Overseas Links

Early in 2009 the Church meeting decided that it wanted to extend its outreach work to include an overseas mission. Sufficient funds were raised to send a small team of people to East Africa to assess possible overseas projects that might be supported by our church.

In August 2009 David, Henriette, Julie, Leon and Stuart spent ten days in Tanzania and Kenya visiting the following projects –

NyotaStar Christian Centre, 80km from Arusha, Tanzania - which facilitates the sponsorship and care of poor children and orphans.
Jipe Feeding Scheme, 80km from Arusha, Tanzania – which provides a weekly feeding and Sunday School programme.
Samaritan Village, Arusha, Tanzania – which cares for abandoned children.
Pioneer HIV/AIDS Community Educators, Gatundu, Kenya – which cares and supports 744 orphans, a young carers programme, a rehabilitation centre for older children needing primary education and a finance programme.
Minto IDP camp, Nakuru, Kenya – which supports Internally Displaced People.
Kamara IDP camp, Arusha, Tanzania – which supports Internally Displaced People.
Happy Life Children’s Home, Nairobi, Kenya – which takes care of abandoned babies.

Our ‘Africa team’ found all the contacts at the projects were both gracious and accommodating and very God focussed. They were also reminded constantly of the huge responsibility of raising hopes, intentionally or not, and the desperate ends to which people will go to get help for their families. Assessing the projects impartially was a hard call and one that they struggled with night by night at their meetings and prayers.

Now that the team are back they have reported their findings to the Church meeting. Further work to assess the practicalities of the support we could give will be undertaken before deciding which of the projects we are in a position to support. The church has tasked a small group to take the work forward by initially focussing on the issues of water and sanitation, as a priority and this will dictate the projects assisted. The need for a safe and reliable water supply seems to underpin any work which is to be successful. The picture of the tap near Nyotastar which is locked for all but a few hours on one day per week, due to water rationing in a drought ridden land, gives us a clear indication of the direction for our work.