Love's Door 4 All Nations - Zambia

Orphan Hope has changed it's name
to
Love's Door.

See new blog site at
www.loves-door.blogspot.com

See Dan and Regina's personal thoughts and experiences at
www.danandregina.org

This will be the last post on this site - but we will keep it for the testimony of what God is doing with this world.
Blessings,
Dan and Regina Bumstead

Monday, May 7, 2007

Above the waving grass, great billowing clouds give way to sunset’s colors, and it’s easy to forget for a moment that we’re in Africa. This is Big Sky Country, and there are many reasons to feel that we’ve stepped into Laura Ingalls Wilder’s world. The prairies (or savannahs) are covered with grass tall enough to get lost in, interspersed with six-foot high stands of yellow-orange Shasta daisy-type flowers.

We are guests of the Peter and Debbie Wilcox family, Australian missionaries living outside of Lichinga in northern Mozambique. We share their cement home. There is no electricity, no refrigeration, no running water. We take “cup showers” with heated water (the weather is cooler here), the toilet is flushed only when really necessary by pouring in a bucket of water. Food is cooked over a gas stove-top or outside over a charcoal fire, dishes are washed in a tub. Mozambican guards double as yard- and household-help, keeping water buckets full drawn by a rope from the well. We can wash our clothes in the cement laundry tub outside, or hire local women to do it for 30 meticais ($1.10 US).

The Wilcox family includes 20-year old twin daughters Annelisa and Antoinette, full partners with their parents in devoting their lives to the people of Mozambique; Elias (11), Miriam (8), Mikaila (6), and Karmelie (3). Also considered family are Violet, a Malawian woman who serves as the Wilcox’s noon cook, her two daughters ages 15 and 21, and five grandchildren ranging in age from 6 to 13, children of her deceased daughters. A renovated out-building serves as their living quarters.

What can you eat when there’s no oven, no refrigeration, lots of mouths and not much money? Actually, one can live quite nicely, and possibly be healthier than at home! Breakfast is always porridge—coarsely-ground white cornmeal. Lunch, the main meal of the day, consists of rice or nshima (fine white cornmeal cooked into a thick mush) topped with a sauce made of chard or cassava leaves and other vegetables, ground peanuts, or pinto beans. The evening meal varies, from boiled sweet potatoes or pumpkin, roasted peanuts, green salad or banana to the occasional fried egg with bread.

Life is simple here, not in terms of labor but regarding modern conveniences. There is a small windmill topping the house which powers a laptop and battery chargers. The Wilcoxes also own a cell phone, and a 1969 LandRover that tops out at 60 km/hour (35 mph) and hauls 8-10 passengers. Life is simple. If you want to talk “primitive”, then you must ride with Peter to a nearby village of people from the Yao tribe.

Take a twenty-minute drive across the rolling hills, turn left at a nondescript corner in the middle of the prairie and you will reach Chinaliwila. Here are dirt roads, 75-100 nicely-built mud homes with heavy thatch roofs—no tin roofs for miles. I can’t imagine when the last time a car other than the LandRover entered here. Peter has been coming by invitation of the chief of the village, to talk about Jesus. Today he has asked Dan to accompany him. After chairs have been brought for the visitors, there is a lot of curious pointing and speculating about Dan’s backpack and what it may hold (even Peter, who speaks fluent Portuguese, needs an interpreter here). When finally a Bible is pulled out, all is hushed as the women and children look with wonder at the beautiful book with markings in it. Pointing to the words, Dan reads a passage from Isaiah. Even though the language is strange, they are spellbound. To think that those black scratchings could communicate! (We’ve been told that the literacy rate is less than 30%). Through an interpreter, Dan teaches from Romans 5: “But God demonstrated his love for us in this--while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Yao people have historically been antagonistic to the gospel and to any intrusion by other tribes or cultures. They are known as the tribe that raided other neighboring tribes, stole their people and sold them to the Arabs for the slave market. Because of this they are feared and hated. God is opening a door here that may have never been opened before – an invitation by a Yao chief to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The people are leery, but the chief and his grandsons are eager. In fact, the grandson who is next in line to be chief has confessed Christ and is coming to the compound here to be taught the Word and learn English, though he has not yet submitted to baptism (the line of no return for these people). The old chief and his wife (he only has one! very unusual for a chief) were here in the compound today. When I introduced Liana and Dawna as my daughters, his wrinkly face lit up in a buck-teeth smile, and he invited us all to come and visit him in his home next week – that should be interesting.

