Girls' Education and Rescue Centers - November 2021 Update

In March 2020, schools across Kenya were closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This closure included Mother Esther School and Rescue Center where we usually have a population of 156 girls. During the 8 months of lockdown, we were left with only 42 students.

2021 was intended to be a new year, a fresh start after the uncertainty and restrictions of 2020. In November 2020, most of our students were able to return to Mother Esther School after eight months of lockdown in their home areas. In January 2021, we fully reopened with great joy and celebration. However, we have slowly learned that we are not quite finished with the impacts of 2020. The months in risky, remote areas of Kenya left our girls vulnerable to both child marriage and pregnancy. The stories of trauma that have emerged are many, so I will share one with you today.

China Partnership - November 2021 Update

The Outreach Foundation’s friendship with China is one of our most enduring and we are so thankful for the connections maintained through this long season of not being able to see one another face-to-face. By God’s grace, our bonds of friendship continue in tangible ways and this update highlights two.

“Telling It Like It Is,” an ongoing forum on the state of Christianity in China

“Family and the church” gave focus to our conversations during our second China Forum on Friday evening, October 29. Our primary presenter was Frida, a single mother to a four-year old son who teaches Spanish full time to Chinese students at one of China’s prestigious universities in Suzhou Province. She is also a lay assistant in a local unregistered multi-site house church, with occasional preaching duties.

Together for the Family - November 2021 Update

After the team headed home following our journey into Syria in late October, two of us remained to visit partners like Together for the Family, which serves Syrian refugee families in the Beqaa Valley with hope and with healing. TFF Director, Izdihar Kassis Issac, welcomed Lois Andrews (First Presbyterian San Diego) and me with joy and showed us around to experience glimpses of some of the ministries which she and her staff offer: a dental clinic, basic education classes for little ones who have not had much schooling because of the war in Syria, skills training in things like carpentry and sewing. The women in the sewing class were hard at work making holiday items for a Christmas bazaar to be held soon in Beirut. We also visited a class that is training women to work in hair and nail salons.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationNovember 29, 2021Together for the Family, Lebanon

Bob and Kristi Rice - November 2021 Update

Dear friends,

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

It all began with a question about the HIV/AIDS course. We wondered, “Can this course be inserted elsewhere as part of another course?” “Maybe it could be grafted into our counseling course?” Alluding to the counseling course, we were then off to the races, finding ourselves in another discussion altogether, which lasted for a good portion of our five-hour meeting. Such was the work of the Spirit on a Saturday morning in early October at Nile Theological College.

Europe Initiative - November 2021 Update

Behzad and Sameh are Iranian Christians who live in Turkey as refugees. For many years they have had a calling to minister to the Iranian youth and mentor many of them in their walk with God. They especially have a tender heart for the youth that are struggling with issues of faith, identity, and hope about their future. Many of these young people (who are also refugees in Turkey) find Behzad and his family safe people that they can confide in and relate to as friends.

Middle East, Partnership, Projects, EuropeThe Outreach FoundationNovember 17, 2021Europe Initiative, Europe, Turkey

Rebuilding Hope in South Sudan - November 2021 Update

Years of war and ethnic conflict in South Sudan have had a huge impact on the spiritual, emotional, and mental health of South Sudanese citizens. War and conflict have resulted in broken families, displacement, and tensions between groups or tribes. Many people have become soldiers or war prostitutes. Many have seen their parents or family members killed or raped. How does one heal from such wounds? How do you forgive your many enemies when the pain is deep and the list of atrocities so long? What is the role of the church in promoting healing?

The South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SSPEC) has been conducting workshops for four years that help people to experience God’s love and healing from the wounds in their hearts and help them to forgive those who have wounded them.

Africa, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationNovember 17, 2021Rebuilding Hope in South Sudan, South Sudan

Haiti Outreach Ministries' Student Sponsorship Program

We recently received the following information from Haiti Outreach Ministries (HOM) concerning their Student Sponsorship program. Please follow the link provided for additional instructions on how to sponsor a student through Haiti Outreach Ministries:

Education is essential for any child’s development, but in Haiti, education is much more than that – it is the necessary foundation to escape pervasive national poverty and a pathway to a better future. In Haiti, there is no free, public education. HOM and its Haitian partner MICECC (Mission Communautaire de l'Eglise Chrétienne des Cités) operate three primary schools and a secondary school, providing a robust, quality education steeped in Christian principles.

