made in the Streets Ministry (MITS) in an earlier blog post. This unique place will be our host for the second leg of our journey. At MITS, children living on the streets in Nairobi are given the opportunity to break away from their lives of poverty and decline in order to go to school, learn skills, and prepare themselves as engaged citizens for the future. We will have the opportunity to be with these children and the wonderful staff of MITS for four days. If you are interested in helping this extraordinary ministry, please visit their website.
Global Samaritan Resources in a non-profit organization in Abilene, Texas that collects surplus goods of all kinds: medical and school supplies, tools and equipment, household goods, furniture and more. Global Samaritan provides the logistics for storage, staging and shipment of the goods it collects and goods collected by other partners. In addition to charitable distributions of supplies, Global Samaritan supplies water purification solutions all over the world. AND, importantly, Global Samaritan has assisted our team by assembling medical kits for distribution to refugees in Rwanda. If you are interested in helping Global Samaritan in their great work, please visit their website.
(You’ll notice at the Global Samaritan donation website that our project to Africa is not listed since it is a relative small and short-lived effort. Donations to cover the medical kits for Africa are being accepted by Abilene Christian University through its Duncum Center for Conflict Resolution. If you would like to specifically help in this way, please visit the Duncum Center’s website.)
MOST IMPORTANTLY, our team wants to thank you for your support, your prayers, and your encouragement. We still have a lot of work to do. We know that we are part of a much larger team of peacemakers. THANK YOU!