The Wilcoxes have a litany of God-stories, miracles and blessings they have experienced in their two years here. In a world where witchcraft and curses are as common as football games and traffic jams are to us, they are dedicated to bringing freedom, truth and light in the darkness. Construction is underway on a family-style orphanage for 18 girls and a house for their family. Other buildings will follow in time. As visitors, we’ve helped with cement-block construction work, school and Bible teaching, and using the treadle sewing machine to hem fabric into bedsheets.

Annelisa and Antoinette are rare young women, beautiful in features and spirit. They are one in heart and mind, having felt a call to African orphans at the age of six, and they work as a unit. Rolland and Heidi Baker, founders of Iris Ministries, asked these 20-year olds to establish a base at Lichinga. They’ve thrown themselves into the task with single-minded focus. Currently the twins teach school in English to 11 children. They are creative and loving instructors. In spite of limited resources, their students are receiving a quality education. They also handle the ministry’s finances and help with hospitality.

Darkness comes early here on the windswept grasslands. After our evening meal seated on benches around the rough-hewn kitchen table, we carry candles to the bedrooms and children are settled for the night. I step outside for a moment, and I’m sure I’ve never seen stars in a sky like this. There is no trace of martyrdom or complaining in this family—instead, there is joy and a sense of privilege in serving the One they love. From the soft glow in the window comes ethereal music—evening worship has begun. It’s not a formal service, and doesn’t happen every night. This is not religious obligation but soul-refreshment, lovers delighting in the other’s presence. A beautiful wood-burned plaque on the front door proclaims from Hebrews, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” I go inside to join the others in worship. Here is simplicity, here is beauty, here is rest in loving Jesus. –Regina and Dan

4-28-07
All Nations - Maputo


We have spent a wonderful weekend with a hilarious South African family of 5, who operate a baby house near Maputo. They have 7 babies at this time - some have AIDS, some have died, one has been adopted, one has been taken back by her prostitute mother, one taken into a dreadful State hospital for children and they believe, intentionally killed because she was "positive" (testing positive for HIV/AIDS - the most negative positive word in the world!). This family and home has been thru a lot. At times they have had nothing to eat, and a miracle happened. Once some of their "volunteer" staff took them to court for not paying them! But now things are better, and it was such a blessing for us to be with them. We loved it. The children have incredible stories. If they live and grow into the men and women of God like this couple is praying for, they will be a tremendous victory of God over the works of Satan. He has redeemed these little ones, and whether they die young of AIDS or die of old age, their lives have been rescued for God's Kingdom.



Here are some of the children's stories, as related by the Boersmas:

"Luis came to live with us in August 2005. When we received him he was a tiny 2-month-old baby, very malnourished and weighed about 1 kg (2.2 lbs). He tested positive for AIDS and malaria. He also had a severe chest infection. His grandmother brought him to us. Being very old and living in an extremely poor rural area, with his mom very sick and dying of AIDS, she knew that she could not take care of him, and asked us for help.

Luis became so ill, that he had to be fed through a feeding tube and eventually ended up in hospital. We thought it was the end and almost made peace with God that He was going to take him home. One of our friends told us: Sometimes you love them to life and sometimes you love them into the arms of Jesus. Even if you make this peace, somewhere deep inside there is always a flame of hope. After 2 months of being in hospital, Luis was released. He gained weight and started on the anti-retroviral medicine for AIDS.

Today Luis is two and a half years old, and there is no sign that he is living with AIDS. Every time we look it him we see the miracle that Jesus has done in his life and we are reminded that God says in His word that faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see!!"



"One of our baby workers told us that she heard about a little girl who lived all by herself in a village. The chief of the village told people how he would wake up at night and see this tiny little girl walking through the village crying of hunger and fear, with no clothes on. We sent Luis and Aida to see if they could find this girl. When they found her she was asleep all alone in the house, lying naked on a little torn grass mat. She had not eaten in 4 days. She is about 4, but the size of an 18 – 24 month old. When she saw Aida and Luis she started walking to them. Luis took her into his arms and asked if there are no clothes for her. They found some underwear of her father in the house and tied it to her waist with a safety pin.

