Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

David Bowie-'Changes' Lyrics from that golden era of music...the 70's

There are changes on the horizon.
For the past six months or so, I have felt a sense of change in my life. I have sensed that God had something else in store for me and it was going to be something big. About a month ago, God threw me a major league curve ball.
I received a email from the founder of the Congo Initiative, David Kasali. Dr. David Kasali and I have been building a relationship for about four years now.He was teaching classes at Trinity International U which I have been taking courses at the satellite Elmbrook church location. He and his wife Cassie both have doctorate degrees. Both of them could have nice cush jobs here in the states. But, they have decided to go back to their country to give back what God has so graciously given them. They have co founded the Congo Initiative(CI). They just left this past Thursday to return to their country to help rebuild this war torn country.
The email was to ask if I would be interested in joining CI in a staff role.
The role looked promising. No pay...no guarantees..as the chairman of the board put it...everything is temporary...no benefits...hey this sounds good I said to myself:)This is the way I figured I should look at life. No or little compensation for something you feel compassionate about..we are not guaranteed breakfast tomorrow...and everything here on earth is temporary. This is a fit! So as of this past week, Dawn and I are rolling up our sleeves and joining CI!
Let me tell you a bit about CI.
The vision is to train and develop strong, indigenous Christian leaders to transform their communities and their nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I will be in a role that will facilitate current partnerships, build new partnerships, help with fund raising and search for funds through foundations and grants, and help build a holistic view of ministry for all in involved.
So what does this all mean? It means that my role with United World Mission will be expanded. Not only will I be involved in West Africa, but now the Congo as well.
Something big is on the horizon...and I am gonna have to be a different man...Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

GO TO CONGO INITIATIVES WEBSITE TO FIND OUT MORE...

Mission to Congo

This is a video from Elmbrook church here in Wisconsin. It gives a good glimpse of what's going on in Beni, Congo where the Congo Initiative will operate. Its rather long, but it's worth watching :)

History of the Congo

History of Congo

From 1885 to 1908 Congo was the private property of King Leopold of Belgium who established one of King Leopold IIthe most brutal and exploitative colonial regimes of his time. Established as a Belgian colony in 1908, the Democratic Republic of Congo gained its independence in 1960. Congo's early years of independence were marred by political and social instability. In a 1965 coup, Marshall Joseph Mobutu seized power and declared himself president, changing the country’s name to Zaire. His infamously corrupt rule led to a total collapse of the economy and of political control. Ethnic strife and civil Joseph Mobutu Sese Sekowar, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees in 1994 from fighting in Rwanda and Burundi, led to the toppling of the Mobutu regime in 1997. These refugees included Rwandan Hutu rebels fleeing into Congo to escape reprisals following the genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus. The new president, Kabila, renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo, but in 1998 his regime was challenged by an insurrection backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Other international military actors included Angola and Zimbabwe. A cease-fire was signed in July 1999, but sporadic fighting continued. Kabila was assassinated in January 2001 and his son, Joseph Kabila was named head of state. In October 2002, the Pretoria Accord was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and establish a government of national unity.


Congo, home to more than 60 million people from 250 ethnic groups, was devastated by the war, which began in August 1998. It resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4 million people from violence, famine, and disease. Rebel groups have been linked to widespread human rights abuses of Congolese civilians, including thousands of rapes. Systematic exploitation of Congo’s vast mineral resources by rebel and national military actors largely funded the war and often included forced labor. Hostilities between rival militias and government forces has left hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes and still, more than 1,000 people are estimated to be dying each day in the country due to violence, hunger and diseases. UNAIDS estimates that 5% of the population is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, with some provinces projecting that as much as 20% of the population is infected.



Elections in Congo

In 2006,Joseph Kabila, current President of the DRC After 15 years of instability, the Congolese people took part in massive voter registration expressing a desire to go to the polls to elect their leaders and start the difficult task of rebuilding their nation. To back the transition to a democratically elected government, the United Nations has had its biggest peacekeeping mission in the country with nearly 17,000 troops and police deployed across the country for several years with the dual role of helping to lay the groundwork for the first free polls since independence and overseeing the disarming of forces embroiled in the 1998-2003 war. Recently, the the UN peace keeping force has stepped up its efforts to rein in the militia groups, which continue to rampage in parts of the east. The Democratic Republic of Congo held its first free and democratic election in July and October 2006. Joseph Kabila, who succeeded his assassinated father Lauren Desire Kabila, was elected President, and was installed on December 6th 2006. This ended a power-sharing transitional government period after the five-year civil war. The Church of Christ in Congo, together with other churches in Africa, trained and deployed 10,610 election observers throughout the country to enhance the credibility and legitimacy of the elections. The newly elected government is now attempting to establish legitimate rule over this country, brutalized and impoverished by years of war.

