Please join us and Bradley Corrigan (from Dispatch and Braddigan) for an evening of music and stories.  Rose Nanyonga Clarke will be telling us some of her story of growing up in Uganda and her journey to improve health care and raise awareness of ritualistic child sacrifice in the country.  Proceeds will go towards these causes.

?For more information on Rose see: http://www.justgiving.com/rosenanyongac/
For more information on Braddigan see: http://www.braddigan.com/

Kate and Laura were fabulous in their organization of the evening, full of creative ideas and lots of fun to work with!

The staff at Jrink did a splendid job of matching our drink names, The Zambezi, The milk mustache, and The peoples party, to mention but a few, to appropriate cocktails. People certainly seemed to enjoy sipping them through out the night.

Thank you to everyone who attended!

Kawan means friend in Malay and that is what the staff of YWAM Kuala Lumpur are seeking to be to those in the city termed the “scum of society” by politicians. Elisha Tan (Director of YWAM Malaysia for the last nine years) terms their calling the “Samaritan Mandate”, reaching out to the drug users and homeless of society in a way that demonstrates righteousness through actions.

Around 80 people arrive on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays to the ministry’s small building, and about 120 to the Saturday street meal program. During the week a safe place is provided for washing, exchanging dirty clothes for clean, breakfast, tea and a nutritious lunch. In addition to this the staff are trained in social work and counselling (many of them coming from a history of drug addiction themselves) and are able to direct and facilitate people ready for rehabilitation into the right centres for their recovery.

In the six years Kawan has been running in Kuala Lumpur they have seen many people successfully rehabilitated and have touched many lives. It is with great excitement that they watched this ministry multiply with the opening of a Kawan centre in Penang.

Dedication of Kawan Penang on Love Lane

Six years after the opening of the Kawan drop in centre in downtown Kuala Lumpur, a new centre is opened on Penang Island also in Malaysia.

This ministry is focused on reaching out to the intravenous drug users of Penang, with a particular heart for those who have contracted HIV/AIDS through this lifestyle. The small island of Penang has around 2,000 people infected with the virus with 20 new cases cropping up each month.

The recently acquired building is in the centre of George Town (the island capital) on a street named Love Lane, referring to the industry that it is renowned for hosting. Nestled in between the hotels and bars is the Kawan (meaning friend in Malay) building. The ground floor is renovated and has been opened for little more than ten days when we arrived for the dedication.

The hall, which is usually packed with people from the streets, is today filled with pastors, NGO workers, rehabilitation workers and YWAMers as they worship the Lord. The building is prayed over and the workers anointed and food is shared. The presence of the Lord is tangible and a sense of excitement obvious as people step into the ministry of their calling.

With goals to educate people about HIV/AIDS, minimise the rate of infection, reduce discrimination against those infected and those abusing substances, as well as assisting the local churches along similar lines, great things can be expected from the Kawan Penang team.

These seven children have been given a hope unusual to the society in
which they live. They were all born with the HIV infection already in
their little bodies and as such became the new “untouchables” of today’s
Indian society. Even children’s homes do not want to take them, as they
know they require extra expense and may die, and this reflects badly on
them.

“Aunty come see” is the little chorus that comes from the girls as they
grab your hand and pull you into their room to show you their artwork
all neatly stored away and also a little dance they are practicing but
too embarrassed to show everyone. These children are responsive,
stimulated, creative, joyful and alive with hope.

How is the project funded? Well there is the twist. House of Hope is
part of a new Business as Missions strategy going on in India. An
ever-growing business in the heart of Pune is seeking to change not only
the way that business is done in India by fighting the ins and outs of
corruption daily, but also to provide local people with job security and
a godly environment in which to work. They are seeing God open doors
that seem impossible and removing obstacles as they commit to working
with 100% integrity and honesty. This has been both challenging and
exhilerating.

In addition to this business focus they commit to sending 42 % of all
profit back into mission. Right now that sustains “House of Hope” . As
the business grows the opportunity for “missions” of all sorts to grow
seems endless and very exciting.

Over-crowded government schools are unable to give these children the attention required to learn the basics so Suman has provided somewhere for them to study with extra help. Through years of faithful work, the children attending this impromptu tuition centre have shown such an academic improvement that a local school has actually requested that these children attend his school, this is nothing short of miraculous in India’s oversubscribed school system.

In addition to their work with children Suman and her husband EJ have helped over 900 women become literate within the slum. Their small primary healthcare clinic (run from the corner of the school room) has had such an impact on the community that the government have asked them to replicate it in some of the 450 slum communities in the Pune area.

This is only scratching the surface of the work they do, but they are already full of stories of lives changed and small actions with a huge impact. It is clear that they have found joy in their work and in living side by side with those they help.

