Throughout our nation’s economic recession we, as a congregation, have stretched, scrimped, gotten by, and, often, barely made it – but we have been constant in pouring ourselves and our resources out for others. Well, the recession grinds along. And the impact on individuals and families of our congregation grinds along, too. The Bible reminds us that one of the cardinal indicators of our faith is to “love one another.” We’re also warned not to let our care for each other come in the currency of best wishes and good intentions, but in real, practical help. There are jobs lost, mortgages in arrears, skyrocketing COBRA payments, out-of-pocket medical expenses, property taxes, utilities, groceries and gasoline. These all belong to our congregation, too.

The Missions Leadership Team, after much discussion, consideration and prayerful decision-making, has designated our Reconnect Christmas project to benefit the Wheatland Salem Care Fund which is used completely and directly for the practical needs of our congregation’s members and friends. This is not part of the regular church “budget” and has been funded in the past by special gifts from individuals and families. The Reconnect Christmas gift will be placed in the Care Fund and administered through the next year under the leadership of Pastor Carol Griffith along with Pastor Scott and Pastor Bob. Funds will be disbursed according to Care Fund guidelines and with accountability to the Church Board. The names of specific recipients and situations will, as always, remain anonymous in their particulars, but we anticipate that as we share these resources together we will also share in general the positive impact in the lives of our sisters and brothers right here.

This is a practical exercise in Christian community that allows for children, youth, and adults to redirect a sacrificial portion of their allowances, earnings, and “Christmas budget” for the care of sisters and brothers with whom we worship, pray, and serve week by week.

Plan to bring you Reconnect Christmas offering on Sunday, December 19th.
Our goal is $50,000

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• the overload of stress
• the anxiety of buying the right gifts for one another when most of us already have so much stuff we aren’t sure where to store it all
• more consumer debt that will take us months to pay off
• the gnawing sense that we’re not so much giving and receiving gifts as we are giving in to the pressure of “Christ-mess”

Worst of all is that somehow in the midst of the celebration we feel like we may have missed the whole point.

Tanzania

Then we heard a story from some of our mission partners in Kigoma, Tanzania. The children didn’t have any place to go. They wanted to build a community center for the kids and for other purposes in the town. It would cost, they said, about $80,000. We thought that would be the kind of Christmas gift that would make Jesus smile: a community center for the children and youth in Kigoma. But who would write a check for $80,000? We would, by God’s grace.

We did not ask anybody to “dig deeper”. (Are you kidding? A recession was gathering steam and a lot of us weren’t feeling fiscally fit).
We simply asked one another to focus on compassion instead of consumption at Christmas and to re-direct 25-50% of what they would normally spend on Christmas gifts to a special offering for a community center in Tanzania.

So on that December Sunday morning we brought our special gifts. …and our mission partners in Kigoma kept track over the internet. And the gifts rolled in. They overflowed. We received $148,000 toward our goal of $80,000.

Now the Community Center is nearly complete (it takes a long time to build in a place where the cement is carried in a basket on your head!). And we are overjoyed. And we believe Jesus is still smiling.

Kigoma October 2010 Update

3 Photos

 

India

So, what do you do after building a community center in Tanzania?
Whatever it was that happened through reconnect Christmas, we wanted more of that in our Christmas celebration from then on! So in 2009 we prayed. And we sent a small team of four WSC members to India to meet up with mission partners there. We went to see. To pray. To listen. To discern.

And here’s what we found:
Children – LOTS of children – in rural villages that are sold into bonded labor and, due to the high interest rates of the “lease” of a child, most often the children cannot be bought back by their parents. A lifetime of bonded labor and no way out.

Other children are left behind in the rural villages to fend for themselves while parents go to the burgeoning metropolitan areas looking for work. And many of these children end up in gangs as vandals and anti-government activists.

Still other children are taken by their parents or by someone who has bought them to beg in the streets of the city. Some of the children are purposely wounded since a wounded child’s begging is often more profitable.

Our hearts were broken. God’s heart, too.

“What is the way to break this cycle?,” we asked our partners who work in the villages with the children and their families. n“Education,” they said. b“Knowing how to read and write and preparing to take entrance exams for higher education…that is the way for a different future.” “Okay, but do you know anything about doing that? “, we wondered. “Yes. We’re doing that already and have been for years. We provide education for street children through our Alpha Schools. Some are already in what you call junior college or a regular college; a few are beyond that in medical training or engineering school.”

