Hello, CG friends:
Some of you have expressed interest in supporting the Torah community in Kenya, specifically the LaMalah Centre. You can always support us buy purchasing CG books or workbooks, but we have some donors who simply give expecting no product in return. Especially precious are our donors who give monthly, even if it is only $10 per month.
We wanted to give you a very specific update from Kenya that was too lengthy to include in the weekly newsletter.
Pastor Ndungu and two other gentlemen from the community traveled to Uganda recently to minister the Word of Torah there. All three contracted malaria while they were there, and Pastor Ndungu feels as though he is finally recovering. They plan to return to minister in Uganda again soon!
Things are running well at the Children's Centre, although with donations down last month, they were unable to provide the children a "special" meal for Erev Shabbat. The good news is that the cow is now producing much more milk. Brother Ndungu writes:
The milk production had increased because Abba led me to a man who works diligently. And he also fears our Heavenly Father. His joy is to reside within the Assembly compound and every day after sunset he closes the day inside the Assembly with thanks to Father and seeking for energy for tomorrows work. Hence, after our children has consumed milk, we are also earning about ten dollars per week from milk sales. We hope to have a real dairy farm, Father willing as this would be working towards self reliance.
There are more children who are waiting to be taken into the Centre when finances allow. Brother Ndungu describes one such youngster whose mother is dead and her father is an amputee with only one hand who has difficulty working. He also writes of some boys recently taken in:
Some boys here were being brought up by their grandmother. I think there was never enough to eat. Despite being given enough and being released from school to come and have lunch, one would take what you would call 'corn bread' and put in his pocket. It was such an embarrassment for us when this was discovered in school. I had to buy some dishes so they can pack some food whenever they go to school.
I asked Brother Ndungu what it would cost to support a child for a month, including school needs, healthcare, clothing, and food. His answer is:
To sustain a child and he/she to be fully catered for, food clothing, school and all will need around US $65 plus or minus $5 depending on circumstances like exchange rates, prices of commodities, etc And we have two permanent workers who draw like 120 per month, the best we could bargain for. If Father provides for each child a sponsor who can give $65, it would be too well and maybe we would add children as Father adds other sponsors. However, we do need each an every donor, even those who give $5 or even $10 dollars
You know, I thought to myself, I probably have over $10 in loose change in the console of my car. If lots of people did also, we could literally be the difference between life and death, both literally and spiritually, for some kids. If you could send $65 per month or $5, it's fast worth fasting as the fall feasts approach, especially Yom Kippur, which will not allow us to continue to Sukkot without evaluating our relationship to our neighbors.
What if you don't have the income to contribute, but you'd still like to contribute something? First of all, pray! Pray for this growing Torah community and the children being grown and planted as seed of the Word in a difficult place. Secondly, if you have books or children's clothes that would help the community, you can send a parcel directly there. The postage is expensive, but your local post office employee can guide you through the cheapest methods. It may take several weeks or even months to arrive at the destination, but the sooner you start, the faster it will arrive.
Here are Brother Ndungu's instructions that will minimize the chances of his having to pay a customs charge for the parcels:
If anyone sends us a parcel, you only need to send us the tracking number immediately. With the tracking number, i am sure i would not have to pay or I would pay very little as I would pick the parcel from point of delivery.
Peter W Ndungu
P.O.Box 724
Limuru 00217
Kenya
East Africa
My long-term goal is for the Centre to be able to purchase some adjacent land. Big dream, I know, but I've seen dreams become reality when The Holy One gives the dream and the means. I asked Brother Ndungu if more land could be purchased, and he responded:
We always have people willing to sell land and am sure we can get a parcel adjacent to the assembly. We would also have the opportunity not only to train the children in Torah, but also to work with their hands, to mold them holistically. They would grow knowing the virtues of having to work, something I so much value myself. How I pray Father can provide for a piece of land and more animals to graze.
With our good Father, all things are possible. In spite of some gigantic obstacles, I believe. Please consider joining with us.
Remember this 1988 song by Ray Boltz? Here's a couple of stanzas:
I dreamed I went to heaven
And you were there with me;
We walked upon the streets of gold
Beside the crystal sea.
We heard the angels singing
Then someone called your name.
We turned and saw a young man running
And he was smiling as he came.
And he said, "Friend you may not know me now...
...Remember the time
A missionary came to your church
And his pictures made you cry.
You didn't have much money,
But you gave it anyway.
Jesus took the gift you gave
And that's why I'm here today."
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.
One by one they came
Far as the eye could see.
Each life somehow touched
By your generosity.
Little things that you had done,
Sacrifices made,
Unnoticed on the earth
In heaven, now proclaimed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.
Pastor Ndungu included the following Scriptures in his email thanking us for our support. As we move on the spirit of Passover and Shavuot, let us consider the spirit of the fall fasts and feasts approaching.
James 1.27 Religion that Hashem our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Isaiah 58;1-9 "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
'Why have we fasted,' they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: "Here am I."
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