going to the doctor

the orphans had their first doctor visit since being in the program, for some it was their first doctor visit period. serge and razack took all 22 for a wellness check up type visit. they had blood drawn, weight checked, poked, and proded. the nurses, serge, razack, and all children survived, which is amazing. i can not imagine taking 22 children to the doctor. the children will now get a medical notebook that will help us keep documentation on any sicknesses, medications, and all developments that they go through. this is all provided through our wonderful sponsors. these kids now will live a healthier year and not miss school because of simple sicknesses, how awesome!!! i am so excited about this program and the fact that these kids are getting much needed attention, love, and care they so desperately need. their lives are being changed, inside and out.

pictures from seminar

pictures from seminar

HYGIENE SEMINAR

Serge hosted a hygiene seminar this past weekend in the village of Sanson. You might remember Sanson from our second well project; it is a rural village outside of the city of Parakou. It was held at a school and 103 highschoolers were in attendance, which is amazing. Serge talked about health issues, hygiene, ie washing hands, and began talking about STD's. This is the first of several seminars that we plan to host. Some of the issues that are blocking progression in these villages have simple solutions that require little money,but much education, so we plan on educating the up and coming generations, to create a shift in their thinking, so that progression can move forward. When you couple this type of education with clean water and their new well, disease and common maladies will begin to lessen.

What a Great Day!!!! Yesterday our PFP team in Benin had the "official ceremoney" of the second well we put in. The village elders came to give their thanks/blessings etc. It is so awesome to see how lives have already been drastically changed since the well went in and started operating in Sept 2009. We are already hearing reports that the overall health of the village is better and our team on the ground reports that all the women are telling them "the water tates so good". People are coming from all over to get this fresh, clean water. This well alone provides clean water to about 10,000+ people. What a great testimoney to Christ!! I have attached some pics as well as a few pics from the previous drinking sources.

Orphans- Food Distribution Day!!!

Well yesterday we distributed food to our orphans in our sponsorship program. Serge, our project manager had all the orphans to the office and handed out the food to them and their respective surrogate families. It was an incredible time. Serge said the gratitude of the orphans and their surrogate families was overwhelming and that the children were so grateful to their sponsors. We provided all the essentials for a healthy diet including rice, milk, soja (which is soy product with a lot of nutritional value) oil, soap etc etc. along with critical meds for malaria andstomach meds that rid the body of parasites, bacteria etc. Next Tuesday, we have an appointment with the hospital for medical check ups of all our orphans. In most cases, this will be the first time they have ever been to the doctor. We will be given a medical card for each child so we can identify ailments, issues etc. This will provide a good baseline so we can accurately know how to monitor and handle each child's medical conditions on their regularly scheduled medical appointments going forward. On a personal note, those of you who are sponsoring 1 of these 22 orphans are so awesome. You have no idea the impact you are having in their lives. Literally, you are giving them a chance at success. I love that. If anyone is interested in adopting, please let us know. Unfortunately, we have lists of kids that need help.

Living Love

I have been fasting for the last 12 days (I know the bible says I shouldn't tell someone I am fasting but rather anoint my head with oil you know like modern day cologne, tuck in my shirt and put on a big smile) but I tell you that not for the sake of simply telling you I am fasting in order for you to think "wow he is really spiritual" or "a super christian" because I am not. Really. I am weak, irritable, and really want a big cheeseburger. This blog is not about how spiritual I am and how everyone just needs to follow my lead. Quite opposite really. I didn't realize how religious I have become. I love Jesus and I love people but my gosh how I got so religious and didn't even realize it. You know that is such a powerful tool of Satan. I thought I was awesome. Look at me with this and look at me with that. Wow. Just pride. God I repent of that. God has shown me a few things in the last 12 days. Well several but I want to talk about one. The idea in itself is not hard or complicated or really profound but it is to me. It's about the idea of living love. It is exactly what Jesus told us to do. It is so easy to get so spiritually bloated so you can't even get off the couch. It is easy to gorge yourself on God's word and become what the bible talks about being only a hearer of the word and not a doer. It is so easy to question God. It is so easy to sit back and say "Jesus take my life" but not really mean it and it is so easy to remain idle because you are "waiting on God to direct your steps". What does that really mean? Absolutely you should seek God's plan for your life. Jeremiah states it pretty clearly in that God knows the plans he has for you, plans to give you a hope, future etc etc... But you know what? God also says we should feed the poor, clothe the naked, take care of widows and orphans etc. I think in the wake of my "sitting around waiting on God to direct my steps" God would be just fine with me doing things while seeking direction from him. After all, I would be doing what he tells me I should do right?. I think too many people are like me. They miss the boat completely and are so busy with their heads turned towards heaven, they forget to look down and see the opportunities we have to be Jesus to people right in front of us. I am learning to live love. I am just a pupil on this but the whole verse that I should daily die to myself and take up his cross really starts to make sense. On the note of livng love, here is a plug... (and there is only 8 people following this blog so I will know if you checked him out :)). I have a great friend named Drew. Drew launched an organization called Project Live Love here in ATL. This guy gets it. Check him out on facebook....http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Live-Love/105597662912?ref=ts


Jace

this weekends meeting

jace had a great meeting this weekend with our contact from the bill gates foundation on saturday. things are moving along, but we are still in need of funding so if you know someone who would be interested in the project, both on a large or small scale, please let us know.

be on the lookout

greg has been working hard on the website and it is looking awesome! it is in the final phase, so be on the lookout for the final product.

check this out

See the attached article. Again, just re-affirms how crucial clean water is for developing countries. Not to minimize AIDS and malaria relief or anything like that but in order to lift a country out of poverty, the foundation has to be built around clean water. We put wells in for $15,500. It provides water to 15,000+ people forever. That $1 provides clean water to that person, his family, his children's family, his children's chidlren's family etc. Amazing how far money can go in poor countries.