“So what do you want to do here?”, we asked.

“We want to build a school for the children in this district where they can learn, can be safe, and can experience God’s love for them personally.”

So when we returned to Wheatland Salem we presented what we saw and heard to the Missions Leadership Team and the Church Board and we all decided to ask the congregation, during another year of a deepening recession, to re-direct 25-50% of what we spend on Christmas gifts for the purpose of building a school in Mahbubnagar district for the children. We prayed for a special Reconnect Christmas offering of $100,000. We received $111,000. We rejoiced. We think Jesus smiled.

Then the hard work began.
We tried to purchase land – it was unimaginably expensive
We attempted to enlist other churches here as partners – but they had other priorities
And then a secessionist movement gathered steam in Andhra Pradesh that put all land deals, political boundaries, and local authorities “on hold”. And when things are “on hold” in India, it can be a very, very long time.

It looked like our plan was in deep trouble.

But God’s plan was not. Our partners in the mission were not focused on land, but on the children. The strategy remained the same, but the delivery method changed. They opened an Alpha school in leased space in Shamshabad (Mahbubnagar district) and then five more Alpha schools in another district far to the north where the situation for children is, if you can imagine it, even more tragic.

So now, less than one year later, there are nearly 600 children in school – in areas where there was no school available to them at all just twelve months ago.

Here’s something else: our mission partners launched this without a dime from us. And then they asked if our special Christmas gift of 2009 could be used for these schools. And since we were pretty clear that the gift was for the benefit of the children rather than building a building with our name on it, we said, without hesitation: “YES!”

So here’s the way it’s working out: our special gift will secures the leases on these facilities and pays the teachers for about two years for about 600 children.

But what then?

A new partner has emerged: Bright Point for Children (brightpointforchildren.org). Our new friends at Bright Point, an experienced ministry that has been developing Christ-centered sponsor relationships in several countries including India, have committed to finding sponsors for all of the children in the schools over the next two years so that the ongoing costs for leases, materials, and teachers will be provided after our seed money is used up.

Jesus has got to be grinning from ear to ear!
We’ve been sent together under the influence of the Holy Spirit for the healing of the world in Jesus’ name.

What’s next for Reconnect Christmas?
This has been too exciting so far.
Some of our families have adopted a new Christmas tradition of re-directing 25-50% of what they would have spent on themselves for the purpose of a special Christmas gift on behalf of the least and the last in other parts of the world.

We have spent some time designing and constructing the stairs to the radio/recording studio.  This is a Lowell Wertz design.  We built the pillar of Hercules, 20 inch square, rebar reinforced column,  then a metal platform landing for outside the second story door, then a metal beam made from angle iron and flat stock to support the stairs, and finally the stairs.  They aren’t done yet, but you can get the idea.

The floor in the BIG room has been poured.  It took some weeks as it is a lot of concrete to mix by hand.  All concrete for floors has been poured except for the toilets and kitchen.  We still have some plumbing work to do in those rooms, first.  We are still considering the floor finish, if it should be tile or what.

We are going to finish up the library first.  The walls have been plastered and the electrical system is in.  Won’t be long now.

Outside, we are creating an entrance way — porch area, so when it is raining the crowds can come and go without problems.  The poured pillars and beams will eventually hold a roof.  Those two doors will be the main entrance.

Lots of other jobs have gotten done.  The walls have been build up to roofing.  The metal conducts are in for the microphone wiring from the recording studio to the stage area.

Kigoma April Update

22 Photos

 

Our goal was $100,000 in one special “Reconnect Christmas Offering” on December 13th. The economy has been in the tank. A number of our church families have either lost their employment, fear they might lose their employment, and/or have already seen their compensation reduced as their company seeks ways to avoid layoffs. And besides, with all of the hurt here at home, why raise a boatload of cash to send to the other side of the world?

It seems more than the usual number of comments have been spoken, e-mailed, and voicemailed that “this will never work” because of the economy, or people are “worn out”, or “we need to focus on ourselves.”

