If you are African, you can rely on your family.  In Africa, you know that your family is always there for you.  You’re part of a community much more than you are an individual.  You’re never left on your own.  Your parents, uncles and aunties, brothers and sisters will always help you.

Until you get AIDS.  One of the most disorientating aspects of having this terrible illness is that many people find their family turn their backs on them.  It’s a situation unprecedented in African culture, but partly out of shame, partly out of fear, AIDS patients are often rejected by their families, sometimes just left to die in squalor in a corner of a yard.  They are often denied care, compassion, company, and even food.  Some families think that when food is short, why waste it on someone who’s going to die anyway?

Lifeline in Zambia works to motivate churches to meet this desperate need for community and to extend the love of Christ to those who are in dire need of a new family.  LIZ trains and equips teams of volunteers from across different denominations to support and care for those who have no hope left in this life.  They feed, clothe, bath, comfort and pray with the needy.  They arrange hospital visits and facilitate the delivery of medicines.  In six locations in different parts of Zambia, over 700 AIDS patients receive home-based care from 160 volunteers.

Many of the adults who have died of AIDS have left behind children.  With nobody to care for them, many of these now form child-headed households, or are fostered by grannies who no longer have the capacity to care for them.  These families too are supported by LIZ.  Provision of food and schooling, and mentoring for the older children caring for their younger siblings, are all part of LIZ’s ministry.

LIZ’s founder and chief executive, Lene Pedersen, will be on a short visit to the UK at the beginning of September.  If you would like to meet her, or attend one of the briefings she will be giving about the work of LIZ, please email info@syzygy.org.uk for further details.

For more information about Lifeline in Zambia, visit www.lifelineinzambia.dk

Staff and students at the NM home in Sivaganga

Orphaned of both parents as a young boy, Chinnarai lived with his widowed aunty, who struggled to take care of him, let alone send him to school.  She asked for help from a boys’ hostel run by Nehemiah Ministries in Sivangangai.  It has been three years since he joined the hostel. He is a sincere and hard working boy, the first to successfully complete his government exam last year.  He has dreams of becoming a doctor and his standard 12 exam next year will be crucial in choosing for him a future career.

Nehemiah Ministries (NM) is a Christian charity aiming to take the love of Jesus to India, particularly to the poor and neglected.  It is led by Jayakumar, who gave up his job as technology teacher at Hebron School to set up NM.  They now operate in several states of India and have extensive church support and aid operations.  This growth has not come easily – there has been much opposition and in some areas churches supported by NM saw their buildings burnt down.  Even the hostel in Sivangangai experienced a lot of hostility at first, but has gradually been accepted as the value of the work there is recognised.  A recent government inspection praised the hostel and recommended its expansion.

The NM centre in Nagapattinam

Much of NM’s work is with the dalits, who are the ones who suffer the most poverty and neglect.  One such boy is Rajamurthy.  He is a class 10 student and a Sunday school student from the time he was touched by the gospel. His father is a habitual drinker and his mother steeped in worship of the Hindu gods. Life was always miserable for Raja, who still has to witness his father’s daily verbal and physical abuse of his mother. His only source of comfort is the word of God, the church and the pastor’s family who reached out to him and visit him regularly in his village. It was through consistent prayer and witness that he was touched by the power of the gospel. His great desire in life is to see peace descending on his family. He has been fervently praying for the conversion of his family.

• Please pray for the work of Nehemiah Ministries, and for its Indian staff, who carry out their ministry under much difficulty and danger.
• Pray for the dalits, who suffer so much but among whom the gospel has spread rapidly in recent years.
• Pray for other Indians, who often erroneously look down on Christianity as a dalit religion, and fear loss of status and respect if they become Christians.

You can find out more about NM’s work at their website www.nehemiah.org.uk

One of the most moving incidents in my life was when my pastor’s 18 year old brother died in his arms just because he didn’t have five bucks for the medicine.  You can go to the chemist and you can see the medicine  (and I’ve had that disease umpteen times – amoebic dysentery) but if you haven’t got the money for it then, sorry – go home and die.  So his 18 year old brother died in his arms for five bucks.  That’s five bucks for a life.  You know, that fries my brain.  This is a sick, sick world.