Some of the talk is not that fun, Molly and I were told we looked like a frog and a pig respectively! But insults aside, we were able to talk with a lady for about 30 minutes, she just wanted someone to listen to her and pray for her, and even though she left at the end she was a little bit changed, connected with some people who could continue to help her and definitely touched. Sometimes just showing people they are loved and valued in a physical way is the best way to show Christ’s love for the lost.

It was amazing to know that every week there would be a team of people in that same place making sandwiches, serving coffee and waiting to see who would come across their path that day and what doors God will open.

We look forward with eagerness to seeing what the Tel Aviv team will achieve as they continue to settle into the city and grow.

The younger, special needs children focus on reading and writing.

The blind students learn to work with wicker.
.

while others learn to bake bread which is then sold to local schools and bakeries. An extension of this project is currently in development with collaboration with an area orphanage.

“No sooner would we begin teaching the Massai and they would pick up stakes and leave,” said Seredi, one of the directors of YWAM Morogoro, describing the early trials of working with the nomadic Massai tribe. But soon an understanding was established, YWAM would happily teach them the skills the Massai requested but they would have to stay in the area. After a long period of negotiating and building trust with various tribal groups, the Massai came to an agreement with YWAM who helped them establish more permanent villages enabling several classes to began.

YWAM Morogoro has invested many years into their work with the Massai tribe, especially with the Massai women who are the unofficial heads of the household and are the initiators in terms of further education. The lessons include Swahili and basic math lessons three times a week, which have proved beneficial in the markets where the Massai are no longer taken advantage of by people claiming to help them. The women are also taking sewing classes enabling them to generate income by selling their traditional garments, as well as cloth school bags and other useful items.

Sewing and basic education are just two tools used by YWAM Morogoro to help empower the Massai people. Other classes vary from agricultural training to carpentry to shoe-making and leather processing. It is an inspiration to see so many women taking hold of opportunities to enjoy education and adapting it to fit with their culture.

The swollen banks of the Zambezi are visible by air, but the repercussions of flood rains in the north of Mozambique are not truly known until you reach the ground…

After long periods without moisture, the parched earth is unable to absorb so much at once, leaving the ground awash. Standing water ruins many crops and creates pools for mosquitoes, often spurring an outbreak of malaria and cholera.

The problem is exacerbated by sluice gates opened fully on the Cobora Bassa Dam, allowing the Zambezi to rise and flood some villages in the delta region of the Zambezi.

YWAM Marromeu recently acquired a motorboat for relief use in the delta. In collaboration with the local government, the Biskit is currently aiding evacuation in flooded regions.

For more information please visit ywamafrica.com.

Mosquito-ridden, muddy, miserable are just a few of the words Shephen Mbewe, director of YWAM Marromeu in Sofala, Mozambique, would use in explaining the four-day journey from Sofala to Luwawe. That was before Mercy Air (MA) pilot Matthias Reuter looked at an aviation map of the area and saw that the grueling journey they have made since 2000 would take only 20 minutes by helicopter.

Reuter heard of YWAM’s work with the Aluwawe people through his friend, Doctor Colin Pfaff, whom he met flying in eastern Mozambique with Doctors for Life. Pfaff had forwarded Reuter a report by Elias Santos of an outreach to the Aluwawe. In it, Santos told of the four-day journey just to reach the village.

Two months later he received an e-mail from a friend of Santos. Santos’ friend knew someone with a helicopter and asked if Mbewe could use it in the work he was doing with the Aluwawe. It would come fully funded for an outreach of eight days and a total 38 flights. In September 2006, at a cost of US $9,000, a Mercy Air helicopter was used for an outreach to the Aluwawe.

Following the September outreach, MA has been requested to come during four outreaches in 2007. The government is in full support of the program, Reuter said, but funding for those flights is not yet secured.

Mbewe said the 20-minute flight to Luwawe was hard to believe. “I actually got disoriented,” he said. “I could not work out where we were. It was too quick and so hassle free it was unreal. In my head I have become so accustomed to the hardships of going to Luwawe so much so that to get there without a single mosquito bite just did not seem right.”

In 2005 Mercy Air flew a distance nearly equal to four times around the world. Of those flights, 82 percent were for outreaches.

The Mercy Air base in South Africa started in 1991 and is the only MA base in Africa. Its crew consists of five pilots and two mechanics for their one helicopter, two six-seat airplanes and one 11-seat airplane.

“God used YWAM and Mercy Air as a means to bring his truth to people who feel unloved and uncared for,” said Stephen. “We were able to show that God will go where the people are, at whatever cost, and will reach them with His love where they live.”

To learn more about Mercy Air visit www.mercyair.org. For information on YWAM Marromeu contact Shephen.Mbewe@senasugar.com.