Dear Friends,
On May 9 we had our first graduation ceremony under our institution’s new name, Justo Mwale University. The school has transitioned from Justo Mwale Theological College to what Zambia’s government calls a “university college” to a full university. We are now a (small) university. Our main work is still to prepare people to become pastors in countries throughout Southern Africa.
Read MoreDear Friends and Supporters of Forman Christian College,
This update is a continuation of the one sent in January 2015 featuring additional student profiles.
As a supporter of Forman you understand more than most the impact a quality education can have on all students, especially those “in-need” minority students. We are honored to continue our partnership. Through your generosity, 98 students were able to attend Forman this year.
Read MoreThe Outreach Foundation invited First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville to sponsor seminary students from Rwanda, Africa as an extension of our current mission activities in the country. We accepted that invitation, and we have been blessed to build a close relationship with two very special young women who are currently excelling in their college and seminary studies at the Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS) in Butare, Rwanda.
Read MoreTucked up into the far northeast corner of the country sharing borders with both Turkey and Iraq, the Hasakah Governate is one of 14 provinces in Syria. Rich in oil and grain production, it has been the stage for intense fighting between government forces and various opposition groups, including ISIS. It is also home to three Presbyterian congregations: Qamishli, Malikiya and Hasakah (city). The province is geographically isolated, as of late, because ISIS controls the main travel routes which connect it to the rest of the country. The National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon – The Outreach Foundation’s partner and main recipient of your generous gifts to the Syria Appeal – sent a delegation to meet with these churches in May.
Read MoreIn March, I was in Northern Iraq with a small team from The Outreach Foundation – Staci Graham, Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta; Rev. Mark Mueller, First Presbyterian Church Huntsville, AL; Ben McCaleb, First Presbyterian Church San Antonio. We had traveled there to visit partners, especially the Presbyterian Church in Kirkuk, who have been receiving funds from The Outreach Foundation for their ministry with fellow Iraqis displaced by ISIS from Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Plain.
Read MoreA three hour drive north of Erbil, not far from Dohuk, is a camp set up for some of the 23,000 Yazidis who had been driven from the city of Sinjar, north of Mosul, by ISIS. You can all probably remember the scenes (like the one to the left) of these beleaguered souls – almost 50,000 of them – who had sought refuge at the top of a mountain last August awaiting rescue. Several thousand men had been killed and young girls were taken as sex slaves...it is a staggeringly evil story.
Read MoreThough the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation…Habakkuk 3
For the past three years, the first half of that Habakkuk text has been all too true for our Presbyterian family in Syria – constant war and an even-more-frightening evil that is ISIS have wreaked havoc and caused destruction and deprivation and displacement. Many of you have stood by the Church with your support and prayers from the beginning of their ordeal, even as others have joined them in solidarity along the journey.
Read MoreDear Friends,
Laughing. Singing. Chasing a musical choo-choo train. From the outside looking in, you would never know that the energetic toddlers and preschoolers at the Bill and Bette Bryant Crisis Nursery are currently under the 24/7 care of their teachers, housemothers, and caregivers as they hopefully await reunification with their family or permanent placement with a forever family.
Read MoreBaghdad
Fun and games with kids in the parking lot is an event often seen at churches. But this is Baghdad, after all, and those kids lined up for the zany competitions – and with unexpected smiles on their young faces – had experienced traumas unknown to all of us. For it was their families who had been driven by ISIS from Mosul and the surrounding Christian villages just a few short months earlier. Inside the church, their parents gathered, grateful that their children could experience a bit of lightness in an otherwise unsettling “new normal.”
Read MoreDear Friends of Home of Hope,
How rapidly this current year has already progressed. The fullness of the Christmas blessings you showered upon Home of Hope is still lingering, but the work of the current year is also moving along at a good pace.
A new group of 30 women started dressmaking training in January. A mixture of young and older women, they train on Thursdays. Some of the young women have completed their schooling but cannot find jobs and are hoping to equip themselves through dressmaking skills to be self-employed.