Her mother has a new husband, but he is not willing to take care of Aninha, so they abandoned her at the father's, who was not taking care of her either. He left her alone at home for many days; neighbors gave her some food when possible.


After a year, Aninha is doing much better; she has gained weight, laughs and runs around. She does not talk yet because of a lot of trauma that she went through, but she is starting to repeat what you say. She is a joy and is a real little helper. She still needs a lot of healing, but the love of Jesus brings healing and restoration."



Alicia came to the Boersmas' home severely traumatized by neglect and abuse of every kind. She had no name, and her age is uncertain--she is very small but may be three years old. She is such a beautiful child. She was probably abandoned because of her mixed-race heritage, and will certainly experience prejudice in the years to come. Alicia has v-shaped scars on her abdomen, cuts made by the traditional healer. For the first months of her time in the children's home, she spent a lot of time crying or singing a little mournful song and rocking back and forth. She was in a world of her own, and would not interact with other babies or adults. Now she is slowly beginning to emerge from her shell, and will occasionally even crack a smile. Pray for her complete healing from the wounds of her young life.



Dulcy and her five-year old daughter Jessica are staying at the Boersmas' home temporarily. Dulcy is HIV positive, and has been kicked out of the house by her family. AIDS carries such a stigma here--most peoplele don't want to be tested, don't want to know, even though anti-retroviral drugs are available. Dulcy's father is a police chief, but he is no different--he doesn't want the shame of this label connected to his family. There is hope that he can be convinced to reconcile with his daughter and grandchild. Meanwhile, Dulcy helps the staff care for the children, and Jessica has many little playmates.



Chris enjoyed playing not only with the Boersmas' three boys, but also with the children they care for. Little Quiteria, whose mother died during a C-section, was a favorite of his. After playing with her one day he told me, "Mother, if I was older and had a lot of money, I would adopt her." Lord, let this heart be duplicated in all of us--a desire to love like you do.

They are also starting a house church - discipling 4 young guys, and the lady workers they hire. Some of the guys around here have grown up in an amazing orphanage that we have been at before. the problem: when they reach the age of 17 they must leave. So they go back on the street and fend for themselves. And it is ugly. Most of them, though they were great at worship and hype, the depth of discipleship was never worked into their soul. So they returned to the world. Peiter used to work in this large orphanage, so knows the young guys. Now he has found one and is discipling him one on one. He has become his father, is sending him to school, putting him in charge of many details of the home, and giving him a second chance.

4-25
Maputo

Took a bus into Maputo – really nice busses here! Then got a text that I should meet the Children’s Cup folks at 2001 motel. A kind lady from the bus told me she would arrange it with a taxi for me. I find this all the time – so many people are able to understand enough English, and so many are glad to help, even going out of their way to help with a thought of payment. But she happened to find the most desperate taxi driver. By the sounds of his car he does not charge enough! It was amazing that it rolled down the street. It sounded like the back left wheel lost all it’s grease, lost all it’s ball bearings, and lost plenty of it’s axle! It was grinding and screeching all the way. When he would slow down it would bang and clank. When he took a left turn all the noises joined in at once! It was hilarious.

Children’s Cup is a compassion ministry that is operating in Swazi and Zimbabwe for many years, and for the last 1 ½ years have been doing a Care Point (feeding orphans at least – more depending on staff and resources I think) in Maputo Mozambique. The leadership and most of the staff seem to come from a church in Baton Rouge Lo. Now that church has sent out a couple to plant a church at this location as well, and they sent out a 10 day discipleship school mission team to do the final touches on the church before their grand opening this coming Sunday when they plan on feeding 1000 people who will be invited from the surrounding community. So we joined in for a couple days – painting, sanding doors, putting in an electric well pump to replace the hand pump, putting a large tank on a tall platform and trenching and connecting all the hoses.

