Haiti Outreach Ministries - February 2021 Update

Dear friends of Haiti Outreach Ministries:

As we begin 2021, I give thanks for you and the many ways that you support our ministry with your prayers, student sponsorships, financial gifts, and words of encouragement. In the face of much uncertainty, we are grateful for the many good things going on related to our shared ministry in Haiti, so I am writing to give you several updates. Our staff in Haiti is very busy:

- We currently have 1,825 students enrolled in our schools with 1,412 in the primary schools and 413 at the Baryé Fè secondary school.

- Our medical and dental staff continue to see patients at our clinic in Terre Noire. At the end of February, we will say good-bye to Dr. Quency Etienne, our beloved medical director. Dr. Quency is moving to the U.S. to be near family. We welcome Dr. Beethoven Solon to our clinic and look forward to introducing him to you formally in our email next month.

- Our three churches are worshipping regularly on Sundays giving encouragement to the communities we serve.

Rebuilding Hope in South Sudan - February 2021 Update

Dear friends and supporters,

John Jock Gatwech is the coordinator for education in the South Sudanese refugee camps in western Ethiopia. Using public transport and the bicycle provided by Outreach, he supervises 20 preschools in the six camps in the Gambella region. Four of the camps are within about 30 miles of Gambella Town. The other two are about 70 miles in the opposite direction! During his monthly visits, he supervises teachers, encourages students, and assists the trauma healing groups (established and supported by The Outreach Foundation since 2017). John has also helped establish 43 centers for adult learning in the camps – teaching basic literacy and the Bible.

PCEA Church Construction in Kenya - February 2021 Update

Dedication of PCEA Kirathimo – Njoro Church, Njoro Presbytery

On February 21, we dedicated PCEA Kirathimo Church. Because of COVID, the congregation waited a year for us to complete the church. The foundation stone was laid in November 2019 in anticipation of a group coming in March 2020 but they were unable to travel, so The Outreach Foundation completed the work in January 2021. The project included the church and two classrooms.

We first dedicated the two classrooms for the 71 children that currently attend. They would like to continue building two classrooms a year until eight are completed, which is a complete primary school.

Africa, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 24, 2021PCEA Church Construction in Kenya, Stu Ross, Kenya

Todd Luke - February 2021 Update

Mexico

Dear friends,

Our partners in Mexico are very busy even though we do not plan to send American mission groups to build cisterns this year. Victor, Raul, and Isaias are leading a team that will work with at least twenty-two families to build twenty-two family-owned cisterns during the next couple of months. Generous financial support from our American church and family partners makes this possible. We hope to build up to forty cisterns in 2021, but that number depends on the response we receive from our American partners.

We are also doing something new and exciting. In addition to the many support tasks he already performs to support the cistern process, our associate in Xpujil, Felipe Torres now leads a small crew that visits each of our cistern partners who have repaid at least $2,000 pesos of their cistern materials loan. The purpose of the house call is to:

The Presbyterian Church in Rwanda - February 2021 Update

The Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR) has more than 300,000 members and is composed of seven autonomous presbyteries located all around the country. There is an office of the General Synod, which acts as the headquarters of the church, in Kigali. The Head Office oversees most of the administration and organization of the church. Like other institutions in Rwanda, the 1994 genocide affected the church which lost sixteen of its pastors and many members. Since the genocide, much emphasis has been placed on training the younger generation in peacebuilding and reconciliation, but the church also faces the challenge of caring for many orphans and widows, most of whom still suffer from trauma. We recently received this update on Outreach/EPR partnerships from EPR President Rev. Dr. Pascal Bataringaya:

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best and blessings in this new year 2021. We are still facing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a very complicated situation, but we keep our hope and our faith in God and we know that he is in control. We keep you in our prayers

Refugee Appeal - February 2021 Update

…as you have done it for the least of these, you have done it for me…

Since December of 2015, The Outreach Foundation has been a partner with a “hands-on” outreach in Lebanon that helps Syrian refugee mothers care for their newborns. Together, For the Family (TFF), led by its Executive Director, Izdihar Kassis, started this ministry upon realizing the dire need of parents to care for their newborn babies while living in tent camps.

Izdihar shares this reflection:

The poor living conditions and the inability of the parents to provide basic necessities for their newborn babies motivated us to address this matter.

COVID-19 Appeal - February 2021 Update

Your gifts to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal are making a difference...all over the world

When we launched this Appeal almost a year ago, none of us could have grasped what the devasting effects upon the global community would be with almost two million dead and economies devastated. Vaccines provide a glimmer of hope, but we know it will be a long time before large parts of the world can access them.

