THANKSGIVING / GIVING THANKS

This year has been an amazing year: one that I will remember the rest of my life.

Yesterday we went to Melissa's parents and had Thanksgiving lunch with them. We went around the table and each of us shared two things (no repeats!) we are thankful for in 2008. We should have really had every person share 20 or 30, since we have so much to be thankful for in this great country of ours!

So this morning I thought I would share my special Jubilee Village Project Thanksgiving List. Here are some things I am most thankful for related to JVP in 2008:

• The God of the Universe and all Creation cares about all people -- whether we acknowledge him or not
• The Holy Spirit binds together the hearts of God's people across great divides -- in the case of JVP these include a continental divide and an economic divide
• The Son has provided us a restored relationship with the Triune God and an example to live our lives here on earth
• For my friendship with John Cory who inspired me to get on a plance and go to a village that I had never seen before
• For the boldness and faithfulness of David Kayando, whose prayers for his village is what started the River flowing that we have now joined
• For my wife, Melissa, who has encouraged me to follow God's call on my life to help the village of Kager (even while I was unemployed and probably needed to be looking for a job)
• For our trip to Kager in October, where we made many new friends and the vision for the Project was solidified and confirmed
• For the Partners (Team Indiana) and Champions (Team Kager) that are stepping up to servant leadership roles on the Project
• For the book "Rich Christians in the Age of Hunger" by Ron Sider, which planted a seed of "jubilee" in my heart that has taken 15 years to come to the surface in a real and tangible way
• For my church, East 91st Street Christian Church, which inspires and encourages "ministry entrepreneurs" to dream big and take risks for God
• For my group of Noble Men and my Pastor Derek, who hold me accountable and encourage me in my daily walk with Jesus
• For ministries like the Institute for Affordable Transportation, New Life International, Chapin Foundation and Aqua Clara Foundation, all of which have created innovative and appropriate solutions to help end poverty in the world
• For the Internet, which allows me to communicate to others and learn from others (from people I will likely NEVER meet)
• For the health and wealth God has provided me, and for the wisdom and understanding to realize I have been given this for God's glory, not mine

As I searched the Scriptures this weekend for what the Bible teaches us about "giving thanks", I thought these Words were especially relevant to the Jubilee Village Project:

• (2 Corinthians 2:14-16) But thanks be to God, who always leads us in the triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
• (1 Corinthians 15:57-58) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Christ Jesus! Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
• (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Praise be to God!

Ned

WHAT JUBILEE VILLAGE PROJECT MEANS TO THE VILLAGE OF KAGER

I want to share two testimonies I received today from our friends in Kager Village. One testimony is from Bishop Christopher who founded the Kager Church and is the spiritual leader of 20 churches in the denomination that he serves and leads. The other is from Pastor David Kayando, who is our Jubilee Village Project Lead Champion and serves as an Evangelist and is the Administrator for the Kager Mission Dispensary (Pastor David is in the top left, Bishop Christopher is at the bottom)

It is my hope and prayer that God will continue to bring us more and more people who want to bring God’s love and sustainable transformation to this village through holistic solutions and people-to-people partnerships. I know there are lots of needs around the world, but I think the “one village at a time” focus of the Jubilee Village Project offers people a real and tangible way to see how God can work through His people to impact an entire community.


FROM BISHOP CHRISTOPHER KAYANDO


Our Village Kager has come along way. I am now 60 years old, and the greater part of my life has been spent in Kager Village. It is in Kager where I was born and brought up.

As a young man from a very poor family and poor village I had to drop school at a very early stage, since my parents could not afford school costs at that time and also there were so many of us in the family with very meager income. I left home as a teenage boy to go and look for employment in town.

In 1965, I met the Lord as my Saviour and came back home to share my testimony, which received a very strong opposition. After sometime, the Lord’s calling came to me to become a full-time preacher.

I was able to plant the Kager Church (Kager Vision Centre or KVC), which has now been a place of spiritual transformation for the village. The church has weathered very strong winds of opposition and hatred, but today everyone in the village has been touched by God’s word preached at KVC.

However, I must say our community has had a major set-back in its development, and POVERTY is the major cause. With the Jubilee Village Project coming in at such a time as this, I know God is answering the prayers of many saints, who have died without seeing this in their lifetime but would have wished to.