Floods hit Africa

African floods prompt aid appeal


Aid agencies have started appealing for funds to assist people hit by the floods in several African countries.

UN agencies are seeking $43m for Uganda, where the government declared an emergency after 50 people died.

The International Red Cross has sent relief experts to the continent to raise money and deal with emergencies in Ghana and Togo, as well as Uganda.

The UN says 1.5m people are affected by the floods which have hit countries from the east to the west of Africa.

Aid workers say food needs to be airlifted to areas which have lost their crops and are completely cut off.

The British Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal for flood-affected areas across the continent, saying it will work alongside the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to "provide urgently needed relief, including shelter and water purification tablets, to those affected by the crisis".



Our children cannot go to school as their classrooms have been turned into homes and camps for the displaced
John Tanko Bawa, Ghana

The floods are said to be the worst in many countries for decades, with 250 killed and more than 600,000 displaced.

One area particularly badly affected is northern Ghana, where the White Volta River burst its banks following days of torrential rain and large areas of farmland were flooded.

The Ghanaian Navy is helping to get emergency supplies to villages cut off by the floods, but access is slowly improving as flood waters recede, BBC West Africa correspondent Will Ross reports.

There will however be a long-term need for food aid in many parts of northern Ghana, as the annual maize crop has been destroyed just before farmers were about to harvest, our correspondent says.

Floodgates dispute

The Ghanaian government and humanitarian agencies have just ended a visit to the worst-hit areas.

But some villages remain cut off, only accessible by canoe - and all this just weeks after the same subsistence farmers were suffering from drought.

Officials in neighbouring Burkina Faso have denied accusations that they aggravated the flooding in Ghana by opening floodgates on a dam that lies upstream from the countries' common border.

Burkina Faso itself is also badly affected. Displaced people are sheltering in schools while waiting for the government to build makeshift shelters, the BBC's Pierre Kazoni reports.

In Uganda, the first priority is getting food to people whose crops have been destroyed by the flooding, the BBC's Sarah Grainger in Kampala says.

Already, the UN has diverted one helicopter from neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region and the WFP is requesting that two more be made available for the relief effort.

People who have lost their homes to the floods also need tarpaulins and tents and aid agencies are stressing that medical supplies will be important as the threat of water-borne diseases like cholera increases, she says.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7005969.stm

Published: 2007/09/21 16:16:32 GMT

© BBC MMVII

Which way do you go?

A couple of weeks ago my family and I had the great opportunity to backpack in the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin. Here we spent five days in the wilderness. We saw more bears than hikers. In fact we saw no hikers on this 62 mile quest. We saw four bears.

I had some time to just enjoy the quietness and beauty of God's creation. It gave me time to reflect on what God is doing in my life and in the lives of Africans.
I can honestly say that the last two years have been some of the most rewarding times and the most challenging. Our appointee status with United World Mission is coming up on its two year anniversary in October.
Almost two years ago my wife and I decided that we were going to get out of the boat and follow God's call to make a difference in Africa.
What about you? Are you making a difference? This life is too short. And before you know it, it will be over and you will stand before your creator. I don't know about you, but that very thought is exciting and frighting.
I long to hear the words "Good job my faithful servant.Good job."
There are so many ways you can make a difference on your street, in your city, your state, your country and even in remote places around the globe.
Get out of the boat. You can do it....

What's Cooking?

I can't tell you how much I enjoy Senegalese food. It is so good! I just haven't ate with my hands yet. (I am always teased about this as I travel with teams...I just haven't got that far yet :)
Here's a design in the video that I find very intriguing and will be investigating it in my future trips to Senegal. Looks very sustainable and low cost.

Medicine in Port

This March as I traveled to Senegal, I had the great pleasure to travel with Dr. Bruenning ,the founder of International Children's Fund. Dr. Bruenning was investigating the country and looking if they could get involved in Senegal.
We traveled together for two days. I had the opportunity to expose him to the Barthimee Hospital in Theis. Here this former medical clinic turned hospital operates. We also had the pleasure to travel with Dr. Bruenning in the bush. Dr. Bruenning had the opportunity to speak at a rural village church.
After returning home, Dr. Bruenning had agreed to send a container of medicine to Barthimee Hospital. A container worth five million dollars!
I want to thank International Children's Fund and Dr. Bruenning for this commitment to seeing that everyone in Senegal has the right to affordable medicines and treatment.
We received word this week that the medicine is in port and on it's way to Barthimee. Just in time for the malaria season.