The Outreach Foundation is grateful for your faithful generosity over these past months as your gifts of over $277,000 have allowed us to respond to urgent needs in 23 countries: Iraq, Syria, Ghana, Rwanda, China, Cuba, Venezuela and so many more. These gifts have provided food relief, tuition help for seminarians so that their studies could continue, salary support for pastors in impoverished villages, and refugee relief for those whose lives were already being lived on the edge of calamity. The Global Church has used these gifts to shine the Light of Christ upon those who might not yet know of him and to encourage the faithful to “hold on.”

Jeff and Christi Boyd - February 2021 Update

Dear siblings in Christ,

As the world went into a pandemic-induced hibernation earlier this year, one might assume that ministries, too, have slowed down or come to a halt. For the Presbyterian Ministry for Vulnerable Children in East Kasaï, Congo, nothing could be farther from the truth! Four years ago, I shared through the story of Serge, how in the current Congolese context losing a parent can put a child at risk of abandonment, and highlighted different models of ministry for vulnerable children applied in the Presbyterian Church in Congo (CPC).

At the time, the most prominent of these ministries retrieved unaccompanied minors from the markets and streets by taking care of them in halfway homes while tracing back their biological parents or extended families to mediate reunification. The transitional character of these ministries provided an appropriate alternative to the more permanent nature of traditional orphanages, but the center-based model still proved costly for an economically deprived context like Congo.

Syria Lebanon Partnership - February 2021 Update

Children of the World

On several visits to Aleppo during the war, my teams and I would be taken across the street from the Presbyterian Church and shown through a dingy old apartment for which the congregation had a shining vision: open a clinic where low-cost healthcare could be provided to the neighborhood, regardless of the ability of someone to pay the fees. It seemed like a longshot, given the realities of the war and depressed economy of Syria, but Outreach supplied some funds to help its startup. Despite our doubts, God has blessed this ministry and it is now running at “full throttle” and providing hope and healing in Christ’s name! The faces here are some of those who have been served at the Children of the Word Medical Center.

Recently, the Rev Joseph Kassab, General Secretary of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon shared an assessment of this now vital ministry…

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 8, 2021Syria Lebanon Partnership, Syria Appeal, Syria

Bethlehem Bible College - February 2021 Update

Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) is an evangelical, inter-denominational Bible College in Palestine where students can study and serve in their native land. Students Nahida Sleibi and Marsail Al-Jilda share their stories here:

Nahida Sleibi

I thank God with all my heart for the blessing he has bestowed upon me, so that I may grow in his love, gain more knowledge in his holy word, and draw closer to his divine mercy day after day. I also thank Bethlehem Bible College for opening the way for me to study and delve deeper into the Bible and the Word of God, which will enable and qualify me for Christian ministry in my community.

This past fall, the last semester before submitting my master’s thesis, I studied two subjects. The first was Pastoral Care and Counseling, which added a lot to my knowledge, especially in Christian guidance and methods of counseling for people in need, by telling them they are loved by God and they are created in his image and likeness. This course also contributed to the development of the necessary skills that I must possess, such as the art of good listening, which will help enable me to serve in the church. It is important for us to reflect love and unity with each other, to be witnesses of the love of Christ, and to convey salvation to every needy and seeking person that God puts in our way.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationFebruary 4, 2021Bethlehem Bible College, Israel, Palestine

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - February 2021 Update

The Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) trains over 300 students each year to serve the Church in Egypt and beyond. Students serve as pastors, church planters, elders, and teachers in churches across Egypt and the entire region. Ekram Atta graduated from ETSC in 2013, here is his story:

Ekram Atta: God’s Weak Jar

It is said that one of Martin Luther’s teachers would bow to his students before each class because he said he did not know which of his students would rise to prominence. Likewise, no one knows what God will do with the lives of the students who come to the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo.

They come with their aspirations for ministry and the gift matrix given them by God, but who is to say which of them will have the greatest impact on the kingdom of God? More than a decade ago Ekram Atta came to the seminary from a village in South Egypt, bearing a calling born from his own grief and experience of grace following the death of his mother. Seeking comfort for his pain, he discovered the grace that would allow him to strengthen others.

Bob and Kristi Rice - January 2021 Update

Dear friends,

Rev. Santino Odong, principal at Nile Theological College (NTC), is getting creative in finding ways for students to continue studying as they prepare for ministry in the church. Schools have been prohibited from meeting since March 23, 2020, in South Sudan, and they did not have the equipment or connectivity to switch to online classes. They were able to use some large church buildings to allow students to social distance while completing interrupted courses from last semester. Most of the students came to Juba from remote regions of South Sudan, leaving their families while they study at NTC in preparation for serving as pastors.

As everyone realized that COVID-19 will continue to hinder the normal way schools have functioned, Rev. Santino and the other faculty at NTC wrestled with how to start the new semester so that students could continue their studies. Now they are experimenting with teaching remotely over WhatsApp, a smartphone application for messaging and calling over the internet. They asked Bob to teach two classes remotely from the U.S. while we wait to be able to return to Juba. With only two weeks’ notice, Bob jumped into the research, planning, and preparation for teaching classes on the Exegesis of Acts and African Church History.

