Steph1203

Hi All, Sorry for the delay in updating my blog once again. I have been busy trying to reflect on the two weeks since being back. The duration of the mission trip required team members to immerse themselves in many different situations and tasks. The first seven days, as mentioned in my previous blog, was spend in Rwanda where we participated in rural development projects, including funding and working on the construction of two houses; one for a widow and one for a recently orphaned twenty two year old boy who has the responsibility of caring for his two younger siblings. Time was also spent engaging in home visits to various vulnerable families and also learning about, visiting and supporting church led community mobilisation projects. The next eight days of the mission trip were spent in ... read more

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all well. Sorry for the delay in updating my blog. I was unable to access the internet in Rwanda. Well where to begin. I was unsure as to what to expect of my visit to Rwanda but I can safely say the country astounded me! 16 years after the genocide communities are being mobilized by local churches to pull together to learn to help their economic situation instead of being dependent on hand outs and foreign aid. Samaritans Purse has been working hard with local partners to mobilize local churches into true Christian outreach ministry. Saving groups have been established in many of the local churches. These groups consist of approximately 10 people who agree upon an amount of money to save each week. A proportion of this money is ... read more

Off to London tomorrow to meet the rest of the team before flying on Sunday morning :-) The past couple of weeks have been so busy getting ready to fly off but God has been AMAZING!!!! He has totally provided for my every need and the charity auction evening smashed all my expectations in terms of fundraising (even though only approx 20 people turned up I managed to raise an astounding £1035) and my family were so supportive. Both my home church and the church I used to attend at university have been so supportive and have blessed me greatly. I have managed to raise enough money to buy lots of things for the children, including some educational material and some childrens bible stories and colouring books and fun games. All I can see is Praise ... read more

Hi all, So with little under a month to go I think preperations are starting to make headway! I have now managed to get together £550 of total amount needed to be raised and am holding a charity auction evening on the 24th of this month - please pray I start getting more replies and donations from the 76 companies I have wrote too! God is faithful and I thank him so much that he's not letting funding issues worry me or be a source of anguish. I'm very peaceful in my travel preparations compared to normal. I thought I would provide the link for the Samaritan's Purse website for you all to take a look at so that you can gain a deeper understanding of the wonderful work they do: http://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/ Please be praying for ... read more

For those who don't know what this is all about lets take you back a bit! In January this year I placed an application to Samaritans Purse (well known for their ‘Operation Christmas Child’ project - shoe box distribution) to undertake a 5 month internship with themselves, through the North Carolina head office, that was due to start upon my graduation from university next month. This internship would have provided me with an opportunity to learn about the work of Samaritans Purse and different development approaches, all of which are responding to the blighting phenomenon of poverty. I was however unsuccessful in this application. I was initially really disheartened by this and questioned whether God was indeed, as I thought he was, calling me into a career in international development. However, after speaking to a member ... read more