SCWC Current Projects

Training Rural Pastors The need for training rural pastors in East Africa is enormous. The majority of churches in rural areas, especially those outside the mainstream denominations, are lead by men who have only a rudimentary understanding of God’s word. It is perhaps for this reason that Christianity in Africa is said to be “more than a mile wide but only an inch deep”.

This situation provides a fertile ground for syncretism and the many ethnic tensions reported among Christian communities in Africa. Syncretism is the state when Christians default to mixing Christian and cultural norms as a standard for their behaviour rather than God’s word only. This is rife among rural Christians in Africa. If this situation continues then the rural church in Africa will wither within a few generations as believers are exposed to error and they continue unfed

by God’s word.

73% of the rural pastors in Kenya have not had any formal bible training.

As opposed to 95% of urban pastors have been to bible school.

Love & Hope for East Africa The only hope for Africa is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God being preached, demonstrated and imparted to the people of Africa.

We are committed to train rural pastors so the true gospel of the Kingdom is preached and people are discipled.

SOMEBODY CARES OF WHATCOM COUNTY 5971 Artist Drive Ferndale, WA 98248

Kingdom Projects:

• Shoes for needy children

Phone: 360-602-1236 E-mail: info@somebodycareswc.org

• Food for Maasai girls escaping abuse • Audio Bibles in Mas and Swahili languages • Computers for church schools • Motorbikes for rural pastors

Spring/Summer 2016

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Equipping Rural Pastors in East Africa Getting the Gospel to Remote Areas The pastors we spend the most time with are the ones in rural areas that are remote and require off-road vehicles to even access.

Walking is the normal mode of transportation for these servants and it gets pretty tiring and even exhausting as their church responsibilities grow; to support the remote villages with the Word of God.

The Problem The road infrastructure in East Africa are not like what we have here in North America. Most travel outside the cities is very done by foot, motor bike or transit bus.

The problem for most rural pastors is that they don’t have the ability to serve their people in a timely manner without modern transportation.

A Solution When we returned from our 2014 mission trip, we discussed how we could best help those pastors we provided teaching for and decided that a motorbike would be an excellent way to help.

We raised monies to purchase 2 motorbikes for 2 rural pastors last year. Each motorbike cost $1,200.

These two pastors can now serve their congregants in a timely manner.

One of those we gifted was to a Bishop that supports 8 rural pastors in very remote areas. These pastors felt so greatful and loved that someone cared enough about them and their ministry to raise the money for a motorbike . Although we gifted them with a vehicle, they will have to provide the insurance and fuel for their vehicles so that they are not feeling that

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Somebody Cares of Whatcom County

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Computers for Church Schools

Footwear for children...

The Digital Divide

Footwear in Africa is extremely important in order to reduce trauma, hookworm and parasitic diseases that enter the bare foot. It is also important to minimize foot infections in the diabetic population, as well as to lower the risk for podoconiosis and Kaposi’s sarcoma.

We live in a highly technical world. The lack of computer technology, reliable Internet and technical education in the developing world puts these countries in a serious disadvantage.

The Church as a Center for Education & Technology We believe that empowering the local church with computer labs and reliable Internet connectivity can make a major difference in developing countries. This allows the church to minister to the whole individual.

As churches in a community combine their resources and desire to teach and train people in the areas of biblical literacy, reading, writing, mathematics, computer software and hardware, these people will have a solid bible and technological foundation to build a successful secular education. The Internet has a lot of FREE education courses in business, customer service, economics and other professional disciplines.

By providing the means for churches to be the center of their community for spiritual AND technical education, they can make a profound difference in the society. We work with churches in the slums of society to give hope to the hopeless with both spiritual and secular education to give people marketable skills.

We seek to provide 8 station computer labs in as many slum communities that have churches that will participate. Each computer lab cost $3,000 to establish due to the donation of used laptop computers by believers that care. Your donation of $200.00 makes a big difference.

Shoes help prevent the spr ead of p ar a si t ic diseases that plague over 1.4 billion people worldwide, and they are a basic human necessity.

The reality of life for many individuals in developing nations is that having a pair of shoes is a rarity. It is not uncommon for children to grow up in these areas without ever having had a pair of shoes at all.

The number of barefoot orphaned children, in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, is estimated to be above 20 million.

By buying second-hand shoes that we deliver to needy children in Africa, you are making a difference in the health and well being of a child for the glory of God. Remember that the shoes you donate should be in good shape.

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Food for Maasai Girls Escaping Abuse

Audio Bibles in Mas and Swahili Languages

In the African Maasai tradition, the coming-of-age ceremony for girls (sometimes as young as 10 years old) is what’s called FGM, or Female Genital Mutilation. It is an extremely painful procedure which can lead to excessive bleeding, chronic infections of the reproductive parts, painful sexual intercourse and difficult childbirths, even death. There are cases of shared and unsterilized objects used in the procedure resulting in HIV/AIDS and tetanus as well damage to the vaginal walls.

Half of the world’s population are unable to read the Bible.

For them, God’s life-giving Word remains tragically silent. Our mission is to empower the Church to fulfill the Great Commission by engaging people in God’s Word. Millions of lives are being changed as a result.

Because of the complexity of this cultural ritual, many parents insist that their daughters go through with it. They view it as protection against poverty for their girls as she is considered desirable as a wife once she’s circumcised. This belief system isn’t easily uprooted.

Clashes between those that want to preserve this aspect of the Maasai culture and those that recognize the devastating impact on young girls is seen in how the girls are now starting to runaway, seeking shelter from their own families.

MegaVoice provides non-readers with the good news of God’s love on solar-powered audio Bibles.

MegaVoice audio Scriptures are distributed by indigenous pastors, mission agencies, Bible societies and translators working in some of the remotest places on earth. The results are amazing!

This Audio Bible is rugged, lightweight and easy to use. Ideal for the visually impaired, elderly or nonreader. It comes with a 110V-220V AC adaptor to charge the battery or it can be charged by putting it in the sun. A full charge typically lasts 10-12 hours. It is ideal for missions. It is a great gift idea for your loved one especially aged parents or relatives. It is easily accessible to the non-tech savvy and easily portable weighing only 2.5oz or 70 grams. This message contains the entire Bible. Hear the narrative of God's plan of salvation for Israel and the nations as chronicled in the sixty-six books written by over forty writers.

Mini Bible College The Mini Bible College serves as the core curriculum for nurturing believers and assisting the spiritual growth of the Church worldwide.

We want to assist Pastor Mark Mujure in providing a refuge for these runaways. We want to provide food, physical as well as spiritual. We want to pray for the salvation of the Maasai tribes because only then can they celebrate their daughters without the pressure of mutilating them to honor their long-held tradition.

By donating US$50.00/month you can provide food for these girls and another US$50.00/month they can attend school (which is so important for females in that culture that DOES NOT provide education for females.

Spanish or other languages).

When you donate $40.00 we can deliver MegaVoice Audio Bible to a pastor in one of the following languages (Swahili, Arabic, Farasi,