Then at 2pm they would feed the children. They would start wandering in at about 1, bowl and spoon in hand, gawking at the foreigners and the things they may have never seen before (I showed one little guy in the bath room which has 6 stalls with flush toilets and two sinks – all brand new. The guy was really checking out the toilet, looking it all over like he was not sure what it was). The grannies are cooking the soup and rice in huge pots outside over a little stick fire for hours. Finally there are about 200 children, a granny gets them to line up – the smallest first – and they start filling their bowls one by one. The kids then sit under the tree and eat. This happens 5 times each week. Their goal is to not only feed them food, but spiritually as well. Eventually they will start telling Bible stories (the discipleship kids did some skits and puppets and crafts and handed out a tee shirt to each one), then they will start a school for the ones that are too poor to go to school, then will be a medical clinic, and so on. As I understand it, the vision for the church, of which this is the Maputo campus, is to reach the lost by serving and ministering to the poor and needy. And from those who are brought to be disciples, God will build a great and mighty church.

The young couple (Isaac and Carol Williams – around 25-30ish) who are pastoring the church have not been married hardly a year. They are Brazilian, so speak Portuguese and English perfectly.

So would anyone want to get in on this opportunity to help out with a new church just getting started in this wonderful community? Portuguese is much like Spanish. isaac.williams@healingplacechurch.org .

Friday, April 27, 2007

Maputo

It’s just the three of us—Dan, Chris and I, spending a few days in the rustic guest house of the Dutch Reformed Church while we visit with Shula’s family. We had no food, so set off walking to market at 7:30 AM to see what we could find. We bought pao at the bakery, the wonderful Portuguese bread; fresh coconuts for 12 cents each, bananas and salad makings at the open-air market. Protein was difficult—there were huge slabs of beef ribs, fresh prawns, eels and other fish—all at summer’s temperatures with sellers idly waving the flies away. In the dry/canned goods booths of the market we found pilchards—sardines in tomato sauce. We very briefly considered eating them over pasta, but finally settled on eggs (unrefrigerated as in most countries except the US). By this time we were feeling quite conspicuous. Our method of making payment to the market women (who speak Shangani with a smattering of Portuguese) was to fish out a handful of coins, squint at them awhile and finally just invite the seller to take out the correct amount.

We dined on eggs and pao for breakfast, pasta with sautéed vegetables and eggs scrambled throughout for dinner, eggs again for the next morning. Oatmeal was starting to sound really appealing, so the next trip to market we tried asking for cereal. “See-ree-ul,” we pronounced slowly, after nosing around open bags of rice, dried beans and coarse brown sugar. Several neighboring women put their heads together, pointed questioningly at different items and finally directed us a few aisles over where another woman was waving at us. No oats there, however—her table displayed piles of tiny hot chili peppers. After patiently listening to us pronounce “cereal” even more distinctly, we were sent back around to a woman selling fresh peanuts, whole or in pieces. “Por comida,” she said, pretending to eat them. Silly Americans! We bought more eggs and headed home for breakfast.

We enjoyed a delicious meatless spaghetti sauce with pasta that evening, made with a large can of tomato paste, lots of sautéed onions, garlic and peppers, and seasonings. Next day, Shula’s mom Grace drove me to a little shop we had overlooked where I found oats, peanut butter, and refrigerated milk. Life is good!—Regina

4/23/07

I lost my diary today :( and my best pen. I had just calculated some of the different options of travel for the coming month. It will be expensive. I am disappointed that our young folks have seemed to ditch us. Probably ditched our extra luggage as well.