Latin America, Partnership, Projects, Vulnerable ChildrenThe Outreach FoundationNovember 15, 2021Haiti Outreach Ministries, Haiti

Hope for Syrian Students - November 2021 Update

After a two-year hiatus (first necessitated by political upheaval and then by the pandemic), the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon has been able to open their 4 schools for Syrian refugee children. This one, in Tripoli, started at the end of October with 65 children in four classes but will expand when they are able to hire an additional teacher. There are already many children on a waiting list.

As the principal, Dominique Nazha (l), and Rev. Rola Sleiman (r), pastor of the Presbyterian Church there explained to me on my recent visit, most of the families of these kids fled from the area around Homs, Syria, and few had ever been to school. So, even 10-year-olds may be learning the alphabet or writing their names for the first time. Dominque “broke down the statistics” of the older class of children who are 9 or 10: in a class of 13, only 2 knew the alphabet, a few could write their names, but most were completely illiterate. In a “normal” school these children would automatically be placed into the 4th or 5th grade based upon their age – where they would likely fail. But here, there is no shame in being behind and each student is attended to according to their learning needs.

Middle East, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationNovember 15, 2021Hope for Syrian Students, Syria, Lebanon

Gujranwala Theological Seminary Update

Gujranwala Theological Seminary (GTS) has been serving congregations, parachurch ministries, theological institutions, and their leaders throughout Pakistan for 145 years. As we prepare to celebrate with them, we want to highlight three of their recent graduates. God is doing great things in this very difficult part of the Christian world.

Khashia completed her MDiv in 2018. She serves as a youth coordinator at Open Theological Seminary in Lahore. She was one of only a few women to earn an MDiv but reports that she sees more women receiving advanced theological education. Women play an integral, if not formal, role in building up God’s church in this part of the world. She writes, “I am grateful to my Lord and GTS for enabling me to strengthen women’s groups in Pakistani churches.”

Presbytery of Zimbabwe Ministry for Children at Risk Update

Formerly known as Lovemore Home, the Ministry for Children at Risk in Harare rescued many boys from the streets of Zimbabwe. When Lovemore Home closed as a residential home for boys at the end of 2014, The Outreach Foundation and several donors including members of South Highland Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama committed to helping the boys who lived in the orphanage complete their education. Lee Cooper from South Highland PC recently sent the following news on the boys:

The Lovemore boys of Harare, Zimbabwe, though fewer in number now, are proceeding with their education and making good progress.

José Carlos Pezini - October 2021 Update

Dear brothers and sisters, servants of Christ Jesus and collaborators with him in the expansion of the Kingdom,

Grace and peace be with you all.

We've all experienced the difficulties of these past couple of years. But despite the struggles we have faced, battles were won, thus fulfilling the promise that in Christ Jesus we are more than conquerors.

Through your partnership, the gospel has been preached in many places here in Brazil. It has brought salvation to dozens of families in eight different cities, from the southern part of Brazil to the northeast. Here are reports from some of the new churches:

Cuba Appeal - October 2021 Update

This reflection upon the current crisis in Cuba – and of the Church’s response to it – comes from the Rev. Dora Arce Valentin. Rev. Dora is not only the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cuba (the IPRC—the Independent Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba) but a pastor in one of its congregations, a bit west of Havana in San Antonio de los Baños.

Dear family in Christ:

When the gospels tell us the stories of Jesus' miracles, sometimes our rational minds fail to understand the true message of those experiences. And, indeed, even the disciples, who walked with the Master every day of his ministry, never fully understood him until after the resurrection. However, there are times when we can see those daily miracles relived in the solidarity between sisters and brothers of faith, in small or large acts of generosity, of those who speak to us of love and demonstrate it by sharing what they have, as you have done.

Latin America, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationOctober 21, 2021Cuba Appeal, Cuba Partnership, Cuba

PCEA Church Construction in Kenya - October 2021 Update

Dear friends,

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many churches could not be dedicated after they were completed. So, we recently dedicated four churches and have about ten more to be dedicated soon. The four churches are located in Kieni West Presbytery, a very poor, dry area that has not received much attention. The Very Rev. Jesse Kamau, a past Moderator and good friend of The Outreach Foundation, dedicated the churches. The Rev. Kamau is known as the father of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA).