That’s the sort of experience that drives Simon Guillebaud on.  Working in Burundi since 1998 to help heal that sick, sick world.  Founding Great Lakes Outreach (GLO) in 2003, he seeks to channel funding from Britain and the US into project partners who are engaged in a variety of ministries in the war-torn central African country.  Simon now spends much of his time travelling as a speaker, developing support for GLO’s work.

GLO works with well-known partners like Scripture Union and Youth for Christ as well as many other local organisations.  Their approach is to identify local leaders of the highest integrity and calibre, and forge strategic partnerships with their organisations to empower them to lead the way in transforming the country at multiple levels.

GLO’s website is well-designed and worth a visit, if only for the stunning photography.  GLO uses technology to communicate in ways which can inspire others, uploading photos and videos to YouTube and Facebook where they have gathered over 3,600 supporters.   Lack of media awareness is often a challenge to small organisations; the rapid and effective growth of GLO is proof that it is worth getting familiar with it.

http://www.greatlakesoutreach.org/

Many tired missionaries working in East Asia are delighted to have discovered Bethany.  This is a rest and retreat complex on Cheung Chau Island off Hong Kong. It is specifically funded and staffed to offer member care to those working cross-culturally in Asia and beyond offering good quality, inexpensive accommodation. Bethany is set in gardens of trees and flowers on the quiet, traffic free island of Cheung Chau with good beaches and scenic walks, so is an ideal place to relax and recuperate from a demanding ministry.

Despite feeling remote, it is conveniently accessible from Hong Kong, so it’s not hard to get to despite feeling away from it all.  Set on a hill in attractive grounds overlooking the South China Sea, Bethany’s location is idyllic – five minutes to sandy beaches, peaceful walks around rocky coves and yet the town with its restaurants and shops is just nearby. The Bethany team includes those who have understanding and long experience of the demands on people, for example adjusting to new cultures, difficulties with co-workers, frustrations with sponsors, parenting and educational decision-making, family and marriage needs cross-culturally.

The Bethany mission is to keep people resilient, working in their God-given field for longer. At a basic level, they provide a home from home with familiar food, language and culture allowing people to recover in holiday mode from tiredness and stress. In association with this they have experienced pastoral couples available for prayer and with a listening and sympathetic ear.

More information is available on the Bethany website: www.bethanyministries.com

Tariro Christian Technical School in rural Mozambique seeks to transform the local community through teaching carpentry and metalwork to high standards while encouraging the students in their walk with God.  The aim is that when they have completed the course, graduates will be able to work in their communities, earning a living for themselves, helping establish the local church, and passing on their skills.

 Aaron Beecher, who has spent 12 years building and developing the school, explained: “As a school we seek to see students’ lives transformed through the partnership of high quality practical training and personal renewal by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We place a high emphasis on training for excellence so that graduates have the capacity to train others.”

About 70% of the graduates have obtained permanent work with local companies and many of the other graduates are working from home running small scale enterprises, where they continue to exercise a positive influence in their communities. Students are recruited from local villages and, as well as acquiring technical skills, have the opportunity to learn English, and improve their maths.  They also study the Bible daily.  Some of them are not Christians when they enrol, but have an opportunity to meet Jesus during the course of their studies.

 Tariro also has a passion for planting trees, with a view to conserving many indigenous hardwoods that are under threat.  To date over 8000 trees have been planted on their land.  As a ravaged and neglected landscape gives way to vigorous healthy woodland, it is a metaphor for the spiritual and social transformation of a war-damaged country recovering from thirty years of war.  Tariro is the local Shona word for hope.

• Please pray for the students.  Many of them come from poor backgrounds and their families have to make huge sacrifices so that they can study instead of working full-time.
• Pray that they will learn theory and develop skills.
• Pray particularly that they will have a deep, enduring relationship with Jesus that they can pass on to others.

 For more information about Tariro Christian Technical School visit

http://www.tariro.net/