Last week was better than I hoped.
Working with Heather and Tamsin was good. Going out with them to see their work with the community orphan kids, going to pray with the mother of one of the little ones who died, going to the remotest areas where there are few helpers who come; going to Maria’s house out in the toolies – 2 little round-hovels in a compound of bare dirt, 2 10 year old boys fetching water out of a broken water pipe, Maria is not home, no adult is home – in Joburg. So we load one up and go over the 4x4 type roads to the last place in the hills before you go into Mozambique – a little church building (about 15x30) where they were practicing music. We played soccer outside and soaked in the simple beauty of very simple African life – playing with a soccer ball made of a bunch of plastic bags with a balloon tied around them- it really worked quite nice! The 10 year old boys were not Maria’s brothers, but uncles! And no adults were at home. Something said about an older man staying there – freakie. Then we went to another child’s house to deliver food parcels too. He lived in a compound with one cement block house and about 5 round-hovels. This is African extended family – one set of parents dies of AIDS and the kids are just taken care of by the aunt until she dies of AIDS. Then they go to another aunt, until finally they go to the gogo (grandmother). But these people were so alive and vibrant! We grabbed their little babies and pretended we were trading Chris for them – we all played along. We oooed and ahhhed at all the giant avacodos on the trees until they filled a plastic bag to the brim for us. Then one of the aunts who had drunk a bit too much wild pau pau juice came out dancing with Chris – hugging and kissing and spitting over all. It was hilarious and Chris was such a good sport. We topped off the week with them by going to a weekend camp they have occasionally for just the 50 choir kids. It was great fun in the swimming pool and competitive games and singing and dancing – all the good things of camp. And it was in a game park where I saw 3 rhino, some big deer of the sort that have long 3’ horns twisting like a ice cream cones up to sharp points, a lot of zebra and other deer sort of things. But the best thing is to see these kids: they are orphans, subject to abject poverty, humiliation because association with AIDS, unbelievable trauma from watching parents die - and how God is transforming them into happy, godly, disciplined, worshiping children! This is the badge of this organization's wisdom. Jesus said, "Wisdom is vindicated by her children." This is their testimony to all who might wonder if they are doing something right - "Look at our kids!" We got a chance to see some who have been in the program for many years - they are now 20-26. They are mature, responsible, lovers of God. What a powerful testimony.
I preached Sunday morning about how God is a Father to the fatherless. To some degree most of us are a bit fatherless – none of our dads really gave us all we need. Some gave nothing. It is all to degrees. But God said he is the Father to us when we are in that place of lack. And the Word also says that he is the model of all fatherhood (Eph 3), so we learn what fatherhood is from looking at our Father. The first thing: he says he will never leave us or forsake us. He says this 365 times in the Bible – one for every day of the year, and for every moment of fear or lonliness. That is the essence of fatherhood – to commit to be there. many want to have sex and make a baby, but have no intention of being there. that is not a father. Again scripture says that anyone who does not provide for his own family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (I Tim 4)! How seriously the Lord takes this matter of fatherhood – because it is near to his heart! And finally as a Father he wants to tell us, like he told his son Jesus, “Ah, you are my son (or daughter) in whom I am wellll pleased!” He is thrilled with us every moment of the day. He cant wait till we wake in the morning to share something with us that will make our day. How often do we forget about him. But he never forgets about us – he is just waiting with bated breath. Then I asked the kids to sing a song that is their favorite – “You are my shepherd…” It was powerful.

Heather and Tamsin are amazing. They are both young unmarried women who are doing such an amazing job at developing a complex program (choir training, spiritual life training for the choir kids, working in their homes to assist in what ever way they need, feeding them, clothing them, counseling them… And besides that, they are working with another 400 orphans or vulnerable kids in a less intense way – after school programs in 8 schools 4 days a week, feeding, clothing, counseling… And many more things) in the middle of a strange land where they drive on the wrong side of the road for pete’s sake! They go to work at 8 am, often come home 7-8 pm; when Regina is around they have dinner prepared, but otherwise they dine while they are doing email and work on the computer till bed time (don’t count on their house being a single party house! We tried to watch a movie one night and people kept dribbling off to bed.). They have a great property with many buildings on it that will soon be transformed into a center – school, boarding rooms, staff and visitor rooms, etc. Clive and Di Babb are an awesome couple and will be moving from beautiful Cape Town to work on this and other projects. Kyle Showalter is probably going to help them for a few weeks after my family return to the US. Any others what to get in on some construction and orphan work this summer? This would be a great place with lots of youth around. If you are interested contact Heather Heather.Lytle@africanchildrenschoir.com or Tamsin tamsin.scurfield@africanchildrenschoir.com .

We are in Maputo today - fellowshiping with a new work starting here with Children's Cup. They are a discipleship school from Lousiana working on building a church - they already feed 200 kids daily and just started church 5 weeks ago. it is an awesome group.

Bye.

Working with African Children's Choir

I've been part of an enthusiastic audience several times at African Children's Choir performances in the States, but I'm only now realizing that those concerts are just the tip of the iceberg. The choirs' tours in America and Europe are a great vehicle to promote cultural awareness and understanding, but perhaps more importantly, they fund an array of services to additional needy African children who will never see the inside of a tour bus.

4-23-2007

We spent several days last week with Heather Lytle and Tamsin Scurfield, directors of the Tonga Music For Life program in Nkomazi, South Africa, and their seven young-adult team members. This group works with 400 at-risk children weekly through local schools (besides current choir members who live in this area). School officials have selected the 50 most-vulnerable children from among their students. MFL's team divides in half and visits two schools daily to present an after-school program for these children, working with a total of eight schools every week. Besides learning song and dance numbers to perform locally, they also are taught life skills involving teamwork and their value in God's eyes.