Well, it’s true. The economy is still shaky and people are worn out (I’m pretty singed myself right now), and we have a bundle of big challenges before us as a congregation. No doubt about all of that.

So, did I want to “pull the plug” on the Reconnect Christmas project…in September, October, November, last week? Nope. I was hanging the whole thing on what we had all told one another over the past two years of congregational self-assessment. We said that a core value of our congregation, something that is true at all times and in all situations, is that we are a missional church. Taking away the “missional” component of our Christmas celebration would be like taking down the Christmas tree on December 20th or cancelling Christmas Eve services because it would be dark out, or deleting the Christmas carols from our worship these weeks because, well, there are other songs to sing and, besides, some of the carols are hard to sing. Foregoing a “special offering” on December 13th would be like denying ourselves. It is something we simply cannot do.

I had no “inside information” on the outcome. Just a confidence that we actually are a missional congregation. It isn’t marketing or wishful thinking. It is who, by God’s grace, we have become.

So the preacher preached (and cried a bit, too — at least at 9:45 service), the songs were sung, and the offering was taken: $106,000+ (with a bit more dribbling in this week). And, remembering that there indeed are children nearby in need, we also brought to worship over 1,200 toys for them.

I don’t know about you, but I am very proud of Wheatland Salem Church for being true to ourselves. The other challenges remain and the needs are still enormous here and around the world. But I feel much more prepared for Christmas now that we have given our attention to things that Jesus himself said were most important.

–Pastor Scott Field, Wheatland Salem Church

Mahbubnagar is not a town or village. It is district within the state of Andhra Pradesh (aka A.P.). Andhra Pradesh is located in south central India. A district is somewhat equivalent to a county in the U.S.

You can check out the maps of India website to get your bearings for the country, state, and district.

http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/andhrapradesh/districts/mahbubnagar.htm

Mahbubnagar: Just the facts

Mahbubnagar district is a poor rural area with frequent drought, subsistence farming, difficult living conditions scattered across almost all of the villages, low literacy levels, and poor public education.

http://www.indianetzone.com/43/mahbubnagar_district.htm

The side of India untouched by economic progress: subsistence agriculture

Rural agriculture in Andhra Pradesh state of India was profiled in a New York Times article on September 5, 2009. Read the article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/world/asia/05drought.html

Next week we will try to get the concrete ceiling poured over the recording studio. We are using concrete to make the ceiling for sound proofing.

In two weeks the Kingwood UMC construction team arrives to put the roof on the building. Remember them in your prayers as they plan and prepare.

Blessings,
Lowell

This view is the end of the building that will hold the library (on the ground floor) and recording studio (on the second floor). You can now get a good feel for the size of the library as the walls are completed for the ground floor.

The two window are for the kitchen of the community center (ground floor). On the second floor, above the kitchen, will be offices.

For the safety of the workers, I have forbidden bricks and mortar to be placed on the scaffolding. Not exactly OSHA approved.

Here is how the bricks are transported. These women work long hours and are very grateful for the job. This construction project is giving employment to many who are in great need of income.

We are getting ready to pour the second story floors. We decided to paint the floor joists (trusses) before installing them. Here we are giving them a coat of red oxide primer and a top coat of black paint. It is much easier painting them before we put them into place.

We poured a reinforced concrete lintel to place the joists ends. We felt this would assure the weight of the second floor being better distributed along the whole wall.

The joists are in place as we being the process of pouring the floor for the recording studio. Seen are the concrete and steel reinforced vertical pillars that will strength the walls. These pillars will be extended to the top of the walls. The joists are being placed on 21 inch centers, a bit closer than the plan calls for (24 inch on center) but that will increase the strength of the floor.

At the same time we are building the Community Center, we are also constructing a Utility building that will provide for water, power, and other essential services needed by the Community Center and other buildings on the site.

This is a picture of our 11,000 gallon water tank which we just finished. We are just getting ready to pour a concrete lid for the tank. The walls of the tank are five bricks thick and reinforced with rebar. Along the top of the tank two white pipes are sticking out. The one on the left is the water inlet from our underground well. The pipe on the left is the overflow pipe, so if our automatic pump switch fails, the water will come out of that pipe and can be seen by our workers — rather than flooding the utility building.

