The Gemach Project

“The help we received from The Gemach Project through the loan is so great!  I was not easily able to have food for my children or to meet other needs.  But since we have had the help  from the loan we now have food everyday and have a small amount of money for other needs.”

“My business is to buy onions in Butembo at a low price and then drive to Kisangani and resell them where the price is higher.  I have  good benefit in the dry season as the road is good for traveling, but when it rains the roads become impassable and the onions may spoil.  In general the business is not so bad.   God continues to help us and we now have no problem buying food or other small needs.”

“I am also able sometimes to buy a special diet for my daughter who has diabetes.  Before it was a very big problem to care for her and I was afraid for her life and future.  I remember one day when she was in the hospital crying during the night.  The doctor said that she would need a special diet.  My daughter asked me how I would be able to buy special food for her.  She thought that she would not be cured.”

“The compassion of the people who are willing to help others in need is a great action that gives new strength and new hope in our lives.”

“May God bless all of the staff of The Gemach Project and all who are supporting their activities.”

Kahindo was given a $100 loan in January of this year.  She has already paid back 25% of that loan and has been able to put some money into savings.  Thanks to all who are supporting the efforts of The Gemach Project -  It works.

Faipe Kasoki

Faipe is a widow.  She is 95 years old and lives off of the little that the local church can give her.  She has no other source of income.  She is not alone.  In the village of Malendi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo there are thirty widows living in this single small village.  They have no hope of finding jobs nor is there any hope of a better life.

They are not all old.  Many, such as Mbavugha Kahindo who is only 46 and widowed, have children to raise.  Mbavugha has four children to try to care for.  Those that are young still have children to raise and many of those that are elderly are not physically fit to do work even if they could find it.

Mbavugha Kahindo

The Gemach Project has teamed up with the local church to help these thirty widows and their children.  The church has donated land to the widows where they are building chicken coops so that they call sell eggs.   Once the coops are completed The Gemach Project has agreed to give these group of widows a large interest free loan that they will all be responsible for.  We have pledged $1,000 so that they can buy chickens, feed, cartons and any other supplies they need so that they can start a group business and change their lives forever.

The widows of Malendi

We ask for your help.  For a donation of only $35 you can change a life.  You can change that life forever.  Not buy them food for a month or send a child to school for a month but change their lives.  They will be able to start a business and generate an income from now on.  They will be able to take care of themselves and not depend on anyone for handouts.  Help them to restore their dignity, to put food on their table and to take care of their children.  Click on the donate tab on our homepage and give.  Give not only to the widows of Malendi but to the widows, orphans and poor that we are helping in six countries.  They don’t need handouts they need a chance.

I received this e-mail from Ortiz this morning. Ortiz is a Christian man whom I met at a pastor’s conference in Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was immediately taken by his friendliness and devotion to God. He is not a pastor but he attended the conference because of his desire to help those in need. He quickly became the obvious choice to help us administer the Gemach Project in Butembo. He has provided business training and guidance for those we have given loans to. His assistance has been invaluable to The Gemach Project. We have reached out to others in Butembo to help with The Gemach Project and have assured him that he could not of done a better job for us than what he has already done. As you will see in his email Ortiz is currently in hiding from bandits that have come to his house several times looking for him.  We have asked him to concentrate on the safety of his family and himself at this time. We do not know if his administering our loans and distributing Gemach funds to the poor has made him a target or if there are other reasons. We ask for your prayers for him and his family so that he can live in safety.  I have also included a photos of a few of the widows that we are trying to help in Malendi and a photo of Ortiz.  (Ortiz refers to me as Daddy as I am old enough to be his father.)  This area of the DRC has seen a lot of violence and I am sure that the danger is genuine.  The orphanage that we are helping in Butembo was founded because the business man that it was named after was killed by seven bandits that came into his business in the middle of the day and shot him.  Please pray for Ortiz.

You will notice that Ortiz addressed the needs of others and the progress of The Gemach Project in his e-mail before he mentioned the danger to him and his family.  A reflection of the kind of man that he is.

Hallo Daddy.

I’m so pleased to write to you this time to make you know that the loans for the Bible school are going well, and the pastors has chosen several activities, some are selling fishes, some are selling second hand cloves (clothes), some again have made a breeding of pigs…  so they are happy and hopeful. As you know, the beginning is difficult. Some of them didn’t even know what t do with the money and they are waiting for me to tell them what king of business they can take. So the GEMACH PROJECT has become an additional burden to me as you can notice.  I pray God to give me strength because I have to advise each of them individually and frequently.