The choir itself provides amazing opportunities for a few talented African children. But its influence extends much wider into the community. Music for Life provides clothing and monthly food parcels, as well as linking the sick with medical care. A garden project is benefitting children at a local primary school, and two houses are being built for needy families. Earlier this month MFL held a workshop to train school teachers in dealing with children in emotional trauma.

Music for Life is a relatively new program in Nkomazi, which means that Tamsin and Heather are breaking ground in the community in many ways. During our days with them, we saw that their job does not confine itself neatly to eight-hour days. The genuine spiritual vitality in these two, and also in their young-adult staff members, is refreshing and inspiring to see. There is a heartfelt desire among them to not only draw their strength from God, but to communicate the Way, the Truth and the Life to the children with whom they are working. Pray for these "aunties" and "uncles" as they serve those who are near to God's heart. ---Regina

GUIDELINES FOR ORPHAN HOPE MICRO-BUSINESS LOANS

We are in process with setting up two banks for micro business loans - one in Nkomazi region of SA, and one near Maputo, Moz. If you are interested here are the details. These pictures are of Lenoria and the 21 orphans she cares for. We lived with her for one week and saw her devotion to them. If we can help her start a business she can support these kids much better.

Deuteronomy 15, 7-11 in the Bible.
"But if there are any poor people in your towns when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving to you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards them. Instead be generous and lend them whatever they need. Do not be mean spirited and refuse someone a loan because the year of release is at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the Lord , you will considered guilty of sin. Give freely without begrudging it, and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do."

Orphan Hope is dedicated to helping raise orphans to the glory of God. Because poverty puts many orphans at risk of various dangers, and because business ownership can be a powerfully positive experience, OH is committed to making small loans to create micro-businesses to benefit orphans.
To start, a church or agency or coalition of concerned people must make application for a new project. We believe in partnership without control or ownership. After approval we equip our partner with start-up funds to form the “bank”, and he or his organization or church will also raise some local funds obviously on a very much lesser scale but we see their material contribution as very valuable and it is a clear sign of ownership, risk sharing and partnership.
The leader who is 'on-site' and now in close relationship with us announces the availability of micro-loans for orphan care. The people are informed that credit is available to lend in small amounts for the one purpose of creating genuine self-employment through micro-industries with the sole goal of making it possible to care for orphans, giving them an opportunity to succeed and learn business, and raise them to the glory of God. This will be incentive for more church people to be foster parents to orphans, thus raising the quality of care they receive.
The “bank” is governed by a local committee of, for example, church elders or care workers, including a primary contact person. They receive verbal applications from orphans or those caring for orphans. The committee or their representative trains the applicants to understand and handle their simple responsibilities.
Applicants for Micro-Business Loans may be:
· orphans
· caregivers who house orphans
· churches or agencies or a coalition of concerned individuals who will operate a business to directly benefit orphans.
The amount of the individual loans will usually be $5 - $50, but may be as much as $200. There will be no interest charged for these loans. The loan has to be repaid over 6, 12 or 24 months in weekly installments out of earnings beginning immediately.
We are glad to welcome men and women who cannot read or write and are only able to sign with an X or by the muddy imprint of their thumbs. We have no papers or contracts, we trust the poor. We do not ask for security. Of course the applicant, however poor, has be a person of known background and integrity as well as being a faithful member of a congregation, well known to his or her pastor, priest or other spiritual leader of high repute. The applications committee will make enquiries.
The following practice is essential, not to do this invites failure of the borrowers:
The applicant must be part of a small number of other applicants in a group for self-help, exchange of money-making ideas, encouragement and for the finding of ways out of difficulty or disaster that an individual might face in the future. The group as a whole must take responsibility for the loans of each individual, which means that if one member of the group fails, then the group takes collective responsibility to help that person recover, or ultimately they take responsibility for the re-payment of the failed individual’s loan.
The verbal application has to include the explanation of a simple business plan, enough to show that the project has been diligently considered and is expected to be feasible. The applicant must show that they have the skills to do the job.
There are 7 things that the applications committee will need to know:
a) WHAT is the proposal - exactly ?
b) WHY will this work? Is there a market for the product or service ?
c) WHO is to be involved - who are the customers, the workers, the supervisors, the advisors ?
d) WHERE - will the business be located - exactly ?
e) WHEN will the project start, and when will it be up and running ?
f) HOW MUCH will it cost to set up the business ?
g) HOW will it happen - first step, the second step and so on ?
If the application receives the favor of the committee then the applicant receives the money and begins to work on his her project under the regular weekly supervision and self-help meeting of the group and under the care of the member of the bank committee who calls to collect the repayments. He is perhaps a businessman or home group leader or elder from the church.
As soon as the installments begin to be paid or the loan is repaid in full, the incoming funds are immediately added to the general fund and go out again as soon as possible into the hands of the next approved applicant. The original beneficiary may apply for a further loan to develop their business.
The loans will generally be given to a group of 4-12 individuals in a church, with a recognized church leader as the primary applicant. This leader will be responsible for the payment on the loan and for instructing and holding accountable all other participants in the loans.