The tank will be the “end room” of the utility building. You can see the edge of the tank in the left of this picture. The foundations are already constructed for the rest of the building and we expect to start on the walls soon. We need to the building up as soon as possible as it will hold the backup generator and water pumps for the site. Other things like a laundry facitlity and showers are planned.

Again, a BIG thank you to Wheatland Salem Church for the gifts that are making this construction possible. We are doing our best to turn your generous gifts into a facility that will bring praise and honor and glory to Jesus Christ in the years to come.

This doorway will someday lead to the new library.  We have thousands of volumes of good Christian books we are excited to get catalogued and made available to the pastors and Christian workers in our area.  Above this room, on the second floor, will be the radio studio.

Notice the reinforced concrete pillars and reinforced concrete ring beam.  We are doing everything we can to make the building earthquake proof.  We have had a 6.7 quake here.  None of our buildings failed.  We make them strong.

Above is the construction of the new water tank — which is the end room of the new utility building.  A college student, Ryan, from KY is out helping and for the first time is trying his hand at laying brick.  Our new water well is producing 14 gallons per minutes of pure water and will give us a clean source of water for the community center and visitors’ guest houses.  No more boiling our water!  This new tank will hold thousands of gallons of water.  This picture was taken earlier in the week.  The tank walls are now four feet high.

Well, our scaffolding might not be OSHA approved.  All work is done by hand under the blazing tropical sun.  Notice the burglar bars on the new windows.

This week we received another 15,000 bricks.  We decided to make the building’s walls three bricks thick, so we needed additional bricks.  The rolls of wire mess are for the concrete floor, when it comes time to pour it.

-Lowell & Claudia

I wanted to share some pictures with you of the progress on the Community Center building.

We had to stop construction for two weeks as a medical team was out from Texas to run a free clinic for the poor. We converted the computer school into a clinic and over 1,500 people were treated. As you can imagine, it was all consuming.

Many were seriously ill. We lost some few patients but hundreds have experienced healing in both body and spirit. We had over 40 people working in the clinic — including a team of four pastors who visited with and prayed for patients. Kigoma has never seen anything like this before, and so many have been blessed and deeply touched by the Christian love shown to them. This was one of those great experiences in life that I will never forget.

So many exciting things are going on right now. A missionary from Texas has volunteered to put in two water wells for our ministry. Since we have been without city water for 5 months, this was really exciting. We had 12 women carrying the water for the construction of the ministry center in 5 gallon buckets on their heads from Lake Tanganyika to the site. They could hardly keep up the with need for water to make cement and mortar. After weeks of drilling we got the well down 214 feet. We hit lots of good clean water. With the new pump installed, we now have water for construction and hopefully, for years ahead for the entire ministry site. The well at the community center is finished and he moved his drilling rig to our house — about a block away. Today he hit water again at our house and we now have water for our residence, too. The value of each well, if we had paid to have them drilled, would be $25,000 each – with no guarantee of water.

The Community Center is now back under construction. The two attached pictures are as follows:

Women's Restroom

View From The Kitchen

This picture is taken from inside the kitchen overlooking the main room (toward the library and radio studio). We had to fill the building in with dirt and we are watering the dirt everyday to help it pack down tight before we pour the floor. The metal, tower-like structures are the rebar for concrete reinforced pillars.

New Utility Building

This picture is of the new utility building that is also being built (right next to the community center building) in support of the community center and the whole ministry site. In the foreground is the new well. The next square where the fellow is putting down stones will be the water tank. Additional rooms include showers (if we use the community center to sleep a work team), generator room, store rooms, and laundry. The tower in the background is one section of our home-made radio tower (made from water pipe).

New Community Center

Here is another shot of the community center building. We are starting to install the windows and door frames. The bricks are piled up so we can continue putting the wall up as soon as the doors and windows are set. Once we reach the top of the doors, a reinforced concrete “ring beam” will be poured all the way around the building. It will be the first of three such ring beams used in this building.

All work is being done by hand and there is no heavy equipment being used. It takes time but the result will be great.

Thanks again to all our brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus at Wheatland Salem for the sacrifice made at Christmas to make this all happen. We guarantee the construction work on this building for 100 years!

Blessings to all,
Lowell