How Did He Inspire You?

For my wife and I the adventure began nearly 18 months ago. Leading a missions trip was something we prayed about and was high on our list of dream to-do’s but like many people, jobs & scheduling remained a constant hurdle. It wasn’t until a radical shift in my career and the encouragement from close friends that we applied and were offered the opportunity to lead a team from McLean Bible Church with New Hope Initiative to Tanzania & Kenya.

As both of us have been part of short term mission teams in the past we spent much of our preparation time with the team focusing on how this two-week experience could usher in lasting change within their lives instead of just a flash-in-the-pan spiritual moment. This was reinforced once we arrived in country and Sandy Baird, the director of New Hope Initiative, spoke to the same ideal and challenged each team member to dig deep and see where God was inspiring them through this trip. Little did we know that the preparations and those conversations with Sandy would end up challenging us in ways that we are still unraveling and seeing where God is leading us.

For many of you reading this you have been on a trip with NHI or you know someone that has. So I have a challenge for you - when you come back or when you have the opportunity to sit down with someone that went take the time to dig a little deeper – beyond the safari tour, the souvenirs, the foods consumed and the always prerequisite bathroom question – ask them How did He inspire you? There is a chance that you or the friend you are asking may not know at that exact moment but maybe there is a glimpse of an idea or their heart has clearly been burdened to make a change. In any of these cases, accountability is a strong tool and I encourage you to take the time to follow up and pray with them or find someone that can become a partner in prayer and a sounding board for ideas.

While some ideas may involve NHI - and we truly hope that many of you will sponsor a student through Penda, share the mission of Project Biashara, or help serve in some capacity within an active project - but in addition, hopefully the inspiration will also hit close to home as you are likely going to spend 50 weeks over the next year there as opposed to Arusha or Kibera. For some it may become evident that the mission field God has placed in your path at this moment may not be as far as Africa, India or South America but maybe the next cubicle, the next door neighbor or the orphan in the city that needs a shoulder to lean on.

So how did He inspire us? We feel blessed and incredibly challenged to say that God inspired a lot in us through our time in East Africa – many ideas we are still processing through and others that we are currently in the midst of. For starters, it wasn’t less than a week after we returned from our first trip that we knew we wanted to go back. It was clear to us that God was not finished working on our hearts to serve the ‘least of these’ and as of this writing we have just wrapped up leading our second trip back to Kenya & Tanzania within a year.  As anyone that has lead a mission’s team knows, sometimes the greatest moments can come when seeing a change in others and we have had the amazing opportunity to watch six young adults from our first team embrace the ideas that God inspired in them - some within NHI and in other local ministries. But we are also filled with even more excitement as we have the chance to ask five other young adults that we just returned with the same thing we want you to ask yourselves and those returning from trips this summer – How did He inspire you?

By TJ Walter - New Hope Initiative Board Member

Forging A Path Out Of Poverty

Poverty is a villain who terrorizes, oppresses and represses.  It takes the path of unworthiness, defeat and sorrow.  I feel this sorrow as I consider poverty and a deeper sorrow as some of its victims have now entered my life and become my closest friends. As a result, my path in life is to fight against poverty, to challenge its violent and relentless pursuit to take its subjects.  It is an evil regime that has preceded and will continue to proceed the majority world.

Along my path I have found many organizations accomplishing credible feats in this battle and I heartedly commend and thank them.  But there is an organization I can personally and intimately endorse in its efforts and that is New Hope Initiative, where we are initiating change by carrying the Good News of God's love thru nutrition, education, micro-loans for small businesses and providing medical care for those who are as poor as you can imagine.  Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 400 million of them.  Their simple dwellings have no electricity, no running water or sewage system, women cook with charcoal, they wash their clothes in a tub, they get up early in the morning to walk to market and sell their produce or wares.  They return home at night to prepare meager dinner for their families or no dinner at all.  As men lose their self worth women and children bear the brunt of their trauma.

Yet I have found some things along this path.  I have witnessed to what extremes a mother will go for her child.  I have found that amidst the strife and hopelessness God is right in the middle of it.  He knows it all, He sees it all, and He has great compassion for us all.  Also I have found that even the most difficult life is still a treasure.  As far as poverty seems from the throne of heaven, I can still hear His voice.  I see light in the darkness and hope burning bright for the future.