Looking at the structure and mission of the Jubilee Village Project, I see this as a solution to the long-time needs of Kager Village.

In summary, I see the Jubilee Village Project bringing life after death for Kager Village.

May God bless the Jubilee Village Project and make their mission and commitment to Kager Village a reality.


Bishop Christopher Kayando
November 19, 2008


FROM DAVID KAYANDO, JUBILEE VILLAGE LEAD CHAMPION


It is with a humble spirit and contrite heart that I am able to share with you what the Jubilee Village Project means to Kager Village.

I have been living in Kager since my childhood, and over the years I have known what life is for people in Kager Village. Being brought up in a Christian family and nurtured in Christian Faith and Values, I have so much been inspired by the life of Jesus to the poor, the sick and those in need. As I grow up to adulthood, the heart of sympathy, care and love has gripped my heart and made me captive.

The Christian Faith I was brought up with, so much influenced what I am and doing today. I entered into full time Ministry as a preacher immediately after my ‘O’ level education, and whenever I have worked, I have known one major and dominant challenge to our work and the village, POVERTY.

God in his kindness and goodness has been with the village of Kager for many years. The message of salvation has transformed the hearts of many people and I am certain that this has been an oasis of hope for this village.

Even though poverty has continued to suppress and have a firm hold over this village, the hope that comes by having faith in God’s word has sustained Kager.

As a child of God, and now God’s servant, I have always encouraged the village in having trust in God to provide, but inside my heart, I have always shed tears of pain when I see children grow up knowing nothing about good health, good nutrition, clean water, shelter, clothing, poor education and completely having no hope.

Another point that has pricked my heart is the spirit of selfishness that I have seen in our local governors who have an access to bring help but have marginalized Kager, and also people who are in position to bring back hope to the community but have become selfish.

My prayer for several years now, is that God would bring hope to Kager Village through the Church and use ordinary people to bring meaningful transformation to the village.

My connection with Ned Campbell and hence with the Jubilee Village Project is absolutely divine. I have not doubt that JVP is my answered prayer for my Village Kager and eventually an answered prayer to the cries of little children who have cried for food when they are hungry and cannot get it and the children who have cried for health when they are sick. JVP is a solution to the women who have borne the family burdens of bringing water on their backs for long distances, fetch firewood for family energy.

JVP is a solution to the Kager men to inspire and motivate them to work so that they are able to provide for their families, so that they will no longer face the upsurge of their own sons becoming juvenile and indulging in bad practices and blaming them for not being able to educate them and provide for them.

Jubilee Village Project is a solution and an empowerment tool to the churches in Kager Village to let them know that they have a responsibility and a mission to fulfill, not only in providing spiritual food, but also by showing love, and being able to practically reach out to the Villagers.

JVP is a solution to the local authority whom I know will as well be inspired and know the love and care of Christ. Many people in Kager Village have responded so positively with the mission of JVP. They are seeing JVP as an oasis of hope to fight poverty in their village.

One inspiring thing about JVP is its open and selfless leaders, who are ready to face the enormous challenges (THE GOLIATHS) of our village with no resource at hand but trusting in God. During the visit of partners from Indianapolis by Ned Campbell, John Cory and Craig Hanson, they made the vision clear, and had no difficulty in presenting their mission, and this was like a writing on the wall that better things are on the way for Kager Village, when they hope and trust in God.

My special appeal to everyone who reads this essay, is that God has put you in that place where you are to bring a difference to the Villagers of Kager.

The best way to do this, is to support the work of JVP by giving financial donation and become apart of the movement which has a strong current of the River flowing with the message of holistic Transformation to Kager Village.

May God give strength to your hands and joy to your heart to become an Ambassador of Kager Village through the Jubilee Village Project. With your love, prayers and donations to JVP, the children born in this era of JVP in Kager Village will have a testimony of God’s love and care to them. And the story will be re-told for the generations to come.

