How You Can Support Building Hope:

PRAY

• Commit to pray for the team leaving on August 29
• For our beautiful new relationship with the brothers and sisters of Hope UMC in Wachara, Kenya
• For Julie Campbell, our missionary and pastor of Hope UMC who currently serves in Wachara for Life for Children Ministries.
• For Life for Children Ministries, the organization that serves to the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of the orphans in Wachara.

GIVE

• Support the mission trip by donating funds. Print a response card HERE.

Our Kenya Mission Trip Team Mission:

• Build God’s Kingdom/Build Kenyan’s Hope/Build Hempfield Church’s Spiritual Growth
• Listen, hear what God is doing
• Learn, how we can be a part of it
• Lay the foundation for it

Team Vision Statement:

Develop a spiritual partnership between Hope UMC in Wachara and Hempfield UMC in Lancaster for the purpose of furthering the kingdom of God in East Africa and Central Pennsylvania.

Core Values for the team:

Love, Humility, Wisdom, Servant Heart, Servant Attitude, Caring, Transparency, Tolerance, Authentic, Meet people where they are and not where we want them to be, Centrality of prayer, Value all gifts, Value and Treasure one another.

Key Scripture:

• Philippians Chapters 2, 3 and 4 Imitating Christ’s Humility
• 2:3-5 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.
• Philippians 1:27-28
• Nehemiah Chapter 2
• Isaiah 40:1-5
• Isaiah 64:8
• Matthew 22:37-38

What is “Building Hope?”

Let us attempt to paint a vision for you, a picture if you will of human suffering and need, a picture of children without parents, without adequate food and shelter, sometimes without clean drinking water and with absolutely little hope for the future. Is a picture developing in your mind?

Can you envision yourself walking along dirt roads, dusty and dry and seeing orphaned children thin and emaciated from drinking water unfit for human consumption? Carrying water, food and other staples on their head for miles and miles? Do you see a sick child being taken for medical treatment 20 miles in a wheel barrow? Yes! We did say a wheel barrow. Are you getting a vision?

As you walk through this village watching the children, you may feel tears welling up in your eyes. Imagine, these children who do not know what tomorrow holds for them. They know not whether they will eat or go hungry, be healthy or sick, live or die.

The picture we hope you will see when you close your eyes is not from a popular novel or from someone’s imagination, no, not at all. It is life, each and every day, in the small village of Wachara in the country of Kenya on the continent of Africa. It is reality for 2.5 million orphans of which 1.8 million of these children are living by themselves, sometimes on the streets in Kenya.

Many of these children would never know the Love of Jesus Christ if it were not for missionaries like Michael Agwanda, Julie Campbell and Life for Children Ministries. As you are aware, Julie is a member of Hempfield UMC, presently working for Life for Children Ministry in Wachara, Kenya. This past Christmas, through the generosity of our congregation and others, a new community and church building in Wachara is now under construction, slated to be completed sometime Fall 2010. Several months ago, Michael addressed both services and stressed the importance of support for the orphaned children and once again, generous and loving members from this congregation pledged support for 22 of these orphans. We believe that Christ is calling this congregation to a personal relationship with our brothers and sisters at Hope United Methodist Church in Wachara, Kenya.

The Building Hope Team, which is associated with the Reach Out Commission has done a great deal of research as to how our congregation can begin to build a personal relationship with a community which has so many needs. It is our hope that we can learn much from the people of Wachara as we grow together, helping one another to share in the work that Christ has given to us. To begin to the seeds and development of this new relationship, we are sending a group of  people that have a calling and spirit for missions work to visit Michael Agwanda, Julie and the ministry of Life for Children in Wachara. Pastor John Longmire, Dan and Cindy Macha, Tom and Barb Clingan, Deb Flores and Julie Welles will be going over to Kenya August 29-September 9. We do not want to imply this is a traditional mission trip because it is not. This is a fact finding trip by members of our congregation in preparation for developing a church to church personal relationship. Our goals for this trip is to really spend time getting to know the people of Wachara, Hope UMC and getting to know the orphans and their guardians. This team will spend several days in Wachara and stay with Julie Campbell, experiencing first hand the needs of the orphans and forgotten people. The team may also, depending on timing, have the opportunity to worship in the new church. The team will return to Lancaster, becoming the eyes and ears of this congregation so we also can experience a closer walk with our brothers and sisters from Kenya. This is just the beginning of a momentous, long-term journey for our church!

Upon the team’s return, the Building Hope team will continue to network with organizations identified and develop a plan of hope and assistance for the future so that we as a congregation, and perhaps other congregations can share in being servants of Christ together with the people of Hope United Methodist Church in Kenya.

In order to plant the seeds for this new, long-term faith mission, we must join together and pray fervently, encourage and lift up the team that will be traveling to Kenya later this summer, support the year-round mission work of Life for Children Ministries, Michael Agwanda and Julie Campbell, and give generously of your resources.

Download a commitment card for praying or sponsoring the trip.

If you have any questions about Building Hope, please contact Julie Welles, outreach director.