Join us in forging this path out of poverty...

By Karen Baird - Director of New Hope Initiative

The Sum Total of All Things

Have you ever done an inventory of your personal possessions? Maybe for insurance or estate purposes you sat down and determined the approximate value of all the things you own. For most Americans it is a staggering list: vehicles, furniture, electronics, kitchenware, clothing, linens, and the other assorted pieces of junk that populate our lives. We fill up our homes, our closets, our attics and garages and then we have to go and rent storage spaces to hold all the overflow things. Do you have an idea of the dollar value or replacement value of all these things? With that dollar figure in mind let me tell you a story about a tragic event that happened in the Kibera slum of Nairobi Kenya last month. Late on a Sunday evening a tragic fire swept through that neighborhood. The very nature of this community makes it a fireman’s worst nightmare. The stick and mud homes are literally attached to one another; there are no streets, little running water, mounds of trash and combustible materials. On that particular night the fire raged and they could not get it under control until hundreds of homes were destroyed and thousands of people displaced. New Hope Initiative is directly connected to at least 100 people that were affected. These are members of our church, students at our school, and leaders in Project Biashara. We asked Pastor Simon what we could do to help those that were affected by the fire and he told us that 20,000 shillings or about $200 could replace most of the things these families lost. Let that number sink in for a moment, $200 would replace every single thing these families owned! All the furniture, housewares, clothes, linens, every worldly possession for the entire family could be replaced by an amount of money that most of us would think of as pretty insignificant.

My point is not to try and motivate you to give to help these victims, we have had churches and individuals who have already stepped up and we are in the process of helping these families recover. My purpose in this story is to motivate us to look at our closets, attics, garages, and storage sheds and to determine how many things we really need in order to enjoy our lives. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not trying to make you feel guilty, we should enjoy the blessings of God and be thankful for the incredible privilege of living as a 21^st Century American. However what I am trying to get us to consider is this, can we live with less so that others can have more. Could we reduce the amount of clutter in our lives so that others could enjoy some of the basic necessities? Could simpler lives actually lead to a greater personal fulfillment? If you lost everything in a tragic fire how much of it would really have meaning to you?

By Sandy Baird - Director of New Hope Initiative

Kibera Penda Project

Since starting Kibera Penda Project in 2008, we have seen incredible growth in the desire, motivation and hope of the students living in Kibera. We are now partnering with sponsors to send 76 students to government day-school and 37 students to boarding school. This year 31 out of the 53 students from New Hope Primary School passed their Class 8 national exams - the school's highest percentage ever and we are anticipating that this number will grow even more! We are grateful that most of our sponsors from previous years are continuing their commitment, allowing these children to continue their education. Kibera Penda Project will have their first student, Gladys Atieno, graduate high school this spring and we are committed to sponsoring her at a university this fall. In addition, we are sponsoring two New Hope Primary School staff members to continue their university education.

This year we are also focusing on ways to help those who do not pass their Class 8 national exams. New Hope Initiative placed three of the girls at Seed of Hope, a girl's vocational training center that emphasizes education and teaches job skills necessary for their future success.

We place high expectations on our students in Kibera Penda Project, and we want our students committed to their future. Our goal is to give them the necessary resources, allowing them to work hard and escape the poverty cycle. We realize that not every student will succeed in this program, but we have seen a drastic change in the motivation and determination of these students. They understand the opportunity they have been given, and they do not take it for granted. However, we still have a few students who need sponsors for high school. If you are interested in helping give hope through education, please visit our website at www.kiberapendaproject.com

By Ava Baird

New Hope Church Update

The year 2012 has ushered in a wonderful new era for our partners at the New Hope Center in the Nairobi area slum called Kibera. After 30 years of meeting in a ramshackle and old facility, the congregation moved to a beautiful new building where they enjoy a space that will not only accommodate the growing crowds, but will also allow for further development in the future. On the first Sunday of March, Pastor Simon and his congregation were privileged to report one of the largest attendances in the history of the church with almost 1,000 people. It is a blessing to see the growth of this church, as only three short years ago the congregation averaged 50 people per week! We ask you to pray for the church, that they will effectively use their new facility to reach many people with the message of Jesus Christ. Also, please pray for the funds necessary to complete the facility with flooring, paint, and other improvements. The total cost for completion is approximately $25,000.