“Greater Love has no man than this that a man lays down his life for his friends”

God’s blessings

David Kayando
Evangelist and Kager Mission Dispensary Administrator
November 19, 2008

HOUSEHOLD SMOKE - A DEADLY KILLER

One of the things we learned most during our time in Kager was the amount of time and energy that the women of the children spend gathering water and wood fuels, and then more time preparing fires and foods. There is little to no food storage, and usually meals are made one-at-a-time. I think "leftovers" are a by-product of electricity and refrigeration -- something that most of us probably don't even stop to think about.



We also learned firsthand what it meant to have open cooking fires in the house (which most homes do) -- smoke is always served as an "appetizer" for any meal, and there is always plenty to go around. I had observed this before on my mission trips, but it really took living in a home in the village for four days to really realize what a challenge it is to be a "house wife" in the developing world.


In my recent research on the effects of "household smoke", here is what I learned from the World Health Organization website (http://www.who.int/indoorair/en/ ) and a few others:

• 3 billion people depend on solid and biomass fuels today (wood, charcoal, dung, agricultural residues) for their energy needs


• Most of these 3 billion use open fires or traditional stoves, which produce particulate pollution levels 20 times higher than WHO guidelines


• Indoor air pollution is responsible for 2.3% of the global burden disease


• Indoor smoke leads to the deaths of over 1.5 million annually -- MORE THAN THAT CAUSED BY MALARIA


• A child exposed to household smoke is 2 to 3 more likely to catch pneumonia, which is one of the leading killers of young children


• Indoor smoke is fourth greatest risk to death and disease in the poorest countries


• Women spend 3 to 7 hours a day by the fire, giving them the most exposure to this deadly killer


• Smoke produced from indoor cooking is equivalent to smoking to packs of cigarettes a day

I also found this really interesting graphic that does a pretty good job of showing just what effect the use of solid and bio fuels has on the average household in the poorest countries (from WHO website): it affects incomes, health, women's productivity and the environment. It has really started us to think that one of the most transformational projects we might embark on is to "modernize the kitchens" of Kager to take advantage of already avaiable technologies: higher efficient stoves, smoke and fume hoods, and food canning. Through a series of e-mails with Brother Kayando, we have asked him to make an appreciative inquiry of the women in his village and see what the level of interest they would have in such an initiative. One of our ideas is to set up a "demonstration kitchen" in the building we have now designated as the "Jubilee Centre" (it is the old unused church building in the village).

A couple of things I like most about this initiative are 1) it can impact every household 2) it will be very empowering and energizing to the women of the community 3) it can use solutions and products that already exist in Kenya (Kisumu) and 4) it provides the potential to create jobs down the road, too.

Tonight, as I open my food pantry and refrigerator to get my stored food, fire them up on both my gas range and my microwave, use the clean running water from our faucet, and sit down and have a quiet meal under our dining room light, I will be sure to thank God for the blessings of modern technology that has made my life easier and more productive.

Ned

VISION TRIP "WORD CLOUD"

This was created from my blog diary from our
Kager Vision Trip using www.wordle.net

JUBILEE VILLAGE PROJECT AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

As we have developed our vision for the Jubilee Village Project, I’ve been learning more and more about both Christian holistic mission work and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) anti-poverty efforts. Through this research, I’ve learned more about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations Development Programme developed throughout the 1990s and ratified by 189 nations (including the United States) in September 2000. The MDGs are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world’s main development challenges around ending extreme world hunger poverty. The 8 MDGs are broken down into 21 quantifiable Targets that are measured by 60 Indicators.

At the highest level, here are the eight MDGs:

* Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty
* Achieve universal primary education
* Promote gender equality and empower women
* Reduce child mortality
* Improve maternal health
* Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
* Ensure environmental stability
* Develop a global partnership for development

Here is a link to the UNDP website and the MDGs: http://www.undp.org/mdg/basics.shtml


What I have found most interesting and most alarming in my research: ALMOST NO CHRISTIAN MISSION ORGANIZATIONS ARE AWARE OF THE MDGs!!!

If we are to be salt and light to a lost world, shouldn’t we understand what the leaders of the world powers think is important? What if the Christian Church were to take a LEADERSHIP ROLE in helping achieve the MDGs in thousands of villages around the world? Do you think the world might notice?