By the way, we have taken with Bishop Nzeghesi a proposal,   according to the widow project. We have find that there is a big need of eggs in the area, so the widow will produce eggs by breeding chicken. So I asked them to contribute to the project by building a shed were chicken could live, they are doing it now. So if you can support them with the 1000 dollars of loan it could be a wonderful achievement.

For my self, I need your moral support because at the moment I’m sending you this e-mail I’m not home because I fear for my life. A group of bandits has reached home for more than 3 times this month and wanted to kill me. I don’t know what is the mater yet, but I’m steel hide my self at 50 km. so kip on praying for me Daddy.

I apologise for may English again.

Have a good time

ORTIZ MUKOTSI

ACACIA CHAIREMAN

Butembo DRC – Our trip to Butembo coincided with a three day conference for area pastors     dedicated to working out their denominational differences so they could focus on evangelism.  Kevin Tracy, outreach pastor for Grace Chapel in Centennial, Colorado, went with me on this trip.   He became the keynote speaker each morning of the conference and they would build on his message throughout the day.  They have told us that it was a great success; they would like Kevin to return for a much longer conference in the future.   Each day after the conference, we would travel to areas throughout the city where we discovered vast poverty.   Butembo is a city of 800,000 to 1,000,000 people.  It is a city without any paved roads, no electricity, no postal service and little sanitation.  They communicate by cell phone.  Internet is available for a fee at a few Internet cafes, when they are up and running.  We interviewed teachers who were making from $10 to $50 a month, including a school administrator who made $20 a month.  The majority of the people in this area are surviving on less that $1 a day.  Yet, the price of a pound of meat is $1.75, a loaf of bread is $1.10 and 38 eggs cost $5.00.  A man making $10 a month with a wife and four children (the average is five) can only provide one egg every other day to each of his family members.  Protein is not a large part of their diet.  Although opportunities are innumerable for Gemach in Butembo, after prayerful consideration, we have chosen to concentrate our initial efforts at the following two locations.

The first is a four-year seminary school.  Pastoral students bring their wives and children with them and since they are unable to work while attending school, they live in extreme poverty.  Families stay in a two room shack with no plumbing or sanitation.  They live off of what can be grown, donated or what small jobs their wives can secure.  When they graduate, they go to their respective areas to begin congregations in another impoverished area, and continue to live in extreme conditions, so that they can proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ.  There are currently eight students at the school.  The staff includes a school administrator who is paid $20 a month and ten other staff members who are paid $10 a month.  The staff members are forced to look for outside work, and if they find some, then many times they are late to teach their classes or are unable to make it at all.

The  Gemach Project has agreed to make nineteen loans at this location for $80 each.  Eight will go to the students and the other 11 to the staff and administrator.  These businesses will be operated by their wives, so that they can concentrate on their school work and so that teachers can be at their classes on consistently, and on time.  This may enable the students to graduate in a shorter time period or time, thus allowing the school to produce more of God’s servants to go out into the Congo to preach.   Every effort will be made to pay the loans back in one year.  Next year eight new students will receive the loans.  We have asked that they give eight more of the loans in the second year to widows in the village of Malendo, which we were fortunate enough to visit.  Each additional year, the overseer of the school, who is also the head of several local churches, will ensure that new students get a loan for their families and remaining loans will go to the poorest in their congregations.

Our second location is in Butembo, at an orphanage that was begun after the violent death of our host’s brother.  He was shot and killed two years ago by seven gunmen who came into his business and shot him.  This left his daughter an orphan;  the extended family started an orphanage in his name.  His daughter is pictured presenting us with a basket that she had made as a special gift for us.

The children stay with extended family at night, or in some cases with foster parents who will take them in.  While at the orphanage they are taught skills such as sewing. In the future they will learn carpentry so they have some way to survive.  It is our hope that we can fund 20 loans at this location.  Ten loans will be given to the older children to start businesses and support themselves and ten loans to be given to those that are taking in orphans as foster children.

Again we ask that you pray with us concerning all the people we will serve, and for all of the projects we are featuring during December 2010.  Pray for these people and organizations to be blessed. Also, please seek the Lord’s guidance to determine if He will direct you to donate to these projects before the end of the year.

Thank you, and God bless you!