Thursday, April 12, Cape Town

We flew to Cape Town yesterday, our first visit to this fabled city. A minivan taxi drove us the 50-minute journey from the airport to Fishhoek, a small beach town on the eastern side of the point of Africa. As we traveled southward, the Indian and Atlantic Oceans coming ever closer to merge their warm and cool waters, the terrain became more and more mountainous, towering rocky crags above populated valleys. Perhaps these rugged mountains that become narrower and narrower and finally make one last valiant effort to stand against the sea at the very point—perhaps only this ruggedness could withstand the battering when seas collide.

There is a unique, exotic feel here, like the setting of an Agatha Christie novel, seemingly far-removed from the Africa of orphans, AIDS and poverty. There’s no question why Cape Town with its natural beauty is a favorite of world travelers. And yet we passed mile upon mile of shantytowns coming from the airport, not a blade of grass to be seen—reminded us of Cite du Soleil, Haiti’s vast slums in Port au Prince. These are the homes of those who’ve come to the city looking for work, most of them unsuccessful—a hotbed of broken families, street-wise kids, abuse, poverty, pain. No sign of all that from our balcony overlooking a cozy beach town amid the hills, mist rising from the distant ocean.

This land is full of contradictions, and things that seemed clear at first glance are becoming more and more complex. We see the crying need of orphaned children, we know of many friends at home who want to come and help somehow—the obvious solution is to build homes (we like that better than the institutional feel of an orphanage), staff them with you our friends, and let them fill with kids. Of course there would be issues of child-rearing, language, etc., but we could teach and model strong families based on godly principles, affection and discipline, etc. etc.

We are rethinking this somewhat after observing a number of ministries to orphans. Iris in Maputo houses 500 children in what we would consider pretty spartan conditions. They live in dorms of about 50 children each, receive three meals a day and schooling. There is a constant stream of Western visitors, 30-40 on any given day, who choose a lucky few to go for a Coke or to swim in a nearby pool. The priority for Iris is to reunite children with relatives if possible. If not, at age 18 they are released into the surrounding community. These who have lived a far-more deprived life than we would want for our own children are encountering big-time problems upon being thrust back into Mozambican society. They suddenly have to work hard just to survive, they sometimes no longer remember their families’ dialect. They long for life back at the orphanage. The same place that protected them also holds them back from the reality of life in their own country. (Iris is taking steps to remedy this by implementing a job-training program for 18-yr olds).

The most effective programs seem to locate Mozambican women who are already housing orphans and come alongside of them with resources, business opportunities, etc. Best-case scenario is when these who serve as front-line caregivers are people who desire to learn—more of God, more about child-rearing, with a Western couple overseeing, modeling fathering and mothering, modeling how men relate to women. Unfortunately, local men seem to be mostly absent from this picture.

We’re still observing, still throwing around ideas, but seeing that we with our naïve zeal may need to step back a bit. That’s OK—we’re open to God refining our vision. That’s what this whole trip is about. What an adventure! Thanks for your support in every way—we stand in constant need of all that God offers us. I read yesterday from II Peter—“his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him.” Everything I need has already been given, everything I need to live life abundantly, to really live and not just exist, and so to bring God glory. Everything I need for godliness, the resources to be patient, selfless, humble, genuine. Thank you for being part of the resources of God to us.