As I read these MDGs for the first time, my heart jumped for joy. As we have laid out the vision and the 8 holistic solution areas for the Jubilee Village Project, I see them being completely aligned with these MDGs.

But something is missing in the MDGs…LOVE and RELATIONSHIPS…and that is what is at the center of the Jubilee Village Project. The loving ministry of Jesus…lived out by God’s children by helping, healing, feeding, equipping, empowering and encouraging a village to transform itself. Not just by words, but by actions.

Will the Church wake up and see the opportunity that lies before us?
What if affluent Christians around the world made the MDGs their own personal goals?
The world is telling us they need help…will we help them?

At the Monterrey Financing for Development Conference in 2002, world leaders pledged to “make concrete efforts toward the target of 0.7% of their GNP in international aid. That would amount to almost $200 billion in aid each year.

What would happen if affluent Christians around the world were to make a “Jubilee Pledge” – to commit 1/50 of their annual income (2%) to help end poverty and suffering around the world:

- If 50 million Christians make $60,000 / year,
- That is a combined annual income of $3.0 trillion
- 2% of $3 trillion is $60,000,000,000…$60 billion!

That’s almost 1/3 of what the UN thinks it will take to end extreme hunger and poverty around the world

What would the world’s response be? Would God be glorified? Would the Name of Jesus be lifted high, even by those that don’t know Him?

Okay, maybe I’m a dreamer…it’ll probably never happen…but what if it did?

What if 50 Christians decided to do this for a single village…a village named Kager?

- 50 Christians contributing $100 / month ($1,200 / year)
- That’s $60,000 / year to be able to dream and deploy
- $300,000 over 5 years!

Let’s start praying right now for 50 bold Christians.

50 bold Christians who are willing to sacrifice their comforts to Change the World…One Village at a Time.

REFLECTIONS ON THE RIVER

It’s been two weeks since we returned from our first “field trip” to Kager village. We are still processing all we saw and we learned – but we see God flowing in our lives and moving us ahead in our journey.

The last night we were in Kager, we had the opportunity to meet with the church elders of the Kager Vision Centre (the name of their church) and share our vision for the Jubilee Village Project. As we shared the vision, I used the analogy of a River to relate the spiritual journey we feel the Lord had put us on and brought us to their village in the middle of Africa, far away from our homes and comforts of the northside of Indianapolis.

This River has been flowing for centuries through the village called Kager, and we were just joining it.

That we (Craig, John and I) were not the River, but just small Streams that God had directed to join the River. That both the River and the Streams have the same Source…God. And that God had ordained us to come together. That we were now in the River with them, and we were excited to see where the River is going. That God already knows the Destination of the River…the Direction it is flowing…and the Obstacles it will encounter.

We asked them to begin praying for the River…for wisdom and discernment to navigate the flows and the currents of the River…for other Streams that are already flowing that need to join the River…for other people for God to touch and inspire to join us in the River.

We know to accomplish the vision of the Jubilee Village Project it will take years…decades…lifetimes. But we also know that unless we get in the River, we will never discover where the River is flowing.

With all that as a backdrop, we are getting in the River. In the next month, we are going to firm up definitive projects to embark on in the next year:

* A microloan program to bring much needed working capital to the people of Kager to
expandtheir small person-centered enterprises (the loans will be less than $100 each)
* Building improvements for the to the public primary school (the school has no windows, dirt
floors and a leaking roof)
* Text books and resources for the village’s schools (they are lacking such basic resources as
chalk and paper)
* A farmer’s cooperative to let them share and work together to pilot new solutions in irrigation,
horticulture, planting, crop rotation, etc. (with 80% of the village being farmers, we know that
improving farming yields will have the greatest impact on the community’s economic
transformation)
* A community training and resource center for health education and economic development
programs (sewing, canning, etc.)
* Building improvements for the church (including plastering the walls, adding more seats, and
building a Christian resource library)
* Electricity and a satellite wireless network for the entire village

It is exciting to be in the River…to having joined the River…to be with God in the River.

Do we know exactly where the River is headed?
Do we know what lies ahead of us in the River?
Do we know who will join us in the River?

No – but that is part of the adventure of being in the River.

But we know this about the River…God is its Source…and God is its Destination…and God is its Power.