What a blessing.

Senegal: Finding Opportunities Through Cheap Chinese Goods

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)

27 August 2007
Posted to the web 27 August 2007

Hamadou Tidiane Sy
Dakar

Allées du Centenaire, a neighbourhood in the heart of Senegal's capital Dakar, may be lacking the trademark red lanterns but in the eyes of locals it is fast becoming the city's unofficial Chinatown.

The area consists of a double row of houses of which the front sides have been transformed into shops. Chinese traders live in these homes-cum-shops, selling cheap goods imported from their home country to local petty traders.

Most of these small informal retailers are young Senegalese, usually with very little capital. Their numbers are growing due to the lack of jobs in the country's formal sector. "I started the business very recently, only two months ago," Mame Sane, a young woman in her mid-twenties, told IPS.

IPS spotted her in one of the Chinese shops in Allées du Centenaire, bargaining over the price of a pair of shoes which she was holding in her one hand. In her other hand was an enormous blue plastic bag stuffed with items she had purchased in similar shops.

She started her business with the measly amount of 50,000 CFA (about 100 dollars). "It is much better than sitting idle at home," said Mame, who re-sells her products to "friends and acquaintances" in her neighbourhood of Parcelles Assainies on the outskirts of Dakar.

She adds 500 CFA (1 dollar) to her retail price for each 1,000 CFA (two dollars) that she spends, she explained.

Mame is one of an unknown number of young people who, on the back of cheap China-made goods, have found opportunities to start their own small businesses.

One sees them going from door to door, offering anything from shoes to electric lamps and notebooks to watches at "unbeatable prices". Others face the scorching heat to run between cars in the busy streets of the capital city, showing their merchandise to motorists. The luckiest ones exhibit their goods in tiny stalls, set up wherever they find space. Trade has been facilitated by the resumption of diplomatic relations between Senegal and China in October 2005, making it easier for Senegalese importers to bring in Chinese products. However, some Senegalese importers allege that their Chinese counterparts are nothing but ruthless profit makers.

According to Senegal's ministry of commerce, Chinese imports represented 94 percent of the total value of goods traded between the two countries in 2006. At a meeting between Chinese and Senegalese business people in Dakar in July this year, Senegal's minister of foreign affairs Cheikh Tidiane Gadio urged an improvement in the balance of trade between the two countries.

Trade relations are "largely in favour of China", the official news agency Xhinua reported on July 13, 2007, indicating that China is the fourth largest supplier of goods to Senegal.

Soumboul Sylla believes that the activities of Chinese traders in Senegal should be better regulated as these activities "represent a threat" to the national economy and to those local large firms which rely on imports.

Sylla, who was involved in textile imports from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates before turning to Chinese products, is a member of the very influential Senegalese Union of Traders and Industrialists (known by its French acronym UNACOIS).

UNACOIS planned a protest march in 2004 against the Chinese presence in the capital. Sylla believes local business should get preference because "while the Chinese traders bring in petty, valueless items and accessories, the Senegalese importers bring in the more important goods, such as furniture and bedroom suites".

In the name of the "free market", the union's proposal was strongly opposed by poor consumers and petty traders who make their living from selling Chinese goods. UNACOIS has since changed its strategy but not its position. The organization is lobbying the Senegalese government to urge its new Beijing friends to obtain "reciprocity" from China. In short, Sylla explained, they want Senegalese traders to be able to open shops, settle and do business in China as easily as their Chinese counterparts do in Senegal.

But the Chinese community who are settled in Dakar also have complaints. "I used to pay customs fees of 800,000 CFA (1,660 dollars) for a container of goods. Now I pay CFA 12 or 13 million (24,000 to 27,000 dollars)," claimed Zhen Yan-Ling in broken French.

Yan-Ling was the only Chinese shop-owner who was willing to speak to IPS, seemingly confirming a perception believed to be true by many Senegalese: that the Chinese community is secretive.

The interview was interrupted by a young man in his early twenties who pointed at a shirt that he wanted to buy. Another bargaining session started. Yan-Ling proposed a price of CFA 700 per piece (1.4 dollars). The young man offered CFA 400 (0.80 dollar), promptly adding: "I will buy 500 items!" And so the two continued bargaining.