PCEA Imani Church
Mugunda Parish in Kieni West Presbytery
Dedicated October 7, 2021

Imani Church started in 1984 in the Rutunguru Primary School. Soon after its inception, a church member donated the land and a wooden structure was constructed around 1990. The wooden structure served the congregation for many years but was leaning due to termite infestation. Over the years the church grew and was vibrant in the community. But they needed a larger church that would survive termites. The new church will allow the congregation to grow and thrive.

Africa, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationOctober 21, 2021PCEA Church Construction in Kenya, Kenya, Stu Ross

Pakistan Bible Correspondence School - October 2021 Update

God is on the move! As Adeel Samuel, director of the Pakistan Bible Correspondence School (PBCS), reminds us, “Our God is a God of nations, all nations will bow before the Lord (Psalm 86:9). In the recent political change in Afghanistan, many people have fled to Pakistan; some are Christian.

People like Abdul. He was a driver for an American officer who showed him movies about Jesus. The concept that Jesus “took away all his sins" was new. And as so often happens among Muslims, he wanted to know more and read the Bible in secret. That reading led him to believe in Jesus. Abdul fled to where Adeel Samuel, lives and is now being nurtured there through the PBCS.

Haiti Outreach Ministries Update - Pursued, Yet Not Forsaken

October 19, 2021

Dear friends,

You likely have heard in the news about the recent kidnapping in Haiti of a group of American and Canadian missionaries. This is a tragic event, and we are praying for the swift and safe release of these individuals.

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident as kidnappings have become routine in Haiti in recent months. Haitians face the threat of kidnapping on a daily basis, as people have become desperate for money by any means possible. Our Haitian friends report great disruption to their daily lives, as doing even the simplest of things - going to work, buying food, etc - is fraught with complication and fear of being attacked or kidnapped. Pastor Leon reports that what is normally a 15 minute car ride from his home to the Terre Noire campus now takes two hours.

New Church Development in Egypt - October 2021 Update

As the Egyptian church is growing in church planting ministry, there are many stories about honest and dedicated lay people who gave their lives for the Lord. Although they might be simple in their appearance, their faith is very strong and deep.

One of these stories is about the head of a family in a remote village in Upper Egypt. Al Kom Alahmar is a village on the edge of the desert that is home to Bedouin tribes. Some of them are fundamentalist in their attitude against Christians and the work of the church. Our story is about Elder Khamis, the head of a Presbyterian family in the village. He passed away this summer but he was a man of integrity who built peaceful and healthy relationships with the neighborhood. He dedicated himself to the work of the Lord when he gave part of his own house to be a church and invited ministers from the Presbytery to hold Bible study and prayer meetings. He began to win over those who were against the work of the church as this house church served the needs of the community in healthcare, education, and other services.

Partnership, Projects, Middle EastThe Outreach FoundationOctober 18, 2021New Church Development in Egypt, Egypt

Clean Drinking Water in Kenya - September 2021 Update

In 1994, Mzee Toronke came to know Jesus Christ through the teaching of two local pastors, Rev. Nakeel and Rev. Maina. Since that day, Mzee Toronke has slept with a Bible as his pillow; he literally rests on the promises of God.

Mzee Toronke was born in a remote area of Kajiado, Kenya in 1925. He spent his early years tending to livestock, walking hundreds of kilometers looking for water and fresh pasture. As he grew older, Mzee Toronke married and started a family. Eventually, he had six wives and twenty-one children.

Partnership, Projects, AfricaElizabeth CarterSeptember 29, 2021Clean Drinking Water in Kenya, Lauren Scharstein, PCEA

Haiti Outreach Ministries - September 2021 Update

First day of school in Haiti

September 21, 2021

Dear friends,

Today marks the first day of school in Haiti for the 2021-2022 academic year. After a tumultuous summer, our teachers and students are thrilled to be back in the classroom! You can feel the energy and excitement in the air in these photos taken just this morning.

Adding to the excitement today, we are welcoming the very first class of 13th graders at the Baryé Fè secondary school! Since the school opened in 2015, additional grades have been added each year, and it is a milestone for Baryé Fè to now host the full complement of grades required by the Haitian school system. From pre-kindergarten to grade 13, the four HOM-supported schools are serving over 1,900 students this school year.

Latin America, Partnership, Projects, Vulnerable ChildrenElizabeth CarterSeptember 27, 2021Haiti Outreach Ministries, Haiti

Partner Updates

First day of school in Haiti