José Carlos Pezini - January 2021 Update

Dear brothers and sisters,

Grace and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that this year, we will find more peace and freedom to carry out the work for which we were called to do. We mourn with those who lost their loved ones to COVID-19. We pray that with the arrival of the vaccine, life will get better.

Many pastors in Brazil were infected with the virus. Some recovered and others succumbed to COVID-19. Many churches are suffering financially and cannot pay their pastors. But, we must continue doing our ministry. That is why we need you, faithful ministry partners, to continue to pray for us.

Even during the pandemic, our ministry continues, training leaders and pastors for revitalizing and planting new churches. We had to adapt and readjust our courses, which are now offered virtually, but we obtained good results. Here is testimony from Rev. Marcio Tenponi about a church that I helped to revitalize:

Home of Hope in Zimbabwe - January 2021 Update

Dear friends,

We thank God that despite the pandemic, we were still able to celebrate Christ’s birth by giving gifts to the destitute. We did not know how we would be able to get clothing to distribute, but our Heavenly Father provided. There is nothing that he can’t do even in a worldwide crisis. At the beginning of the lockdown, many felt abandoned when churches were forced to close and the people who usually helped them could not but we were able to give them help and a bit of a Christmas celebration which helped to show them that their Father still cares.

We usually serve food to about 100 people a day three times a week. We expected about 120 people to come for the Christmas parcels, but we prepared for 150 just in case.

Africa, Partnership, Projects, Vulnerable ChildrenThe Outreach FoundationJanuary 25, 2021Home of Hope, Zimbabwe

New Church Development in Egypt - January 2021 Update

With 20 million people, Cairo is the largest city in the Middle East and is home to 20% of the population of Egypt. It is growing at a rate of over 2% a year which doesn’t sound like much until you “do the math” - that means that Cairo adds over 400,000 people each year. Or think of it this way: each year, Cairo adds the equivalent of a Tulsa or a New Orleans. Every year. These new residents come from other (often rural) parts of Egypt, hoping to find better jobs and better schools for their children. They end up living in “suburbs/extensions” of Cairo which are makeshift and ramshackle communities often with poor roads, dense apartment complexes, and few available services.

In the last 20 years, the Church of Egypt recognized the importance of planting churches in these new communities. Planting a church is not a luxury or an extra place for people to only practice spiritual activities like worship and Bible study. The new church is a place of enlightenment, services, and refuge for many people.

An established congregation in Ain Shams, located in the northern part of Cairo, adopted a vision of planting new churches in some of these new communities. It is one of the churches that recognized the call to go out and spread the message of salvation and hope. Pastor Eid Salah and elders from the church are eager for evangelism and church planting.

Philemon Project Preschool - December 2020 Update

On behalf of the entire Philemon Project team – thank you! Thank you for your partnership and support. And a special thank you to all who helped us with the August 4th explosion's aftermath. Without your faithful support, we could not carry out our ministry to the least of these in Lebanon.

The Explosion

On August 4th, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at warehouse 12 at the port in Beirut exploded, causing at least 204 deaths, 6,500 injuries, and an estimated 15 billion dollars in property damage. The explosion also left an estimated 300,000 people homeless. Experts consider this to be one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history. The Philemon Project's GROW Center is 1.4 miles away from the blast site and suffered significant damage. Windows and doors were blown out, walls cracked, AC damaged, electrical, and even plumbing lines were affected. Glass and debris ruined many children's toys and furnishings.

Stu Ross - December 2020 Update

Stu Ross links U.S. congregations with East African partners to strengthen the church for God’s mission. Through these efforts, over 300 churches and over 150 schools have been built, hundreds of girls have been cared for and over 500 evangelists have been trained. The following report from Stu includes information about partnerships between the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) and The Outreach Foundation:

PCEA Church Construction
PCEA Mabati School Construction
Girls’ Education and Rescue Centers
Clean Drinking Water in Kenya

Despite COVID and curfews and masks, the work of The Outreach Foundation continues – cautiously – here in East Africa. Travel and work during this time have been difficult. We currently have about 125 workers and no positive COVID tests.

This year we will complete twenty churches and three schools. Many of the churches were great distances from our home in Kikuyu. Many were in very isolated areas.

Refugee Appeal - December 2020 Update

…an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. Mathew 2:13

With a global pandemic raging, they no longer get front-page billing. But in this Christmas season, it is well worth remembering that the Babe born in Bethlehem was one, for a time: a refugee.

These refugees whom The Outreach Foundation has served since 2012 and whom you have supported, came into Lebanon from Syria during the long war and from Iraq, beginning in 2014 because of ISIS. They have been cared for by our partners in tender, life-giving ways. Here is one of their stories…

Partner Updates

Dedication of PCEA Kirathimo – Njoro Church, Njoro Presbytery

Mexico