Read MoreSTAND WITH ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS IN EASTERN SYRIA WHO ARE…
...hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed…
On Tuesday, February 23, ISIS attacked 35 Assyrian Christian villages on the Khabur River in the Hasakeh province, northeast Syria. Christians were killed defending their own villages. At least 373 were kidnapped. More than 200 are still missing. Churches were destroyed. And 3,000 Assyrian Christians fled from their villages. They are now in homes and shelters in the cities of Hasakeh and Qamishli.
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Lebanon is not a very large country. Its land mass is about the size of Connecticut, in fact. The narrow southern strip, which borders Israel, has experienced a lot of conflict over the years. With a highly visible presence of both Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army, it is also home to five communities of Presbyterians – all of them pastored by the Rev. Fouad Antoun, who grew up there. Some of those communities have fully functioning churches, like the large one in Marjayoun. Others have only a handful of Presbyterian families remaining who are visited, periodically, by Rev. Antoun and come together to worship in their small, historic churches on a rotating basis.
Read MoreDear Friends,
New Year greetings from all of us at ETSC. Following the January 1-10 Coptic Christmas holiday break, the January term began on January 12th.
Good news arrived on January 5th at ETSC in the form of a note from Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development at The Outreach Foundation. “I am delighted to report that through the efforts of Rob Weingartner, we have secured $10,000 to assist Saleem Ferah in his studies there.”
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Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! We would like to share the following story from Lauren, one of the volunteers at Crisis Nurseries:
A Happy Start
January 7, 2015 was an exciting day for me! When I was volunteering at House of Moses earlier this year, Dennis, a special young baby, captured my heart. He had various health and development complications and at seven months old was the size of a three month old and constantly in and out of the hospital. He was underweight and had to be force fed due to lack of appetite. Dennis has now been reunited with his mother for a few months, and I did not think I would ever see him again.
Read MoreWe are pleased to share an excerpt of a letter The Outreach Foundation recently received from Forman Christian College:
As a supporter of Forman you understand more than most the impact a quality education can have on all students, especially those “in-need” minority students. We are honored to continue our partnership. Through your generosity, 98 students were able to attend Forman this year. The sons and daughters of farmers, shopkeepers, teachers and the unemployed, they could make the choice of education only because The Outreach Foundation made it possible. Of the 98, the majority were women (65) and over 30% of them are majoring in science-related topics. The next largest course of studies for the group was business with one student enrolled in Forman’s MBA program.
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Dear Friends and Partners,
Greetings from Zambia. Sherri and I are so grateful for the individuals and congregations which support our mission service here in Zambia. It is quite encouraging to have people behind us. I am writing now in order to share about a possible scholarship opportunity for a Presbyterian student where I teach and train pastors for ministry at Justo Mwale Theological University College. Many thanks for those who are already supporting students here at Justo Mwale. Your investment is definitely making a difference in the lives of congregations.
Read MoreDear Friends and Partners,
As you reflect on this year’s Thanksgiving, just imagine a cluster of young children – some as young as three – trudging barefoot to the Kamwenge Secondary and Vocational School (KSVS) grounds. They are barely clothed in tattered and dirt-crusted rags. They stare dully at the clean and neat high school students in the compound. This picture of children is in great contrast to the bright-eyed, eager students now fortunate enough to attend Good Shepherd Primary School thanks to your generosity.
Read MoreI have just returned from leading another mission-vision trip to the Middle East. Twelve pastors, elders and mission leaders from Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Georgia and California spent a week in Lebanon with me and with The Outreach Foundation’s consultant Rev. Nuhad Tomeh learning of the work and witness of fellow-Presbyterians there (through the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, Near East School of Theology and the National Evangelical Church of Beirut). Seven of those travelers continued on into Syria where we worshipped, wept and celebrated God’s faithfulness in five Presbyterian churches there (Homs, Fairouzeh, Amr Hosn, Yazdia and Lattakia).
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