Sunday, April 22, 2012

letter


Dear blogfamily,                                                                                                

Here's the support letter I'm sending to people interested in the adventure God is calling me to. It's a recap of his faithfulness and a summary of my next step. Let me know if you'd like more info.

Thank you for your friendship and support. I’m excited to share stories of God’s faithfulness! Some of you may remember my dream in high school to end world hunger. Ten years ago, God placed a calling on my life for the people of Burkina Faso, a small land-locked country in Western Africa. In His great faithfulness, I am finally planning to visit Burkina Faso for the first time this July.

I will be traveling to the capitol city of Ouagadougou with a team from Walk in the Light International (WITLI). WITLI partners with local Burkinabe leaders for holistic community development in the village of Riahlo. In the last three years, WITLI has helped provide clean drinking water, improve sanitation, and built a school for 300 students.

My visit this summer will focus on developing a school lunch program, providing students with nutritious meals from local crops. I will partner with local farmers to adapt traditional agriculture methods in light of the changing climate and challenges of increasingly frequent and severe droughts.

Another focus of my trip will be to establish and develop relationships with the elders, teachers, and pastors of the Riahlo village. If God wills, I hope to return to Riahlo in early September to spend the 2012-13 school year as an educational consultant. WITLI also hopes that I can partner with local farmers to launch an agricultural initiative. To better support farmers in Riahlo, I also plan to attend a series of trainings this August at ECHO, an agricultural mission school in Ft Myers, FL.

So, what is the purpose of this letter? I want to invite you to join the WITLI team. Here are three ways you can get involved:

 1) PRAY:
Please continue to pray for God’s will to be clear in my life. I’ve already been approved for a year leave of absence from my teaching job in Silverdale, WA. Pray for His will to be obvious.

Please pray for God’s Word to continue spreading through the village of Riahlo. The Christian church already established in the village continues to grow!

Pray for rain! The Sahel region (where Burkina Faso is, just south of the Sahara desert) is currently in a severe drought. Pray for agricultural blessing.

2) DONATE:
If you would like to provide financial support, you can mail checks to:
           
Walk in the Light International
            PO Box 563
            Port Orchard, WA
98366

My summer trip is already paid in full, but WITLI is currently raising funds to build homes for the teachers at the school. Each home will be on the school campus to increase security of school resources and bless the hard-working teachers. Each house will also be equipped with a solar panel, providing the first electricity to the school and village. The houses will be built with local supplies by Burkinabe contractors and laborers. Projected cost is $4,000 per house and WITLI hopes to build four houses. 

PARTNER:
When I return from Burkina Faso in August, I would love to share stories of God’s faithfulness with you and your community. Please let me know if you’d like to host an event with your church or small group.


Thank you for your friendship and support in my life.
May God bless you and your family.

Much love,



Laura 


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Ephesians 5

Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting – all of which are out of character – but rather thanksgiving. For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth – and find out what pleases the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says:

“Awake, O sleeper!

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!”

Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is. And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

hey guys