AIDS, malaria eclipse the biggest child-killers - Yahoo! News

Source: news.yahoo.com

Diarrhea doesn't make headlines. Nor does pneumonia. AIDS and malaria tend to get most of the attention.

orphan program

we only have 3 orphans left that need to be adopted. it is a year commitment at $35 a month. this donation will provide food for the family that is taking care of them, food at school, and any medical issues or malaria medication that may be needed throughout the year. if you are interested let me know via email, sarah@projectsforprogress.com pass this along to anyone whom you might think would be interested. thanks for the continued support.

their old source of drinking water at sanson village

more pics from the second well at sanson

new news

jace and mary met with the missions pastor at victory and we are planning a missions trip for july 2010 with about 15-20 people. one of the programs we are hoping to do is a program with UNICEF which would be huge. we have also been in contact with TOMS and they wanted to know if we would be interested in partnering with them for a shoe drop. i wanted to shout back, "of course we would!" so we are going to try and plan it for this summer along with the trip. there is some exciting things going on. we also just sent 15 orphans to school this week. because of donations we were able to pay for their entire year, all their books, supplies, book bag, uniform, and the tailor to make the uniforms. we are also getting ready to kick off an orphans program where people can adopt a child and pay for their food and medical care each month. if you are interested in being apart of this orphans program let me know or send this on to someone who you think would be interested. more to come.....

finished the well

the second well is finished!!! it is up and going and about 15,000 people or so are enjoying clean safe water in the village of sanson. way to go victory world church and way to go serge!

pictures of well being built

so i am posting a few pictures from the well site, they are moving right along. just like the first well, they had to turn the water on for several hours to make for sure the water is clean and the water pressure is what it needs to be. and just like the first well the villagers were lining up to get as much clean water as possible, very excititing.

woowhoo!!!

we struck water!! they struck water yesterday, sooner than expected, which means they will finish it sooner than we thought and they will have clean water very soon!!

breaking ground

we have broke ground for our second well!!!! it should be finished by the end of the month or beginning of october. we have partnered with our church, victory world church in norcross, to build this well. we are putting it in an area that has little to no access to clean water. their main source of water comes from a river type body of water that is very dirty. there are some people who live on the banks of the water and you can only imagine what parts of their daily life is washed into the water that they and the surrounding villages are drinking. we are also in the process of taking on about 20 orphans from the village of tourou (our original village) to begin a new program. these are orphans for one reason or another, but they do not live in an orphanage, but are being taken care of by their extended family. as you can imagine taking on extra children is not very easy for those families. their biological children are top priority for food, education, and medical attention, so we are wanting to step in and provide for these children. we will be mirroring it after other organizations that are doing similar programs by getting people like you to "adopt" these children. i will post more info on this program as it begins to develop and if you are interested in this program now please let us know. we are super pumped about this new program, it could explode and change lives forever by providing basic essentials in life, food and knowledge.

girls orphanage

we spent the day with a great group of girls ranging from 12-22 years old at an orphanage, the house of ruth, outside of tourou.  there were several different means as to how they ended up at the orphanage, one someone could witness them in an abusive situation and tell the orphanage and they would go and get them, two the girls could check themselves in if they were in an abusive situation, trafficking, whatever, third their parents could bring them there and drop them off, none better than the other, all horrible ways to live part of your life.  once at the orphanage they are educated in french and taught a trade.  once they graduate from the program they are given  the machine they have learned their trade on so that they can start their on business.  

on the way to house of ruth we had a flat tire, we were running late, and a bit frustrated, but as we drove up the place seemed desolate.  we parked and unloaded our things and were taken to the chapel where everyone was waiting for us.  there are 50 girls in their program and as we walked in the all stood up and began singing and clapping as we walked down the isle to the front.  it was one of the most humbling things that i have ever experienced and one of the biggest honors given to me.  as we set down they continued singing welcoming us to their place.  as they sung i looked out over them and was overwhelmed with the fact that they all had horrible things take place in their lives but the joy and potential was overflowing.  the admininstration had set up a service with worship and speakers to express thanks.  as we were in worship i realized that is the way heaven will be like, different races, cultures, types of worship, all together with one purpose.  they also invited me to speak to the girls which was also a huge honor.  i spoke on forgiveness and joseph.  after the bible study we presented them with the gifts that we had brought for them. thanks to people here in the states we were able to present them with shampoos, colored pencils, sharpeners, femine products, rice, oil, and soap.  they were very grateful and excited about the gifts.  they are in need of so many items, everything from mattresses to school supplies to machines for the girls to work on.  hopefully this year we will be able to provide for some of their needs.  next we gave the girls snacks and drinks while we set up different stations for their "party."  at first we were a little nervous because we did not realize the girls were as old as they were and what we had planned was geared toward the younger ones.  it did not matter though, they girls had a blast.  we had fingernail and toenail painting station.  to all those who donated fingernail stickers, they were a hit! we gave each girl a gift bag with lip gloss and tooth brushes and tooth paste in them and set up a station for them to decorate their bags.  another station was a bead station for them to make bracelets and necklaces.  some of the girls spent the whole time at this station working so hard on their jewelry.  the last station was face painting, by the end of the day everyone was painted up.  this was a great outreach, it turned out so much better than we could ever imagine.