Christ Church, The Message

Archive for February, 2008

Christ Care is working hard to get on the state Paths To Quality.  Path To Quality is the new state rating system for childcare in Indiana.  We have the certifications to get on the four level Paths To Quality.  For more information on quality childcare go http://www.in.gov/fssa/carefinder/6447.htm .

Update

Certification in: Infant and Toddlers, Health, Safety, and Food and Nutrition

Do you KNOW how Berit got started in mission work?

When I was a little girl of about 6 or 7, my mother took me to a mission club at my church in Oslo, Norway. We small girls in the club were raising money for missionaries working in far away countries. We had bazaars and yard sales, and we cut up sheets and linens in long strips to make bandages for the clinics and doctors at Madagascar and Ethiopia. We were always amazed by the missionaries’ stories and Read the rest of this entry »

One afternoon while in Ilula, Berit took me to visit the Kindole family. The 3 brothers, Sadiki, Amin, Bisheni are all in the IOP program. Their younger sister also lives with them. I was able to meet their mom, whom they live with. Mom has had a stroke, and has very little use of one arm. They invited us into their home, a very simple brick home, with a grass roof. Daylight could be seen through the roof. They had some small wooden stools that they invited us to sit on. What we here in the states would call the living room, was an area about 10ft by 15ft. There were some sticks in the corner, which they used for firewood, and a couple of buckets in the room.
Not much else. No electricity, no telephone, no running water, no indoor toilet. The room had a dirt floor, as did the rest of the house. They also slept on the dirt floor. The boys said that when it rained, they would have to move to find a dry spot to sleep. They brought out an old Swahili hymnal, which was in very poor condition; the binding had fallen apart, so they had used a piece of wire to hold the pages together. I got the feeling that this was a prized possession of theirs. We sang a hymn or two with them. One of the brothers came into the room with some freshly cooked corn on the cob. It was for us. I knew they had very little food in the house, probably just some flour, the corn I’m sure was freshly picked. The importance of the orphan program really sank in that day. These kids, and others like them, would have no chance at all of an education without assistance from a program such as ours. Without an education, the cycle of extreme poverty would just be repeated in their lives.

Ron P.
IOP Child Coordinator

NEWS FROM ILULA TANZANIA…from Ron Porter & Berit

The new pig house building is complete, and is now being used. Construction on the workshop building is progressing, doors and windows will be installed soon. Berit is back in Ilula after a fundraising trip to Norway, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The well project is moving forward, now that they have hit water, a concrete platform for the holding tank is being constructed, and piping to the center has been started. The generator at the center though, is no longer working, after a wiring short caused it to catch fire. It is not repairable. A new one made in Germany (the old one was chinese made) will cost approximately $1000. The new secondary school project, being planned by a foundation created by Fovea Company in Norway, has an estimated cost of 1.2 to 1.4 millions dollars. Fovea is hoping to finance it through donations and possibly some assistance from the Norwegian government. Please pray that financing will be found for this project, it is much needed in Tanzania, as many many students have to drop out after 7th grade due to a shortage of secondary schools.

Many projects are ongoing…the store house and the workshop are about to be completed, windows are on the way. A huge steel door has been installed in the store. A platform and a tower for the water tank is being built to it can pump up from the bore hole. A girl from Netherland is helping with budgets, accounting, etc. Two high school teachers from Norway will be here for 3 months, which includes Christmas, as well as 8 more members of their families. Before the rain season, work needs to be done on drainage in the yard and repair work on the damage after the earth quake last year.

So, we are blessed with our helpers, volunteers, sponsors and prayers from everyone. All is well here!

I have been asked [by the Worship Committee] to write a few words concerning the communion table, pulpit, and choir director’s music stand being used in our worship services during remodeling. All three of these items are from the “old” church … the 1896 building. The “old” church is the one that we used when I was a child. The Activities building was added in the Spring of 1956 when I was seven years old. In 1963 the old church caught fire on Thursday evening. The fire was put out and we had church in the building the next Sunday. The building still smelled a little smoky but everyone attributed that to the lingering smell from the fire on Thursday. However, the timbers in the rafters hid some still smoldering sparks and that Sunday evening the whole building became engulfed in flames …the entire building was destroyed. Amazingly three items escaped without damage. The altar/communion table, the pulpit, and the music stand which had been donated by the Smiley family. For the next 18 months we used these three items in our worship services in Activities building. The choir sat on the stage, the communion table was in the center on the floor in front of the steps and the pulpit was to the left of the communion table, again on floor level.
When we moved into the new sanctuary in 1965 the pulpit, communion table, and music stand went into storage. Occasionally, these items were brought out for use in Sunday School classrooms … but in the recent past they have been stored away. They are beautiful works of craftsmanship, and it is special for me, and I assume for others of us who remember the “old” church to see them in use again.